Let's Play Money

Podcast #12: Every Kid Needs a Path: Preparing Kids for Life After High School

• Coach Mara • Episode 12

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Helping kids discover their future doesn't start in high school - it starts with the experiences, conversations, and life skills we build throughout childhood.

In this episode of the Let's Play Money Podcast, Coach Mara welcomes Tyra Woodall, a Certified Life Coach who helps teens and young adults gain clarity, confidence, and purpose as they navigate college, careers, and the transition into adulthood.

Together, they explore:

  • Why career exploration should begin before graduation
  • How financial literacy helps kids make better life decisions
  • Ways parents can encourage curiosity and confidence
  • The value of discovering a child's unique strengths
  • How everyday experiences can shape future careers

Coach Mara also shares how The Little Books of Big Business introduce children to entrepreneurship, money management, leadership, and problem-solving through engaging stories. As kids grow, those early lessons become the foundation for bigger conversations about purpose, career exploration, and creating a meaningful future.

Whether you're raising an elementary-aged entrepreneur, a middle-school dreamer, or a teenager beginning to think about life after graduation, this episode offers practical encouragement for every stage of the journey.


Connect with Tyra Woodall:
Learn more about Tyra's coaching for teens and young adults at:
Website: https://www.lifecoachtyra.com/

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Please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share this episode with another parent, teacher, or grandparent who wants to raise confident, money-smart kids! Your support helps us spread the message and make financial literacy fun and accessible for every family.

SPEAKER_01

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Let's Play Money Podcast. I'm Coach Mara, author of The Little Books of Big Business, and creator of the Let's Play Money Activity Packets. Today we're talking about something every parent thinks about at some point. How do we help our kids figure out what they want to do with their lives? As children grow, the questions start to change. What am I good at? What classes should I take? Should I go to college? Should I start a business? Learn a trade? How do I know which path is right for me? The truth is, finding your path isn't just about choosing a career. It's about discovering your strengths, building confidence, trying new experiences, and learning the life skills that help you succeed no matter where you end up. That's why I'm excited to welcome today's guest, life coach Tyra Woodall, who works with teens as they navigate those important decisions about their future. Together, we're talking about career exploration, confidence, financial literacy, and why the conversations we have with kids today can shape the opportunities they create tomorrow. Whether you're raising an elementary-aged entrepreneur, a middle school dreamer, or a teenager who's starting to think about life after graduation, I think you'll find plenty of ideas and encouragement in today's conversation. Let's jump in. Alright, welcome, Coach Tyra. I am so excited that you're here to join me today. We are going to talk about what you do helping teens and young adults find their life path. But before we start and dive into that really juicy topic, which I'm super anybody that knows me knows how super passionate I am about kids finding their right path. I want to talk just about a little bit about you and your background. So you've been in the coaching field for about the last 10 years, held your certifications and background in psychology and so forth. But take me back to when you were 10, 11, 12. What did you want to be when you grew up?

SPEAKER_00

I think when I was 10 or 11, I wanted to be a teacher for sure. I admired teachers, wanted to be a teacher, explored that later in life. That's not my calling, but okay. That wasn't you.

SPEAKER_01

And how about business? Did you have lemonade stands, babysitting? What did you do growing up?

SPEAKER_00

Definitely did lemonade stands every time my parents had a garage sale, made some money that way. Nice during the school year and the summer, a lot with my best friend, we had a jewelry making business. So we did the little beads as well as collected old jewelry from our grandparents, like our grandmoms, and made that into new jewelry and sold that. We had business cards, we set up little stands at our parents' work. Yes, we tried hard.

SPEAKER_01

That's exciting.

SPEAKER_00

What do you think you really you learned through the process of that business? That money making is difficult and that you really need a plan and not just some beads and try to sell it. Selling isn't necessarily the hard part that having a plan to make a profit and to keep it going. That's the difficult part.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Okay. That fits really well into our topic today because you are a planner. You help and you help people plan, right? So let's talk about this. What led you to start helping teens discover their future plans?

