Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Career Change: He empowers underserved communities—to leverage AI and design skills for financial upgrades.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald hosts this weekly Money Making Conversation
- 0:03Speaker 1: Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
- 0:06Speaker 1: off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
- 0:09Speaker 1: success stories and start living your own. If you want
- 0:11Speaker 1: to be a guest on my show, Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
- 0:15Speaker 1: please visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click
- 0:19Speaker 1: the be a Guest button. If you are a small
- 0:21Speaker 1: business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or nonprofit now let's
- 0:26Speaker 1: get this show started. My guest is the founder of
- 0:29Speaker 1: UXD Academy. It has grown into a beacon for career
- 0:33Speaker 1: switchers and inspiring designers who lack the means or desire
- 0:37Speaker 1: to pursue a traditional four year degree. He has prepared
- 0:41Speaker 1: UXD Academy to the forefront of the AI and design education.
- 0:45Speaker 1: Please welcome to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
- 0:48Speaker 2: Everytt twin.
- 0:49Speaker 3: How you doing, Efverett, I'm doing well. It's my first
- 0:51Speaker 3: time in Atlanta, so I'm excited.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Well. Good.
- 0:54Speaker 1: First of all, mister Swain, it's important that people understand when.
- 0:57Speaker 2: You say AI, what is that? Let's educate them about
- 1:01Speaker 2: that first.
- 1:02Speaker 3: Yeah, So AI is the buzzer because.
- 1:04Speaker 2: People are saying AI is taking job.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Now, using AI willable people to have a career.
- 1:09Speaker 3: Yes, yes, they're there. So AI artificial intelligence is a
- 1:13Speaker 3: buzzword right now. Everybody's probably heard it at some point.
- 1:17Speaker 3: But there are two schools of thought with AI. One, companies, unfortunately,
- 1:21Speaker 3: are looking at AI to replace people. And then there
- 1:25Speaker 3: are the top companies that are using AI to amplify
- 1:28Speaker 3: their people, so giving them AI as a means of
- 1:32Speaker 3: a copilot to help them with roles or tasks that
- 1:36Speaker 3: they do not want to do.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Now, how did you how did you get started? Was
- 1:40Speaker 1: your this is very technically driven? Technically driven? Yeah, give
- 1:44Speaker 1: us a background. I asked you be the expert.
- 1:48Speaker 3: Yes, so you know what's interesting. I took an aptitude
- 1:51Speaker 3: test and I said I was equally analytical as I
- 1:54Speaker 3: was creative, and I should do graphic design. Now. I
- 1:57Speaker 3: went to school for that not knowing what graphic design was,
- 2:00Speaker 3: and then I couldn't find a job in graphic design.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Once I graduated, I stumbled upon an article that says
- 2:05Speaker 3: what is UX user experience design? And so I understood
- 2:09Speaker 3: what that meant. I was like, okay, I'm the one
- 2:12Speaker 3: who gets to design how a product or digital product
- 2:15Speaker 3: works and so they make more money. So I went
- 2:18Speaker 3: to go that route, and then ultimately I decided to
- 2:22Speaker 3: teach people how to do the same.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about this because you're in an area
- 2:27Speaker 1: where there are a lot of professional schools that are
- 2:31Speaker 1: giving our certificates, and this interview is about people who
- 2:36Speaker 1: don't want to go to a four year institution.
- 2:39Speaker 2: With that being said, is it people.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Don't want to go to a four year institution or
- 2:44Speaker 1: does people want to or feel they can be success
- 2:47Speaker 1: be successful without going to a four year institution.
- 2:51Speaker 3: I think it's a combination of both. I've been someone
- 2:55Speaker 3: who is saying you don't need to go to school
- 2:57Speaker 3: for what I do, and it's proven well over forty
- 3:00Speaker 3: percent of tech companies do not care about degrees anymore.
- 3:04Speaker 3: They care about certifications. But ultimately, is your portfolio? Can
- 3:07Speaker 3: you do the job? Prove it? Let me see it.
- 3:10Speaker 3: So i UXD Academy is literally showing people thirteen and
- 3:15Speaker 3: older how you can become an AI experience designer or
- 3:19Speaker 3: an AI automation expert without a degree.
- 3:22Speaker 2: Now, it's when people hear you say that, what's the first.
- 3:26Speaker 3: Reaction people are still they're just starting to understand, like,
- 3:33Speaker 3: what UX is.
- 3:35Speaker 1: I tell me, I'm just saying that you the exers,
- 3:37Speaker 1: We're going to get to you that I'm just talking about.
- 3:39Speaker 2: You know, we've been drilled go to college, go to college,
- 3:41Speaker 2: go to college, to college, get your degree. It is
- 3:43Speaker 2: wonderful lifestyle. Right now you're telling me a certificate?
- 3:47Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, People's eyes light up and say, wait, I
- 3:52Speaker 3: don't have to go into this massive amount of debt
- 3:55Speaker 3: to get this type of job that's paying you one
- 3:57Speaker 3: hundred and fifty two hundred thousand dollars. Sign me up?
- 4:00Speaker 3: What do I need to do? That's more the reaction
- 4:02Speaker 3: that I get. It's not so much like a disbelief
- 4:05Speaker 3: like wow, I could I can do that with a degree.
- 4:08Speaker 3: It's more like tell me how and show me how.
- 4:11Speaker 2: M h. Now, with that being said, how was you
- 4:15Speaker 2: XD born? Everett?
