College planning can easily become a headache, especially when you start to talk about money. So many things factor into the price of a college education. How do you know which school to go to then? Do you focus on the price or on your major? These are the things Tonica Johnson takes note of when dealing with her clients. Tonica is an education consultant of Cardinal College Planning. She helps students and families pick the best-fit college for them. In this conversation with Stephen Jaye, Tonica explains why expensive doesn’t necessarily mean high-quality education. Join in and learn what to watch out for when looking for the right college for you.
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Helping Teenagers Find The Right College Solution Through Cardinal College Planning With Tonica Johnson
There’s a certain common story that I’ve heard a bunch of times in different forms. This is a story where someone who is both curious and observant, identifies a need and finds a way to fill that need using something about their unique talents. These stories vary in the exact topic. Certain specifics are always going to be different from person-to-person but there are some commonalities amongst all these stories. One of them is of course, as I mentioned before, being observant, curious and looking at what’s around you and responding to experiences both your own and the experiences of others.
The other is taking some form of a leap of faith, some leap, some believing in yourself. My guest is Tonica Johnson who started her own service called Cardinal College Planning, which is a service in a topic that I would never think of myself. This is one of the things I find so amazing about hearing all these stories. Some of which are on my previous and will be in my future episodes. It’s oftentimes something that I would have never thought of but as soon as I hear what’s happening, I’m like, “This makes a lot of sense. This is something that needed to be done.” Tonica, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for joining us.
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
We’re excited to have you here. First of all, to orient our audience, I know college planning can be a daunting task. I think almost everyone remembers the process of submitting applications, getting the letters of recommendation from the right people, having the right extracurricular activities. What does Cardinal College Planning do for the teenagers and parents that you work with?
Maybe what I was pursuing next wasn't gonna work out, wasn't gonna be forever, but it was worth trying instead of something I knew my heart and soul wasn't into anymore. Click To TweetIt’s definitely a daunting procedure, for sure. Since it is overwhelming and stressful, I advise families through all of this stuff. If I start working with families and they’re a little younger, it’s got even more crazy and competitive than it has. I’m 30 when I went to college, it wasn’t this crazy yet and every year after, it seems like it gets more difficult. It’s a matter too of making sure you’re choosing the right classes as early as 9th and 10th grade so you can get in the ones in 11th and 12th grade. When you go to apply, they’re seeing that you took the courses you needed for their sake competitive business program. I worked with a client and a huge thing that I do is course recommendations. Like you said, adding over those extracurricular activities, won’t get too much into detail. There’s not a right or wrong but guiding students through their passions and finding activities that they want to do but are also going to look good for their applications.
The big thing is researching the schools. I’m sure we’ll get a little bit more into this. Part of why I got into this was realizing students were applying to the same few schools that they knew locally over and over. When there are literally thousands of institutions in our country, there could be an amazing fit somewhere else but you don’t know what you don’t know kind of thing. Researching the schools with them and a big thing is their applications. A big passion of mine personally is maximizing financial aid and making sure people aren’t making these risky decisions. I’ve seen families dipping into retirement and taking on $200,000 of that. I try to teach them how to break that cycle and it doesn’t need to be that way.
This is changed into your time definitely since my time. How early do you start working with kids? Are they starting this program as early as 9th grade or 8th grade?
I’ve only taken on as youngest 9th grade. More commonly, I would say sophomore year because some people don’t even know that these services exist that early on but there are definitely plenty of consultants out there that take on an eighth grader. For that reason, I was saying from the start, let’s make sure you’ve been getting in the right classes in ninth grade year. A lot of consultants start as early as eighth grade. I fight with my value system a lot on that where I know that there is a benefit to that. Also, as I said, my values of letting them be kids, let them have a fun first year of high school without already dumping the pressure of college on them. There’s a little give and take both ways, but it can start as early as 8th and 9th-grade year. More commonly, it is more like a sophomore, junior year to start the process for most families.
For your families for your clients, what prompts them to approach you and start college planning? Is it usually the teenager that approaches you? Is it usually the parent or a combination of both?
