The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Martin Easley - Pioneering Literacy Education and Balancing Family with NesCorp Founder
Unlock the secrets to career success and personal fulfillment with our latest episode, featuring Martin Easley, the visionary founder of NesCorp. Through an engaging conversation, Martin shares his incredible journey from a public speaker to a pioneer in the field of literacy and job readiness education. Learn how the influence of his educator mother and his own experiences shaped NesCorp's innovative approach to addressing the widespread issue of functional literacy in the labor market. Discover the game-changing partnership with Google that offers online scholarships and personalized support, helping individuals improve their skills without the fear of standardized testing.
But that's not all—Martin also opens up about the complexities of balancing his professional aspirations with family responsibilities. In this heartfelt segment, he talks about the release of his book "The 10 Pages of Me" on Amazon Kindle and the ongoing effort to maintain strong connections with his grown children, despite their diverse life paths. Get valuable insights into the dynamics of modern communication, the importance of face-to-face interactions, and traditional manners in both personal and professional realms. Tune in for practical advice for job seekers on personal engagement, continuous self-improvement, and understanding company cultures. Don't miss his inspiring thoughts on the importance of listening, persistence, and staying true to oneself while navigating life's myriad challenges.
Well, my name is Martin Easley, the name of the business is NesCorp and it's an acronym for the National Educational Support Corporation. And what we do, the basic function, is to help people get into the job or the career that's to their liking, and oftentimes that's like a massive challenge given the labor market, and oftentimes that's like a massive challenge given the labor market. So we want to make people's skills better and that kind of goes back to you know, I initially started this because I was doing lectures and things across the country with different organizations and I would notice that, dealing with some of the people who were in these, in these lecture circuits or these classes, they couldn't understand some of the language and some of the nomenclature that I'm using. But it's the industry that we're all in at the time. And so I said you know what? We have?
Speaker 1:A functional literacy issue, and I say functional in terms of the job and how people understand either the written word or the spoken word, and so that was kind of the driver. So we service clients, we try to help them get job training and along the way we try to put drips of education, if you will, and without it looking like education, and so that's essentially what we try to do, and you know we've been fairly, I would say, successful in doing that. But that's the crux in it, in short.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the core of the business.
Speaker 1:How did?
Speaker 2:you get into this. You said, you started doing public speaking. Well kind of what was the path that led you?
Speaker 1:I blame my mom. I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off but, I, blame my mom um, for whatever reason, and I know I kind of in my, in the back of my mind, I know, but she would always have me reading and reading. But she was a an educator.
Speaker 1:So she did that at home. If, like I would mention, if you were my friend and we were going to go out and play, you came over my house uh, to get me out of the house, you know, you had to read something, and so did I, and then you had to just not read it, but you had to articulate or tell her what was it. What was it about? Give her your thoughts. It was really an arduous process, for real. I was like don't do this.
Speaker 2:Sounds like she set you up with a good foundation. I think she did.
Speaker 1:For reading. Yeah, she did, she definitely did, and I appreciate it. I saw her this past weekend and I tell her you know, this is the most invaluable thing that you ever did for me, did you?
Speaker 2:feel like that at the time.
Speaker 1:No, no, when I was doing it, I know I gave her headache after headache after headache. I was the out of my brother and myself. I'm the rebellious child, if you will, the wild one. Yeah, there you go, the wild one, but nonetheless she stayed steady with the goal and ultimately I ended up training people and teaching people. I was in a classroom with the Department of Labor, a Serato group, and it was just beneficial overall and I'm still thankful for it and I'm still learning every day. And that sounds cheesy.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:But the reality of it is there's just this concophony of information, that, and now with the phones and our digital environments, it's just a lot and you can be on overload all of the time. But I do appreciate it. It was, it was the catapult for me to start doing public speaking. She had me doing, started out doing like poetry, reciting poetry, and we did, you know public speaking, and I got into history, sociology, all of those things, and it was beneficial.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah, at minimum. Yeah, so that kind of led you to where you are today with your company.
Speaker 1:That did Because when she started Meow, the issue of literacy and actually when you think about it in this country and how we perform literacy and numeracy are challenges. They have been for a while, and so I decided to go the route of attacking literacy through the career path and, like I say, we try to do it where it doesn't look like literacy or doesn't look like a standardized classroom, because we know, at the end of the day, how that's worked for us.
Speaker 2:How do you guys go about doing that?
Speaker 1:So we'll basically do it through small programmatic pieces, like right now, we have a partnership with partner with Google, a partnership with Google, so we do the Google scholarships and if somebody, so we interface. If you're a student, you're online, it's all online training, but we we like to, I like to interface with you and I like to get to know you. And then I like to find out, without bashing you, where are the deficiencies, without making or putting you on the spot, if you will, for what deficiencies could be Typically, what a standardized test or something will do. You know, as I've always been one to say this, not to digress, but what's behind the eyes we never know.