- 4:17Speaker 3: It was born from a question, to be honest with you, So,
- 4:21Speaker 3: my second job in my field, I had the rare
- 4:24Speaker 3: opportunity of working for a black manager in the UX space,
- 4:27Speaker 3: and it's extremely rare, and so I after a few
- 4:31Speaker 3: months working on his team, he asked me, what do
- 4:34Speaker 3: you want to do with this career. I said, I
- 4:36Speaker 3: want to teach a work in a corporate space for
- 4:38Speaker 3: about ten years and then teach it at the university level.
- 4:41Speaker 3: He asked me, why do you have to wait to
- 4:43Speaker 3: teach people? The girlfriend I had at the time, I
- 4:47Speaker 3: helped her successfully switch her career and become a designer.
- 4:50Speaker 3: He said, you talked to girl, right, why can't you
- 4:52Speaker 3: teach people now? Two weeks later we founded UXD Academy.
- 4:56Speaker 2: We said we.
- 4:57Speaker 3: Were it was a co co founding opportunity, but we're
- 5:01Speaker 3: no longer partners anymorekety solely on.
- 5:04Speaker 2: It now, Okay, good? Great? Just wanted to hear words
- 5:06Speaker 2: or yes, I wanted to give them no problem.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Now, what gap do you see in education of workforce development?
- 5:16Speaker 1: That u XD Academy was created to film.
- 5:21Speaker 3: The gap in the workforce honestly, diversity and not just
- 5:27Speaker 3: skin color. I'm talking about diversity and background. One of
- 5:32Speaker 3: the things I did not like about the industry was
- 5:34Speaker 3: the gatekeeping aspect. People were very pretentious against people who
- 5:41Speaker 3: did not have a degree. And then a few years
- 5:43Speaker 3: later companies said we don't care about degrees, and so
- 5:47Speaker 3: the gap that I'm feeling is showing people from all backgrounds. Hey,
- 5:51Speaker 3: you can learn this, and let me go ahead and
- 5:54Speaker 3: create a curriculum that allows you to perform better than
- 5:56Speaker 3: people who have a degree.
- 5:58Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. They can't be frustration.
- 6:00Speaker 1: It can't be in office. I won't use your anger
- 6:05Speaker 1: because there are people out there that go to college, Yeah,
- 6:08Speaker 1: get the degree, may be in debt or may not
- 6:11Speaker 1: be in debt, and then somebody with a certificate comes
- 6:14Speaker 1: along and is competing competitively from a financial or salary standpoint.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Can that create a problem.
- 6:23Speaker 3: I don't think that's it can create a problem. But
- 6:26Speaker 3: I think that was a problem i'd say probably four
- 6:28Speaker 3: years ago. Now not so much anymore because so many
- 6:31Speaker 3: people are intering. I have entered the field without a
- 6:35Speaker 3: degree from a four year institution, so.
- 6:37Speaker 1: I don't think it's much of a problem. Now are
- 6:40Speaker 1: you a four year graduate? I am okay, So you
- 6:44Speaker 1: a four year graduate? Give me your degree background for it,
- 6:47Speaker 1: because everything you're talking about is technically driven. Okay, talk
- 6:51Speaker 1: about you.
- 6:52Speaker 3: My background is I would say creatively driven. So I
- 6:56Speaker 3: was a graphic design major, which, if I had to
- 6:59Speaker 3: boil it down in Layman's terms, graphic design is about
- 7:02Speaker 3: creating pretty graphics. And pretty images using color theory, psychology
- 7:07Speaker 3: and things of that nature to create a banner, an image,
- 7:10Speaker 3: a poster, or whatever it is. Well, that's sort of
- 7:13Speaker 3: died a little bit with the advent of AI tools
- 7:16Speaker 3: like Canva and things like that. Now I don't need
- 7:18Speaker 3: to have a degree in graphic design to create pretty images.
- 7:21Speaker 3: I could just use Canva to do it. And so
- 7:23Speaker 3: I made the switch. I reverse engineered my career. I
- 7:26Speaker 3: actually said, Okay, I'm creating images, or at least what
- 7:29Speaker 3: the school taught me is to create images. But I'm
- 7:32Speaker 3: seeing where the money is money is actually creating digital products.
- 7:36Speaker 3: So I reversed engineered that, taught myself how to do it,
- 7:39Speaker 3: and I'm sharing the wealth back.
- 7:41Speaker 1: So how do you make money? It's money making conversation,
- 7:43Speaker 1: massic classes. How do you make money?
- 7:45Speaker 3: So I make money a couple different ways, one by
- 7:48Speaker 3: a consultant as a consultant for companies to create digital products.
- 7:53Speaker 3: Right now, it's the buzzword is AI, so AI agents,
- 7:57Speaker 3: automated workflows. But the cool thing that I've done is
- 8:00Speaker 3: within UXD Academy, I have built an AI experience agency
- 8:04Speaker 3: called our Table, and it's a way for me to
- 8:07Speaker 3: not only it's a way for me to create a
- 8:09Speaker 3: learn and earn pipeline where I can train people at
- 8:12Speaker 3: UXD Academy. I take the top ten percent of those
- 8:15Speaker 3: and employ them at our table on a project basis.
- 8:18Speaker 3: So I go out and get small business clients via
- 8:22Speaker 3: our table, and then I bring that work into the
- 8:24Speaker 3: school so that way my apprentices can see what real
- 8:27Speaker 3: real world work looks like.
- 8:29Speaker 2: Everett AI, what exactly is AI?
