[Unified Purpose] Felicia Shanken from Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection Ep. 14

Shannon Penji (Host): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Unified Purpose, the podcast where we share inspiring tales of compassion, resilience, and community spirit. I’m your host, Shannon Penji, partnership coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Felicia Shanken, from Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Felicia Shanken (Guest): Thank you for having me, Shannon. I’m super excited.

Shannon: It’s also really lovely to have a Philadelphia organization on. I live here and I’ve lived here for a while, and it’s one of my favorite places to be, so I’m really excited to get to speak to you today.

Felicia: Well, thank you. Well, actually, Philadelphia is my second home. My first home and heart is New York. I grew up in Queens, New York. So, as I tell my husband who was born and raised Philadelphian, I am a New Yorker for life.

Shannon: I’m from New Jersey and my parents are from North Jersey, so I do have a semblance of New York. We grew up going there.

Felicia: I didn’t grow up as a Philly City kid, like the city was New York to us. But once I went here, I went to Temple for college and I just stuck here.

Shannon: Temple is his former college as well.

Felicia: My, I could not say better things about my education. I genuinely enjoyed going to college there so much that it was the best experience that I could have had.

Shannon: Good, good. That’s good to hear. Well, this is not about me. This is about you. I know I introduced you, but I’d love if you could introduce yourself as well. You might do a better job than me. And could you also share a little bit about Philly WNC and what kind of got you to this place and why you started it in the first place?

About Felicia and Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection

Felicia: Okay, so let me see. What do I start with first? Well first of all, my name is, like Shannon said, Felicia Shakin. I am the founder of the Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection, which is our for-profit. We also have a nonprofit, which a similar name, PWNC Foundation.

Our for-profit, what we basically do is we work with women in their business. Now men get jealous. They were like, well, what about men? What about, listen, men got enough? Okay, let us have something to ourselves. So I work with them to help them upscale their business.

What does that look like? It could be if they’re stuck in an area, if they need more management as far as marketing. If they need more leadership and development, if they need more equity and inclusion training, you know, all the nuts and bolts as far as how to run a accessible business from ground A to ground Z.

So whatever that might look like, and we meet them there. So you know, there might be some that come to me and say, “Hey Felicia, I have this great idea. I don’t know where to start. How do I get start? How do I get money for my business? How do I get resources for my business?” So this is where I step in and I’m like, “Okay, so this is where you have to start first. Do you have a business banking account? Do you have an EIN number?”

“Well, what’s an EIN number?”

“EIN number’s like a social security number, but it’s for your business.”

“Oh, no, I don’t.”

“Okay, so I can direct you here first. Let’s get you set up there.”

Do you want your business to be a for-profit or do you want it to be a non-profit? I always laugh because I said the nonprofit is the one where there is no money, so you have to basically go and get money to get that funded. Whereas the for-profit, you know, you gotta put the work in, but it depends on what your strong points are. You never get rich by doing just workshops and events and different things like that.

Everyone has a talent. So what is it that you feel that you’re strong in? My strong points I feel is I can tell you how to build a business to become successful, or I can show you. My thing is, let me show you because this way I can grab you by the hand and say, this is what I did. Because nine times out of 10, if I tell you what to do, you’re not gonna do it because you’re not gonna be accountable. So if I grab you by the hand and you can’t go anywhere, then I know that you’re going to do what it is that I’m telling you what to do. And I say, of course I know what I’m talking about because I’ve gotten here within five and a half years knowing what I’m talking about. So trust me on that.

Building Trust and Relationships

So it is a trust relationship between me and the women in my community. So I’m a huge, huge advocate for collaborations. I believe that you grow your business based off of relationships. You cultivate those relationships as if they are your children. Because we were talking about Philadelphia, as though Philadelphia is a big city, it really isn’t that big. Everybody knows everybody, especially in the business world. So you have to be careful and you are the brand of your business. You are the face of your business. One bad review can wipe away years and years of hard work.

So you always wanna maintain that relationship with whoever that you collaborate with, and I’m happy to say that even in our five and a half years of being in business, we have got some great, great collaborations with Google, with constant contact with the AARP Foundation, with score. So quite a few organizations, as we were going along, we decided to hook up with because we knew we could not do it all.