It’s usually the parents. Not that they have to, but often parents are thinking they have some responsibility and footing. At least part of the bill when they see those price tags that we know colleges are. It’s ridiculous, as we all know these days, the prices. That fear honestly, starts this process. Since either maybe the parents didn’t go themselves, even if they did go, both situations don’t matter because it’s not the same anymore. Whether they won or didn’t, it doesn’t matter. It’s totally different. As it starts happening again, picks up that sophomore, junior year, they start hearing things, other families, this kid, that teacher, whatever. They start realizing like, “I have no idea what to do. I don’t even know where to start.” Often, it’s the parents. Students love having someone that they can go to for questions and get everything answered. That’s awesome but parents are the ones that definitely find me first because they’re hopefully making sure everything’s set up for their students and making sure they don’t have to pay anything more than they have to.
If it is mostly the parents or more commonly the parents that are approaching you, how much of the motivation behind it is this astronomical cost of education these days? That can be intimidating. I feel like it’s more than double what it was when I went to college.
It’s the number one concern, honestly. Every so often, our families say, “Price isn’t the concern. I want them to have someone leading them through the process, making sure we’re finding the right school, etc.” Even the wealthiest family, even if you have the money, who wants to pay for it if they don’t have to? Again, a lot of what I do is a strategy. I don’t want to get too into the nitty-gritty because it’s the process. There are schools that tell you the way they give out their money. There are some schools that say, “I don’t care if you’re a valedictorian. We’re only giving our money to families that have a strong financial need.” Some of these people don’t know that. They go through life thinking, “My kid has done everything right. They’re valedictorians. They’re going to get scholarships.” It depends on the schools you’re applying to. In that case, it’s got a little on rants already but you’re wise, how much this cost is the motivating factor. I would say, it’s generally the number one motivating factor, figuring out the affordability piece of all of this craziness.
It sounds like because of the different ways schools do their pricing. One thing that always boggles my mind whenever I think about higher education is, how much pricing there works differently than anywhere else in the world? For example, you go and buy a new Subaru and the car is $32,000. They don’t ask you how well you did on your driver’s exam and say, “You pass your driver’s exam the first time. You can get half of the price of the car. You hit three cones. We’re going to sell it to you for $60,000.” Everywhere else you go it’s pretty much one price, but in the higher education world, it works differently. It ends up being that different schools are the right fit for different people based on how they communicate their values through whatever they choose to use, to determine how much they’re going to charge each student.
Sometimes, advisors equate it to like a flight. The varying amount of prices someone paid to be on that flight, whether they’re in the affiliates program and they got that, if they had some points, they’re in first-class, business class or whatever, they bought it on this day versus this date, it’s one plane, it’s going to the same place. The seats in each section, at least they’re all the same. Everyone’s paying a different price and that’s how it is in the college world, too. Many different things can factor into how much a family pays for college. That makes it frustrating too because there’s not a lot of transparency there. You see the sticker price upfront, hopefully, at this point, people don’t understand that almost no one’s paying that, some people but they have this scary sticker price. There’s so much that goes into what they’re going to pay. It’s hard to predict. It’s hard because there’s no transparency. It’s a very daunting, frustrating process.
Sounds daunting, especially given how big of an expense it is. I do stand corrected. Airplanes and the entire travel industry seem to have that same problem with variant prices and lack of transparency. Why do Expedia and Travelocity even charge a different amount for a hotel room versus going right onto the hotel’s website? All that stuff makes very little sense to me. One other question I also wonder when people, especially parents are talking about how much they’re going to spend on their child’s education. How much does the expected outcome of that education? People say, “It’s going to set me up for my career or my job.” How much does that factor into it? Where someone says, “We can spend $100,000 on this education. This one’s $200,000 but it’s a way better value,” because of what the people do assign different values to different educations.
There are some, again, value systems and personal thoughts and biases that go into this answer. For me, I have looked for the data and I can’t find it. Maybe it’s out there. Maybe someone will message you and connect to email. I try because I want families to find affordable options. The data I find it still does at this point in our system shows that having a higher Ed degree, whether that’s a Bachelor’s and Master’s, still over time and on average, makes people more money. At this point, it seems like it’s almost like a check box. Meaning, maybe your Ivy League because we all know they’re in a world of their own and they have connections. It’s more almost what you’re paying for that network, connections, all of that.
A level from there, there seems to be no concrete data that says, “You went to a Top 10 University, a Top 50 University versus the Top 201.” There’s no data that proves it. I always say my ideal client is not someone that comes to me and says, “I want to go to Princeton, Stanford and Hartford helped me.” That’s not what we do. It’s the opposite of like, “Let me find a good school, affordable. A fit all of that stuff because of that reason.” Honestly, it’s ridiculous that people want to pay $80,000 a year because they know the name of the school. There’s no direct correlation to that the higher price is better quality education.
