On the latest episode of The Tony Steuer Podcast, I spoke with Derrick Wesley, founder of iMar Learning Solutions about financial literacy for everyone.
Derrick Wesley is the owner and founder of iMar Learning Solutions. The mission of iMar Learning Solutions is to help others to INVEST in the POWER of themselves. Derrick Wesley and iMar Learning Solutions gained national recognition by becoming the inaugural winner of TD Ameritrade’s Innovation Quest. Derrick launched Seedlyng Financial Literacy to provide even more resources for schools and nonprofits.
In this episode we discussed:
- The importance of discipline for financial success
- Why financial education starts in the classroom
- Focusing on long term goals
On the latest episode of The Tony Steuer Podcast, I spoke with Derrick Wesley, founder of iMar Learning Solutions about financial literacy for everyone.
Derrick Wesley is the owner and founder of iMar Learning Solutions. The mission of iMar Learning Solutions is to help others to INVEST in the POWER of themselves. Derrick Wesley and iMar Learning Solutions gained national recognition by becoming the inaugural winner of TD Ameritrade’s Innovation Quest. Derrick launched Seedlyng Financial Literacy to provide even more resources for schools and nonprofits.
In this episode we discussed:
- The importance of discipline for financial success
- Why financial education starts in the classroom
- Focusing on long term goals
You're listening to the Tony Steuer Podcast, where Tony interviews financial literacy advocates who are changing the conversation on money. So you can catch up on the latest trends and ideas in the world of financial literacy and education. Presented by Paperwork. Be prepared for life.
Tony:Welcome to the Tony Steuer Podcast presented by Paperwork. I'm pleased to be joined today by Derrick Wesley. Derrick is the founder of iMar Learning Solutions and Seedlyng Financial Education. Derrick was the inaugural winner of the TD Ameritrade Innovation Quest for his idea to create a financial literacy application called Plan-It that allows users as young as five years old, all the way up to retirement age to gain financial literacy skills. Derrick, welcome to the Tony Steuer Podcast.
Derrick:Tony, thank you for having me on. I'm super excited to be here with you and can't wait to share my journey with your listeners.
Tony:Yeah, well, I'm excited to have you here and I'm sure our listeners are really gonna enjoy getting to learn more about you and your work. So let's point on in, you know, where the best place to always start is, you know, tell us a little bit, what is your origin story? How did you get started in financial education?
Derrick:Okay, well, I'm a teacher by trade. I'm actually still in the classroom right now working with my student. And so education is something that I'm very passionate about. And it was about four years ago when I was teaching in Richardson, Texas, and Junior Achievement, they provided my class with some free financial literacy tools. And the amazing thing is that was the most engaged I've seen my students the entire school year and I realized why, because we're talking about money and the students really wanted to know how it works, because obviously they weren't having those conversations at home. And I was surprised because the students actually went back home and started talking to their parents about some of the things we were learning in class. And they came back to me with questions and they wanted to know Mr. Wesley, why doesn't my mom know anything about compound interest? Why doesn't my dad have a checking account? I said, because no one taught them these things while they were in school. So that's why we're going over this right now to make sure you guys learn these lessons so that you can make better financial decisions when you're adults. And then after that, my principal's like, okay, Mr. Wesley, you gotta wrap it up. You gotta get back to focusing on our standardized test. And so that really stuck with me. And I, I was like, something needs to be done with this. The kids loved it. Okay. They were actually learning things and it was something that they could use in real life. And so no disrespect to my favorite subject, which is reading and then also math and science, but they need to know how all of these things are connected in the real world so that they can make decisions and use that knowledge from those other subjects in their careers. And so after that, it was back in February 2019, as you mentioned, the TD Ameritrade event I came up with this idea to create a mobile financial literacy app for anyone as young as five, all the way up to retirement age. And I used some of the things that I learned as a teacher and put it into the app because no matter your age and what you've learned, everyone's learned something different when it comes to money. And so just with reading and math, everyone's on a different level. So I wanted to make sure that that was inside of my app. And so whenever you use the app, you take a short diagnostic assessment and then it builds out a personalized curriculum for each user based on your age and your assessment scores. And I think that's important because everyone needs to learn on their own personal level so that they can grow from there. And so as far as the event, I actually won the grand prize and I used the funds that I won from that to actually develop the app. And now we're working with schools and banks and nonprofits, and we provide our mobile app. We have a well portal for teachers, and that's also something that we're very passionate about. We know teachers aren't financial advisors, so we want to make sure that they have support and tools and everything that they need so that they can be the best they can be for their students. Because there are a lot of other teachers out there that are also passionate about financial education, but they're not financial advisors, so they need some help along the way. And so that's who we are at Seedlyng. We care about kids and money and making sure that they have knowledge they need to be successful.