SPEAKER_00

So I started life coaching and I worked with two different businesses, two different, really nonprofits. And I started noticing when I was coaching teens and young adults that they didn't have a plan or they didn't know the basics to make a plan, like scheduling and budgeting and time management, or their basic needs that they had and values that they had. So slowly started developing kind of a program to help them figure these things out so that they can make a wiser choice for what they wanted to go to college for, or which college they want to go to, or what career path they wanted to take, or what business they wanted to start.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, that's so interesting. What do you think that these kids, teens are most worried about when they think about adulthood?

SPEAKER_00

I think they're all worried about succeeding in one way or another. And it looks different for everybody, but they want to know: am I making the right choices for longevity? I want to pick a career and stay halfway close to what I majored in or starred in or something and not change my mind multiple times. And they also want to know: can I afford a lifestyle like I've had? Can I keep going with what I want, what my dreams are, what my ambitions are, what the fun things are also.

SPEAKER_01

Is that an awareness that comes up?

SPEAKER_00

They seem to bring it up for the most part. And they do have an awareness of I want to be able to pay my bills, I want to own land, I want to own a house. That's a pretty consistent theme with everybody. And so then how about the pressure?

SPEAKER_01

Do you think kids feel a lot of pressure to have their whole lives figured out?

SPEAKER_00

I think they do, especially by the time they graduate high school. Everybody kind of has told them what to do for a while. These are the classes you're gonna take for the most part. This is what you're gonna get up and do for the most part. You're gonna have summers off from school and you need to do something that's guided for them. And then at 18, we look at them and then we're like, what are you gonna do? And they're like, I don't know. You've been telling me what we're gonna do for so long that they don't really know. Or some of them know college is my path, but they don't know which college, or they know college is not my path, but they don't know which career or which trade. So they feel pressure all of a sudden sometimes to figure it out when if they could have been making different choices or trying out different things earlier, then maybe wouldn't feel so much pressure or would feel a little bit more confident about their decisions.

SPEAKER_01

That's really interesting observation. And do you want to ask you about parents before they get to this place of these big decisions, these big life transitions? What are ways that parents can help teens identify their strengths and interests?

SPEAKER_00

I think for them that's letting them try, watching what your child is interested in, having a conversation with them, noticing what excites them, noticing what they're self-motivated about, what they want to do more than other things, or what they're willing to go look for on their own, things like that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'll insert a little story here. I remember when my younger son, who's in his mid-20s now, was in early high school, maybe he was uh sophomore junior, and he was thinking he was on one track. He'd had an opportunity to experience kind of a mentorship program in the engineering field, thinking, okay, I'm running towards that track. But he was also going to the gym and he was listening to books on Audible when he worked out, and everything he read was a business book. And so seeing what he was leaning towards his interest, I pointed it out to him. I said, just because you're doing this one thing over here, I really see your interest. Have you is that door open anyway? And in fact, he did end up going to more of a financial business type route through college versus engineering, just because we started having those conversations. So maybe I did one little thing right there. That's good. For sure. Yeah. How about other signs? The a teen has found something they're naturally drawn to. What are some signs, what they're listening to, like I did, or what any other signs you can think of?

SPEAKER_00

I still think big on the self-motivation, they want to do it, or again, they have energy for it. They're not distracted while doing it, or reluctant to go, or just things like that, looking for what they're naturally drawn to and having that conversation. Because they could be naturally drawn to maybe your son is naturally drawn to engineering because he admired an engineer he knew. So maybe the conversation isn't, I want to be an engineer. It's like, what did the person he admire, what did he see in that person that he relates to that he liked, that he did admire? Maybe it wasn't that he was an engineer, maybe it was he seemed like a good businessman. He could talk to people, he could engage. I don't know what it was, but just having those conversations and seeing what is it that you are drawn to? What is it that excites you? What is it that motivates you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, those are great coaching questions. I love those. How about the difference between choosing a career versus this building a life or lifestyle? Do you have discussions with kids about the difference of that or how does that come up?

