PodcastFinding Money for College w/ Major Betz, Scholarship Leadership Institute

 

Podcast Episode:
Got kids?  Want them to have an education?  Need money to fund it?  We’ve got a “Major” solution … on this edition of Frank Relationships.

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FRANK RELATIONSHIPS: FINDING MONEY FOR COLLEGE W/ MAJOR BETZ, SCHOLARSHIP LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
Guests: Major Betz
Date: January 18, 2016

Frank: Got kids? Want them to have an education? Need the money to fund it? Well we’ve got a “Major” solution … on this edition of Frank Relationships.

As always, those are my babies. Thanks again daddy’s daughter this morning.

Welcome to Frank Relationships where we provide a candid, fresh and frank look in the relationships with goals of acceptance, respect and flexibility. I’m Frank Love and you can find me, my blog and my various social media incarnations at franklove.com.

Greetings, Nancy. How are you?

Nancy: I am well, Frank. How are you? I’m great.

Nancy: Great?

Frank: What’s going on in the world of relationships today?

Nancy: Oh wow. Believe it or not, the thing that is most dominant in the conversations I’m having are people’s fascinations with how many people are leaving the planet. How many people are passing from Natalie Cole, I heard about Alan Rickman yesterday, David Bowie, even locally Frances Cress Welsing…

Frank: Wow, yeah.

Nancy: Yeah. So people are really paying some degree of attention to that.

Frank: And the person that stands out in those three that really stands out in the relationship world is David Bowie and Iman.

Nancy: And Iman, yes.

Frank: Yeah.

Nancy: Twenty years.

Frank: In the spotlight.

Nancy: In the spotlight. It can be done, ladies and gentlemen. And Celine Dion and her husband.

Frank: That’s right. A twenty year age difference or something like that?

Nancy: Oh easily, easily. Yes.

Frank: But they had a—what appeared to be a very successful relationship.

Nancy: Yes they did.

Frank: I mean who knows—I’m the first to say who knows what goes on behind closed doors…

Nancy: Exactly.

Frank: But hey, they were together. She’s certainly—she did her thing.

Nancy: She did.

Frank: She became quite a superstar.

Nancy: Yes. She bloomed with him. Yeah, it’s powerful.

Frank: This week’s guest is a major solution to finding money for your child to go to college and he’s got the credentials and the resume to prove it. In fact, he’s the charter boat captain for teens when it comes to finding meaningful scholarships. Each year, he helps hundreds of teens and their families get an education while reducing their likelihood of incurring a debt that seems to hurt so many college graduates.

So if you want to know what the three seasons of scholarships are, how to make time for scholarships, and why it’s important for me to talk to future me, please stay tuned as your Frank Relationships team talks scholarship issues with Major Betz.

Good morning. Major Betz?

(Muffled audio)

Betz: Yes, sir. I’m here, how are you?

Frank: Great. How are you doing?

Betz: Outstanding, outstanding.

Frank: Okay. Relationships are the focus of the show. I’m 43, married with a decent household income, what can you do for me and my relationship?

Betz: Well first thing, it’s an honor to be here. Thanks Frank for having me and I want to tell you I had to bring new comfort, you and your listeners. Comfort in knowing there is no shortage to the scholarships. They never had, then they never will be. All there is is a lack of knowledge on how to acquire it. So that’s what I can defeat it. I can help you and your listeners understand that there is no shortage. There is money out there.

Frank: And so my wife and I don’t have to worry as much about paying for education as we might think give that there is no shortage?

Betz: Well, yeah. But you have to do some things too. Like people will think I’m down on the black [unclear] I don’t waive a wand and make it happen. They have to do some things on their own to prepare their kids for the journey. If you do those things right then there’s so much money out there.

Frank: Okay.

Betz: And Frank I’ll just say that too many people aren’t taking advantage of it, too many people aren’t setting their kids up for success so… that’s what I hope that as we talk that there will be people get a vision of that and know they can’t get that money.

Frank: Start me off. I’ve got a 16 year old daughter who starts college next—in what? August. What do I need to be doing right now?

Betz: Okay. Well first is she has to have some things, some basic out of the way whether it’s that resume, whether it’s that portfolio or body of work. So I like to help you start in a nice way but see your kid needs triads, clear, boom. We need to hear they would say Grey’s Anatomy paddle because she needs to be applying for scholarships. That’s a number game, Frank. It always has been, it always will be. And if she got an AB average, she needs to be applying for scholarships. The reason kids don’t have those is because they’re not applying and then having someone check the work that they do.

Frank: What if she don’t have an AB average?

Betz: Well, you know what people like David Letterman gets B scholarships. There are people out there who don’t even have any average ever. An 11 year old who already have $60,000 of scholarships andshe has no average to you, she has no SAT, ACT. It’s about those essay, volunteering, and a lot of other things that you can get scholarships for regardless of your grades or your SAT score.

Frank: Okay.

Betz: I’ll even tell you one other thing, Frank. I did the chart on one of my webinars the other night. A straight A student, ace A student, 18.7% of them get scholarships. C and D- students, 5.7% of them get scholarships. So you got it wondering in your head, wait a minute? How are these students getting scholarships?

Frank: Are you saying these are—okay, the A students that apply for scholarships or just A students?

Betz: No, A students. Like A to A-, 3.5 to 4.0 and I learned it myself for the first time. I was looking at [unclear] .com and they have a powerpoint. They do all the statistics and it just blew me away especially when I look at the numbers of kids in Whitfield not just scholarships but fully paid scholarships.

Frank: I’m looking at the statistics that you’ve given. So there’s a difference between—there’s there can be A students that get whatever the statistics—what’s the statistics, what’s the percent?

Betz: It was 18.7%.

Frank: So A students getting 18.7% and you said C and D students get—

Nancy: 5?

Frank: okay.

Betz: 5.7. I’m trying to open up that powerpoint up that I did the other night because again, I can’t validate it in the [unclear]. It’s a little very repetitive, I might not have been the fastest but that’s right from their chart. I never did that research and it blew me away. I told them, I don’t know where they’re getting their numbers from but what kind of people they’re using. If you have an A average, that can mean you always said that you have to question. I think one thing about [unclear] and teach scholarships. I can’t—I don’t get attempted but I could because with ease and [unclear] a lot of broad out there saying “We guarantee you scholarships. If you give me a third and type students, I could guarantee that but I never do. But I always guarantee they can get more with me than without me. But that chart blew me away because it shows me that if not about your great go away, it’s not even about your SAT always.

Frank: You say that there are 3 seasons of scholarships. Explain.

Betz: Okay. So one of the things I know is that they—people always waiting on how you can only apply for scholarships in August and September and then the seasons over, not go. That season one, that’s the one going into that fall semester. That’s why everybody in the thick of it is applying nd those deadlines are coming up and they’re applying and they’re getting money put aside.