You oftentimes advocate that there are some other schools, options out there that are way more affordable that could potentially produce a similar life outcome over time. Sometime around 5 or 10 years into your career, it seems to me like it becomes more important. What you’ve done in your career thus far than what school your degree is from. They still seem to care that you’ve got a Bachelor’s level, Master’s level, PhD level in a certain field, certificate, Master’s of Science or whatever. At some point, it becomes more about, who did you work with? What are your main accomplishments and what’s your potential?
Cost is the number one motivating factor in choosing a college. Click To TweetIt’s more of what you do than where you go. If you’re going to any college, you should be doing all the things that you do in your job, too. Making those valuable connections, learning about yourself, learning about other people’s experiences. Any type of opportunities you have, connection with your professors, internships, co-op any of that stuff, you should be doing that at any school you go to. Again, that’s why is one school better for another. If you are taking the initiative and you want the student to create opportunities for yourself and figuring out, it’s the same as high schools across America. That’s a whole another tangent but I won’t get into too much.
There are some schools that need a lot of help and struggling with our education system. We have issues there but in a lot of the schools across the country, you can have students that go there and go off to college. You have students that don’t graduate and the school is the same. It’s the student. There’s quality in what they’re choosing to do and how they’re going through the system. I know there are some places that students don’t have the resources and all of that. I’m saying that in a lot of places, it’s what you do that matters, not where you go.
Every single place and situation provide a certain level of opportunities. They’re not equal but also, there are ways to rise above terrible places and there are ways to squander being in a great place. Someone could go to the top high school in their country or whatever and still managed to flunk out of classes if you don’t do the work. That happens quite a bit. One of the questions I’m wondering is, you said you usually start working with people around the sophomore year level, tenth grade. Sometimes people at that age don’t exactly know what they want to do yet. How often does that complicate planning if someone’s trying to decide between 2 or 3 majors and you’re looking for the right program for them?
The goal I always say is we want to get them on the right path. Ongoing and undecided isn’t bad at all but again, I’m big on the affordability piece. Any extra time spent in school where maybe you’re figuring your major out, changing majors, transferring schools, all of that to me, I see dollar signs. I get it. What do 15, 16, 17 know what they want? If you most don’t or they say they do, but they don’t really know. That goes into it for sure. We want good programs. We want all of that for our students. However, I feel like the major and academic program is more somewhere in the middle-ish. It’s the first thing some people do. If you know, we’re pounding on schools that had the best Biology programs, and I get it.
I wouldn’t be like, “I want to find them a school that fosters growth in a lot of ways. Outside of the classroom to where they can grow, learn about themselves and develop as a human being.” That’s first, the institution, the culture, affordability and all of that, and then majors go into it also. I always say, “Would they still be at that school? If it wasn’t one of the top programs or would they still be happy there if they did change their major to something else?” That makes sense, a little give and take. Reports are paying attention to what they want to pursue and academics.
There is so much more that college is there for than that set academic program. Study abroad opportunities, meeting people that are different than you and connection. You said, as a sophomore, that’s much more common but they’re not very certain. I think that’s smart. I love getting to chat with the kid about opportunities. “Do you even know this job exists? You say you like engineering. Do you know how many types of engineering there are? Why are you even saying that?” Engineering is a big thing. They know that STEM is a hot field. They know that’s going to make them good money but they can’t tell me the difference between chemical and mechanical, whatever. I like getting to counsel them. I like trying to, in a non-COVID world, have them do job shadowing. I had to reach out to my network. That part is fun for me. Hopefully, by the time they go to apply to college, visit a senior year, we have at least narrow that down where we’re setting them up for a path of success.
Does any of these represent a paradigm shift? One of the reasons I ask this question is because growing up, I remember hearing the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” over and over again. We have the adult version, “What do you do?” to which I always try to find the most obnoxious answer. Sometimes I’ll say like, “I try to do everything. I’m open to everything,” or something like that. That seems like when you ask a say twelve-year-old earlier in their lives, as they’re starting to feel the first impacts of adulthood, you start saying, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Sometimes that might ingrain that question to their head of the mindset of, “I want to be an Engineer and I need to find the engineering school,” as opposed to more the mindset that you’re talking about. Is that a paradigm shift that’s happening or is that something you were spearheading? Is that something you’re seeing?