- 8:38Speaker 1: You know it exploded Chatt GPT right, Yep, that came
- 8:42Speaker 1: out like two years ago in there, but it's been
- 8:45Speaker 1: out longer than that. Yes, And so then you say,
- 8:48Speaker 1: I'm a self taught AI person, So how can you
- 8:54Speaker 1: teach yourself AI? African American black person of color and
- 9:01Speaker 1: now you're consulting? How are you continually able to educate
- 9:06Speaker 1: yourself and stay in front and stay up because it's
- 9:08Speaker 1: ever changing industry?
- 9:09Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
- 9:10Speaker 1: How did you make decision to teach yourself because you
- 9:13Speaker 1: went to be a graphic designer that's what you've been
- 9:15Speaker 1: trained in. This feels way more technical, it is, well,
- 9:19Speaker 1: for for sure.
- 9:20Speaker 3: So YouTube University, I learned practically everything that I needed
- 9:26Speaker 3: to learn about this from YouTube. I found great content creators.
- 9:30Speaker 3: I followed them they are creating the waves or behind
- 9:35Speaker 3: directly behind the people who are making the waves. So
- 9:37Speaker 3: I just stay right in that lane and follow what
- 9:39Speaker 3: they're doing and test it out. I tell people YouTube,
- 9:42Speaker 3: Google and books taught me everything I know about AI
- 9:47Speaker 3: and what is.
- 9:48Speaker 1: AI when a standpoint of the reason I keep harping
- 9:51Speaker 1: there because you know, a year ago, i'd use AI
- 9:55Speaker 1: a lot.
- 9:56Speaker 2: From a standpoint of I have my podcast.
- 9:59Speaker 1: It translates my podcast, It gives me descriptions, it tells
- 10:02Speaker 1: me and give me some marketing campaigns and things like that.
- 10:06Speaker 2: Am I under selling what more I could do with AI?
- 10:11Speaker 3: Yeah? So I like to tell people AI. Just think
- 10:13Speaker 3: of it as the it's the smartest person you know
- 10:20Speaker 3: or the smartest intern that you know, and you can
- 10:23Speaker 3: train that intern to work specifically for you. In a nutshell,
- 10:29Speaker 3: that's why. And AI really is like the greatest mimic
- 10:34Speaker 3: on Earth. It's just learning from things that we've already produced.
- 10:39Speaker 3: It's not really creating anything. It's more like mimicking and
- 10:43Speaker 3: guessing based off of its data. And so we have
- 10:46Speaker 3: to feed it good data and it'll give us a
- 10:48Speaker 3: good output.
- 10:49Speaker 2: Okay, cool, I'm speaking of ever ever. Excuse me.
- 10:52Speaker 1: He's the founder of you x d Academy and you're
- 10:56Speaker 1: based where Dallas, Dallas, Texas. Okay, let's get into more
- 11:00Speaker 1: details here. You actually academy teaches design, design tools and AI.
- 11:06Speaker 3: How so, I have an online platform built on school Skool,
- 11:14Speaker 3: and effectively what I do is I've created my own
- 11:17Speaker 3: curriculum in video format, so I put that on that platform.
- 11:21Speaker 3: But it also serves as like a combination. The platform
- 11:25Speaker 3: serves as a combination of LinkedIn Google Classroom, so people
- 11:30Speaker 3: can post which I encourage people to share, Hey I
- 11:33Speaker 3: built this, and then every two weeks I do a
- 11:36Speaker 3: free class where I show people, Hey, here's what I'm
- 11:39Speaker 3: actively working on, and here are the tools that I'm
- 11:42Speaker 3: using to build what I am building, and so people
- 11:45Speaker 3: can come in and ask me those type of questions.
- 11:47Speaker 3: And then thirdly, a Mastermind a weekly Mastermind group where
- 11:51Speaker 3: people can get guidance from me and helping build their
- 11:54Speaker 3: portfolio as well as working on client work.
- 11:58Speaker 2: Wow, so underserved community.
- 12:01Speaker 1: I will tell you I won't get on the soapbox
- 12:03Speaker 1: bout guess, but I will tell you that I feel
- 12:06Speaker 1: that for the first time in history that people of
- 12:11Speaker 1: color black people who are on these programs or whether
- 12:15Speaker 1: you can call the welfare program programs that well you
- 12:18Speaker 1: actually with these certificates, like you said, you don't have
- 12:21Speaker 1: to go to a four year school for your college
- 12:24Speaker 1: or to your junior college.
- 12:26Speaker 2: Well, you could change your life.
- 12:27Speaker 3: In a manner more literally I did.
- 12:32Speaker 2: Please let my let my my listeners hear this by
- 12:36Speaker 2: going to your your.
- 12:38Speaker 1: Website and seeing the results because living a life on
- 12:43Speaker 1: Section eight or staff programs.
- 12:45Speaker 2: You don't have to do this.
- 12:47Speaker 1: You can live a better life, live in a better community,
- 12:49Speaker 1: because I would tell you that living in those communities
- 12:52Speaker 1: under those programs force you to maintain a certain lifestyle,
- 12:56Speaker 1: force you to live a certain way for you and you,
- 13:00Speaker 1: The Academy can bridge a gap of academic freedom financial
- 13:05Speaker 1: freedom not only for the individual, but for their family
- 13:08Speaker 1: members and their family family members.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Talk to us absolutely shop boxes if you want.