You know, there’s resources that are available, like mentorship. There’s only one of me, so of course I can’t mentor over 1500 women that are in my organization, so I might refer them to score because SCORE has members, mentors there that are free that’ll be able to help them. Whereas if they work with me, of course I would have to charge them a fee because I’m not doing this for free. You know, as I say, you have to pay for the knowledge that’s up here in your head.

Shannon: Yeah.

Giving Back to the Community

Felicia: I had to work to get the knowledge, so of course, you know, to pass it on. Let me backtrack a little bit, because I don’t want people to think that it’s always a monetary thing. It is not okay. People had to pour into me in order for me to get to where I am. I always remember that.

So when women come to me and they ask me, it might be something as simple as how do I get certified? Or how do I go about doing this or going, you know, I might send them an email with resources, with the link to the website for them to go and click and do it themselves. And I’m like, it costs nothing to do that. You know, why am I gonna charge you for something that it might take me 10 minutes to do? Where you would have to find someone who’s gonna charge you to do that?

So, we are huge in giving back to the community. This week, we visited a middle school. We visited William Harding Middle School, shout out to them and also to Jay Cook Elementary School yesterday. Shout out to them. So I was able to go to the school and talk to the students about what they wanna be when they grow up. What does entrepreneurship mean to them? Do they know what it is? Do they have an idea of if they decided they wanted to do entrepreneurship? What would that look like for them?

So things like this, giving back to the community, especially the young people, they are our future. They are the generation. It is up to us to pour into them to make this world a better place for them. So we do things like that. October is breast cancer Awareness month. So in October we do a huge breast cancer awareness event where we have survivors come and talk about their journey and their history and their story, and we celebrate them. We have catered food and last year we had a DJ and you know, it was just fun time for all of us to come together and show them that we’re in this fight with them together.

Felicia’s Background in Healthcare

That comes from my medical background. I worked in the medical field for over 25 years. I started in radiology, went back to school for nursing. I worked for the Department of Veteran Affairs for nine and a half years, every weekend before I decided to fire them seven years ago. People like when I say that, so, you know, I had to have a plan. Did I have a plan? No, I did not have a plan, but I knew that I couldn’t see my life being there for the rest of my life.

So I was like, you know what, now is the time to make this move. And when I made the move, it was right before the pandemic hit. So I started a business, pandemic starts a couple months later. My husband was looking at me like, you just quit a great job. Now you’re starting a business and you can’t do anything with it.

Shannon: Kind of nice to quit the healthcare field right before that happened. I feel like that might have worked out for you a little bit.

Felicia: It worked out tremendously for me because, you know, I have asthma and I cannot see, I couldn’t see myself wearing a mask 12 hours a day. I just couldn’t do it.

Shannon: And you can’t even catch. If you caught something and you have asthma, that’s even more concerning. Anyway, continue. I’m just happy that you’re healthy and safe.

Pivoting During the Pandemic

Felicia: Yes, me too. So I had to pivot, so I was like, okay, what am I gonna do now? I quit this job. Bills still come each month. Student loans still come each month. You know, I’m not depending on my husband. Who has a great job. He works in the healthcare field as well, and I’m like, I’m not depending on him. What am I going to do?

So I was doing events every month. So what I did is I pivot, I put those events online and then we continued that way. I got sponsors, people were paying for the events. So that kind of like helped us over a couple of years I was able to secure a SBA loan that helped us with our day-to-day operations to continue working in our business and on our business.

So it’s now five and a year, five and a half years later, it’ll be March. It will be six years for the for-profit, and it will be October of 2025 that it will be six years for the foundation. So we’re still rocking and moving along, and I’m happy to say within that first year of us being a business, we were fortunate to go global.

Shannon: Well, one, I wanna say congratulations for all the success. How many years of that being successful is a difficult feat, especially for nonprofits. I think that’s like the five year mark is the most difficult place to get to. It’s, and I, one that’s amazing. And I genuinely think that this work is really close to my heart.

My mom started her own business when I was, I think 10. And she had such a difficult time, even with a prior career as an accountant, so she had that financial background. And I just, it put into perspective how difficult this must be for someone who strives to do this, but has a background in nothing related to starting a business and there’s so many things that you need to know that you don’t even think of. There’s things that people get in trouble for not knowing years down the line by the IRS.

Felicia: Oh, yes, yes.