Frank: So this is the year before you need it, you’re saying? The August?

Betz: yes.

Frank: Okay.

Betz: I’m saying that they do—the people do it in their senior year. I’m telling you if you want scholarships and you’re in middle school, you can get scholarships in seventh to eight grade right now. Just type “middle school scholarships,” type “junior high scholarships.” Put quote to [unclear] and the you will be blown away at the scholarships kids can be applying for right now today. But when we talk about 3 seasons, it’s the fall, it’s the spring and then it’s the summer. And son, that’s when money’s available out there.

Frank: Is it for—on the middle school side, are—if a middle school child was looking for a scholarship, would it generally be for a private school or do middle school children look for scholarships to help with music class or something just to make money? Just to put money in their coffers to save for college and the future?

Betz: Yes. I’m talking about the latter, save for college for the future. I know so many people paying 16 to 18 to $20,000 a year to send their kids to middle and high school and I just [unclear / moggle] at that and then when they get to college, they have no money to pay for scholarships. They spent all their money in middle and high school.

Nancy: getting them ready for college.

Betz: Right and then what I say to you, if you want to look at something, cut back especially with people who spend all that money in those earlier years of a senior getting full paid scholarship to go to college. If they’re not then you’re going to still have to pay for college, then why did you pay 16 to $20,000 a year from seventh grade to twelfth grade only not to be able to send them to the school they want to go to [unclear] they could go to.

I have to admit to you, if you took and focused on scholarship search and understood the sign and the art of scholarship search, they could get so much money and I mean so much money while they’re in middle school, while they’re in ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh and twelfth. And even after they get to college, they’ll even be more scholarships to keep after they get to college.

Nancy: Well you know what, Major Betz, what you’re bringing to light is that most people are paying that kind of money to prepare their kids for college, to make them competitive to get into some of the better universities and what I hear you saying—I’m not saying this is what you’re saying—but what I hear you saying is that time and money are much better spent sending the child maybe not even to a private high school—middle school or high school but putting them into maybe the best school, the best public school in your area and giving them the same degree of attention and resources needed to excel and then saving your financial resources to apply to the scholarship process and/or tuition.

Betz: I couldn’t have said it better myself and I will tell you one other thing is that, my thing is if you prepare—and that’s the whole point of this—if you prepare for it?

Nancy: Yes.

Betz: And like get doing it and prepare your kids and get them accepted into John Hopkins or this school or that school, and you can’t pay for it, but what’s the point?

Nancy: Right.

Betz: So my thing is…

Nancy: Well, they’re thinking that John Hopkins might pay for it if I’m—if he’s smart enough when he gets there.

Frank: Well, that’s just it. They MIGHT.

Nancy: They might. With a capital “M.” Right.

Betz: There’s 3 different types of scholarships so got institutional money like those universities that they pay for. But there are people who aren’t getting those paid scholarships and I said next year, if that school, whatever school where there’s [unclear]or whatever, if that school cause 40, $50,000 a year and you get no money from that school institutional scholarships, i submit to you that there’s still plenty of money out there to help you get to that college, that cost 50 and 50,000 even when they didn’t give you a penny. But too many people are giving up because the schools didn’t give their money. I say, fine. I don’t need your money. I’ll go get my own money and still come to your school.

Nancy: Right.

Frank: You said that 3 types of scholarships. What are the other two?

Betz: Okay you got the institutional, that’s the one from the university of a college you want to go to. The second one, it’s more of a functional major of studies scholarship where if you’re going to major in Engineering, English, biology, whatever. You get scholarships based on the major that you’re going to go into and the degree programs. I will tell you [unclear], science technology education and math over huge, especially for kids of color when it comes to getting scholarships that’s thrown at you. And so that’s the second type, the major.

And the third is just the general category where whatever your issue, whether it’s a disability if you have ADD, if your parents are deceased, if you’re left-handed, if your hair is brown, if you have freckles, if you are twin, you applied for NAACP [unclear], if for charity-sorority money that’s the third type which is just a general type.

So when you look at that triad of scholarships, institution and when you look at the function on major of study and then you look at the general scholarship, I’m telling you many of these kids can get a million dollar of scholarships if they took and has the process and place like your daughter could start and get to a stretch, you put the scholarships on me and then attack it like you would a part time job. And then apply for 2 or 3 every week and just go at it. There is no shortage of scholarships out there. You got to know where to look, that’s why I call myself the [unclear] fishing man. I tell them where to go to find the big fish but instead to find the big scholarships.

Frank: Got it. You say “fake it ‘til you make it” does not work in the scholarship search world.

Betz: It’s correct.

Frank: Tell me about that.

Betz: A lot of kids are faking it. So they tell their parents because they know mom and dad has a pull string to each other. Think like they’re really trying to apply and they’re just submitting just so any of things. Well if you ever hear of me talk, I always talk about college debt they’re like cancer. And when you graduate, your parents know that when their kids graduate, they’re going to end up with cancer. A year later with that student loan? They will do everything they could to avoid that cancer and I’m telling you that college debt is like cancer. And so when kids are safe and it’s almost like faking it like I’m going to cure this cancer. I’m like hearing they’re faking scholars. You can’t fake this.

You got to apply the processes and principles that work so that you can be here before you get to that 6 years, 6 months a year later and have that financial A type cancer that college debt cancer that’s waiting for you. So too many cancer faking it, so they get their parents to feel sorry for them like a cat. I told the parents, you hold them accountable. If you don’t do the work, you’re going to go to junior college and that’s okay. Math is math contest time, English is English. So go to junior college and then transfer to a 4-year school that will finish up and get scholarships.

So when you graduate, they don’t say hey here comes Frank Love, he went to such and such junior college first and then he came here.

Nancy: They never say that.

Betz: They don’t say that. They give you your 4 years agreed, man.

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: So you’re attacked as a family if your kids don’t have the money set up and do the work early on then your money—if you don’t have that kind of money to write those checks, do not get answer debt trying to pay for college.

Nancy: So…

Betz: There’s too many people doing that. I’m sorry, go ahead.

Nancy: No problem. So you’re saying essentially that the debt you can incur or a higher education is not worth it?

Frank: I’m saying it.

Betz: I will categorize it like this. If you are somebody who’s like a doctor, or an engineering type person, my daughter made well and that probably a 140,000 as a chemical engineer. So if she would have had, that’s my daughter year, I got a full paid scholarship then she lost it.

Nancy: Oh wow.

Frank: Oh let’s talk about that. Losing scholarships.

Betz: Yeah, that was that. You talk about heartache and they get some family some problems, talking about relationships.

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: That causes a problem especially when we want the answer. So we got to pay for her and the other parent like me’s been, I’m not paying for her to get to college after we got her a full ride.