Tony:Well, that's exciting. You know, you said so many fantastic things in there, and I can identify a little bit as I went in on a career day at my son's school and I was talking about being an author and they found out I wrote about money. And so the kids, you know, they, they started peppering me with all kinds of questions, you know, especially the ones who are getting ready to go to college it's a combination middle school, high school,
Derrick:Its becoming very real for them.
Tony:Yeah, exactly. They're like, you know, what, what about this renter's insurance? You know, how am I gonna pay my mortgage what's credit card? And so, you know, your really striking at a, a, a huge issue. And I, I think the part that I really like about what you're doing is that you take a diagnostic approach because everybody has a different level. They have a different, you know, experiences growing up, you know, their parents may, you know, not wanna talk about money. I mean, how do you approach that with your kids? If they come back and they say something like, you know, Hey, my parents, you know, don't want to talk to me about this or they don't wanna help me about this. I mean, are, are you facing that much where you getting any pushback from the parents?
Derrick:I'm not getting very much pushback from the parents, but that's a good a point because even for myself personally, it, my parents, they didn't like to talk about money in our household. It was the, I remember hearing so often the kids should stay in the kids' place, especially when it comes to finances. Let mom and dad worry about that. Even though I can see you're not making great decisions when it comes to managing your money. And so I think that's something that's super important that the parents give their kids those stories. You don't have to go into, you know, all the gory details of how bad it really is, but share with your kids the lessons that you learn along the way so that they can, you know, not make those same decisions. And so that's something that's super important. I want parents to have that mindset that, okay. Yeah, I made a mistake, but I learned from it and now let me pass this on to my kid. So hopefully they can avoid those obstacles. And I think with a lot of parents it's, they don't want to have that because of the shame and the embarrassment, but we gotta find a way to get over that so that we can teach our kids to make better decisions so that they can have a better life moving forward. And so I think with the kids, them being able to have that confidence and kind of go talk to their parents and present some of these things, hopefully, I'm hoping that the parents will want to learn along the way. And that's why inside of the app, I made sure that even for the adults, they get to learn on their level and then eventually them and their kids they're gonna meet up and be able to have great conversations around money moving forward.
Tony:Well, that's great. And, and again, I come back to the diagnostic. I, I, I think that's a fantastic concept to have in there because you, everybody is coming at a different level. And even if they proceed through the app, they're still absorbing it at different levels and somebody may get a concept right away where somebody else may struggle with it, so that, that, that's fantastic. And I, I think the other part that I really like that you talk about is the money shaming. That's something also that I talk about is do you feel like that impacts people's, you know, even wanting to use the app? Is it they feel a little bit embarrassed about money that they don't want to admit that they need to use an app to learn about money?
Derrick:I think, I think it, it does have an impact because, just like, so let me use this example. One of my former principals shared this with me as far as parents coming to the schools and participating and volunteering in different things. And she said, a lot of them might not want to come to school and volunteer because some of their worst memories are there. They don't want to be reminded of some of the bad experiences they may have had inside of the classroom. So they might not show up to volunteer for certain events. And so us as educators, we have to keep that in mind that we have to be patient with the parents, give them opportunities to slowly come into the building and do different things. And so I think that's important when it, as far as when it comes to financial literacy, also understanding that someone may have had some hard, some traumatic experiences with money. And so we need to be able to give them opportunities to learn a little bit. And something that I recently released is called The Money Minute. And so it is just quick one minute lessons on money. And even if you start there, just absorbing that knowledge is going to start to change the way you think about certain things. And you're gonna notice some of your own personal habits and hopefully slowly but surely you'll start to make better financial decisions as you go.
Tony:Well, fantastic. So where can people find The Money Minute? Is that coming out through the app. Is that on YouTube? Twitter?