- 13:13Speaker 3: To sure, sure I can. The job I had before
- 13:18Speaker 3: my career as a designer, I worked at a mortgage
- 13:21Speaker 3: lending bank. I hated it. I was making about fourteen
- 13:23Speaker 3: dollars an hour and I got to the point where
- 13:26Speaker 3: I said, I hate my situation. I don't like this,
- 13:30Speaker 3: and so I leveraged YouTube University and went down a
- 13:34Speaker 3: rabbit hole and started teaching myself right. The routine that
- 13:38Speaker 3: I had was I would get up, I would go
- 13:40Speaker 3: to work from seven to three. Then I would work
- 13:43Speaker 3: out from three to four, and then from five to
- 13:46Speaker 3: about two am. I am learning. I'm building, I'm redoing
- 13:51Speaker 3: my portfolio. I am putting my best foot forward so
- 13:54Speaker 3: people can give me a chance. Unfortunately that took me
- 13:58Speaker 3: about three years. Took me three years, but somebody gave
- 14:02Speaker 3: me a shot, and I haven't looked back since I started.
- 14:06Speaker 3: When I got my first job, I made seventy five thousand,
- 14:09Speaker 3: The second year I made one hundred and five. The
- 14:11Speaker 3: third year I made one hundred and forty. So it's
- 14:16Speaker 3: just gone up.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Now.
- 14:17Speaker 3: Part of that I do know how to speak, I
- 14:19Speaker 3: know how to interview would pretty well. However, my portfolio
- 14:22Speaker 3: is what got me that, and so I am literally
- 14:26Speaker 3: showing not only just people that looks like us, but
- 14:29Speaker 3: hardworking people a follow what I'm telling you. You can
- 14:34Speaker 3: change your life in under a year and a half. Okay,
- 14:38Speaker 3: well that next step, what do they have to do?
- 14:40Speaker 3: Would you say, follow what I'm telling you? Where do
- 14:43Speaker 3: we have to go to follow what you are telling
- 14:45Speaker 3: us in this interview. Perfect. So of course you can
- 14:48Speaker 3: go to my website UXD dot Academy. From there it'll
- 14:54Speaker 3: launch pad you straight into the free community. I offer
- 14:58Speaker 3: a free community. That's the thing, giving away my information
- 15:01Speaker 3: for free. What you're paying for is my guidance. So
- 15:04Speaker 3: I take a do it yourself approach because that's what
- 15:07Speaker 3: I did. So I'm going to give you the meat
- 15:08Speaker 3: and potatoes of all the courses you need to take,
- 15:11Speaker 3: the certifications you need here, all the books you need
- 15:14Speaker 3: to read. I give you all of that, so there
- 15:17Speaker 3: are no excuses. If you want to take your own time,
- 15:20Speaker 3: sure you can get there an under two years. But
- 15:22Speaker 3: if you want that guidance, well then that's where you're
- 15:24Speaker 3: going to pay. It's just hey, let me give you
- 15:27Speaker 3: the course correction that you need.
- 15:30Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere.
- 15:31Speaker 4: We will be right back with more insights from Money
- 15:34Speaker 4: Making Conversations Masteric Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
- 15:43Speaker 4: master Lass with me Rashaun McDonald. Now, I remember I'm
- 15:48Speaker 4: older than you, but it's always about the youth. You've
- 15:51Speaker 4: spoken about teaching youth early about ai UX design. Well,
- 15:56Speaker 4: you say early, what age group are we talking about,
- 15:59Speaker 4: and then you can expound after that.
- 16:01Speaker 3: You know, children are they operate at a genius level
- 16:05Speaker 3: at five years old, right, But and I know people
- 16:09Speaker 3: who have been teaching their kids how to code, you know,
- 16:11Speaker 3: from the time they were six, seven or eight. I
- 16:15Speaker 3: start with thirteen. I think that's right before you going
- 16:21Speaker 3: into high school. And I think that's a significant number
- 16:24Speaker 3: to me because that's when my world changed, coming from
- 16:28Speaker 3: California and then going to Texas. That move taught me
- 16:32Speaker 3: that this world, this life is about adapting or dying.
- 16:36Speaker 3: You have to adapt to die. And so I want to,
- 16:39Speaker 3: you know, show that Everett, that was thirteen. Here's something
- 16:45Speaker 3: that you don't know as possible, but you're really good
- 16:48Speaker 3: at you just don't know it. And so that's why
- 16:50Speaker 3: I started that age.
- 16:50Speaker 1: Well, you know, it really is about like I said,
- 16:52Speaker 1: my degree is in mathematics, and it's we're just trying
- 16:58Speaker 1: to say, breaking down the fear factor of change. Yeah,
- 17:02Speaker 1: and that's what this is about, because if you focused
- 17:05Speaker 1: on let's say you have a graphics degree, you have
- 17:08Speaker 1: a four year degree. I'm trying to really reach the
- 17:10Speaker 1: people who have either that's lost here in this interview
- 17:16Speaker 1: for the very first time, trying to understand where they
- 17:19Speaker 1: can fit in it, trying to disseminate reality from their reality.
- 17:27Speaker 2: Talk to me.
- 17:29Speaker 3: So for that person that you described, what I teach
- 17:33Speaker 3: people are AI tools, specifically no code and low code tools.
- 17:39Speaker 3: So no code is exactly how it sounds. You don't
- 17:41Speaker 3: have to know any code in order to use this tool.
- 17:45Speaker 3: If you know some code, then that means you can
- 17:48Speaker 3: take a low code tool and push it to the
- 17:51Speaker 3: max because you actually know the language. Card so you
- 17:55Speaker 3: know the language. But you can literally build a chatbot
- 18:00Speaker 3: an agent in ten minutes with these tools, and I
- 18:03Speaker 3: am teaching you how to do that and then how
- 18:05Speaker 3: to do it on a larger scale. So I would
- 18:08Speaker 3: say again, ux, the Academy's YouTube channel is a great
- 18:12Speaker 3: place to start, but in my community, I also list
- 18:16Speaker 3: out the YouTubers that I learned from. Right, and you
- 18:19Speaker 3: watch one video you're going down the rap hole and
- 18:21Speaker 3: you can see the phone that you have in your pocket.