Speaker 1:You know, and when you get into that part, then you have the ability to instruct or help or coach or whatever the case may be, because essentially it's it's almost like you know, we have, it's a poem, we wear the mask and because of the way societal norms, folkways and all of those things can come into play with a person, come into play with a person, it's a little challenge and I know it's challenging, or it can be challenging for one to say, hey, these are my deficiencies, hey, this is where I need work, or whatever the case may be, for just a basic job function, just basic communications, and so that's ultimately always the driver, and so we do a checks and balance to see if we find a deficiency here. I'm going to try to approach it in a way that's not intimidating to one and that looks different with everybody. Sure, because everybody comes from obviously a different background.
Speaker 2:Sure gets intimidated by different things. Exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's definitely the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Speaker 1:most rewarding I seeing somebody with a success, and sometimes I'm I honestly I'm impatient with it because I want to see a result here or a change, but I have to be realistic in the scope of what is happening, that that's not going to come instantly or we may not see it and oftentimes you may never hear hey, there was a great change and this was what it was and it changed the trajectory of my life. And you ask that and I say that in that sense because I had a student when I was with the Job Corps Centers, with the Serato Corporation and the Department of Labor. I got what we call the rough region, it's called the Philadelphia region, but it's the DC area, all of those areas. Nonetheless, I would get students who everybody else they would be like no, I'm not dealing with them. Well, at the end of the day, I just had a student. Just call me and this was rewarding.
Speaker 1:To your point, or to your question, a student called me and he said you know, easley, and this guy was one of these guys. He was with gang all the whole nine yards, gangbanger, all that, and he's like Iza. I had to call you up and I'm saying well, what's going on and he says I have to tell you, it's been 10 years, but I finally got what you said. And I'm like, wow, what did?
Speaker 1:I say yeah, yeah, and that's you know, that's the thing I said a lot to these students. Right, we never got into that, but I would always, you know, teach them in terms of axioms of life and develop that inner person, you know, in a very focused way. You know, I always taught them the one thing. It's just like a rinse and repeat. You know whatever you're doing, you know be able to assess it, you know if there are changes you need to make, make those changes and then retool it to do the action again. If it's something that you're interested in doing, it's just a reassessment and then make another action. Maybe there's a small adjustment that you have to make and that adjustment, what I have found, is always internal, is always internal. First, you know, and then it's it's. It's almost like you know you have to grow inside and then let that come out, in opposed to let me deal with the exterior and then the interior, because you're going to yes you'll be on a hamster wheel, otherwise, Sure.
Speaker 2:So what did that student say to you? What was the advice that stuck with them for 10?
Speaker 1:years. It was kind of funny, but you know they were talking about a statement. I used to tell them all the time I said I was born at night, not last night.
Speaker 2:Born at night, not last night, right, so I?
Speaker 1:would tell them that because these guys so that was, that was what he was referring to and I'm like, well, what do you mean? And he said he finally got it. And I'm like, okay, well, you finally got it. But he had the understanding, as I perceive, that you have to be real with yourself first, and that's, that's that, if you had known this young man from the beginning, was a massive change in his mindset and that also was the focus that I would teach these guys. While I'm teaching them, teaching them a technical skill, I'm, I'm, I'm giving them life nuggets, if you will, uh, to keep them off the hamster wheel of you know, we all get on them in some form or fashion.
Speaker 2:We all do at some point. We don't mean to Right, it just happens sometimes. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to teach them or impart to them. A part of what he was saying was you know, leave that comfort piece alone. And you know things that I would also tell them oftentimes, which I tell anybody you. I don't want it to be taken the wrong way, but it's great to be positive. We have to be positive, I mean just for your own self-preservation, but when you run into things that are not so positive or they can dissuade you or whatever, you have to put a stop to it. Right, you know, right then, and there, Otherwise you'll be under the guise or under the auspice that, for whatever it is, it'll be manipulating you.
Speaker 1:You know your actions, whether it's your thoughts, I mean you just think, even now, how we use and how we consume the cell phone. And I've had that's the battle with students that I've had. It is and, but, but you think about it I try to teach, or I've tried to impart to all my students. Let's, my students, let's look at what focused attention is, you know, because we can spend, and that can be selective, because we can spend 20 minutes very easily on a cell phone, in the scroll, in the scroll track.
Speaker 2:An hour goes by. I'm like what happened.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's just consuming. And so the end part of what I would tell this what are you going to do in life? Are you going to be just a consumer or a producer? And that's the part, I guess, that he finally got. And I have to revisit that conversation, but I haven't been able to talk to him. But I definitely will. But you know, and that's ultimately what I go on, that's what makes me thrive. I think I like to see successes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that was.