Derrick:It's on our Seedlyng YouTube channel. Seedlyng, S E E D L Y N G. You can find it's there also on my Twitter handle is@ Seedlyng and it's also included inside of the app and the app can be found in the app store for either Android or Apple under Plan-It Finance. And you can also find it on the Seedlyng website. You can go directly there and download the app also, and we give everyone at least a week free. So you, every, your first set of lessons, everything's free, free to download your first set of lessons. Those are free. And then after that, you can pay a monthly fee to access your full curriculum. And like I said, we usually give everyone a week free to kind of get a feel for it. And also for the students, if we partner with the school, then they get an access code to unlock everything for the entire school year.
Tony:Oh, that's awesome. And for everybody who is watching or listening this episode, there will be links in the show notes to download the app to the Seedlyng website, and social media channels. So we'll definitely get those out there. So don't worry about getting the spelling down, rewinding the episode. It'll all be available. So Derrick, you know, tell us a little bit about what is the Plan-It app, what, what can people find in the app?
Derrick:So inside of the app, we have some really amazing financial literacy influencers. We have professional athletes. So, our first main athlete that we partnered with was Amobi Okugo. He's a professional soccer player. He also founded AFrugalAthlete.com. And so for him, it's very important that athletes know how to manage their money. And so I figured that would be cool to have Amobi in there because a lot of our students, they don't want to hear from me all day, right. They want to hear from people like that, that are doing some of the things that they want to do. And then also learning about their journey. Charlie Villanueva former Dallas Maverick NBA player. He gave us access to his content to be able to put it inside of the app. We also have Hassan Thomas, he's the founder of FYI FLI, an amazing podcast that has a lot of amazing financial literacy influencers. So a lot of different folks like that inside of the app, but then we also have CentSai Education. They're our main content providers. So they provide a lot of the worksheets and PowerPoints and just the foundational content that's needed for in the classroom. Cause of course you want to that fun engaging stuff, but then also you need that foundational stuff, whereas, okay, now it's time to get down to the stuff that you, you need to know and learn the basics so that you can grow. And so when our influences come in, it all makes sense. It's all connected.
Tony:Well, that's great. That that's exciting. And I, I think you mentioned also Michael Finley's involved as well?
Derrick:Yeah. So Michael Finley, the former Dallas Mav, he was actually the first person that gave me my start. He has a nonprofit that he works with in Carrolton, Texas. And so I started off teaching a reading class with some of the students there. And then when I came up with the idea to create the Plan-It mobile app, I said, I was like, Mr. Finley, can I pilot this program with your students? And so he was like, yeah, go for it, and so he's been a huge support along the way and anything I bring to him, he's kind of like, yep, let's do it. Go ahead and test it out. And so that's been great to be able to have someone like that in that position believing in the things that I've done to help support me along the way.
Tony:Well, that's fantastic, you know, a and, you know, professional athletes, people look up to them. So it's, it's really important. So if a Michael Finley says something, kid teenagers are much more likely, you know, to follow it than, than either you or I saying something. If we got Steph Curry tweeting about, you know, compound interest, you know, I mean, I here in bay...
Derrick:Then everyone's paying attention there.
Tony:Oh yeah. You know, here in the bay area, you know, I coach youth basketball and you know, all the kids wanna shoot a three, like Steph, you know? Yep. I, I mean, they, they don't really wanna learn compounding interests like Tony, you know?
Derrick:Exactly. So I'd love to work with Steph. So you have any connections, make sure you hook that up for me,
Tony:I wish, but that, that's all another conversation. Anyway, we got Steph into the podcast. Yep. Now maybe he'll start listening.
Derrick:He's actually one of my favorite players. So that, that's pretty cool.
Tony:Yeah. He's he, he's amazing. I've had, you know, for all our watchers and listeners out there, if you're an NBA fan or just like casually like basketball, if you have not ever had the chance to really check out Steph, he's magic.
Derrick:Yeah. Now on the court and off the court, I love the things that he's doing. My kids look up to him. And so it, we need more athletes like that that are making a positive impact in their sport and in their community.
Tony:Yeah. And I think that's important, you know, know is, you know, if there's any professional athletes out there is, remember, or entertainers is that you, you can have this kind of impact on people and really help change people's lives for the better. And so that's, that's fantastic. So, you know, Derrick, one of the things you've done is you've created a youth leadership program. What, what inspired you to do that? I mean, you've got all these other things going on.