- 18:26Speaker 3: That's more than enough to get you to it.
- 18:30Speaker 1: And we know everybody lives off there on you nowadays,
- 18:34Speaker 1: so you know they are just many computers for sure.
- 18:36Speaker 2: I knows of my picking my phone. This is pretty heavy.
- 18:39Speaker 2: It is you know, those.
- 18:40Speaker 1: Supposed to really have just because they're small don't mean
- 18:42Speaker 1: they're light exactly, which means that a lot of technologies
- 18:45Speaker 1: is cramped into that. And let me ask you this
- 18:47Speaker 1: effort in the next twelve to eighteen months, what major
- 18:50Speaker 1: AI trends are technologies you believe will have the biggest
- 18:53Speaker 1: impact on a small business. I'm a small business and
- 18:56Speaker 1: this show us about small business businesses and entrepreneurship.
- 19:00Speaker 2: Talk to us.
- 19:01Speaker 3: So I would say, automated workflows, AI agents, and AI
- 19:09Speaker 3: powered customer experiences. Those are going to be the three
- 19:13Speaker 3: biggest I say, major shakeups in the next twelve to
- 19:16Speaker 3: eighteen months. This year was dubbed the Year of the Agent,
- 19:21Speaker 3: which effectively I just tell people an agent is a
- 19:24Speaker 3: souped up chat bot that can perform tasks for you
- 19:29Speaker 3: on its own or with you. That's all it is.
- 19:34Speaker 3: That is AI agents, automated workflows, and AI powered customer experiences. So,
- 19:41Speaker 3: for example, if I was, let's just I don't know
- 19:44Speaker 3: a Nordstrom dot com at the bottom right, there's a
- 19:47Speaker 3: chatbot over there right. Well, now, if I click and
- 19:50Speaker 3: interact with that chatbot, I can now have a personal
- 19:53Speaker 3: styling assistant and it can if I log in, it
- 19:57Speaker 3: can take my purchases and go, Okay, I know the
- 20:00Speaker 3: type of shoes you bought recently. I know the type
- 20:03Speaker 3: of clothes you bought recently. I'm going to now service you.
- 20:07Speaker 3: Here's some new ideas that I think you would like
- 20:09Speaker 3: based off of your history. Those type of experiences are
- 20:12Speaker 3: going to shake the world up in the next twelve
- 20:14Speaker 3: to eighteen months.
- 20:15Speaker 1: Now, I don't know if that's a new quesse. You
- 20:18Speaker 1: know what happens is you know I shop, They probably
- 20:21Speaker 1: using AI. They probably using different the word algorithm. Yes, yes,
- 20:26Speaker 1: it is a popular term that now I think it's
- 20:28Speaker 1: being replaced by AI.
- 20:30Speaker 2: You're right, okay. And so because you know I go
- 20:34Speaker 2: to store like Crogers, they see what I boy all
- 20:37Speaker 2: the time. Guess what I get coupons for these ibio exactly. Okay, Okay,
- 20:42Speaker 2: can you see me something different? Not just tied. It's
- 20:45Speaker 2: the same butter all the time.
- 20:47Speaker 1: Right. But when I look at what you doing at
- 20:49Speaker 1: AXD Academy, the thing is, and the reason you're on
- 20:52Speaker 1: this show is that I know that the world we
- 20:55Speaker 1: live in is changing. The way we view opportunities has
- 21:00Speaker 1: to change too. And when I saw what you were
- 21:03Speaker 1: developing or have developed short term opportunity through academic training.
- 21:10Speaker 1: I'll point an example to my audience. I'm based in
- 21:13Speaker 1: Atlanta and Goodwill offer the program where EV installations, and
- 21:21Speaker 1: they were offering a paid training period, and then after
- 21:28Speaker 1: that paid training period was over with, then you had
- 21:31Speaker 1: a full time salary that was over sixty.
- 21:33Speaker 2: Five thousand dollars no education, and we're talking about less
- 21:38Speaker 2: than six months.
- 21:39Speaker 1: This whole period, this whole lifetime experience was changing. And
- 21:44Speaker 1: when I became aware of that program, that means that
- 21:46Speaker 1: the programs you were talking about is a reality too
- 21:50Speaker 1: because of the fact that but if you don't engage,
- 21:52Speaker 1: and I'm gonna just tell you this, ladies and gentlemen,
- 21:55Speaker 1: and you should tell them this too, there is work involved.
- 21:59Speaker 1: You're not going out there just picking an apple that
- 22:01Speaker 1: all that fell out of the tree, right right, We're
- 22:03Speaker 1: not saying that.
- 22:04Speaker 2: But if you want a dream to become a reality,
- 22:07Speaker 2: we have to work.
- 22:08Speaker 3: Correct, absolutely absolutely. It is not I tell people that
- 22:13Speaker 3: what I do is simple, but it's not easy. It's
- 22:18Speaker 3: a very tedious thing. Because again, this to your point
- 22:22Speaker 3: earlier chat GPT came out in twenty twenty two. Okay,
- 22:26Speaker 3: so what we are the common people understand it AI
- 22:31Speaker 3: to them, it's it's only been around for three years.
- 22:35Speaker 3: AI has been around, I believe since the fifties fifty six.
- 22:38Speaker 1: Well, with your people, AI is ups. I've never known GPS.