Frank: Ouch.

Betz: But my daughter with that and she knew enough. It’s like Bill Gates, if you took every penny ever made, you should go back and become a billionaire again because of what’s in his head.

Nancy: Right, right.

Betz: My daughter knew how to do it because she saw us do it for her and we were doing it for her little brother ad so the same thing, she went out and earned it again. But I will tell you that if you’re making 60 years, if you have 60 years of student loan, or you’re making 60, then you can pay that back a lot quicker than too many of our kids who getting these $40,000 a year jobs, $50,000 a year and got a $150 to $200,000 in student loans.

Nancy: Precisely.

Frank: Wow.

Betz: There the thing is citizens still pay back student loans, Frank.

Frank: I believe you. I believe you.

Nancy: Good question. I think there’s legislation out there to forget it once you get a certain age because of that, right?

Betz: Well, I don’t think—the only legislation that I’ve seen and I could be wrong—is that if you get to graduate and like a teaching industry or something like that and you go and you work in the city after 10 years of making those small payments, they’ll forgive it but not like housing, where they give you some kind of way to follow bankrupts do. Student loan?

Nancy: No bankruptcy.

Betz: There is no way out.

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: You’re stuck with that like a disease, like a sexual transmitted disease. [Unclear]

Frank: Well what about penicillin?

Nancy: Cures most but not all he’s saying.

Nancy: Wow. And okay, here’s the deal. On the way over here, I was in a conversation with Frank about how the conversation with you had grown more and more relevant as the time drew near. I had a co-worker of mine stopped me and say “I think I’m going to go and pursue my PhD. Now this is someone who’s already got student loan debt cancer, okay? So she already has the cancer. She is not in remission, she’s pushed the pause button on to 10-4 barrens because she can’t afford to pay. This is a young woman married with 2 small children…

Frank: So the cancer’s growing?

Nancy: The cancer’s growing by the minute, right? And she’s essentially saying she’s seeing one remedy. She’s seeing going back—

Frank: Actually, the cancer’s growing, she’s just taking pain killers so she can’t feel the pain.

Nancy: She’s on oxycodone, okay? AND she’s thinking as other people have and have counselled me the same way “you may as well go back to school atleast that will stop the student loan. It won’t stop the interest or we keep [unclear]. It will stop you from having to pay it because you’re busy creating another one.

Frank: And then maybe pass it down to your heirs.

Nancy: That’s all you have with that.

Frank: How does that work? Student loan debt does go to you estate, right?

Betz: I don’t know the answer to that question.

Frank: Okay, alright.

Betz: I haven’t heard that one.

Nancy: Okay.

Frank: Well go on then.

Nancy: So I—

Betz: I think what you’re leaning towards is—can she get scholarships or is that why what’s your question about that?

Nancy: Well yeah. My question is often times the focus for scholarships is on young people coming out of high school, freshmen and sophomores in college and so in an age where people are having to re-tool themselves for second careers or deepen their understanding and knowledge of the careers they’re in, is there a pool of scholarship money for the adult student returning? He’s laughing. This is good. He’s laughing.

Betz: Yes. I say—because it’s so funny I said like why did God bless me with debt but I’ve been joining for eleven years by breathing to being—

Nancy: Awesome, awesome.

Frank: I want to know how you did get into this. After you answer her question, I want to know your history.

Betz: Alright, I’ll tell you. So first thing on your question there, which is very good. There is—I got that with more money for kids in college than there is for kids in high school when it comes to finding scholarships because college is would rather pay somebody who’s proven themselves in the college already are in the process of proving themselves than paying for a high school kid. Like I said, one kid [unclear] who had never made a B, a straight A student as she went then made 4 F’s and a D the first semester. So they’d rather pay for that college kid. My son’s scholarship was a USDA scholarship, a $100,000+ and then I felt a lot of kids get that plan scholarships when they—that’s why you have the Department of Agriculture.

Frank: So you actually practice what you preach, for sure?

Betz: Oh I’m not—this is how make believe—there are too many people faking their scholarship thing. I have people doing testimonials about the money that we often get. But check it out though, here’s the deal. You can’t—I just Google when she said that, I laughed because—I got my computer here. I google PhD scholarships by herself.

Nancy: By herself, okay.

Betz: It was like 120-something million hits on the internet—

Nancy: What?

Betz: —for PhD. So I’m going to look at it again. 124 million results on Google then I put quotes around it and it went to 400—and when you put quotes, that’s going to show me everything on the internet where there are PhD scholarships and then at 474,000. So I’m looking at the first one, 2016, 2017 scholarships for this year’s scholarship money. Scholarships for women for PhD. Explore you online education. There’s scholarships out there that just—you would drown in the scholarships. People are just walking round missing it and then money is out there so people pay me, the scholarship coach to help them navigate those waters to find the scholarship so that they don’t have to go further in debt or ever be in debt at all.

Nancy: Nice.

Frank: I’m going to ask something that I’ve never asked a guest to do and that’s—I want you to—I’m going to ask all my listeners to stop listening because I want you to speak to one person and that’s my wife.

Betz: Alright.

Frank: She is—she’s got her master’s, she’s constantly—she’s in higher education, she’s constantly talking to me about wanting to go get her PhD, whatever. She wants that other degree, the doctorate.

Nancy: She wants a handle.

Frank: Yes, she wants the handle. What do you say to her? Speak to her. Forget about Nancy’s friend.

Betz: Okay. Well, Nancy I’m not going to forget about your friend.

Nancy: Thank you.

Betz: Well, Frank, there’s a couple of things. First, if my dad is still on me about getting my doctorate, I have two master’s degree and then he says “Son, why don’t you get it?” But for me, and again, it’s just me talking first. The title thing, when I go speak for some, all doctors are speaking and me. God gave me a gift and so when I use that, I don’t have to have that title but for those who want the title and so forth, you got tot to look and say when you get that title, if the pain and the money it cost and the stress in your family and relationship, if that is worth and if it’s going to be worth all of that stuff, the money you spent, go on through that. And then what are you going to get on the other side?

There are people who are getting doctorate degrees and so forth who are some kind of making less than they could have made if they just stuck in the career they were in and went another way. I’m not knocking doctorate’s degree but everybody’s getting them now.

Nancy: Right.

Frank: Especially…

Betz: But look at what it’s going to get you. If there’s a return—that’s what I tell people. Look for return on investment. If I spend that time and I spend that money and I do that, what’s my return of investment? And if you can show that it’s going to pay for itself and more, that’s good. Unless you just want it for that value, that self-actualization point and I save less than—that’s why you should get a scholarship. When you have plan somebody to help you, make sure you’re going to get a return on that investment. So if you pay like [unclear] will pay me $3,000 or $5,000 or whatever, and if they’re getting a six figures 750, 800,000. I have one kid that that $1.25 million in scholarship.