This part is hard for me because I have to, in my field, be a good mix. I have my personal views on a lot of things and what I value. I also have to meet families where they are, what they value and what they want. It is hard because I still see a good mix of students that have already. It seems like since they were born, their dad’s been a doctor, they want to be a doctor. They’re going hard for that. There are some people that are still trying to figure it out. I don’t know that there’s so much a shift.
I almost never meet a student anymore that wants to go into the English, the History or Liberal Arts colleges even. Sometimes a little tough sell, if you will definitely common now or anything STEM-related business. Students love the idea of doing their own thing. Owning their own practice. There’s a shift I feel like more in fields. They’re still kids at the core where sometimes have a very set ambitious idea of what they want to be. Some are like, “I don’t know. I’m somewhere here in the middle.” It’s a little healthy mix I’d say.
What I’m hearing in what you’re saying is people seem to be choosing more fields that have a lucrative career path. Are they shying away from all these other majors that may be interesting but what’s the job or what’s the enterprise? What are you going to build? What are you going to get from that as opposed to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math? That’s what STEM stands for. It seems like it’s always going to produce some payout, a job or an enterprise.
That is a good thing that they’re already thinking, what’s later, what’s the job, what’s the money? I don’t know all the way where is STEM from exactly. I remember wanting to be a teacher for so long and that’s what I did before this. I didn’t even grow up with a lot of money, so maybe that’s what it is but you would think all those in my head, “I want to make more money than my parents,” and I did. I was like, “I liked my teachers. I like this. This is what I want to be.” No one wants to be a teacher anymore. I have noticed. That it is very uncommon that a student who wants to be a teacher, that’s one example.
I don’t want to throw stats out there but my estimate stat would be a solid 8 out of 10 students. A top like 3 to 5 priority is income and the amount of money they’ll make from, maybe a naive tiny teenager. I don’t think that would have been in my top ten making money. I assumed like a job, you have a career, you’re making money. I became very aware that there are fields that will never make you money and there are fields that will, even if I don’t love them as much, even if they’re harder, whatever it is, I’m going hard in that direction.
Different schools are the right fit for different people based on their values. Click To TweetI’d love to observe generational shifts. One of the things I oftentimes wonder about is the response to things. I often tell people I responded to my Baby Boomer parents’ generation working 70, 80 hours a week and still being thrown around by their companies like chess pieces on a board game, and thought to myself, “I don’t want that.” That’s what I feel like almost all the Millennial experience is. We all said, “We don’t want those 70, 80 hours a week. That’s not a virtue. They ignored other parts of their lives and we want something different.” I’m wondering if this new generation is now observing a lot of people pick majors that, “We’re drowning in $120,000 in student loan debt for a job that’s not going to materialize because the world only needs five museum curators on a certain specific topic.” We need to avoid that trap.
I think they are learning from our generation of, “I know too.” It seems now not all. I’m obviously speaking generalizations but I noticed a lot of times the parents do seem to care more about the name of the school, the reputation of the school than the students. It’s incredible, honestly. Many of them say, “I don’t care. I don’t want to go into debt.” Even if their parents are offering to pay for it, when I talk with the students one-on-one, they’ll often say things like, “I don’t want them to pay for this. Why?” I think they’ve probably heard our generation or on the news, whatever it is complaining about still being jotting and student loan debt. It’s a crisis that all these things they’re thinking, “Not for me. What’s an alternate route? What else can I do? Fine, I’ll go to college, but pick the cheapest option. I’ll get in, get out, move on with my life, start making that money. I’m not doing what that generation did.” They’re fearful of it.
It’s a natural inclination to look at what the people who came before you did what seemed to go wrong. I’m not trying to diminish anyone that came before like, the Baby Boomers solved some major problems and the world was far poorer. Before the Baby Boomers found ways to make all of our work more efficient, the world was a lot poorer, even those of us that go out to eat 2, 3 times a week. That’s something that our Baby Boomer parents oftentimes did not have the resources, the money and the luxury to do. I want to pay respect to all that but oftentimes what we do. I like the way, the linguist Steven Pinker puts it when he says, “We take our problems, we solve them and create better problems.”