SPEAKER_00

We do when we talk about life balance because it's fascinating. Some people, these two are separate, right? Some people, it's like I have a career and then I also have a life and a lifestyle. Some people, it's very much one thing. They need their career and life's and lifestyle to be intertwined, or it just is in their brain for whatever reason. It is intertwined. So for some people, picking a career is much more difficult for them because it's like, what is my life calling? What am I going to do for the rest of my life? Some people, it's like, I want a job that makes this much money so I can afford this boat, this house, this car. It just makes sense to them. And those two things are for the most part separate. One gets them to the other goal. But some teens and young adults, obviously, adults too, it is separate or it is together. You have to talk to your teen or young adult and figure out how closely those are enmeshed.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. Yeah, so I was going to ask you about financial literacy and how does that change the way teens think about their future? I think you're already alluding to that, the lifestyle versus knowing what they want. How about conversations parents should have before kids graduate related to money? What do you think you're seeing missing, or what do you think they should be talking to their kids about?

SPEAKER_00

Definitely basic budget conversations need to happen. What is your income? How are you getting your income? What are your bills? And then bills versus expenses. What do we have to have? We have to have fuel for the car to get to the job. We have to have a place to live. What are their basic things? I have to have a phone if they're paying for the phone. And then what is an expense? We don't have to have the shoes. We don't have to have the new hair style. So the difference between those two in a basic budget of what we're making versus what we're spending, are we in the green or are we in the red? We gotta have that. That's definitely the first conversation. And then after that, I think anything about debt and interest, explaining what debt is and how much interest matters. And especially long-term, short-term things like that. That would be the second conversation. And then the third, if they could understand, which it's basic math, but sometimes we forget how long we have to work to get the item we want. How many hours am I working to buy this new pair of jeans? How many hours am I working to go to this concert? How many hours am I working to pay for this car? So we can understand how much it's really costing us in time and energy.

SPEAKER_01

And that fits really well into my question about kids getting their first paycheck. So some of those lessons can start to happen when they start working. Are kids that are coming to you, are many of them working? Have they had first jobs yet? Or where are they in that? Some of them are working.

SPEAKER_00

Not all of them are paying for that many bills, though, which is interesting. So it's hard for them to truly understand budget when they don't have that many bills. If they had something they had to pay for along the way, I think that would help them understand how many hours I'm working for this phone, how many hours I'm working for this, whatever they're interested in. I would definitely say it's having a plan before you receive the paycheck. What are we like Kat Casey in your book? What she had the different piggy banks. What are we saving? What are we spending? What are we saving up for if there's another section? What are we investing in? What are we giving to the local charity or church or things like that? But having a plan before you get the money, not just getting the money and getting so excited you just spend it all.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's fun. Okay. Thanks for bringing in Cat Casey. We always love a Cat Casey referencing. How about that college debt? What kind of conversations are parents and kids having about stepping into college tuition and how all that's being paid for?

SPEAKER_00

I'm not sure we're having enough conversations about that, especially early on, because if you get a surprise that your parents aren't going to help you with college, I think there's a tendency to quit because that seems so overwhelming, especially if you haven't had money talks and you don't understand budgeting and you don't understand interest and percentages or anything. So I think having that talk early on, if you are going to help, if you aren't going to help, what does taking a loan out look like? What does working as you go look like? What does working on campus versus off campus? Like all of those conversations, a lot of it's just about, again, communication, having a plan early on so nobody gets overwhelmed with whatever choice that they have to make or get to make.

SPEAKER_01

Right. That's really wise. So let's talk a little bit about kind of this bridge. I do a lot of work in the financial literacy, and a lot of it comes through the playing entrepreneurship, the farmers market programs, having in lemonade stands and so forth. Why is it important for kids to start career exploration long before high school?