Nancy: Right.

Frank: 1.25?

Nancy: Yeah, I’ve read that on the website. Yeah.

Betz: Oh. Yeah, I have 800,000, 750,000… This is real. But that’s because they’re consistent and disciplined over time when it count to doing the habit to take the scholarships. Too many people are faking it and plan the game, they’re not doing the work and it really doesn’t take that much.

Nancy: Talk to us a little bit about the services that’s saying $99 and we’ll get you a scholarship, you know… for being from Mars or whatever.

Betz: Okay, check it out. If they can, I will tell you right now I can sit here and say “I will guarantee anybody out there, I can get you a scholarship or my services are free. And I can work hard enough to find it—when I just told you these students are getting scholarships—

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: so there are scholarships out there. so all they have to do when they say that is get one.

Frank: Get one.

Nancy: Got it. Yeah.

Betz: Once they get you one, that’s done. They don’t have to prove it anymore whereas mine is, my most focus is six figures. I want to help people get six figures. Now can everybody get six figures in scholarship? I would admit to you that that’s probably not true.

Nancy: Okay.

Betz: But I will tell you that 2 minute of my business was built as new as I dared not [unclear] for ten years and thank ask the question how did I just saw this, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired when I thought people like my daughter getting 0 dollars and as a senior, she learned how to soccer team, mostly white, none of them had money. Rich people made enough to pay for their kids. More people though, with their kids are smart enough, they get mid-base but people in the middle, were getting left out altogether. My wife and I were making probably about $200,000 a year at that time. People they would have enough to pay for your own kids to go to college. That’s my money, that’s not your money.

So I went after it and just see what I can do for her. So it wasn’t until November of her senior year, I had a daughter never made a B in her life, number two out of 500 at her high school and made a third in her own math and verbal SAT and she had no scholarship. Something was wrong with and so it struck a chord in mere set because I knew I had a son over there and nice way picking his nose who I knew was in trouble.

So I thought it was my daughter and I helped her and started talking with her soccer team and I saw this research. This was back in 2004, 2005. I started researching and I still [unclear] and I had my first meeting with nontropical and started to train once with 12 people which grew to some audiences as big as a thousand people on the second Saturday of every month and nine months during the school year while I brought families together and I educate them. I educated them and I entertain them so that they could no kidding go out and do things tomorrow, it couldn’t be yesterday because they didn’t get it today.

Nancy: Okay.

Betz: Well if in [unclear] to this business I’m doing now because as I saw it, everybody wasn’t getting six figures, only a handful. So I did a study and I grabbed without—I did a scholarship. I picked 10 people and for one year, I ran with those ten. They got crazy money because the processes—because they’re doing it. This is gotten a habit and the consistency and discipline over time. They couldn’t fake it because I became daddy. I’m daddy number 2, I was like [unclear] and that’s how I started my business because I was working 30, 40 hours a week doing that and 34—I’m kidding 40+ hours with the government—

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: —as a GS 14. I’m like, I can’t keep this up.

Nancy: So that’s how you got that handle “Major.”

Betz: Yeah, I retired of the Major from the Air Force and then as a GS14 I just quit.

Nancy: Quit? Wait a minute. Not the proverbial good government job?

Betz: I did. 60—I gave up the 60 good job to help kids get six figures for scholarships.

Nancy: What? That’s awesome.

Betz: And bought a $400,000 house in San Antonio as I walked out the door.

Nancy: Watch yourself, watch yourself.

Frank: You believed in yourself clearly.

Nancy: Yes.

Betz: Yeah, it’s total faith. People think I’m crazy but it’s all about understanding your purpose and I know what God’s purpose is for me now and I’m operating in it.

Nancy: I hear you.

Frank: We’re talking with Major Betz of the Scholarship Leadership Institute. If you’re listening to the show live on Thursday, January 15, 2016, between 8 and 9am EST and you have questions for our guest, please call in at 607-203-0748. That’s 607-203-0748.

One of the things that I know is necessary to handle related to the scholarships is the FAFSA. What is that?

Betz: That’s a free application for federal student A. That’s the form that everybody—and I want to emphasize is Frank, there’s a lot of people you know they’re “I’m a doctor,” “I’m a lawyer. I can’t get need-based scholarships so I’m not going to waste tie with that.” That’s an ignorant mind expression itself when they say something like that and I say ignorant meaning “lacking knowledge”—

Frank: I understand.

Betz: They’re lacking knowledge to understand that that little form will make them not only eligible for need-base scholarships even though they make so much money, like my wife and I did but my kids got need-base. Number two, a lot of married-base scholarships now are being based on the information on the FAFSA. So if you don’t fill out the FAFSA, your kids will miss out on that opportunity. And I’ll add a thing called a profile for those who say that my kid has a profile that’s equivalent to a FAFSA but for private colleges and it’s more invasive. They get all the [unclear] and know about where every penny came from.

Nancy: Okay.

Frank: How important is the school’s guidance counsellor to the scholarship process?

Betz: It’s very important but I want to say that my kids [unclear] counsellor, they still send me scholarships and my son graduated 4, 5 years ago. And so it’s very important to have that relationship because you want the parent walked in. Too many of them said, “You go see a guidance counsellor.” Parents should go atleast once to show the guidance counsellor they’re serious.

Frank: They’re serious.

Betz: And the counsellors will then become more involved and more engaged. I have counsellors on my steps so they told me that and they worked harder for them but don’t let the counsellor be your crutch.

Nancy: Right.

Betz: Because your scholarship, your dream. They’re there but it’s about you so you get information from them and get scholarship information from the, tips from them, techniques from them, get the recommendation from them but you don’t count on them only. You use them as a tool in your tool box.

Frank: If I get an interview as a student to attend a university, what kind of preparation should I do for that? And I’m not—I know that’s more of an admission’s question but admissions are related to scholarships so can you shine and light on that?

Betz: No, you play like you practice and so what I want people to do is understand that if you’re going to bend room, I’ll build a research first and that’s what I do with my clients. Let’s find out like one kid who’s going to George Fox University in Oregon. She lives in California, I live in San Antonio and so, we do everything online but she panics saying “I’m going to [unclear] I don’t know what to do.” So I got online and I googled and searched for interviews and for that school and sure enough, one kid who had gone through it before. [Unclear] written a little thing on it and they explained what the set up was, what kinds of questions they ask but you do your research, you do your homework and hen be prepared. So look at those questions—the common questions like “tell us about yourself” or “give us an example of the time you overcame adversities,” or “how do you plan to use the scholarship money?” Be creative, be you but be creative. Faith comes in memo but not something to make you look like you’re way off—like Donald Trump is like. Don’t—we don’t want that level of always to that side, often as the other side but when you look at me, sit down and you practice but you practice in such a way with—somebody’s listening and when you’re using your text language [unclear] you know what I mean, [unclear] and what’s up—you speak the queen of English. So somebody is good to practice in front of somebody so they can point that out because you don’t think about it. this is your natural swag, the way you talk. Also make eye contact even though you got 3, 4 people on the board. Look at each one and when one person asks the question, you start responding but you look at each one of them throughout that answer and don’t be robotic like you stand in the room like the Terminator but be natural. So that’s people teaching you that with your gestures. There’s something about that little level of preparation but that means you have to practice and answer and I have people do with cards. They’ll see out the cards and depends on somebody to ask the question and just to see how they respond. So they practice before they play.