He’ll often site the OBC epidemic as being a better problem than people starving to death yet, it’s still a problem. We’re looking at these problems and solving them. I’m wondering also is, are teenagers nowadays more interested in some other, even more of the alternative wall path, such as galvanized, general assembly, these bootcamps that people go through or startups, entrepreneurship and go straight into apprenticeships? A couple of years ago, I worked with someone who was 23 years old and already on the verge of becoming a senior developer because he taught himself coding and went right out of high school at eighteen.
I see it. Sometimes that’s more my personal observations or if I am in touch with my former students. Of course, what I’m doing, the students that are coming to me for that for taking the “traditional route” still. I hear them talking about it. Maybe they’re going to college for a Business degree but already they’re like, “I’m not working for anyone else. I want to do this myself. Whatever it is, one day I want to own a business.” It’s exactly what you said. They love the idea of being an entrepreneur, flexible work-life, minimizing education. I do a lot of networking with people and talk about this, education and teams. There are services out there that fewer people are seeing the value in a college degree and all that.
Obviously, in my head, I’m like, “I have a job one day still I’m here.” I don’t think it’s for everyone. We’ve all been saying that for a while. It almost seems like we were saying it for a little while but maybe not believing it. You want to believe it but your kid who came to you and said, “I don’t want to go to college.” You’d be like, “Can you?” Whereas now I saw a survey, and I hate misquoting stats and I could find it for you, but it was something around 51/49 split of parents wanting their kids to go directly to college. I didn’t say. It did like the articles expanding on potentially a gap year or trying to work for a CD liked this field before we dropped that money. I’m all for a gap year. There’s a lot of value in a college degree if done the right way. There are these programs that are shorter, a year, whatever. Sixteen months but you pay for it, you dedicate your training and then you work. Sometimes you can’t beat it. Sometimes a school is not for everyone and it’s just sitting in a class.
I love English. I was an English teacher. I’m here for it but I get it that some people do what they have to go and sit in that year-long English class. If they’re never in their life, they’re going to write a twenty-page paper. You have to assess but then their skills. You can argue the skills that are behind that, of researching, learning and doing things that you aren’t motivated to do. Figuring out those kinds of qualities you’re developing. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. I love that people have options. I love that it’s becoming more common. “Go to community college, save that money, get some Associate’s degree, some certification. If it works, it works.
One of the biggest takeaways I’ve gotten so far from this conversation is, we’re starting to think a little bit more holistically in the idea of, what’s the path ahead of me? What does it look like? As opposed to what interests me the most? I feel like the traditional ways people would say, “What interests me most?” “I’m interested in this and that.” I’m going to pursue it as a career path where now people are talking a bit more about apprenticeships and things like that. When people say, what does it mean to me to be sitting in this chair? Do I want to spend four years studying and four more years working up to sit in this chair? What does that mean as opposed to, “This interests me. I’m going to pursue it.” One of the things I want to cover before we finish up is your story about starting Cardinal College Planning. You said you were originally a teacher. What made you decide that this was the need that you wanted to fill?
I was a high school teacher. I was right in the thick of it and I taught English. It was very common to get close to students. I was their go-to resource for their college essays. This could be a super long story, I’ll shorten it. It spiraled. It went from essays to help me with my applications, “Ms. Johnson, will you look at my scholarship applications, this and that.” I started realizing, these kids have no help. It’s not their parents’ fault, whether parents didn’t go, they did and it’s different, they’re busy or whatever it is, there’s that. We had a counselor and it’s nothing bad for her. She’s my friend but she was dealing with over 400 kids on average. It’s hard to get that personalized attention. I was seeing our students applying to the same few schools and doing it the exact same way. Applying now, figuring out how am I going to pay for it later, it’s a mess. That’s what’s happening at many schools.
I realized we had some bright kids. I worked at an interesting school that was a lot of first-gen and low income but they were definitely college-bound material, all this stuff. I felt thinking they could have so many opportunities and don’t even know what’s out there for them, that they’re setting themselves up for this debt. Unfortunately, because they were first-gen and I did that too. I’m first-gen, but my parents are high school dropouts. I saw this cycle again where I did the same. I signed up for all this deck because I was like, “I need to go.” People had conditions where you need to go and you’ll figure it out. They were doing it ten years later. I saw it and I realized that I could do it independently and get even more personalized with students that I had.