Shannon: And that’s the scariest thing. And they could be thinking that they’re doing everything right. So it’s really lovely to have someone like yourself be able to help them. Do that because it’s really, you could have a successful business on paper, but there’s so many things that you need to make sure that are being done that people don’t consider because they don’t, they’re not educated about it, and you don’t know what to look for a lot of the time. So it’s not really anyone’s fault. So it’s really incredible that you’re able to do that because I think that there should be more people trying to be helpful in that space so that people will be successful in what they wanna do in their lives and what they’re passionate about.

How Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection Started

Felicia: Well, it’s funny that you say that, Shannon, because that is one of the reasons, there’s a couple of selfish reasons why I started. I didn’t tell you the story of how I got the idea of the Philadelphia Women’s Network connection. I was in a Panera Bread. Yes, I know.

Shannon: I love a Panera Bread.

Felicia: Me too. I was in a Panera Bread and I was talking to a young woman that I had met at a networking event, and I said to her, “Listen, I have an idea of starting a women’s network event.” Now Philadelphia, the last thing they need is another women’s network event, right?

Shannon: Yeah.

Felicia: So I’m like, no, I wanna do something different. I wanna do where we can have fashion shows and we can do hair and makeup and we can just come together and have wine. But also I want speakers to come, women speakers to come and talk about the fundamentals of business. So when the women left, they not only had a great time networking and got that sisterhood, but they also had information that they could apply to their business right then and there.

So that’s how that was born. And like I said, every month we were doing events, we were doing them up and down Market Street for anyone that’s been to Philadelphia, up and down Market Street, it’s almost like in the center of center city of Philadelphia where you’re looking at the city hall one way and then you’re looking at the art museum many, many miles down the block. So we were fortunate in that respect.

But another selfish reason was because I have four brothers, so I’m an only girl and I miss not having a sister. So one of my things was, well, not only will I create a haven for women to come to, to network and enjoy themselves and get information, but also I can have my sisters around me. And it, so it was kind of selfish, but, you know, and it was fun. It wasn’t something that I was looking to it growing into what it did, you know?

Sometimes like they said, those mythical animals that, you know, you cut off one head and three other heads grow back. That’s how this grew. And then the next thing I’m like, holy cow, how did it get to where it is now? Because sometimes when I’m listening to people introduced me and all the accolades and, you know, talking about the business and what has happened, I’m sitting back and I’m like, holy cow.

Redefining Success

That’s such a wonderful place to be. And I had to enjoy it because I was in a space where, and I love telling this story ’cause it’s so true. I was at a networking event, mine. And I was talking to the women, they were in the audience and I had said, “I’m not successful.” Someone in the audience got up and said, “Don’t you ever say that you’re not successful. You are successful.”

In my mind, I was thinking success with monetary. If the money’s there, the success is there, and I was completely thinking wrong altogether, so I had to rethink my stinking thinking. And realize that that is so true. It does not have, because the success comes, but the money follows as well. So then I said, you know what? So she said, “You need to sit down and really look at what you, how far you have come. First of all, you started right before the pandemic. You’re still here and what you’re doing.”

So I was always the next, the next, the next. And I never really sat down and pat myself on the back and really looked at what I was doing in the organization, how I was helping the women in the organization and what was going on. So it was the aha moment, and I think even more so this year.

Personal Challenges and Growth

This year was a rough year for me. Medically, it was a rough year. I had to have surgery this year, so I had to be quiet for like three months. And within that time of sitting back, and this was crucial because it was from August to October that I had to be still, now, you know, that’s when you’re doing business. October, you’re starting to get ready for the holiday, giving Tuesday, you know, everything that’s happening, people are getting ready, grants, you’re trying to get grants.

So I had to really be still. And reevaluate what I was doing in my business and how I was going to proceed going forward and start weaning out what was really important, what I was wasting time on, and what, how, my clearer message I wanted to get out to everyone. Exactly about what it is that we do and how we help women in the community.

Shannon: Well, it’s kind of nice to have that, oh, I’m sorry for the poor health. I hope that everything’s okay now. But I also hope that, I think there are these bouts of life where people view to be negative, but a lot of times they can provide a lot of clarity. And I hope that was what it may have been for you. It seems like it may have been.

And I think that when those “lows” happen. I think that’s like inability for people to be able to see things in a different light, and I really like that because I do agree that people should acknowledge their successes based on, you know, what they’ve been able to accomplish. And that doesn’t have to be a monetary thing.