Nancy: Sure.

Frank: In terms of the essay, the essay scholarship process is proofreading important and if it is, is it okay to pay somebody to proofread my essay? How does that work?

Betz: Well firstly, it’s critical that you ask somebody—

Nancy: True.

Betz: —I’ve been getting on my time because I have essay people on my staff who review their essays and get it back to them sometimes in 4 hours and just the mistakes they find and even though the GS14, I had people check everything I sent, the emails I sent when the [unclear] general. The paper—because nobody’s perfect—

Nancy: Right.

Betz: —and it’s always goes out another set of eyes and I’m telling you, I’ve been on board. If the scholarship says like a 500 word or less on paper and you write 501, we throw that out immediately no matter how good it is because it’s 501. You can’t follow instructions.

Nancy: Instructions. There you go.

Betz: Or if the writings are grammatical phrases, just have somebody [unclear] so I would definitely say do that and don’t edit—what you edit if you can but then let somebody else look at it, but then the paying people to do it, I have people who pay me to review. There’s even a website that you can even pay for them to write it. They will write your essay for you. That’s an integrity issue to that but people are doing it to get into colleges and did not only get into college, they have PhD kids who are absolutely not right and then they’ll pay for it.

Nancy: Wow.

Betz: They’re actually giving people their websites who write their paper for them.

Frank: Are there ideas atleast original—how does that—I mean?

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: No, no. They guarantee. I just wanted two days ago, what they’ll guarantee is that you don’t have to worry about the copyright but you pay them though, you’re going to pay for that.

Nancy: Absolutely.

Betz: But this way, the kids focus and I say kids I’m talking about master’s and doctorates degree people.

Nancy: Right.

Betz: And I’m telling you, if you go Google it right now, there are websites, they will write your paper for you. They will come up—you give them what the homework assignment look. They’ll come up with it but you pay more like if you want it done in two days, it cost more than it’ll take for a week. If you want them to come up with everything versus you doing something, it cost a little more but they think for everything. It’s a whole business out there doing just that.

Frank: We got a caller. You have a question?

Caller: Hi, I’m Afia, can you hear me?

Frank: Can? Yes, Afia.

Caller: So you talked about not drowning in the scholarships that are out there but taking the time to look for them. Where do you start so that you’re not just [unclear] them to your Google feed that says these are the scholarships hat are out there?

Betz: Have you ever heard of a website called fastweb.com, zink.com, collegeconfidential.com—any of those?

Caller: I’ve heard of College Confidential.

Betz: Okay. Have you ever registered for things like for example you say how do stop swaimming, these people have—there are websites, database out there. these companies, they’re hundreds of them. My kids all they have to do atleast five of them and what they do is you take they’re sending up information like we’re looking for kids who want to major in this, black female, we’re looking for this, this, we’re looking for this, this, we’re looking for whatever and they send all the information to what they’re looking for for people who come to their schools, who also apply for their scholarships—two different groups. Companies who get scholarships, schools who give scholarships. They’re putting all that through fast web by any of these companies and they put it up on a cloud. Being you taking, you fill out information about yourself out there, I got a 3.0 GPA, I play sports, I do this, I like poetry, I’ve got blah, bah, blah and you put it up there and you fill your profile up on those websites.

Once you do that, there’s a cloud in the middle where it all mixes together and they send you scholarships that you’re qualified for to your inbox. They send it to you nonstop. Again, I swore until to this date, you got a scholarship yesterday for Xerox I think. He still get scholarships and he’s a grown man with a Computer Science degree. So you could be getting scholarships sent to you every day, not just Google searches but scholarships that you’re qualified for that’s being sent to you or something simple as fastweb.com is one example.

Frank: One more time?

Betz: fastweb.com if you take and apply, register for that, fill out your profile. My son never did a 100%, he only filled it out 60%, he’s still getting scholarships sent to him daily and there are other databases like that too.

Frank: How do you suggest that a student manage their time because they’ve got school work to handle—how do they make the time to also apply for scholarship and a number of scholarships?

Betz: Frank, it’s a family thing first. If you have a family, you—my wife and my son tag-teamed because she told him, “Your daddy’s crazy, you know he’s going to make you go to junior college if you don’tkeep at it.” So…

Frank: Well is there anything wrong with junior college?

Nancy: No.

Betz: No, as I said—I said that early. Remember math is math, science is science and English is English?

Frank: There you go. Yes.

Betz: Well I’ve said it early so I will never put down junior college because many of our corporate executives, politicians, that’s where they’ve started and if you want to know the truth, that’s wehre a lot of kids should start. However, people been promising their kids so they would be, “Baby, you’re going to go this school and that’s my baby.” And they get it all excited and when they walk throughout that stage, dun-dun-dun-dun… The parents their eyes are wide open and say “Oh my God, I told that baby she can go to this school.”

So nothing wrong with junior college. [Unclear] saying about—go back to your question again, I’m sorry I got side tracked, I got all fired up over here.

Frank: Time management.

Betz: Time management. So one of the things we talked about in my program when we say the 4S’s: structure it, schedule it, search it, share it. Structure it, schedule it, search it, share it. One of the things with time management is scheduling it. You take your calendar and you got the same number of hours and minutes that everybody else has but you got to make scholarship search a priority. Make it a big rock in—you putting those rocks in the jars out of the store. People talk about make it a big rock where if a priority—I got to go apply for scholarship and get a part-time job and I got to go – I’ll tell you I was saying you want me to in debt but take that time to make for—imagine that I’m going to do this, on Tuesdays I’m going to do this. My kids, I know what they’re doing all Wednesday between 7 and 9 because I make them put it on a calendar so that they know where they’re going to apply for scholarships instead of texting their friends or watching scandal and all the other shows. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you can beat the hour with that but you get your scholarship work done when it’s supposed to be done because that’s what your focus, that’s your job. So that your parents won’t have to pay for it and end up fighting and getting divorced because they’re fighting over money, they should never have fought over in the first place.

Nancy: So say that again… Structure it, schedule it…

Betz: Yeah, search it.

Nancy: Search it? Okay.

