83. How to Find Your “Why” and Purpose with Bryan Hill

Do you wonder why so many adults are pivoting careers? Are you wondering why this trend is happening in the workplace today?

Listen in to this week as Sonia interviews Bryan Hill, a former teacher turned business owner who discusses the importance of students identifying their purpose or 'why.' Together they explore how understanding one's passions and motivations can guide career and college choices. Bryan shares his background and experiences, emphasizing the significance of human connections, networking, and reflecting on personal successes to help students and parents. They also discuss the Cup of Joey initiative, a community networking group focused on personal stories and human connection.

To connect with Bryan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-hill1992/

To learn more about Cup of Joey:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cup-of-joey/

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"Stay well, be present, and enjoy the journey"

Transcript

Bryan: 0:00

Hi, I'm Brian Hill and you're listening to the College and Career Ready podcast.

Sonia: 0:38

All right. Welcome everyone. Welcome to the college and career ready podcast. Today on our podcast, we have Brian Hill and Brian and I met, maybe what two months ago at a cup of Joey in Houston, Texas. We connected immediately because we were both very passionate about speaking about students identifying their why and their purpose and their mission for anything else before we start talking about college and and their future is really what's in their heart. So welcome, Brian. Welcome to the College and Community podcast. Thank you for being here with us today.

Bryan: 1:13

Tanya, thank you very much. And I am extremely honored to be here. It's a privilege to be on a show like this and be able to share any kind of knowledge with any, uh, any listener or anyone that's interested.

Sonia: 1:25

Why don't you introduce yourself to us and tell us a little bit about your background?

Bryan: 1:31

Yeah. So first and foremost, I'm a father of three. I've got two kids that are graduating twins. They're graduating this year. And trying to figure out and get them to college. my career started, it's funny. I was a teacher for 20 years, but it took five for somebody to talk me into getting into teaching. And I love it. Yeah. I loved it and would have stayed in the teaching, um, but I needed something to challenge me. So my background, I went into sales, had an opportunity in sales, business development, had an opportunity a couple of years ago to start my own business around sustainability. What I've learned is the value that I've gotten from this has been And now I understand kids. Now I understand the adults and the career path that they have. Being able to tie them in is this thing that I, this desire, this passion that I've all of a sudden found in my elder years, if you will.

Sonia: 2:21

Yeah, that's awesome. And, one thing that I love is your education background and then also being out, you know, in the workforce. Can you share with us a little bit about what led you to helping students identify their why now that you're out in education? Like, what makes you want to reel that back in?

Bryan: 2:43

it's so funny. The, um, when we started going to the cup of Joey, the, the energy and the understanding of how to have a conversation with somebody took it from a very transactional deal to a very transitional deal, which meant to me, well, you can make an impact on people and the, the community around you. So end of last year. I sat down with a, uh, an EDP lunch in here in the woodlands. And I listened to Mario Castillo, who was in, uh, who was just brand new chancellor at Longstar Community College. And he did a great job of understanding or explaining how kids were not coming to school. And the stat that he threw out is that 55 percent of his incoming freshmen would come back for their second semester. What it did was because of my understanding of purpose and why it, what it did was help me to start looking at what the kids did, where we're missing. Cause I'm in the Woodlands and this area in Montgomery County has phenomenal kids and a phenomenal education system, but there's still a lot that we're missing. So I started looking at the kids and what are they missing? It's purpose. They don't understand how to drive. And I sat down with, uh, Andrew at Cup of Joey, like, a month later, and we did an, a why, um, it's a, it's like a why test or why examination. And it took 25 minutes. You don't need this, but I did this just because he wanted me, he knew what we were working on here. And he said, just take this and let's have a conversation about it. It took 20 minutes. When I was done, he showed me what it put out, and I went, Oh my gosh, that's me. It's not that I didn't know who I was, but it allowed me to explain who I was, what my purpose and connect what I felt inside to the X, the outside world and created a passion. Those two events led to just the history of me being around my own kids, constantly coaching and being around kids for the last 27 years. To go, wait a second. There's something that we can build here and put together that would help kids understand how to connect with their purpose and drive the rest of their life and their career path.