Derrick:So for the, as far as the youth leadership program, that was one of the first programs that I created and what that all came about because I was researching the job skills that students are gonna need. This started back in who I wanna say maybe 2015 when I designed this program and I was looking forward actually to 2020. And so I came up with the big six critical skills that students needed to be successful because I started to notice that there was gonna to be the shift away from physical manual labor, into where you're gonna need more computer skills, more being able to think critically outside of the box. And so some of the things we focus on is leadership, communication, collaboration, creative problem solving, analytical thinking. And so different things like that, those are the skills that employers said are the sweet spot that they're not able to find all of these skills in one employee. So I figured if my students have these skills that they'll have a better opportunity to get a job in the future because it's jobs that are out here right now that weren't, that didn't exist when I was in school. And so its brand new jobs, they required different skills. So I wanted to make sure that my students had everything that they needed to be successful.
Tony:Well, fantastic. And, you know, I, I mean, I would think that these big six critical thinking skills also apply to financial wellness. I mean, do you see that, that, that you're able to make that connection for your users?
Derrick:Oh, most definitely. So I love creating the curriculum when it comes to financial literacy. That's one of the things that I'm actually excited about and passionate about being able to take some content and then make it fun and engaging for the students. And so I always find ways to incorporate those skills into the lessons that I create for the teachers inside of the classroom. And so one of the easiest things is like coming up with some type of shark tank type lesson. And so what I have the students do is first they have to research a problem in either their city, the state, their state, they live in or in the country. And so it's something they're passionate about. And so I have them research it and then they also have to come up with a solution, whether that's a website, a brand new app, some other type of tool that they're gonna design and solve this problem. And I was working with students in Lafayette, Louisiana at a prep academy. And so it was a school for the bad kids, right? And so these kids, they went through this exercise and they came up with such amazing ideas. And so some of their former teachers got to listen in on some of their presentations. And they said, that's not the same kid that I, I know in my classroom because this was something they cared about. So some of the roughest toughest kids in the class, they came up with this idea to create a van service for the elderly in their community because they realized that a lot of the elderly folks weren't able to get to their doctor's appointments. And so they wanted to make sure that they had these pimped out vans for the elderly so that they could get to where they needed to get to. So they came up with their whole plan on how they're gonna get the money for the vans and how they're gonna support them and how they're gonna drive them here and there. And so looking at these kids, you would say, I would not have known that these kids cared about that situation. And so that was a huge eye opener for me because it let me know no matter where you come from, there's something that people are passionate about. And if you can tap into those things, you can change someone's life. And so I hope that was what we did for those kids, that someone maybe took that idea and ran with it and wants to do something with it because you're not your environment. It's what you decide to do once you have the opportunities to do something different.
Tony:Yeah. Well that, yeah, that that's been my experience working with different youth and even, you know, with people I've met along my journey is that, you know, somebody who may be, you know, known as, you know, not, not the best person or whatever that society has put a certain label on is that, that doesn't really apply. Everybody's got something in them, something you can learn from them, something that they want to achieve. And they just may not have had that opportunity to express their passions in a positive way.
Derrick:And, and in my classroom, that's something that I'm always looking for as an educator, trying to find that, what makes that student tick, what that student cares about? What is that one scale? Yeah, he might be a struggling reader, but he's an amazing artist. So we also need to focus on that, right. Make sure that that's student has that opportunity to find a path to success using that talent. And so what we do in education sometimes is that if you're not good at reading math, or science, that's it. You know, you're, you're horrible student, you can't do this or that, but there are certain skills that certain individuals have that if someone bring that to light, to let them know, Hey, this is something you're good at. This is your path to success. Make sure you improve on this skill along the way, because that might be what opens up millions of doors for you going forward.
Tony:Well, that that's exciting. And, you know, to, and to bring it about back to financial wellness, cuz you know, that's what this podcast is about it. One of the things you mentioned with the youth that you were working with is, you know, so they came up with a plan to take care of the elderly by providing them vans to get services. But a big part of that came back to money and, you know, are you able to trace that kind of relationship, you know, now and different lessons in your class to show people how? And I think you mentioned it, you know, that math is related to money and reading is related to money and vice versa. Are you using those lessons?
Derrick:Oh definitely. And so that's one of the things that I have them come up with. So they create a whole Excel presentation showing their expenses, how much is it gonna cost to create this? How much do you need someone to invest into your company? And then they have to break down once you have that investment money, what are you going to use it for? And so they have to break down every thing to show where the money's gonna go and how they're gonna continue to grow their company to scale throughout this whole process.
Tony:Fantastic. Yeah. Well that, that's really interesting. So, you know, a as we wrap up, what's your number one tip on financial wellness?