SPEAKER_00

I think the main reason is so they have more options so they can figure out more things. So they're not making a choice at the last minute with only a little bit of information. They can get information really young with the lemonade stand, farmers market type thing, then translated into bigger things with more responsibilities, then they're not as intimidated when they do need to make their own money and make their own choices.

SPEAKER_01

So you have a young one at home. How old is he now? Seven?

SPEAKER_00

Seven, yes.

SPEAKER_01

And has he done any work? Has he had a lemonade stand, or what is he doing these days?

SPEAKER_00

He's had his version of a lemonade stand. He sold pumpkins. He helps his grandfather grow them, and then his grandfather lets him sell them. They've also collected walnuts from all of the neighbors and took a truckload of walnuts to be processed. And I don't think that made as much money as they thought with their thousands and thousands of walnuts. So, yes, he's learned the value of hard work and sweating to earn your few dollars that you earn and how much goes into farm work and just making a little bit of money. Does he get paid in cash? He does. He's a big fan of cash. Kids likes to collect it, has a basket for it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that's super cool. So that experience that your son's having and other kids have with selling lemonade, working with grandpa, all those things, how does that help shape their career choices, do you think?

SPEAKER_00

I think mainly that just gives them the opportunity to expand their options, to figure out what's out there. Like Kat Casey, if she hadn't have made the brownies to raise money just basically for herself and her interests, then she would have never met Miss Smith, who would have taken a bite of the brownies, who introduced her to Mr. Adams, right? So if your kids are getting out into the world and they're doing the lemonade stand and it's just at the street, then Miss So and So that is hiring at the YMCA down the road when they're 15 or 16, is I remember you. I remember you had your little lemonade stand. Or it's getting them out in the world, it's getting them to have conversations, talking to adults, looking people in the eye, just all kinds of good exposure so that they can succeed later on and everything doesn't feel so intimidating and overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01

That is really one of the golden moments, I think, of this conversation we're having. I'm getting goosebumps on my arm. I really do think it's about building that network of your life. And I don't have a statistic written down here, but I recall there's something about when people get a job, it's not their neighbor across the street that was the referral. It's that one removed. So the more people that we know that can say, oh, hey, I know this person's a good worker, this person has good something, that reference piece, it really goes a long way. Just seeing your son collecting the walnuts, maybe another farmer, another person part of that. I remember when you did that, but it really builds our confidence, our capacity, the people that we know. I think that is just such a, like I said, just that golden thread that we don't talk about that much. But wow, that is really important. How about skills that matter for your son? He's a new generation, he's gonna still be going through all his grade school years. What kind of skills do you think matter the most? Some of them that I have on my notes here are things like communication, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship. Is it any of those or something completely different?

SPEAKER_00

I think that what's gonna matter most in the future is really trustworthiness and being a person of your word, because right now with AI, we can't even trust what we're seeing. So we really need to be able to trust the people in front of us and that they're gonna do what they say they're gonna do, that Kat Casey's gonna show up at 7 a.m. with the 500 brownies, like she said, like was in her contract. Because if she didn't show up, that there's a trickle-down effect with that too. Now Mr. Adams doesn't trust her, and Mrs. Smith is gonna know about it because he's gonna be like, hey, she didn't show up, things like that. So I think if we can just be a person of your word, don't overcommit. But if you say you're gonna do it, you need to do it and you need to do it right. I think that's gonna matter in the future a lot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, what a wise way to frame that. So if you could assign every middle schooler one life class, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00

I think it would be life coaching. I think it would be household basics. If I can teach middle schoolers, we don't have to go advanced level budgeting, we don't have to go advanced level daily planning or keeping a house clean immaculately, but how to have a schedule, a routine, how to break it down, how to do it where it works for you, because not everybody's life looks the same. Not everybody's plan looks the same, not everybody's schedule looks the same. That's okay. What matters to you and how can we get a plan to help you achieve that so that you have calm in your life and peace in your life, and you're not overwhelmed all the time and stress out all the time. We want you to just have a plan for your household.