Speaker 1:That was one case, but if I can not to digress on the question, but the fact is we did a service with the School of the Deaf and Blind in West Virginia.
Speaker 1:The most satisfying moment that I've had with that in terms of I felt like a massive success watching this girl who she will never see what she put together. She's blind I mean literally, and there's no correction or way to correct that. Nonetheless she puts together this laptop. We did a laptop program where they build it. It's almost like what they call it build it, keep it, share it program. But nonetheless we did that and, like day three of this workshop, the face and the expression of her knowing that she finished this, you know, was like I'm thinking to myself what am I doing in life For real if this girl who has never seen any daylight or anything and will not if she does this with the challenges, could come with these little bitty screws, this that, all the nuances to it, you know I said man, I can't complain about anything Right Looking at her face and just her gratitude and how grateful she was for the opportunity, and that was something that you know.
Speaker 1:I try to canvas for people with disabilities a lot because but that one hit home for you. That one, that one was the, that one was the one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how do you go about finding your clients?
Speaker 1:Typically it's through a referral service, like right now, we're, we're, we're entertaining. We haven't sealed everything up with the Department of Rehabilitative Services, especially to offer our Google scholarships, because we have, you know, we have 400 scholarships. I think we're done. We started out with 400. We're down to 25. So right now, you know, they have a lady just reached out to me, they have a student who's interested in one of the programs and they range from, you know, like cybersecurity, you know, to project management or marketing, whatever, but nonetheless, you know that's how we typically acquire them, or just basic marketing. Or they say, hey, I need to do this or that, and they have an interest in what we offer.
Speaker 2:And it's people that are looking to make a change in their life, career wise, that need support and skills.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:To be able to do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, typically somebody who's looking to make a change or an upgrade on a job and I don't want to say life skills, because I feel like I've heard it so much. It's almost sounding like cheesy to me because at the end of the day, we keep scrolling past, getting into the meat of what it is to make that happen, and I'm like you know at the rate that things are coming at us and that's everybody. It's almost it's ridiculous. So how do you really teach something that sticks? I don't know that's that. What do they call it? Teflon test?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if it sticks, you know, you're okay, but if it doesn't, yeah, you're not. So it's a change, and while we are transforming to make everything, you know, everything is offered online. So you know, this is where we're going and I'm excited about that. We want to do, you know, several engagements of public speaking and so forth.
Speaker 2:Moving forward. Where do you see it all going in the next few years? What?
Speaker 1:are the big goals. The big goals. I'd like to be able to set everything up or get everything in motion so that I'm able to write, Cause I and I and I didn't bring this book, but I have the first book that I've actually written. Um, it's called the 10 pages of me. It's on Amazon Kindle and, the way they set it up, it's an e-book at this point, so I'd like to be able to write fictional short stories and just write about the experiences that I've gone through. I mean, I'm not young, so I have a couple.
Speaker 2:You seem pretty young.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that, but yeah, so I'd like to be able to take some time. I have kids and they're all in Florida, but they're all grown now, and so I'd like to take some time and revisit with them on a regular basis to say, hey, you know, we'll just see how you're doing, do these things work, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2:What could I have done differently?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah. Did you ever ask your kid that that I have not.
Speaker 2:That's a to-do list item. Yeah, I haven't either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I need to, because I listen, to be very candid, I have two boys, two girls in the same city of florida and, uh, one one is a cop. I mean he's I'll call him robo cop because he's like this big cut to the butt guy. He's like he's always wanted to do that, but so he he's. I'll call him Robocop because he's like this big cut to the butt guy. He's like, yeah, he's always wanted to do that, but so he's following his passion. And the other one, I have to keep him in much prayer, if I may say that, because he had a problem with drugs and I think it was that. What is that stuff? Fentanyl? Okay, so I think it was, was that. But now he's off of that, but he's living in the woods.
Speaker 2:So you've got two boys on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. So I look at that and I'm like what is happening, what happens in life for real, that this comes.
Speaker 2:Because you parent them.
Speaker 1:The same right, yes yes, and the older one who was having some challenges, but now he's like I say, he lives in the woods, he's an awesome guy, but he was one of these guys, gifted and talented, and so he played in like the youth symphony at a young age. He started college before he was in college age, all those things, and I think he just got bored with a lot of scenarios. But yeah, they're two bipolar opposites I mean polar opposites, if you will but it's like a challenge and I look at them and I look at people that we interface with and I'm just saying, wow, we can maybe address that challenge here or whatever that challenge may be, because that's somebody's son, that's somebody's brother, daughter, sister.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, and the way you know, just classic example, you could go to Walmart, anywhere that you go, and you see how you see some of the dynamics of people. I'm not sure about this area, you know, but the fact is I see some pretty outlandish I want to call them relationships just in terms of the modes of communication that people you know, whether they're the parents talking to the kids or vice versa.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, you know, and that takes it into another realm, though, outside of just training for a job, and that's what we try to input is like, simplest way to put it is let me teach you some manners, or let me teach you just some basic etiquette for the job, Because now it's I mean, I'm not a screen. You can't just swipe me away, you know, and that's kind of the crux of where we are.