Sonia: 5:03

That is amazing. And, it's funny you, you mentioned that because my own, um, course. I actually took it myself and it was, it's so like I can literally sit here and say, I know what my personal values are. It's family, education, community and service. and before taking my own course, couldn't really define that. I need parts and pieces of it. And one of the things that, you know, that I share now, knowing now what I know is that based on that is how you make your career choices in your career decisions. So that makes it a heck no or a heck yes. When you are confronted with opportunities, your career, your personal life, um, it's, it's pretty simple. It makes it, you know, black and white. There's no gray because you know who you are and it's so fundamental because in the education system, we're talking about science and math and academics and GPA, oh my gosh, the conversations around GPA and grades and tell me how many times have you been on an interview now, you know, they asked you. It's your GPA.

Bryan: 6:14

It's funny because it's, it's, I think I took it off my resume about five years ago. Um, and it's, you know, people do, do, they don't ask you, they just ask you, do you have a degree? They don't ask you what your GPA is. And it's funny what they ask you is what's your achievements. Um, and what I'm starting to see in a trend is, uh, they take, once they get past your resume. Is do you fit in with the company? How do you fit in with the company? Do you match what we are doing? And because they're also starting to see a large turnover in careers Uh very quickly and they're trying to find something to keep our youth focused

Sonia: 6:53

Yes, absolutely. And our Gen C's are, it's, it's a very particular group because they're very passionate. However, a lot of people will mislabel them by saying, Oh, they're not motivated No, it's not that. It's that they really have to be passionate about something. Something they really have to believe in something in order to give it, The 100 that it's required, you know or more now when they find what they're good at when they find what their passion Oh my goodness y'all better watch out because the gen z's are on fire

Bryan: 7:26

with the networking group of Cup of Joey and some of the other opportunities I've had, I've run across several of my former students and, um, to see where they were in high school and who they were and who they are now as young adults is amazing. And their passion is completely different than it is, or at least express different. But it was still the same back then. They just didn't know what it was. And now it's driving them to be, you know, one was a doctor of chiropractic that I met. Um, another one is leading a, uh, one of our chamber of commerce up here. He's the president and the director up here. Which is amazing to see these students, who you would have never guessed, that are doing great things. Based on passion. Based on why? Because they found it once they found it, they went, I'm gone.

Sonia: 8:19

Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Y'all be careful because once they find their why, their purpose, they're going to be on it 100%. So go ahead and share with us. How can students identify their why in high school?

Bryan: 10:00

Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the, um, I don't know that there is a lot of opportunity in schools right now. I think just being able to find the tools to separate them one from technology so that they can have that downtime, that time to where they can explore. Um, who they are and find out what really connects them. Now if you're looking at your purpose or what's driven and you want to tie that into a career path I think being exposed to people and their stories It's not how much money i'm going to make but it's more about What's your path? How did you get there? Um, what's driving you? What connected you? And then when you have those types of conversations, kids included, it's to me as early as seventh grade on, when they have those conversations then they start exploring who they are and what they stand for. Um, our schools do a great job of Our basic four and they do let kids choose what direction they want to go. But where I think we can get better is. Give them some information so they can choose better. And I don't know that we do that. I think there's an opportunity for growth there.