- 22:42Speaker 1: You know, if you have GPS in your car, you've
- 22:44Speaker 1: been using AI.
- 22:45Speaker 3: Yes, you've been Googled, You've been using AI for the sarchin.
- 22:49Speaker 1: It was since Google came out and allows you to
- 22:50Speaker 1: say a complete sentence, you were using AI exactly.
- 22:54Speaker 3: But now they have given us the consumer, the ability
- 22:57Speaker 3: to play with AI. And that's what this chat GPT is.
- 23:01Speaker 3: It is not very easy to get the AI to
- 23:05Speaker 3: output the same consistent result every single time. It's not
- 23:09Speaker 3: that easy. And that's where prompt engineering comes in, where
- 23:13Speaker 3: you have to basically tailor your instructions very meticulously so
- 23:17Speaker 3: that way you get the same output every single time.
- 23:21Speaker 2: What that means said, your toughest challenge is UXD. I
- 23:26Speaker 2: gotta ask, did I ask you what the name? Why
- 23:28Speaker 2: did you come up with the name you x D?
- 23:30Speaker 3: Yeah? So ux D is just an acronym for Universal
- 23:34Speaker 3: Experience Design, right, And the reason why I coin that
- 23:40Speaker 3: because I can tell you one of the biggest pet
- 23:42Speaker 3: pee's I have in this industry is people taking and
- 23:48Speaker 3: labeling things that are practically the same thing. So for example,
- 23:52Speaker 3: if I do three activities, I call it UI design,
- 23:57Speaker 3: But if I add one more thing to those three activities,
- 24:01Speaker 3: I can now call it, Oh, it's interaction design. Or
- 24:04Speaker 3: if I call it I add another thing and it's oh,
- 24:06Speaker 3: it's user experience design. I'm like, guys, it's all experience design.
- 24:10Speaker 3: It's just what part of the experience are you keying
- 24:13Speaker 3: in on. Do I like the research part of it? Okay,
- 24:16Speaker 3: well then you are you a researcher them. Do I
- 24:18Speaker 3: like actually pushing the pixels, changing the colors and things
- 24:21Speaker 3: like that? Okay, well then you're a UI designer. But
- 24:24Speaker 3: it's all an experience. So universal experience design is what
- 24:29Speaker 3: uctually stands for.
- 24:30Speaker 2: You know the amazing thing about a dreamer, and that's
- 24:34Speaker 2: what you were. You're a dreamer.
- 24:35Speaker 1: Now you're an executor of your dream you know, because
- 24:39Speaker 1: you put goals in place. Now in executing, like you said,
- 24:44Speaker 1: you had a partner at first, you're buy yourself now,
- 24:48Speaker 1: so you have nobody's lean on now, Everett, No, where
- 24:51Speaker 1: is your support.
- 24:52Speaker 2: Just so.
- 24:56Speaker 3: That's a good question. I would say that for the
- 24:59Speaker 3: longest time, I haven't had one. In my professional life.
- 25:04Speaker 3: I am you know, when I grew up, I was
- 25:07Speaker 3: the oldest, I was the first and only person to
- 25:10Speaker 3: do what I'm doing. I am the only person to
- 25:12Speaker 3: do what I'm doing in my friend group. So I've
- 25:14Speaker 3: always been alone in that since. But that doesn't bother me.
- 25:19Speaker 3: I just look at at least for support. I have
- 25:23Speaker 3: met some people in my profession since then, and they
- 25:26Speaker 3: do a really good job of kind of providing that support.
- 25:29Speaker 3: But ultimately I don't really need it because I have
- 25:32Speaker 3: I'm chasing my goals and I am ultimately trying to
- 25:35Speaker 3: show other people like me what is possible. So I
- 25:39Speaker 3: don't need support for that.
- 25:41Speaker 2: Well, it's important that Derek that you don't need it.
- 25:44Speaker 1: But you know, as a guy who's managed high profile talent,
- 25:49Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you don't know where to go for
- 25:52Speaker 1: that question, you know, and people want to answers, and
- 25:55Speaker 1: you are what you're doing is you're I'm not says unique,
- 26:00Speaker 1: but you're unique because you are speaking it. You feel
- 26:04Speaker 1: me and so that means that your point of view matters.
- 26:07Speaker 1: And so as you build for these tough moments, these
- 26:10Speaker 1: bone wents of doubt, these bon wents of people going
- 26:13Speaker 1: or sometimes the pathway that you expected takes a curve
- 26:19Speaker 1: and creates doubt in yourself. What are the obstacles in
- 26:22Speaker 1: your business? And how have you overcome those obstacles.
- 26:26Speaker 3: So from a subject matter expert, I a subject matter
- 26:31Speaker 3: perspective teaching people what I teach. The obstacles I have
- 26:36Speaker 3: are trying to partner with educational institutions. They still operate
- 26:42Speaker 3: very in a very archaic way, and so they are
- 26:46Speaker 3: very much reluctant to change, and so I am trying
- 26:49Speaker 3: to convince them like, hey, this is where we are now.
- 26:52Speaker 3: You need to adopt and need to train people based
- 26:55Speaker 3: off what's happening now. So that's been an obstacle to
- 26:58Speaker 3: try and convince them of them. However, I don't spend
- 27:01Speaker 3: that much time trying to convince people what they can't see.
- 27:04Speaker 3: I go and listen to the people who I'm trying
- 27:07Speaker 3: to help, and they give me a great perspective because
- 27:12Speaker 3: they are telling me what their problems are and I'm
- 27:14Speaker 3: attacking that head on. So I would say the biggest
- 27:18Speaker 3: obstacle is just not knowing where the hell, I'm going sometimes,
- 27:21Speaker 3: but I am grounded in what I'm doing and the
- 27:24Speaker 3: purpose that I'm doing. It allows me to overcome.