I think money excuses me out. I don’t wanna think about money. Of course, you need enough to survive. And it’s important. It sucks that it is. But it’s really nice to be able to look back and not only hear it from other people, acknowledge how successful you’ve been because that shows. You know, it shows.

Supporting Women’s Leadership

Felicia: Yeah, it definitely shows. And you know, and I like to tell my story and I like to talk about my story because I think it’s important for women to hear this because we do so much. We wear so many hats. You know, we’re wives, we’re mothers, we’re partners, we’re business women. You know, we’re running like the daily operations of our household, and we’re running the daily operations of our life.

So it’s important for women to see strong women, women leaders, women that are out there doing it and say, “Hey sister, I see you and I know what you’re going through and just know I recognize you and I got your back. You know, let me straighten your crown and continue on your path. I’m here for you.”

So that was another reason why I wanted to start this organization, to let women know, “Hey, you’re not by yourself.” It cost me nothing to praise another woman. If she’s doing a great job, it doesn’t dim my light. If anything, it adds to my light because I bring my light to her light and we can light up the world.

So, I love that when I see, you know, or even she might be wearing a great pair of shoes or a nice hair salon, I’m like, “Hey, you got it going on. I love your shoes. I love the way you look.” And sometimes it takes women by surprise because they’re not used to that. And sometimes, you know, some of, “Oh, you know, thank you, you know, I appreciate your queen, you know, this and that,” and, you know, different things like that.

So, I love the sisterhood. You know, when I hear in other organizations about, “Oh, you know, we as women, we don’t get along.” That’s not true. You have to look at your circle and who is in your circle? Your circle is a product of who you are. So if you bring that love, if you bring that compassion, if you bring that “I’m here for you,” that will go out into your circle, that will go out into your community.

And being authentic, people know when you’re authentic and when you’re faking it. And when you are authentic and you put your heart out there, and let people know, “Hey, I truly care about you and I wanna see you win, and I wanna see you succeed and I wanna help you any way that I can.” People know that and they feel that, and they’re more receptive to what it is that you have to offer them.

Shannon: I actually had a woman come on this podcast and yell at me because I made fun of my appearance and, and she said, you have to say three nice things about yourself right now, or I’m not started. And we can’t press record on the podcast yet. It was the most jarring experience, but it was so funny and she, it was such a sweet thing because I just, it really did, took me by surprise because I think that that kind of humor, self-deprecating that it may be is just, you know, something that I do. But I think that sometimes women are kind of used to doing that. And you don’t really realize it until she said that to me and I was like, wow. You know? That was kind of a good practice.

Felicia: Even though yelling, because we’re so hard on ourselves, we’re our worst critics.

Shannon: We are our worst critic.

Felicia: Like with me, when the woman told me, you are successful. I didn’t see myself as being successful. “Oh, I’m not making the money I should be making, so I’m not successful. I’m doing all this hard work in it.” We don’t see what other people see. And she saw the greatness in you. And she knows we as women, what we face every day is hard already from the outside world. We should not do that to one another.

Shannon: Exactly.

Women Supporting Women

Felicia: We should uplift each other and support one another and be here because when women work together, so many things can happen. And it’s been proven. You know, we got women that are running countries that have been running countries for years and are doing great at it. You know, we got women in so many roles.

As far as the glass ceiling, there is no more glass ceiling. You know, the glass ceiling is in your mind. You can go as far as you want to. And I, and that message is especially important for little girls that look like me. It’s important for them to know that it is possible. Maybe you do wanna be the president of the United States one day. It is possible. Maybe you do want to run your own business. It is possible.

You know, so I try to keep that image out there to let them know that yes, it is possible. I don’t care what your environment might look like now, I don’t care what household you come from. I don’t care how you raised. You might even been raised up in the foster care system. That is not your outcome. That is only your circumstance right now, but there’s a whole world out there waiting for what you have because you have a gift. All of us have a gift. You just have to tap into it, and when you’re ready, the world is ready for you to give it to them.

Shannon: I think that’s beautiful and I think that I really, one, it’s just lovely to hear such a inspiring message because I think that, especially Philadelphia, I’ve been involved in a lot of nonprofits here since I moved here in college, and I think that that’s something that I think more love and inspiration needs to be spread because it’s such a city with so much potential and love and community, and I wish that I could just see more of that.