Sonia: 11:13

Absolutely. And, and, you know, I think 1 of the reasons why, why no pun intended, um, it's because, for example, in my course, there's a lot of self reflection. We really need to take a step back. And instead of like, hearing everything that's coming at you. You need to just stop and reflect. And so there is a lot of reflective questions that, unfortunately, maybe the education system is just, it's more traditional, right? Then the really self discovery and the ability to hire to ask your parents what when I was young, what was it that, Got me going. What was it that made me, um, you know, excited. So tell you a funny story. my son to have twins and my son, when he was little, he, he was one to two years old and we had a wagon and one of those, you know, to take out to the park, we had it inside because they wouldn't play with it. And one day he gets under the wagon and he just starts moving the tires. And I can tell that at that age, he wanted to know how does this work? How does this function? So guess what? That story is going in his journal because I want him as he's exploring careers, I want him to reflect on those moments where he was very inquisitive. And he actually even managed to flip the wagon because he just wanted to know how does this wagon work? How does it Function and, you know, as they get older, as they start going to school and they start doing all the, all the, the fourth, they start losing that connection with themselves. What really motivates them.

Bryan: 12:57

Yeah. And I think to add to that, one of the things that kids can do and parents can help them do is to kind of reflect on the last few times that they were successful. What did you do? What? That was very successful recently. Let them reflect. In there somewhere is a connection of purpose or connection of why now over time as we get older, you narrow down. You don't need to do that as much. Same thing with them, but for them, maybe you start in 7th grade and you just kind of periodically do that. By the time they're seniors, they are really connected because once they start to see that come up over and over and over. You start to go. Wait a second. That's me. It will help them to understand and make better decisions because they can say no when they want to say no, they can have the confidence to say yes when they have. Yes. And I think that's one of the things that parents can do simply to help kids is what are you doing now? That's successful. Let's look at how did you get through that briefly? Let's not go in depth and analyze it just briefly and help them out. Mhm.

Sonia: 14:03

Absolutely. And that's the same thing with projects at school, you know, team, teamwork, team projects. What is it that your child really enjoys the most? Because guess what? In a company, there is not one person that can do every single function in a company. There's people who are specialized in different areas, and that's what we have to really take a step back and and really reframe that because we're so our students are so used to believing that they have to be good at everything, and rather, we've got to figure out what they are good at themselves personally and what they're really inspired by right love that. okay. So how can identifying a student's why help them better for college and career? I know, I know there's a lot we talked about already, but how can we connect the dots? How does why and the purpose connect with college and career readiness?

Bryan: 14:56

Yeah, so once you know your why, once a kid knows his why or her why, and they're able to understand how to express it, or at least be close enough to understand it. When you start looking at understanding what a career is and connecting to that, I think it'll help them make better decisions. Several ways that you can do that. One, you can just simply do research online, but I think if you can find a better way to immerse yourself. Because where we get lost is usually in the day to day. If I can find where my why connects to this career, the day to day kind of goes away and it becomes more of a joy, then, oh my goodness, I got to get up and go to work today. And I think a lot of our kids, several of our kids I've talked to already, um, are changing jobs early on after a couple of years, simply because they missed that connection and they're prepared for the job they're prepared for, but they get out there and go, wait a second. My day to day is different than what I expected, or this is not what I expected. So I think what the biggest thing is ask stories, talk to people that are doing it and don't ask them how much they get paid, focus on what drove them. When you're talking to a business, focus on what is that business or what is that career path? What. What is the connector? What is the passion? What is the purpose of that business? When you understand that, then you can start gravitating towards it if it matches what you feel.

Sonia: 16:28

I love that because even within the same industry, each Company has different missions in different purposes. So it might be that someone is in the right field in the right job, but maybe the company's mission or purposes is a little different than what their own is. So if they start discovering that there are companies out there in the same field that are more aligned with their passion, they're going to be, um, better employee, and they're going to be performed a lot better because they feel that they're. They're part of a bigger mission, a bigger purpose than just your day to day job.

Bryan: 17:04

Yeah, and I think a lot of the kids today, as you said earlier, that was drive, you tap into that passion, they are more committed. So they understand that it's not about reading, writing, and arithmetic. It really is. Where can I add value and each one of us have a different purpose and each one of us have a different why so if you can find that team where I fit this why the company matches my why, but my why compliments the person next to me or the people I work with, then you're working for a team now you have a passion and you're tapped into something that you can do for a long period of time.