- 27:25Speaker 2: That, you know, big fear.
- 27:29Speaker 1: It's kind of an interesting interviewing you because you use
- 27:32Speaker 1: the word AIAI so much. And the number one fear
- 27:36Speaker 1: in the people who don't know, especially in the minority community,
- 27:39Speaker 1: is that AI is going to take their job. I
- 27:43Speaker 1: believe there are from a robotic standpoint, jobs are going
- 27:47Speaker 1: to be replaced. But again, somebody got to run the robot.
- 27:51Speaker 1: Somebody got a program the robot. Somebody got to be
- 27:54Speaker 1: able to organize a strategy to advance the services of
- 27:58Speaker 1: that robot.
- 28:00Speaker 2: AI.
- 28:01Speaker 1: I don't believe it's going to replace the job. It's
- 28:03Speaker 1: going to create options for a job. When I say that, Everett,
- 28:08Speaker 1: am I incorrect?
- 28:10Speaker 3: No, I don't think you are AI will replace some job. Yes,
- 28:18Speaker 3: it will. It's it's it's it's happening.
- 28:22Speaker 1: Just removed the word AI from conversation. Robots were going
- 28:25Speaker 1: to root automation. Automation was going to replace certain jobs. Okay,
- 28:32Speaker 1: so AI, I believe it's not giving you an opportunity
- 28:36Speaker 1: to generate a salary you may have never seen in
- 28:39Speaker 1: your life. Yes, that's the conversation I want to pull
- 28:43Speaker 1: out of this interview.
- 28:44Speaker 3: Especially when you're dealing with the small business owner.
- 28:48Speaker 1: Right.
- 28:48Speaker 3: So there's some reports, I believe it was mi T
- 28:52Speaker 3: came out with a study and showed that ninety five
- 28:55Speaker 3: of AI pilot programs failed. That's at the enterprise level,
- 29:02Speaker 3: that's not at the small business level. Small businesses have
- 29:05Speaker 3: shown about eighty percent of positive ROI from using AI,
- 29:10Speaker 3: and that is where the biggest opportunities are going to be.
- 29:13Speaker 3: Is to help small businesses introduced safely, introduce AI to
- 29:19Speaker 3: them so that way they can scale. That is going
- 29:21Speaker 3: to be the biggest opportunity and that's where I flourish again.
- 29:25Speaker 3: Companies that are less than fifty employees, they need help
- 29:30Speaker 3: and giving them AI by way of automating certain processes,
- 29:35Speaker 3: giving them AI what I call AI co workers, which
- 29:38Speaker 3: is just you know, effectively chat gpt A as a coworker,
- 29:43Speaker 3: right right, So those are going to be the biggest
- 29:44Speaker 3: opportunities from a small business standpoint.
- 29:47Speaker 2: You know what.
- 29:48Speaker 1: I again, Everett, thank you for coming on the show.
- 29:50Speaker 1: I'm an interview at the founder of UXD. Before we
- 29:54Speaker 1: move forward, is there an app for ux the academy.
- 29:59Speaker 3: No, but the a platform that will be learned on
- 30:01Speaker 3: school that there isn't that for that?
- 30:03Speaker 2: Okay, cool, talk to us about that. Yeah.
- 30:05Speaker 3: So again, I built my curriculum on a platform called
- 30:08Speaker 3: School that's skol relatively new. It's competing with products like
- 30:15Speaker 3: Kajabi Go High Level. I like School quite a bit.
- 30:20Speaker 3: They do have a mobile app, so again there are
- 30:22Speaker 3: no excuses with me. You can download the app and
- 30:26Speaker 3: launch into my free community and right there you have
- 30:29Speaker 3: all the access to people as well as to resources
- 30:33Speaker 3: that you need to learn this business.
- 30:35Speaker 2: So because of the effort, what's your legacy? You know?
- 30:38Speaker 2: You know Inglewood, Austin. Correct. Now you're living in Dallas,
- 30:46Speaker 2: sitting in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm interviewing you and join the interview.
- 30:49Speaker 2: You're smart.
- 30:50Speaker 1: You like I said, you're taking a YouTube university education
- 30:56Speaker 1: and turn it into all successful small business.
- 30:59Speaker 2: What is your legacy?
- 31:01Speaker 3: I you know what's interesting. I was told I was
- 31:06Speaker 3: a drawer, and that's why I think that that aptitude
- 31:08Speaker 3: test said I was equally analytical as it was creative. Right.
- 31:12Speaker 3: But I was told by family members, and I don't
- 31:15Speaker 3: think they meant any harm, but they said that you
- 31:17Speaker 3: can't make money doing art. So I have the attitude
- 31:20Speaker 3: of like, I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm gonna
- 31:22Speaker 3: show you right. And that's what I'm doing. And so
- 31:26Speaker 3: my legacy is I want other kids to have that
- 31:33Speaker 3: mentality when they go through my course and say, oh no,
- 31:36Speaker 3: I can create my own reality with this. If I
- 31:39Speaker 3: could have helped a minimum hundred thousand kids, yeah, if
- 31:45Speaker 3: I could help one hundred thousand pieces, and it is
- 31:48Speaker 3: a lot. But I believe in focusing on the future
- 31:51Speaker 3: doesn't mean that in somebody above forty can't learn it.