I think that nonprofits and community building in this city keep it afloat, I guess. And I admire that so much because I think maybe you being from New York can even understand that. It’s a bit different. And I think that they still have that same, those same facilities and, but I think Philadelphia is like, run off of these.

Felicia: Absolutely. You know, and it’s all about giving back. You have to give back. Going to these schools this week really put things into perspective for me. It brought me back to being hopeful. And being reminded that there are no limitations and just looking at things through the eyes of children, you know, listening to them light up, “I wanna be a doctor, I wanna be an architect.” I wanna be this, you know, not many of ’em saying, “Oh, I wanna be a Beyonce or a Taylor Swift,” or, you know, but things that are realistic.

Shannon: Yeah.

Education and Skill Development

Felicia: And things that you can see happening for them, but them at ages like 10 and eight and nine already knowing what they wanna do. You know? I think that’s great because me growing up, we didn’t have the luxury of classes talking about entrepreneurship.

Shannon: We didn’t have the luxury of having classes talk about finances and things like that. You know, we were learning stuff that you never – algebra.

Felicia: Same here. Yeah. When have you ever used trigonometry in anything?

Shannon: I almost failed trigonometry, so I happy that I never had to use it in real life.

Felicia: You and me both. As long as I was getting 75s in math, I was happy. 65 had to pass. I’m happy, you know, just let count my money. That’s all I need math for, you know? So these things, why are wasting time on things that are not gonna help us in the future. We should have classes on finances. We should have had classes on running a business. We should have had classes on communication, on strategy planning. Just little things that will prepare us for when we do go out there in the world.

We are a lot more equipped. The sad part is you have children graduating from high school and from college that can’t even go on a simple job interview.

Shannon: They don’t know how.

Technology and Communication Challenges

Felicia: They don’t know how to talk. They don’t know how to fill out an application because now we’re living in a world where technology is running their lives. You know, it’s no more go outside and play with your friend. It’s get on your iPad. Go watch TV. Get in front of the computer. You know, they’re letting these things raise their children, and the disconnect is terrible because, you know, I’m watching kids sit next to each other, next to each other, and they’re texting each other. They’re not even talking to one another.

Or you go out to dinner. And nobody’s talking to nobody because everybody’s sitting there on their phone growing up. We have become so disconnected as a society we don’t even know how to talk to. And when you’re talking to people, nobody looks at you in the eyes anymore. They’re looking to the side and looking down. It’s like we’ve lost so much contact with one another. You know? That definitely has to be brought back, but it’s sad.

I remember when we had the election, when the ballots were sent in, there was so many thousand ballots that had to be returned because people didn’t even put their signature. They didn’t even know how to sign their name. How can you not know how to sign your own name?

Shannon: Think about, that’s the one thing. No, I just wish that I think that’s why organizations like yours are so important. Specifically in Philadelphia. I don’t know a lot about many different cities. I haven’t traveled much. But I do know that unfortunately our government has not done much to improve our education system.

Felicia: No.

Shannon: And it’s not anyone in the system’s fault. And it makes me so sad to see certain classes not being offered to set you up for success. And it’s not like there aren’t classes being offered. Why can’t we just replace some things that are not necessary anymore for those things that are actually going to be helpful? Like financial literacy? Actually, I didn’t even have a proper financial literacy class in rural New Jersey. I don’t know if at where they do offer them, I’m hoping that they do it more now, but I really don’t know. And I think that just having those simple tools early on in your life can help you just be a fundamental person.

Felicia: And just be exactly, exactly. Just even know the ABCs of communication. You know, it’s funny you say this, Shannon, working with Google, my organization, PWC Foundation, was gifted the opportunity to give out technical scholarships.

Google Scholarship Program

Felicia: Where it does not cost, as long as you’re 18 years and old, it does not cost you anything. Where they have a program, it’s a six month program online. All required is 10 hours a week where you can go on and you can learn a new skill. Everything from web design to IT support to e-commerce and marketing. I put out, many times social media and the paper about these scholarships. I cannot tell you how disappointing the return of people interested in the scholarships and they were for free.

And I’m like, Google is giving you the opportunity. This was a hundred million dollar program. Google is giving you the opportunity to go at your own pace, sit in your pajamas at home and do a course online that you can get a scholarship for finishing six months. Download your certificate saying you complete it. Take that with your resume. They have a partnership with 150 other organizations where you can take and say, “I completed the course. Here’s my resume. I would like to apply for this entry level position.” Entry level position. 18, 20 years old, $55,000 insane.