Speaker 2:Nothing beats that face-to-face right.
Speaker 1:It really doesn't.
Speaker 2:What are your top skills, that you or maybe your top five pieces of advice for someone looking for a job and in regards to the way things are these days? I always tell my kids don't hide behind the screen. You want that job, you show up. Go ask to speak to somebody. Right, right, no one has time to sit down and look at 200 Indeed resumes.
Speaker 1:This is so true, yes, it is always that and it seems old school, but it's similar to what you're saying. I mean, go to the place. I always tell somebody go to the place, make contact with somebody you know, so that you're just not that you know resume, because ultimately that's what you've tried. And the fact is is that I'm like you know, go shake somebody's hand, get some eye-to-eye contact, you know, and get a name.
Speaker 2:You know some old-fashioned advice, if you will Right, it is and that's unfortunately, but it's tried and true.
Speaker 1:It is, it is definitely, but that would be the one. The other one would always to be to improve yourself, and I'm going to say this in the business of education. But you don't have to have a degree Not to bash education, but at the end of the day, it says you paid the bill. You know, and I look at that in just the way people are now, the way we learn our habits, and now looking at some big manufacturers, you know they're replacing us with robotic and automated processes.
Speaker 2:Very quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and to a scary degree. But I would tell them, you know, meet somebody face-to-face, get a name, understand the dynamics. If you can research the company you know, because it may be. You know some companies, they operate, I can't talk, they operate straight.
Speaker 2:Differently from each other.
Speaker 1:Differently from each other, but they operate on. I've noticed over the years on a lot of this word nepotism, and that never really fares well, because if I hire you just because you're my friend, that says one thing. But you know, uh, are you, are you truly apt for the job, or did I pass somebody up who had the skillset to make it thrive and just not survive, right, you know. So those are. Those are, I guess, a couple of the things that I would um say, and it's always the followup contact is is massive, you know it. It is how, how do we? How do we, how do we do that? How consistently do we do that? And then I guess it's probably four things, but be genuine yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, be genuine, be real with yourself. First you know, and then you know that will be known. You know, once you meet somebody, shake their hand and and not deal with just the screen, if you will, or them just looking at you, like, like you say, you know you want to look at a few hundred resumes or applications on. Indeed, that tells you nothing until it never has with me and I've been a career trainer for a while, about 20 years but the fact you know I can see you perform here, but once you get out let me just call it into the public, into the job environment or the labor market, how do you perform? Can you still?
Speaker 1:do it, can you still?
Speaker 2:do it Under pressure, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that, that that translates and comes out differently. You know what we learn. I got a whole lot of stuff that I've learned, but can I, can I apply it on a real-world?
Speaker 2:situation yeah, a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 1:That's a challenge I would say to somebody make sure that you're able to do that.
Speaker 2:As we wrap up here, are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with? Any other words of advice, business-wise, or maybe a mantra that you live by?
Speaker 1:Business-wise I'm not going to say it like that, but business wise know who you get into business with. Uh, that is so critical and all. You should really listen to some of the people because you'll have a lot of input. You, you know about everything, what you're starting out or whatever. Because I and I say that was a small example I had input on one of the team members who stayed around the longest and the fact of the matter is I was advised several occasions no, don't do this, don't deal with this person. But I'm one I'm going to say no, I can, we can do this and whatever we come into, we we can correct. Well, everybody was right. I'm eating the mistake that I made, but I've learned from that. You know, and if if somebody tells you that and not for any personal reasons or anything, but if some, if people tell you, give you advice and you keep hearing it and it's reiterated over and over again, you might want to listen to it, right, you know, because that's just one person saying it.
Speaker 1:Right, right, A multitude of people. If they say it, you probably want to go by that and I'm kind of a numbers person. I go by the numbers.
Speaker 2:You kind of check yourself a little bit?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and I guess, lastly I don't mean to take too long, but lastly, you know you have to fight, never, never give up the fight, never get out of the fight. Yes, you know, even if it looks like you are, maintain your own, maintain who you are. Don't lose sight of who you are in the noisy world that we're in to pursue your vision, you know, and that that would be it, that that's enough.
Speaker 2:Pursue your vision, you know, and that would be it. That's enough, that's a good one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we do a lot of stuff, we say a lot of stuff, and it can derail us from our vision, from what we're trying to do, our passion or whatever the case may be, but you have to be in hot pursuit of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah and stay focused.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the hard part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you for being here today, martin.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing your story with us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was a pleasure to have you. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2:I do.