Sonia: 17:42

I love that. And we're going to be saving money in college, spending unnecessary costs in the career that's just not aligned with us. And we're going to save them from career pivots that we hear so much, you know, and I think after the pandemic, people really started questioning their day to day job. They really started questioning what's their biggest, biggest purpose in life. I think that's the shift that we're all encountering that Our youth is encountering and that's why we're having this big shift and career pivots out in the workforce that a lot of our students probably don't know. And that's when we are trying to help prevent that in the future.

Bryan: 18:18

Right? Absolutely. And I think the connection piece, I think the other thing that kids can do and that I've. Really encourage them, especially with a cup of joey group. We have, I think, getting out there and talking to people and getting into a network or a connection type setting to where they can really understand that type of conversation. A lot of times we are, our kids are locked into their own world or their own click and being able to get into an adult situation or a young adult situation where they can ask questions. How did you grow? How did you do this? Um, is important, but just very casual. It doesn't have to be an interview. It's just really a connection piece. And that's what we're kind of, we kind of need to grow to help grow the passion is that connection. I spoke with a gentleman. Um, he was in sales. I spoke with him and I just, I always like asking people their story. And I asked him, I said, tell me about, how did you get into what you're doing? He goes, Unique story. I went to junior college cause I always wanted to be a vet. So I went to junior college for a year and I studied my, my undergraduate stuff. And then I transferred to AMM. And after two years, I looked at going into an internship and I started interviewing and I found out how much they made, what they did. This guy had spent 60, 000, three years into school and decided. I don't want to do that. That's not what I want to do. So he was not, and we had a long discussion about the passion and if he would have known the passion piece of the connection piece to it and be able to make those two, he would have chose a different path at an earlier age. Oh

Sonia: 19:55

my goodness. Yeah. Absolutely and save themselves a lot of money. You know, I love that you bring in the connection and for our audience. Um, we just released an episode number 80 with Shia and Kennedy and their podcasters, and I love from their perspectives to high school students what networking means. So check that out. because it really and that's exactly what Brian and I are doing. We're redefining what networking is. It's not. Yeah. This business study where we're all talking about business. It's really about connection and getting to to know our community and know each other and really just hear each other's story because we all have a story to share,

Bryan: 20:35

right? Creating a deeper relationship with the person you're across from. Um, you know, it's funny. I, I get out in the community. I try to support our community as much as I can. Uh, and I'm one on ones and community groups. And I had a lady that walked up to me because this is the way we're trained. She walked up to me, she introduced herself. And then in the same sentence said what she does, and I think we're just trained to do that. And it was, I don't know that I connected with her or it was a misconnection there. Whereas the rest of the day at the conversations that I had were really more about who they were, their families, um, what's driving them. What are they working on now? Not, not how much you're getting paid. What can you do for me? But it was really focused on making a deeper connection. What that allows us to do. And, and I think this is the piece where. And maybe it's an American thing. I I'm not sure I've had, I've heard people say that. I think we missed the opportunity to understand that I might not have a business that can help you. You may not have a business that can help me or my kids or anybody, but I've got a giant network behind me of connections that we get connected on. And you and I have connected and had several conversations. I will connect you in a second with somebody in my network, if I can help you Our conversation never started with what do you do? How much money do you make? It was really talking about our stories and being able to connect with each other. And once we did, here we are sitting here and I would help you out and I'd help anybody out in that same connection. That was the biggest difference that I learned about two years ago that made a huge impact on my life. If I can teach kids and youth how to understand that, parents how to understand that, it makes. It elevates your energy. You feel the energy around you instead of sucking it out of everybody or having everybody. You're the energy provider. It makes a huge difference in the life and the people around you.