Derrick:I think my number one tip would be to start investing early. That was something that I wish I would've done in my teenage years and my twenties because I see now, if I would've done certain things back then, you know, I would be in a much better situation than what I am. And so anyone that can invest early get started, that's something that I'm trying to teach my own kids, for example, to teaching them, to start putting money aside, learning how to not be rich, but to be wealthy and start to have your money work for you. And so different opportunities like that. Whenever you can start investing, start doing it and understand that it takes a certain mindset, also is not investing as in a get rich, quick scheme. It takes time for that money to grow. And so that's something that I share with my students and making sure you have the discipline to also do that, because if you're not disciplined, as soon as the market goes down, you're trying to take your money out. That's not investing, you gotta learn to ride the ups and the downs. And so that's my number one tip invest early and be disciplined and be patient.
Tony:Yeah. I, I, I love that. That is so important, because people often lose sight of that, of, of their longer term goals, you know, all across the spectrum of financial wellness, you know, and they think about that short term, you know, maybe fluctuation in the market and then rather than their long term goal. Am I gonna have enough for retirement? Am I gonna have enough for college? You know, whatever they're saving for whatever they're striving for. Yeah. And so that's so important is to have that discipline and to remember why you're doing something, you know, what's your purpose. And, you know, before, you know, we go into the end is, you know, I think it does get back the professional basketball players is because, you know, you look at a guy like Steph or Charlie Villanueva or Michael Finley is, you know, it takes tremendous discipline for a professional athlete, you know, to succeed at the level. You know, they've done those, you know, there are things thousands of times, I mean, you know, have you been able, able to put that lesson in for kids to say, Hey, you know, you know, as you talk about discipline is like, you know, you you've gotta do this. You gotta gain that muscle memory.
Derrick:And yes, Amobi is great as far as sharing his stories at, as far as being a rookie. And that's actually one of his courses that he created, it's called rookie mistakes. He talks about all of his mistakes he made as a rookie when it comes to managing his finances, because even at that level for them it's, they were, you know, a kid, you know, 18-19 years old. And now they're being given all of this money and they're like, I don't know what to do with all of this. And so of course, a lot of them, they blow it. They wasted it. JR Smith, he talked about all of the money he wasted the other day on one of the podcasts that he was on. And that was very impactful because he realized some of that money, man, I could have helped a lot of folk from our community with the money. And so just learning different things like that, they, they have a lot of good stories that they share and a lot of people can learn from them super important.
Tony:Definitely. You know, I don't know if you go back enough, if you remember a picture for the Houston Astros JR Richard,
Derrick:No, I'm not familiar with them.
Tony:Yeah. So he, you know, it was a shame. He was like an Allstar, you know, made a boatload of money and, you know, a couple years after he retired, they found him sleeping under the freeway because he lost everything. You know, I mean, it's just,
Derrick:It's hard why I hate hearing those stories because that money changed their life and they were able to enjoy it. And so even growing older, they should also be able to enjoy their money. And so I'm glad to see that there are a lot of athletes stepping up now and sharing their stories and it's impacting this generation of athletes because now I'm hearing more athletes talk about investing their money. And it is crazy now with the NIL deals that are out there now. So it's super important that financial literacy is taught to these athletes so that they can make some good decisions because the money is life changing and hopefully continues to be life changing in a positive way and that they won't take steps back so that we won't have more stories like that.
Tony:Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. And you know, I'm so glad that you're doing this and working with kids and, you know, putting these lessons together for them and for their families, because I think it's so important. So, you know, just to wrap up, but you know, we talked about your website and the app is, you know, if people do wanna get in touch with you, I mean, is it through your website? Can people reach out to you on LinkedIn and Twitter? What's a good way to communicate with you.
Derrick:Yeah, I'm constantly on LinkedIn. So that's an easy place to find me. And also, our website is Seedlyng, S E E D L Y N g.com. You can visit the website, learn more about what we're doing, and also you can enroll your school, our non-profit and our program, we offer free 90 day pilot so that everyone can kind of get a feel for it and test it out and see how it's working. And we can, you know, take steps from there, but at least you can test it out and see if it's a good bit for your school or organization.
Tony:Fantastic. Well, Derrick, thank you very much for coming on the podcast today. I appreciate it.
Derrick:Thank you for having me. This was great.
Tony:Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And thank you everyone for tuning in to the Tony Steuer Podcast. Um, until next time.