I also do a lot of volunteering. I go into programs that need these resources, a school that they need them, give a lot of free workshops, presentations because I’m biased, I know, but everyone needs this help. It literally impacts the rest of your life. That’s not even an exaggeration. The expense, it’s next to homes and maybe your retirement. It literally is one of the most expensive purchases. It’s more than cars, it’s years. I can’t believe that there are not more people seeking that personalized advice. I realized that was something that I felt very passionate about and went for it.
There is no proof that a higher price equals a higher level of education. It's more about what you do than where you go. Click To TweetThe first thing I want to ask you. How long was it from the first time one of your students asked you to help out with college essays or reached out to you for questions like that? The moment where you had made all these other observations and something clicked in your head saying, “I’m going to start this Cardinal College Planning services so I can help more people and get more people to the right place.”
I don’t think I’ve ever asked that how long. I taught for seven years. I would say in the first, probably a few years that I was already helping with the essays. Seniors in, when I had been doing that for a couple of years, I realized what was going on. I went to my principal, very triggered and said, “We’re servicing these kids.” He’s like, “Tonica, what do you do?” They’re all triggered about what’s the solution. I said, “I don’t know. Can we make a class? Can we teach them?” He said, “Let’s do an elective.” I said, “Okay, cool.”
The humblest way so many kids signed up for it, that we made it a class. We required every junior to take this college planning course that I taught at the school. I did that for about two years. At that time when I was like, “I’m fired.” I thought I knew a good chunk of it. I’ll be honest but I was ignorant to how many more unwritten rules there are and things they won’t tell families and weird stuff that goes on into the processes that are hidden and secretive. In those two years, I figured it out and wanted to go independent. It was probably four years or so that I was figuring it out before I went independent.
One thing that I oftentimes hear in these stories about people pursuing whatever it is that they’re called to pursue oftentimes it changes, forms over time. For you, initially, it took on the form of this class within your high school and you decided it needs to go independent. The class seemed like a very important step on that because it showed you a little bit more of the full extent of the problem that you were observing. It wasn’t like we’re telling these kids to go to the same three schools. We’re not helping them consider what is it that I want and what’s the best value but there are all other, I want to say, layers of crap but all this other stuff that’s going on in the process. When you decided to take this leap and go independent, start your own service, what kind of feedback did you get from the people around you, people closest to you and even yourself?
I would say supports because I’ve always been a go-getter, so the people in my life weren’t shocked that this is something I would try to do. I did also move through. I packed up my one car and moved from Cleveland to Colorado. That was a little more shocking for people that they were like, “You’re also leaving and starting?” It felt like I was literally starting life over. That was a little off, “Is she going through a midlife crisis?” Mostly support from others. In fact, I would say I doubted myself the most because I knew everything I was sacrificing and maybe potentially losing. I didn’t go to college for any Business degree period. In the business, I had no idea what I was doing but there are a lot of support and mostly good stuff. A lot of love, support from myself, a lot of fear, anxiety and doubt. That’s normal. Working on those things has helped me the most in working on my confidence and understanding the value that I bring and remembering all of that has been super helpful.
What did you do when you had this fear inside your head? Almost everyone desires to start something on their own encounters this some form of fear/imposter syndrome, which comes from the same source. What did you do to quell this to make sure that you weren’t going to turn around halfway through Iowa and go back to your old life?
For me, it was a combo thing though. Personally, I knew that my heart was not fully in teaching anymore. I had known that for a few years. I loved my students. The kids were amazing but there were other things in the school system that was not for me. I had been struggling for a little while anyway, so that made it a lot easier. I did love it but I wasn’t leaving one thing I had thought I wanted. I did it at some point that I’d want to do that forever but at that point, I knew in my heart it wasn’t for me. That made it the easiest. Maybe what I was pursuing next, wasn’t going to work out, wasn’t going to be forever but it was worth trying. Something that I knew that my heart and soul weren’t into anymore. I’m very open-minded.
I have a pretty good intuition of feeling like, “I’m qualified to do this. I love learning. I work well with students.” I did a value assessment. The only real doubts were the imposter syndrome. This is new. Sometimes still to say the words that I’m a business owner is like, “Yes, I am.” To me, I’m just like, “Tonica, helping people with college,” but no, I own a business. I own Cardinal College Planning. I have done business coaching. I love any kind of self-development. COVID helped a lot for me. People were putting on a ton of free webinars and workshops that were so easy to log into from my home. I didn’t have to go anywhere often I didn’t have to pay. I love learning. I knew that about myself that I wasn’t going to quit. I was going to keep learning. I was going to figure it out. I gave myself like the no other option thing. I always fall back on teaching. I told myself that this is what I’m doing. I’m going to put everything I have into it. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll figure out the next thing but for now, we’re going to make it work out.