Sonia: 22:39

I'm glad to bring that up, Ryan, because it's hard for parents who are not, um, used to networking or building relationships. It's hard for them to, to teach their children, right? Because they just, they don't know. And, and we're going to get to Cup of Joey in just a minute, but this is where opportunities like Cup of Joey come perfect. Because if you don't know how to network, if you're learning yourself as a parent, then come on to Joey, you bring your child, you bring your teenager, and you're both learning together how to build relationships. And, you know, it's true. If you and I would have started a conversation about business, It probably would have stayed business and we'd have never discovered that we both had twins. They're both boy and girl. I mean, it's just the stories keep coming out and we would have never discovered that if we wouldn't have gotten past what we do for a living or, or, you know, business wise. And I think that's the beauty of all of this. Thank you so much for sharing all of your information and your experiences. Can you tell our audience about Cup of Joey because they keep hearing Cup of Joey and I'm sure parents are like, Oh, it's Cup of Joey. What is Cup of Joey? So go ahead and share that with us.

Bryan: 23:50

Yeah. So Cup of Joey is simply about making connections around a cup of coffee and focusing on people's why and their story. And it's, it's really about, Human connection, driving human connection with is something that we, as funny enough, it came out of the tech sector because we're so focused on our phones. We're so focused on our computers and every, you know, being at home that we miss the human connection, the piece that's going to, it's not AI. AI is not the driver for us. It's us. We are the ones that are going to make the bigger connection. So cup of Joey is a networking group that is centered out of the ion. Once every, uh, every Friday we meet from eight 30 to 10 30. It's a come and go just come and. Be part of the family. Say hello. Tell us your why. If you don't know, that's fine. And it's funny you say like, how do you bring your kids out there if you're not used to it? The biggest thing is step out of your comfort zone. That makes the biggest impact on your kids in anything is being able to step out of your comfort zone. My kids over the last couple of years have seen my company fail and the failures of the companies that we've done. They've gotten, we, our relationship has been better. Because of those things, because they see how I react to it because of the positive, because I understand my purpose and I understand why. So that's an opportunity I get to teach them that was stepping out of my comfort zone, bringing them is one of the things that I need to do this summer because there'll be off is bringing them and putting them in an area where they're uncomfortable the first time you're not going to be very good. That's fine. The whole point is, get up and come back the next time. There's also a couple of Joey's in, there's once a month in Katy, Space Center. Space Center one's really cool because you can go into Space Center after. Um, we have one in Sugar Land, of course I do the one which will be, um, the last Thursday of the month here in the Woodlands. Um, and, we also have one at Espersons, uh, Espersons building in, uh, downtown Houston.

Sonia: 26:01

Yeah, I love that. I love that so much because it's just getting out of your gut. Now, I'm a natural extrovert, which is funny because one day I need to share my old story. I wasn't always an extrovert. It wasn't until I became a parent. I was the introvert girl and once I saw the power and the beauty of, of building community and that's the one thing I wanted when I had my twins, I said, I am going to build community, I'm going to know my neighbors. I'm going to know my people around here because that's what I wanted to. That was my, gift to my Children. It ended up being a gift for myself.

Bryan: 26:36

Yeah, no. And it's funny because I've, um, you were talking about the pandemic earlier. Uh, I was the same way. I was, I played baseball in high school and I was, Kind of that nerdy guy, um, that just loved baseball and those were my most of my friends, but I didn't have a lot of friends fast forward through college. I played baseball chase that dream. One day I had somebody talk me into trying out for cheerleader at in college. I had no experience. I was like, no way. I ended up doing that for two years. And here I am in front of all these people. Um, you know, and you, the biggest, the biggest thing yeah. Just show up. You never know what's gonna. We had a friend when I lived in Baton Rouge who we were just looking for things to do. We started going on movie sets because his sister graduated. His sister graduated from LSU with the movie degree. So they were doing movies in Louisiana. We were extras. That was it. I ended up getting a part in a movie because they forgot to cast it. And I got a part throughout the Hollywood. All, all that just because I showed up. You Just show up. we keep it simple. One of my, one of the things from baseball, that was one, just show up. The other one that I, there's two others that I, um, focus on and I try to relate to my kids is when, what's important now, and then the kiss theory. Keep it simple. Stupid. But it's simply just the focus on what you got now and all this other stuff you worry about. Really doesn't happen. Just show up and keep it simple and open up. And you might find out she really liked people. You just never know.