SPEAKER_01

Life coaching for middle schoolers, what could be better? I know, I'm excited. I love that. Okay, let's switch to a little bit of advice for parents. A couple questions here. What's one mistake adults make when talking to teens about their careers?

SPEAKER_00

I think from what I've heard is that parents tend to talk at their child or come at them with their own plan in their head. Even if they don't say it, the child can feel it, the child knows it. So my advice would be ask them questions and really listen. Listen to the heart behind what they're saying and collaborate with them. Don't just talk at them or tell them what they're gonna do and how they're gonna do it and what you think they're best at. Really listen to them and collaborate with them, see what ideas they do have and start there, and then keep going with that together.

SPEAKER_01

How can parents encourage exploration without putting pressure on their kids?

SPEAKER_00

I think this is a good one and it's hard to do, but I think if we can just start small, right? What one or two things would you like to do this next semester or this next summer? And then could you go with a friend? Could you shadow a family member, somebody they're already comfortable with? Could you get an internship that's just for a week? It doesn't have to be for nine or twelve or a year, it can just be for a week. Is there somebody you admire that we could talk to? We got to start small and just get the ball rolling, and I think it will lead into more things the more confident they get and the more information that they have.

SPEAKER_01

That makes a lot of sense. And lastly, what about summer? And we're recording this in the end of July. People may listen to it at different times of the year, but summer is for me a really great time for kids to build on learning beyond just school. So, what would you say for teens would be a great way to help build their confidence for the future in the summer?

SPEAKER_00

I would say start something. Let them be in charge of one meal, give them the money, maybe take them to the grocery store or they go, depending on their age. Let them plan it start to finish. Them figure out what we're eating, how much it's gonna cost, how much money they need, do all those things. Do one event. Let them figure out how to do the one lemonade stand, do the wash everybody's trash cans, do the pick up the walnuts, let them do one project, let them do one job or one chore and put them completely in charge of it. Let them try something for one week. Just again start. Start small. It doesn't have to, we don't have to do this the whole summer. We don't have to do 10 weeks of it. Do one week of it. Do one one project, one thing.

SPEAKER_01

That's great. I've got two more things to do with you. One of them is want to do a quick lightning round, but before that, I want to ask you about your program. So a lot of parents and teens don't know what life coaching is for teens. They think, oh, I have to bear my soul, it's counseling, or it'll take all year. Tell us just a little bit about your program and how it works, and just so that parents and kids can understand what's out there.

SPEAKER_00

For sure. So it's different from counseling. People do get it confused a lot. Counseling is all about your past, processing what you've been through. Life coaching is where are you now? Where do you want to go? And the steps we can take to get there. So that's where I come in. And I sit down with them for the first time and I'll talk to them for a while and ask them a ton of questions, get a baseline for where they are, what they want to do, what their hopes and dreams are. And then we figure out over the course of eight to ten weeks how to do that. And we go over the basics to make sure they have a pretty good grip on budgeting, what are their needs and values, scheduling time management, just several different things in the program to just make sure that they're ready for life and their future and how to make good choices and figure everything out.

SPEAKER_01

For me, this seems like a huge saver for both time, sweat, money, everything, because I've seen so many kids my kids' age kick back from a college that wasn't a right fit or start on one path and come back to something. So just that heartache they save. And then, of course, if you're paying for a college and then they come back from that one, there's so much money lost along the way. So just a even eight to ten weeks seems like a smart investment in really getting them on the right path.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. If we could do that first before they lose the scholarship or before they decide to change their major, their second year, or things like that, if we could get them before to be able to get a good grip on what they're doing and what they want to do. And that would be super helpful. A lot of times I get them after they've figured out, oh, that wasn't the right path. Let's get on a different one. So if I could get them before, that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So before, what's that age? Is what grade are they in? Typically, if you could get them before, is that when they're a senior or is it when they're freshmen?