What would you say to anyone that is in the process of making the transition, taking that leap and gets that sudden feeling in their head, “What are we doing? Do I have any business? Starting a business, is that me? I should go back to what I have while I can still get it back.”
I would say having those thoughts is normal. Also, that makes anyone that has this thought that logical person. I’m not saying if you don’t have those thoughts, it’s not a good idea. For me, those other people who think it’s so easy or that, “I’m going to do this. No problem.” That to me, is almost scary. Those people are having all those doubts, myself included. It’s because I knew it was going to be hard and I had a lot of my plates. I was going to have to figure a lot of things out. I knew I was going to have to spend money that I didn’t want to spend. That is all scary. I would say to those people, those are very normal thoughts.
If you don’t have those thoughts, I’d be a little scary or like, “You’re ballsy. It’s easy. Let’s go.” All those thoughts I think everyone that’s done it, has had and would reflect on their experiences, “Remember when I was scared to do this?” I’m doing great at that but there’s always going to be a new thing anyways, all the time. I’m now not scared of that other thing I started doing. I feel great. Now, I’m on a show and that’s scary. It’s always going to be there. You got to have that mindset that, it’s okay. You’re going to have those days where it’s hard and you doubt stuff. Focusing on the good, focusing on how far you’ve come, checking in, reflecting on goals, all of those things that are ingrained in us, even from school age, that help.
There are so many opportunities everywhere in life to get yourself more accustomed to the idea of overcoming something scary or the idea of being scared by something and doing it. In Colorado, we have skiing and mountain biking. We have all things like that. That leads me to the final question I wanted to ask you, which was, your leap of faith also involves a moving location. What role did the location move play? Was that something that you would want it to do for other reasons, or did you feel to have that clean start to start as your new self had to involve a different spot?
For me, I lived in Cleveland my whole life and I do love it. I know Cleveland gets a lot of hate but I love it. It has a lot of wonderful things and of course, my loved ones are there but I had thought at some point in my life, I want to live somewhere else. That’s a challenge in itself. I had one of those anyways, doing it all at once. I don’t know in hindsight if that was great to start a new business where you don’t know anyone. A lot of times, your network and you can put the word out, “I’m doing this new adventure,” but I didn’t know anyone. In hindsight, I don’t know about all of my girlfriends. You have Colorado specifically. I’d visited a couple of times and I’m sure most people can relate. I fell in love. It’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful. The sunshine compared to gray skies in Cleveland needed. It wasn’t intentionally jumping ship and things like, “I need to start everything over.” It all happened at the right time. I had friends out here in Colorado and it seemed like the right next move for me.
There is so much more to college than academics. Click To TweetThat makes perfect sense. Finally, for anyone that is interested in hearing about your services, whether you’re a teenager reading or if you’re the parent of a teenager, it’s CardinalCollegePlanning.com. Is that correct? Is there a better way to get ahold of you?
That’s right, and on any social media, just @CardinalCollegePlanning too.
Tonica, thank you so much for joining us, for sharing your story about observing a need and following it. Allowing that follow to take a couple of different iterations, taking that leap, believing in yourself and getting to the place where you want to be. Even if that means suddenly finding yourself as a business owner when you had originally expected to be a teacher. I appreciated all your insights on Gen Z on what the younger generation is thinking, feeling and desiring out of their lives.
This has been great. Thanks for having me.
Thank you very much. Everyone else, thank you for reading. Stay tuned to Action’s Antidotes for more inspiring stories from people who overcome that fear, hesitancy and find themselves in a place that’s a better fit for themselves. Until next time. Thank you for reading.
Important links:
- Cardinal College Planning
- @CardinalCollegePlanning – Instagram
About Tonica Johnson
Tonica Johnson is a former English teacher from Cleveland, Ohio who identified the need to help high school student better navigate the world of college admissions.
After start a course on college planning at her school, she decided she can have an even bigger impact by starting Cardinal College Planning, her business that helps high school students find the best option for their continuing education.