Sonia: 28:14

I know. I know. And you know what? That brings in such a mindful moment because you're living in the present moment. And I think that's what we need. We all need to just be present where we're at. And so many things can come out of that just one moment. And for all our student listeners, we definitely want to share this with you. Your career is a journey. It's not an end point. It will be up. It will be down. It will be going to the right going to the left. There's not an end destination. It's a, it's a process that you should enjoy and what you decide right now. Here's a, here's the biggest, um, biggest secret. I'm going to tell you, if you identify your interest, your talents, your gifts. Your purpose, your wine, right? If you, if you identify those things early on, things might change. Your career might change, but it will just shift a little bit because you're still within your purpose. That's not going to change who you are. It's not going to change how you express that might change a little bit, but you're still going to be in the process. And that's the beauty of this is that it's almost like a, like a guiding point. And it's going to be with you the whole journey.

Bryan: 29:26

Yeah, I love that. You know, the one, um, just looking at different people's paths, including mine, I would have never guessed I am where I am now and doing the things that I've done simply because I thought I was going to be a baseball player. I was able to coach and it just turned out that my teams I coached were much better than me playing baseball. And it was an absolute honor and privilege to be able to do all of that. And I am so excited to share that and share the stories of the kids that I've had. The one thing that has just really intrigued me lately, um, with kids and understanding stories and people. Is I read this in a book and then I heard it again when you're speaking to somebody or listening to somebody on a podcast and we kind of get caught into agreeing and disagreeing. What if you flipped it to where you look through their eyes? So as you and I are having this conversation, you're telling me stories. There's something I may not agree with. However, if I look through your eyes and try to see your perspective, then it gives me an opportunity to see life completely different. And it gives me a, it's like looking at a painting. We both can look at the same painting, but we see different things. If I understand your perspective, I get a better opportunity to learn and it opens my mind to be able to explore things that I would have never thought of. If I worry about, I disagree with you, then it's the same thing. It closes the door. Yeah, it closes the door and it goes back to the networking piece of, this is what I do. It's not about what you do, it's about who you are and it's about your purpose.

Sonia: 31:06

I love it. What a beautiful way to wrap it up, Ryan. Thank you so much for being here with us. Is there any other last minute thing that you want to share or tell us where people can connect with

Bryan: 31:17

you? Yeah. Um, the, the biggest thing is, you know, I read a book a while back that made a huge impact, changed my life and it was called mindset. And it's about really understanding your mindset and the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset that opened my mind. It was huge for me. If you ever want it for me, it's easy to get in touch. I'm on LinkedIn. Uh, find me on LinkedIn at Brian Hill. I'll be under the Cup of Joey app. We come to a Cup of Joey. Reach out to me. I'd love to connect. I will tell you this. One of the things that I do with anybody that I haven't met personally, I'll send them or they send me a request. I'll always want to know. I'll send you my why, but I'll always want to know your why. When you respond and give me your why we'll connect.

Sonia: 32:02

I love that. Thank you so much, Brian, for being here with us. I really appreciate it.

Bryan: 32:07

Tanya. It was an absolute pleasure. I am honored. Thank you very much for your time.

Sonia: 32:12

Thank you.

32:13

Thank you for listening in. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much to me. If you share it with a friend, a colleague, or your own community, if you share it on social media and tag me, I'll make sure to personally thank you. My two favorite places to hang out are Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our show notes for a direct link. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. And as always stay well, be present and enjoy the journey. I'll talk to you next week. Adios.