SPEAKER_00

It usually is when they're a senior, just because it's a very abstract concept that you're gonna have to go out and do all these things on your own until you're a senior for some reason. A lot of kids just don't know. They haven't explored enough freshman, sophomore, even junior year. Now, if you all the things we talked about, if we could do all that, you know, starting seventh grade year or even younger, then they seem to have a better grasp on what they want to do by their senior year. But most kids right now, especially after COVID in 2020 and all the things that went on there, senior year is usually the best time.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So if you and I were like getting everybody on the path, we get them started with lemonade stands, farmers market programs, like building businesses, confidence. Then we give them life coaching in middle school. Yeah, maybe ready for a little bit of pathway exploration and on to their right careers. That would be if we had our dream scenario, that's what we do, right? The perfect world. I love it. I love it. And you also, I know you're in Tennessee, I'm in Washington State, but you do a lot of things virtually so kids anywhere in the country can access your services, correct?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I feel like on the phone they open up the best because no one's staring at them. They're not feeling any type of judgment or any type of critique or anything. So just get on the phone, create that report, and they usually open up pretty good.

SPEAKER_01

And parents are not with them during the sessions, correct?

SPEAKER_00

I usually I'll meet the parents. Of course, if they want, they're always welcome to listen in and already on speaker or whatever. But for the most part, 18 and up, they'll talk on the phone all the time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they're this is an independence builder that they're working directly. Exhibitly. Okay, okay. How about a quick fun lightning round before we go?

SPEAKER_00

All right, what was your first job? Very first paid job that I actually made any money at was definitely babysitting because that's how I paid for gas to go anywhere, to go to the movies, to buy any clothes I wanted, get my nails done, get my toes in, all of those things. It's definitely babysitting all the way from 12 years old through after college.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so this really you started it when you were 12, but this was your money. You literally understood. I work an hour taking care of children, and then I can go to the movie. That became really clear to you early on.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, definitely. I had a resume for babysitting and definitely took it very seriously.

SPEAKER_01

You had a resume, you had a resume for babysitting?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. What I did and didn't do and how I kept the kids busy and they didn't just sit and watch TV and had if you wanted me to save in for a weekend, like a long weekend or anything, I had a different fee for that. I was, yeah, very into it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Okay. So if any of the parents are listening and you're getting ready, if you've got kids that are do well with kids, that's a great career path. I love that for you. How about the best money lesson you learned growing up?

SPEAKER_00

My parents were big on no debt. They wanted us to leave the house with no debt. They wanted us to work hard, but yes, not take on any debt. So that was huge. I didn't realize it at the time, but it means a lot.

SPEAKER_01

That's a foundational skill to definitely.

SPEAKER_00

Finish this sentence. Success isn't I would say success isn't somebody else's dream. I would say figure out what you want and go for it. Even if other people maybe don't understand it, but don't live somebody else's dream. Don't try to please your parent, your brother, your uncle, your whoever that has a dream put on you. I would say find it for yourself and go for it.

SPEAKER_01

I think that's the final word. Thank you so much for coming on the Let's Play Money podcast today. Awesome. Thank you. As we wrap up today's conversation, I hope you're encouraged by one simple idea. Helping kids find their path doesn't begin in high school. It begins with experiences, conversations, and opportunities we give them throughout childhood and into their teen years. A special thank you to Tyra Woodall for joining us today. Tyra is a certified life coach who helps teens and young adults move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose as they explore college, careers, and the next steps in life. One thing I love about today's conversation is how our work connects. Through the Little Books of Big Business, I help kids build the foundation, learning about money, leadership, and problem solving through stories. Then, as they grow, coaches like Tyra help them build on that foundation by discovering their strengths and creating a path that's uniquely their own. If today's episode encouraged you, please share it with a parent, grandparent teacher, or someone who mentors young people. Together, we can raise a generation of kids who are financially capable, purpose driven, and prepared for whatever comes next. Thanks so much for listening to the Let's Play Money Podcast. I'm Coach Mara, and until next time, keep looking for those everyday money moments. They're often the moments that shape a lifetime.