When I was 18, I would be so happy.

Shannon: I know, I know.

Felicia: When I was, listen, I was 18 working in a retail store and I was happy to get $108 a week. I thought I was rich. But most of that went to the clothes in the store, so I’m like, can you imagine being that it’s like being one of these NFL players that are 20 years old and they offer them $50 million, something that they never had before. You know, so I’m like 55,000 to a 18 to a 20-year-old and above. That’s a nice starting point.

Shannon: That’s a nice starting point.

Felicia: That’s a nice starting point. So, you know, it was very disappointing. The response that I got, and we’re still giving these out up until December of 2025. This will be the third year that we’re giving out these scholarships. Six people inquired since I put them out again. Three, I had to return back because they did not fill out the application correctly. One of them, he sent, he filled it out, but he didn’t sign it. I sent it back to him. “We need your signature.” Haven’t heard from him.

So I’m like, okay. So this shows me that you’re not invested in yourself, which means you’re not gonna invest in the program because I’m not gonna be the mother may I watching over you to make sure that you’re doing this. This is something that is for you to set you up for your future because who knows, especially IT, you can do it anywhere in the world. As long as you have the skill.

Shannon: Yeah.

Felicia: So to be a 20-year-old and getting to a company where you’re starting it, or even wealth design, by the time you’re 40, 50 years old, you could be retiring because you could do it, you know, on your own and just be an independent contractor and hire and have people hire you and go work for them. So it’s, you know, I’m just concerned about the future of our young people and where it’s gonna go.

Shannon: What do you think could be done earlier on to prevent this from happening? Like to prevent them maybe, I don’t know, experiencing maybe a level of hopelessness at this point in their, like starting their careers? Do you think that there’s something to be done?

Addressing Education and Family Support

Felicia: I think there’s something could be done, but it has to be addressed. One in the home, and it has to be addressed in schools. If they’re still in school, schools have now schools too, get a bad rap. There’s only so much the teachers can do. You know, because the teachers are, when the pandemic came, the parents got a wake up call they never thought they would ever get because little Johnny had to be home. And now you see how little Johnny is for eight hours a day while you are at work and the teacher has to deal with little Johnny, right?

They got a wake up call. So the parents and the schools have to get together and they have to put an investment in the future of these children and say, “Hey, this is our generation. This is what they we’re letting AI, we’re letting technology rule their life. We have to stop this. We have to talk to them. We have to bring back that communication. We have to bring back letting them know that they’re seen and they’re heard and they’re important.”

And knowledge, knowledge is key. I don’t care. You know, one thing I loved about my grandmother who raised me, her thing was never a racial thing. It was never, “You can never get a job because you look like this.” It was never that. Her thing was, “As long as you work hard for what you want, you will always get what you want.” And that’s what I lived by because that’s what she lived by.

So I never looked at anything else. Whereas, “Okay, well I might have to work harder or I might have to do this,” or, you know, X, Y, and Z. No. I’m going to bring to you my authentic self. I can only bring to you what I have. So if what I have is not enough, then hey, it’s not enough. But I know what I’m capable of and I know what I have to offer, and that’s what I bring with me.

And that’s what we have to bring to our future generation and to our children. We have to invest in them and let them know that we do care, we do see them, and we have to prepare them for them to be the best that they can be.

Shannon: I definitely agree. I think that there should be more communication between the home and the educational system because I think teachers are constantly, as I’ve, my mom was also a teacher, I’ve seen how much parents expect teachers to parent. And that is not their job. And they still end up doing it anyway. And that’s not what the educational system is for.

And they’re, so, I never wanna blame teachers. I’m sure there are some bad teachers out there, but I don’t ever like to blame teachers because they’re burnt out. They’re doing more than they should be doing. And they’re doing more. Right? They’re doing more.

Felicia: I always tell people there’s two jobs that I would never, ever want to be, that is a police officer and a teacher.

Shannon: 100%. I agree.

Felicia: Yeah. Because the teachers are expected to raise these children. These children are disrespectful. They disrupt the classes.

Felicia: I mean, they put them through a lot and I… God bless the teachers because they’re there to just try to make the generation better and they’re up against so much. So I always give them any accolade. They deserve it all. They deserve as much money as they can make. I really have a lot of respect.