Betz: Yeah, structure it. If you ever heard of [unclear]—

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: —[unclear] is actually the tell you what to do each month. That’s structure. Schedule it, if you control your calendars. Don’t let the calendar control you.

Nancy: Control you. Right.

Betz: You should do that. And then the third one is search it using the Google Alert or the fastweb.com or those other things I just talked about it. You steal that [unclear] with scholarships so you never lacking and then lacking, share it. Have somebody you’re accountable with that hold you accountable, that when you don’t do what you said you’re going to do. So that’s why they call in a couple of weeks with my kids who are in my coaching program because they have to do something or we’re going to know they didn’t.

Nancy: Got it.

Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’re talking with Major Betz. He and his organization Scholarship leadership Institute coaches young people towards finding funding for college while reducing their likelihood of incurring debt. Major Betz, please tell our listeners how they can find you and your services.

Betz: My Website is majorbetz.com and there I run the Scholarship Leadership Institute. So that same non-profit I did for 11 years, I now do it nationwide. Our clients all over the nation Niagara Falls, San Jose, or whatever and I use my computer to one-on-one interact to and I’m like their counsellor that I tell them what to do, when to do, how to do it and they go do it and they get the big money that I’m telling you about. That’s what I do. And so I’m doing a free webinar next Monday night. I’ve been doing 4 of them and one [unclear] they’re on my website, on my email they’ll still get invited to that and there they’re going to learn more stuff like today but and also in the future, they can have scholarship academy and other programs that are low cost, very affordable that they can get involved to help their families not get into debt.

Nancy: Alright.

Frank: We’ve got another question from a caller.

Betz: Okay.

Caller: So I have a question about finding a local scholarship. When I’ve looked for in College Confidential on the website, I don’t feel like the local scholarships are there as often but I’ve had my parents send me some of the local scholarships. What’s another way to find them?

Betz: Okay. Let me ask you a question. You go to a high school for example, do they help you with scholarships at all?

Caller: My college counsellor sent me some of the bigger scholarships like Ace Millenium and [unclear] scholarships.

Betz: Now because of private issues I won’t do this but I will bet you and if it’s happened 9 out of a 100 times, if I were to talk to you right now and taking Google your high school and then look at your account and page and then look at scholarships, it’s got the waves that did go websites to find the stuff that they don’t even have a link for that we would find scholarships on your home or on your school website but also your school district, your city, your County, your parish in Louisiana, all those things they have—if you just Google that and say like I live in Bear County. If I Google Bear County scholarships, I’d find scholarships like you wouldn’t believe. Can you atleast give me your County? I’ll give you an example. What’s your County? Can you say that?

Frank: Washington D.C.

Betz: Okay Washington D.C. So I’m going to do that. Thanks, Frank. Washington D.C. scholarships… So if somebody from Washington D.C…. I’m Googling “Washington D.C. scholarships.” So I found 25.7 million hits and so here, district of Columbia scholarships, Washington D.C. scholarships and grants, free Washington D.C. And if I put quotes around it, it even makes it more specific. There’s a PDF here, Scholarships for High School thing is in D.C. And so I’m opening that PDF right now. Dear God, I’m looking at it and I’m telling you right now on this they have atleast 300 individual scholarships for [unclear / Jill Frankamony] scholarships. The huge [unclear] scholarships are rough.

So this is D.C., $2,000 to $3,000. Here’s one for $5,000, here’s one for $20,000. This is just me doing it—if I had a kid from D.C., obviously look at this. And then they saw taken the ones that qualify for putting them on that list. Frank, this is for your daughter now. She can do the same thing. Take it and stick it on an excel spreadsheet and then make our mind up. I’m going to fly for three of these a week. This is after that a S’s of scholarship search. And then you apply for them. So Afia, that’s what you got to do.

So don’t—we [unclear] look at the city, look at the school district, look at all of that stuff. There’s scholarships in all of those within level and then if your school doesn’t have scholarships, look at somebody else’s school.

Frank: Wow, okay.

Nancy: Cool. Major Betz…

Betz: Yes, ma’am.

Nancy: Okay so the action plan you say it’s a numbers game, you get an action plan together. What percentage of scholarships applied for in your 6 digit campaign are actually awarded? How many on average are your students actually applying for the—do they actually win?

Betz: Okay, it varies, it’s on my website when I have a thing called “Get a Thousand Dollars.” Maybe because people are getting part-time jobs versus looking for scholarships so they make there $7, $10, $11 an hour—

Frank: That’s a great way to look at it.

Betz: Yeah, a lot do. So and I’ll use it there and I’ll come by [unclear] what you said about percentages and with my daughter, and so forth. I’ll explain that. So imagine your kid goes out and they only get a thousand. A lot of scholarships are for more than that but it’s only a thousand dollars of scholarship.

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: They find 80. Of the 80, they applied for 40. When you apply for scholarships on average, it takes two hours. Some take less, some take more but on average it’s two hours. It’s going to take a lot more like Bill Gates days. But anyway, so you apply for 40 and you went 20. That means you’re ratio is 50%. I don’t know the ratio of a kid until I saw what when it was my son is 40%. The girls who won a million, she applied for 104 scholarships. She won 43. She got 1.25 million. I have kids who’ve applied for 200 scholarships. I don’t know what their number is, I don’t know the quality of their search is and if they have people helping them.

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: So once you figure out that ratio, if that’s—form earlier I just told you about you win20 of the 40? And you look—that means you spent 40 scholarships, you spent 2 hours a week. That’s 80 hours.

Nancy: Right.

Betz: You just got $20,000 of $1,000 scholarships for the 80 hours of work. That’s $250 per hour versus what you could make working in a movie theater or at a restaurant.

Nancy: Working anywhere.

Betz: Right. So if you’re a good student, quit running out of time of worry and let your guide to [unclear]. Quit focusing on making all the money so you can party with the [unclear] little friends and focus on scholarships so you can pay for college and get out to mama and them houses. They don’t want you to have no way [unclear]. Focus in scholarships. They want you gone, they want you out.

Nancy: Oh my, gracious. And you wouldn’t leave with your head up.

Betz: In line and see and I’ll say this. Many of our kids get overpayment. My kid—

Nancy: Yes…

Betz: —got paid to go to school when you make more money than you need and they’re giving you the excess back or some of it, that’s overpayment. Many of my kids, hundreds of them got paid to get to college. They didn’t just get college paid for,—

Nancy: Right.

Betz: —they got sex back.

Nancy: Yes. Which people use to buy cars, travel the world, and has—

Frank: Or pay their rent.

Nancy: Or pay their rent, yes.

Frank: How’d you get the title “Major”?

Betz: I’m an actual major in the US Air Force. I was tired of the regular commission major in the US Air Force and so I mean—they didn’t call me back in anytime. So I am still a major. I’m a retired major who’s subject—I’m a regular retired major, meaning they can call me back in any day and I have to go back.