- 31:54Speaker 3: I have people who are fifty five in my class
- 31:57Speaker 3: learning and they're doing great. But I really want to
- 31:59Speaker 3: focus it's on the youth and to show them another
- 32:02Speaker 3: option exposure. If I can help one hundred thousand efforts
- 32:06Speaker 3: out there, that would be my lext well.
- 32:09Speaker 1: I like that because of the fact that the youth
- 32:13Speaker 1: really controls or changes the future.
- 32:16Speaker 2: You know, you're younger than me. I'm pouring into you.
- 32:19Speaker 1: Hopefully by pouring into you, you won't make the same mistakes.
- 32:24Speaker 1: That's the whole core of this show. Money making conversations masculine.
- 32:27Speaker 1: I want to I want the people to hear you
- 32:30Speaker 1: going there's a better job. There's been a lifestyle for
- 32:33Speaker 1: you at UXD Academy. At least just look do your research.
- 32:39Speaker 1: He's already told you that you can go on YouTube
- 32:42Speaker 1: and verify what he's doing.
- 32:44Speaker 2: He's just organized, and I think that's the key component.
- 32:47Speaker 2: You go to the website. He's really hysterical. He has
- 32:50Speaker 2: a video of himself. He just he's like a pitch man.
- 32:52Speaker 1: He's just can just he's very entertaining. In fact, I
- 32:57Speaker 1: would tell you this, you're after watching your video, you're
- 33:01Speaker 1: not as hyped as your website.
- 33:04Speaker 2: Why is that?
- 33:05Speaker 3: That's actually my natural disposition, to be honest with you,
- 33:08Speaker 3: and it's because, like I'm actually in the weeds learning
- 33:10Speaker 3: stuff I do need to work on, you know, you know,
- 33:14Speaker 3: animating my voice a little bit more, and that is
- 33:16Speaker 3: something I'm going to be doing, as far as helping
- 33:18Speaker 3: out with the editing too, like show the funnier side.
- 33:21Speaker 3: But I'm dead serious farst of the time, which is great.
- 33:24Speaker 1: Like I said, you know, I'm not saying nothing negative,
- 33:27Speaker 1: but like I'm letting you know I've done my research
- 33:29Speaker 1: and watch it on go.
- 33:30Speaker 2: He's very entertaining. I mean, I'm gonna just put his way.
- 33:34Speaker 1: There's a passion on your website, and that passion is
- 33:38Speaker 1: driven by because frustration, I think, you know, because of
- 33:43Speaker 1: the fact that people don't know, and sometimes you have
- 33:46Speaker 1: to be amped up a little bit for sure to
- 33:49Speaker 1: try to get their attention to show this there's a
- 33:53Speaker 1: better way.
- 33:54Speaker 3: Yeah, you're you're. You hit that right on the head there.
- 33:58Speaker 3: I am very much passionate on the front facing website
- 34:02Speaker 3: of things because I have to get I have to
- 34:04Speaker 3: get your attention. And sometimes and I look, I've tried
- 34:08Speaker 3: working on it, but I've been told that, you know,
- 34:10Speaker 3: I could be very direct, very blunt, and sometimes it
- 34:14Speaker 3: comes off as harsh, but I'm like, this is no
- 34:17Speaker 3: laughing matter, especially when we think about I'm gonna bringing
- 34:19Speaker 3: them out to my soapbox to people of color, black people, Look,
- 34:25Speaker 3: we are at the bottom and a lot of metrics,
- 34:28Speaker 3: so there is no time for play. Play like we got.
- 34:31Speaker 3: We have to we have to get on the ball.
- 34:34Speaker 3: AI is our opportunity to do that.
- 34:36Speaker 2: It is really opportunity, It really really is. And I
- 34:41Speaker 2: hope more and more interviews. I do like that.
- 34:43Speaker 1: I try to consistently I'm not saying a lot of
- 34:45Speaker 1: people in fact, nobody's doing what you're doing. But there
- 34:48Speaker 1: are other certificate programs out there. Google has a certificate
- 34:53Speaker 1: scholarship program. I just mentioned good Will here in Atlanta,
- 34:57Speaker 1: it has a program. I'm sure they are a competing
- 34:59Speaker 1: type program out there that are presenting salaries that can
- 35:03Speaker 1: put you in a middle class and come immediately, as
- 35:07Speaker 1: soon as you pass it, there's a job waiting on
- 35:09Speaker 1: you because that skill set.
- 35:12Speaker 2: You know, it's really amazing.
- 35:14Speaker 1: It was like, you know, there are a lot of
- 35:16Speaker 1: things that our current president, Donald Trump talks about and
- 35:20Speaker 1: right now he's talking about it. They trying to build
- 35:22Speaker 1: a chip chip manufacturing company in Arizona. And now he
- 35:26Speaker 1: did a lot of pushback because guess what, there're nobody
- 35:29Speaker 1: here can build the chips. Yeah, I guess well, but
- 35:33Speaker 1: they can if you train them. And that's the whole thing.
- 35:36Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about. At u x D Academy,
- 35:39Speaker 1: we're trying to get these we don't have the workforce,
- 35:42Speaker 1: we don't have the people qualified. At u x D Academy,
- 35:47Speaker 1: he will get you qualified for opportunities that will change
- 35:50Speaker 1: your life.
- 35:51Speaker 2: Did I say it correctly? Thank you for coming on.
- 35:54Speaker 1: Money appreciates this has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with
- 36:00Speaker 1: Sean McDonald thanks to our guest and our audience. Visit
- 36:04Speaker 1: Moneymaking Conversations dot com to listen and register to be
- 36:08Speaker 1: a guest.