My husband’s sister is a teacher. His father was a principal. We have quite a few people in his family that were teachers. So I definitely have a lot of respect for them.

Shannon: I do too. I just think that in order for the educational system to be more successful as a whole, it definitely needs to have more interaction with parents.

Felicia: Exactly.

Shannon: And you know, maybe some more government funding would be really, really nice.

Education Around the World

Felicia: I know. The bad part about it’s because you go to these other countries and, you know, I travel quite a lot, and you see these children as young as six and seven years old that know three and four different languages.

And they know finance and they know about entrepreneurship. And then we come to the United States, which is supposed to be one of the greatest countries in the world. And you’re lucky if you have a 12th grader coming out of 12th grade even knowing how to read. It’s very sad. It’s very sad.

Shannon: Yeah, it’s very scary.

Shannon: I talk to a lot of agency owners on this podcast, and I’ve talked to a few from the UK and almost all of them started their entrepreneurship journey when they were like 13. And I’m like…

Felicia: Yeah,

Shannon: Disconnect. I know how, what are we doing? Like maybe selling Pokemon cards or something, but no, they have like full-fledged businesses at 13. And I’m like, how? We don’t even have financial literacy.

Felicia: You don’t even have financial literacy. That’s why I love the way that the Asian countries raise their children, because when they come out of school, they know about finance, they know about languages, they know about, they’re so well-rounded that they could probably start their business at, like you said, 13 and 10 years old.

Same because they’re so rounded. Whereas, you know, there is just so much disconnect here. We have to do better as a country, we have to do better. As parents, we can’t blame it all on the educational system because it wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t be fair. So we all have to work together to make sure that the outcome for our young people, when it is time for them to step up and take over this world, that there’s a better place here for them.

Encouragement and Making a Difference

Shannon: Yeah. I really hope that’s the case, because it’s not that there’s not the openings or like the ability to get there. It’s just that I think that there’s not, they don’t feel encouraged maybe. Right. Because they don’t have the tools available to them, or they don’t know that they have the tools available to them in order to try.

Felicia: Exactly. And I think that’s the biggest problem is a lot of people like to put blame in all these different places, but I think it’s really just the lack of encouragement in different areas of life.

Shannon: That’s what it is. Yeah. And it’s all about encouragement. You know, it costs you nothing. People just want to be heard and be seen. And it costs you nothing to give of your time.

Personal Reflections on Giving Back

Felicia: That’s why I love Christmas time was not always easy for me because I have no family in Philadelphia. And before I met my husband, I was in Philadelphia alone for 10 years. And even though I had friends, but when the holidays came, they went to their family.

And my family, it was hard for me to travel to them sometimes ’cause they’re all over this country. And Christmas was a hard time for me. So how I dealt with that was giving back. And in that I felt great gratification because I felt like I was doing something for someone else.

Giving of my time. ‘Cause sometimes that’s all it is. Just letting people know that you see them, you hear them, you acknowledge them, that’s all they want. They don’t want you to walk past them and not notice that they’re not there or not talk to them or even give them part of your time.

Again, we have to get back to that as a society, as human beings. We take advantage of the fact that we’re all gonna be here every day all the time. It’s not like that. Time is very short. And if you talk to millionaires and billionaires, if you ask them, you know, if you could get something in your life back, what would it be?

All of them 100% say time. Time, because you can’t buy time. You can get more money, you can make more money, but you can’t get time. And once the time is gone, it’s gone. And once the curtain closes and the lights go off in the theater, and it’s the end, that’s it. We’re done.

Conclusion

Shannon: Ooh. Well, I think that was a crazy philosophical note to end on because we’re very over time, but I think this was such an incredible conversation. I don’t even want it to end. I really enjoyed talking with you today and I really thank you so much for joining me.

Felicia: You are welcome, Shannon. And I enjoyed talking to you as well. Congratulations on Unified and Purpose. I think it’s a great podcast for people to tune into, to listen into, to continue to offer hope.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday, Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it is that you’re celebrating and definitely going into 2025 with more positivity and more love and compassion and understanding for your fellow human beings.

Shannon: Thank you so much, Felicia. I can’t even say any of that better myself. I think that was a beautiful note to end on, and thank you everyone for watching and listening. I hope you tune into the next one. Thank you so much and have a lovely day.

Felicia: Thank you.

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