Nancy: Wow. But you know what, that speaks to another question I had wanted to ask you a little bit earlier when we were talking about the adults transitioning from one career to another, you’ve done that actually. Sounds like a couple of times.

Betz: I had done that multiple times. I had reinvented myself but—and a lot of people think too. This is expensive though to keep changing but you follow where God leads you.

Nancy: What is that mean as expensive?

Betz: It’s expensive because I have a friend for example, she we turned on her room there. She was doing her [unclear and she got an engineering degree. That’s why she became an engineer. He’s an engineer, she’s an engineer. She gets up the and say “I just wanted to be a doctor.” So they went back and she became a doctor.

Think about the money it costs to become an engineer that they paid out of their pockets then she switched and became a doctor, pay it all kind of money, you know and so forth. And now she’s looking at something else.

What I’m saying is, these debt career changes that cost you hundreds of thousand dollars to do. That’s why I was telling Frank earlier when he’s talking about that PhD.

Nancy: Sure.

Betz: Look at what you’re going to get after you get to the end of that journey and—

Frank: Besides the loan.

Betz: —besides the money that is doing the cost of due and then—because some people—I don’t want to say the word “whim” but I have it a lot. My mom’s all over the place. If I operate sometimes on my whim, I go over here and do this and I’m like “Oh God. I paid all that money, now I really want to do this, and now I’m going to do this.” Kids go through that all the time that’s why I keep telling them. So I’m just applying for 50 scholarships in your major area. General scholarships too because many of you are going to CHANGE YOUR MINDS.

Nancy: Minds. Yes.

Betz: My daughter be “I don’t want to be an engineer, dad. I want to be teacher.” I’m like “What?” and so she wanted to [unclear] and go be something else and I’ like “No, get your engineering degree that we got all the scholarships for and then go teach.” But she said no, I was in controlling because a boyfriend wanted her to follow. [unclear] though.

Nancy: Oh my goodness.

Betz: …my money. Trust me, if you give up those scholarships, you’re going to leave my car and my keys and go out—

Frank: Now we’re getting into the relationship stuff.

Nancy: Yeah. Yes, yes.

Betz: My wife and I had different thoughts but you know what my daughter got her engineering degree and she’s happy than she did and she’s making a lot of money and doing well.

Nancy: Sure. Very good.

Frank: Is there money out there for students who are not interested in going to college but technical school or vocational school?

Betz: Yes. They do as well and again, I don’t—I try to tell people because I will tell you a 4-year college isn’t for everybody. I know a lot will tell you “You got to go to college.” You know what, some people they want to be a plumber, they want to be an auto mechanic, they know that’s what they want and so when I sit in audiences and I kind of help the kid not feel bad because I tell them “That’s okay too” but I tell them at some point, you’re going to get too old, too round, too fat to be a plumber or whatever and so forth. So still get your education so after you get into this trade school and get you some scholarships and get money for that, after you do that, you can then learn to run your own business and hire younger people to do what you did to became an expert in because I’ll admit to you, plumbers and carpenters and a lot of them make more than teachers anyway.

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: But my thing is go to these 2-year schools, go to these technical schools, get your trade and get out there and work but still take business classes so that someday when you try to run your own business, you got to have a little background and understanding on stuff. So that’s just my thoughts that I’ve done right.

Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’re talking with Major Betz. He and his organization Scholarship Leadership Institute coaches young people towards finding funding for college while reducing the likelihood of incurring debt. Major Betz, please tell our listeners how they can find you and your services.

Betz: Again, at www.majorbetz.com. I also own the scholarshipdoctor.com, that’s who I am so [unclear] by the URL too and again, my services are there on my product page if you click the product button. There are services where there’s audio buying my book, plug-in to my 8-week scholarship program by getting into my [unclear] one year no kidding give me our kid and get out of the way and let’s get six and seven figures. I have programs for all of that, I have counsellors, I have essay reviewers, I have people on my staff who help me help your kids get the six and seven figures they deserve. I’ll say it one more time Frank, people who can all that money for tutors and for private college, private high school and this and that, when they’re doing all of that to get scholarships. So look at the return on investment.

Frank: If—

Betz: If you pay $150,000 when your kid’s in school, just so they can go to a college that cost $120,000, you could have paid for college cash.

Frank: Is there a budget that folks should have in mind or atleast a minimum, that folks should have in mind when they call you?

Betz: No. Okay so I have everything called $10 book, $19 out of your book. My main new program is starting on February 6 of 2015 called “The Scholarship Academy.” That’s when I take all the stuff that I’ve been doing with these coaching clients who pay me $4,995 to work with their kids and one-on-one. They pay and people are “Oh God, that’s a lot of money.” If you get $150,000, is that a lot of money? No.

Frank: Right.

Betz: It’s a return of investment. So and I—no guarantee anybody anything Frank, that’s what I do is guarantee they’ll get more with me than without me. I’ve turned people down if I didn’t think they can get six figures or atleast I tell them that I don’t think I can get you six figures so that if I pay it, they know that their daughter is with an understanding. I told them that they can’t but nobody’s ever done it.

So that’s the range but there’s new program for $997 and they can do 6 months paying with cash. That program will give them A through Z of what stuff you’ve been hearing today. I’ve been doing this for 11 years and nobody’s done this better than how I do it. Nobody.

Nancy: Fabulous.

Betz: And I make the parents and kids understand, I get them hope that they can get their scholarship but then I give them practical tips and techniques they can execute, products that they canput in their portfolio and then use it over and over again.

Frank: Would you talk about the importance of community service and the scholarship search process?

Betz: Great question. Great question because some of you’ll kids are running your parents after we crazy because you’re in a billion program. Some of your parents are writing your kid’s [unclear] because you’re putting them in a zillion programs. And you’re running from left to right, in and out. I’m saying pick a few programs if you’re going to do community service and do them over 9th, 10th, 11th, show 8 continual effort at helping the people at that home—a continual effort of doing this type of volunteers. So it shows that scholarship people. Wow look at how that kid stuck to what they did. On the same token though, I need you to understand that some schools don’t give a rip, don’t tear about your volunteering.

The University of Houston here, he’s infected. They don’t even look at your volunteering or your community service. So if you know that you know that you know that you’re going to a school like that, then instead of focusing your time or community service and then all these hours of volunteering, you need to be focused more on getting scholarships and the SAT and the grade so you can get into those schools. But it’s never good to cast everything in one area because you may change your mind about going to that school. So I say be a balanced kid. Have a balance attack but know that some schools don’t care about it.

Frank: What about letters of recommendation?

Betz: Okay.

Frank: Any tips on how to get them or if that important?

Betz: Okay. Let me just—one more thing before I go to that. The tuition fee schools, they are schools that don’t cost anything that go to it.

Frank: In the United States?

Betz: In the United States. It’s called “No Tuition Colleges,” “No Tuition Universities” and they will waive your tuition for you to come. Some of more waive your tuition and your fees and all you do is just go.

Frank: Alright.

Nancy: These are accredited universities?

Betz: Yes, ma’am.

Frank: They’re not just online? You actually go there?

Betz: Yeah.

Frank: You got the man laughing, Nancy.

Nancy: Well I thought you know, I heard somebody. I actually kind of eavesdropped in on a conversation about accreditation a few days ago. I actually forgot about it util I asked the question and— Gp ahead, go ahead.

Betz: Their school like LSU and other bigger schools would have some kind of accreditation problems with their engineering program, the Computer Science problem…

Nancy: Right.

Betz: And so even in some of the major schools have to have the [unclear] accredited school where you get credit from and again, back to Googling it but I teach my clients about those. On your question about—can you give me tips on giving even the importance of letter of recommendation—I think you said, I say be intentional. So I have kids as early as ninth grades who are listed and the tenth grade, they thought focusing in who they’re going to want a letter of recommendation from. And so Ms. Jenkins, or your civics teacher or your math teacher and you’re in her class, I have kids, “Hey Ms. Jenkins, [unclear] nice all you today. Oh ya’ll shut up ya’ll see Ms. Jenkins talking, ya’ll be quiet.” And Ms. Jenkins is going to remember that so when it’s time to write an essay, Ms. Jenkins is going to [unclear] a recommendation, she’s going to love doing it for you but more importantly, be intentional.

So if you know you’re applying for a certain type of scholarship and you need to get 3 letters of recommendation, find three people and say “Hey, you know about my academic prowess so I need—can you write an essay about me for my academic respective or my GPA? And you know me from volunteering, can you focus yours on volunteering? And then over here, another side, athletics or whatever area. You figure it out so when you put those essays together, then that’s saying the same thing. Got a 3.5 GPA, they did this, they did that. It’s three different stories being put together and I will tell you, I’ve written letters of recommendations for my son form his civics teacher because his civics teacher couldn’t write.

Nancy: Couldn’t write. There you—yes. Yes.

Betz: So I wrote it and said “Hey, if you don’t mind you say it’s your consideration” and then they signed it, just like I wrote it.

Frank: Very nice.

Nancy: And I also know from experience people that write letters of recommendation often ask that you give them—

Frank: A draft.

Nancy: —two weeks to write it.

Betz: I’m still glad you brought that up, Nancy.

Nancy: Yeah.

Betz: You give them time and also not if, you should have a resume.

Nancy: Okay.

Betz: Give them your resume so that they can take your resume, they got time and they can write it. that’s just fair because when you go to somebody, you got 3, 4 days, you wait ‘til the last minute just like you do with studying, your performance goes down if you wait ‘til the last minute. In short, the same when you’re adults.

Nancy: Okay.

Frank: As we wrap up, the one thing I want to drive home is optimal performance and so that being the area that my questions are about to come from, where would you say if grades, if my child is in the second grade, when do I start the scholarship search process?

Betz: When they’re—

Nancy: In the womb…

Betz: —babies. When they’re babies. I’m serious. Search right now. If you go to gerber.com, they have scholarships for infants. They’re being so little four year olds just to draw a poster to send it in. So you can get into that habit of doing it. I have my audience filled with people, the third grade and four look at me because they’re sitting with their big brother and sister and they go out and actually do it. that’s how the eleven year old got $50,000.

Frank: You’re serious?

Betz: …focus on teaching this 11 year old. I was teaching his brother who was lazy and I had an audience full of people. There’s moms, there’s principals, the big brother’s there but the little brother’s listening. So even “Mom can I apply?” and he started applying, started winning and the big brother’s saying “Wait a minute, I am not going to do it if it’s not an old boy beat me.”

Nancy: Right.

Betz: And that’s what happened. So you start them, get them into habit of expectation and they’ll do that. And then focus on that leadership Frank, I don’t know. I think you and I chatted about that about displaying that leadership. I think those kids need to take ownership of the profit. Parents are to be involved, we need to inspire them with either negative or positive motivation or incentivize ideas, whatever you want to call it. Make it where they have something to lose because when they have [unclear] they think they’re going to pay, they’re not as motivated as kids who know if I don’t do this, I’m not going to get to go to a 4-year college or the college of my choice because my parents are using Mr. Nippy or Major Betz as they call me, as the [unclear] where they invest in me and the kids don’t do anything. They say, “Well, I’m not going to pay for the debt of all these other stuff so they don’t have to waste money on that kid, not tell the kids don’t use me as a [unclear]. You do the work so we can get you some scholarships.

Frank: Absolutely.

Nancy: Right, right.

Betz: And as they apply for scholarships, write a thank you note. This is at leadership, this is where people will see them as leaders because they all write a thank you note. “Thank you for the money that you gave me if you have any more, I would love to have it. Thank you for considering my scholarship although I didn’t win it. If you have some people who back out, I could really use the extra money.”

So thank you notes work either way and so when kids take the time to write that, it’s definitely—they got a little branding, with their picture, their logo or whatever on their letterhead, people remember that. Makes you more, if I had more money to give, I would give it to that kid.

Nancy: Wow.

Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’ve been talking with Major Betz of Scholarship Leadership Institute. Major Betz coaches young people towards finding funding for college while reducing their likelihood of incurring debt. Major Betz, the last time, please tell our listeners how they can find you and your services.

Betz: I am at majorbetz.com, my business is called the Scholarship Leadership Institute because we focus on both and we travel around the country too. So if you see my events page, and I got an update it’s already on there. I’m coming at Atlanta at the end of the month on the weekend of the 30th. I’m going to set Atlanta on fire then I’m going to Albuquerque in New Mexico. I’m going to [unclear], I’m going to California at the Temecula area then I’m coming back to Dallas in Houston to set it on fire. But if you want me in your area, at your school, in your college, at your business, in your house—yes, I go to people’s houses and they bring their friends and family and I set them on fire because I tell them the same things I’m telling you and those kids get inspired, fired up and they go out and get scholarships. That’s what I want to do.

Visit mahorbetz.com to learn more about what it is that I do.

Nancy: Okay.

Frank: Along today’s journey, we’ve discussed small scholarships, community service and time management. All as it relates to finding money for college. I hope you’ve had as much fun as I had learning about the scholarship process and the wisdom of Major Betz.

As always, it’s my wish for you to walk away from this conversation with a heaping, helping of useful information that I hope you create a relationship that’s as loving and accepting as possible.

Let us know what you think of today’s show at facebook.com/relationshipflove, on Twitter at @mrfranklove or at franklove.com.

This is Frank love.

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