 You guys asked for it. I went out and found it. You wanted me to find somebody who went through an apprenticeship program so that they could come on the channel and share their story. So Pete graduated from high school, had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, and like so many other people, he decided to go to college in order to find out. Now college is probably the most expensive way that you can ever figure out what you want to do with your life. And I always tell people, unless you're going into college with a strategy with a very concrete plan, you probably shouldn't go. So Pete attended college for a little bit and he realized that the classes weren't really teaching him that much and he didn't really have a plan. He didn't think he was going to get anything out of the degree. So he started looking for alternatives and he stumbled upon an apprenticeship program called Discover Praxis. So this is going to be Pete's story. If you appreciate me doing all the work of going out there, finding people to come on the channel, go ahead, gently tap that like button. Let's try to get this one to 300 likes and let's jump into it right now. What's happening guys? So today I am very excited to bring Pete onto the channel. Pete actually attended an apprenticeship program and it was not in the trade. So it was an apprenticeship program that basically helps you to decide what career you want to go into first of all. And then second of all, it will get you an apprenticeship in that career path. So I'm super excited to hear about this. This is something I posted on the channel. Everybody wanted to see it. So Pete, thank you so much for coming on the channel. Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Shane. All right. So let's go ahead and start at the beginning before you even discovered the apprenticeship program. So kind of walk us through like your your situation at the time and how you discovered the apprenticeship program and which one it was. Absolutely. So my I guess education or career journey was is a typical one started in high school obviously was like many others was just trying to figure out which college and what I wanted to do with my life. So I was leaning towards the college route. So I had actually went to Regis University here in Denver, Colorado. Unfortunately my career or excuse me, my college experience wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and what I expected it to be. Just because of, you know, the indoctrination that was happening, I wasn't satisfied with the what I was being taught. I felt like it was a major wasted opportunity in the sense where spending a lot of time in classrooms doing busy work. I was undecided for first year, just given that, you know, many people and my teachers included in high school were telling me, go to college, go to college. Even if you don't know what you want to do, just go to college because at least you'll you'll figure it out over time and you will eventually have a college degree to fall back on regardless of what had to happen. So this was back in 2019, 2020, that year. So I was undecided for my major. So throughout the year, I was just finding myself very unmotivated, very quite frankly, depressed with my situation. I wasn't a big fan again of what I was being taught, what direction I wanted to go. So I kind of just stuck through it to my core classes, tried to at least get that out of the way before figuring out my, or excuse me, my major. So this was right before COVID had happened. So once COVID happened, everything went more digital. We're doing zoom classes and stuff like that. That's when I was like, I guess the pinnacle of my dissatisfaction. I'm like, well, they teach us the same thing through zoom, but it's still useless in my opinion. So I was like, man, I wish there was alternative out there. But again, this is freshman year, still very green in terms of what I wanted to do in my career, even what major that I wanted to select. So we were quarantined for throughout that year. Come summertime, my dad was actually watching Fox channel. He recognized that I was very unsatisfied with my education at the time. And here comes Isaac Morehouse, the former CEO of Discover Praxis. And he was just talking about everything that I was experienced, dissatisfaction with my education, a lot of indoctrination going on in the college education system, and just quite frankly, a use of useless use of time. So I was very intrigued with his value proposition with, hey, a lot of people are going to start opting out of college because again, college is just an overrated system. And like we talked about before starting the recording, it's a dying breed. It's not entirely useless, but there are going to be a lot more opportunities for alternatives out there. And that kind of got me on the bandwagon. I started doing my research because I was like, I had never heard of an alternative at that point. So I thought it was a scam, initially. And then come summertime, again, this was during COVID. So I was like, you know what, what I'm going to do is go ahead and take a gap year because I figured that if it doesn't pan out with this college alternative program and Discover Praxis, at least I could always go back to college. So I took a gap year, just wanted to try it out. I submit an application, they're highly selective. So I was like, I'm going to submit an application. If I get denied, I still have college. And if I submit an application, I get accepted. I'll take a gap year, go, if it doesn't pan out, go back to college. So I had submitted an application. Thankfully, I was accepted. And then the rest is history. I never went back to college. I found great success going through the program with landing a career and what I'm doing now, which is sales. And overall, very satisfied with my experience with Discover Praxis and I'm very happy in the situation I am at this point in my career. Got it. Yeah. I agree with a lot of what you said there. I know that, you know, there's a lot of different countries out there. They have all different range of political systems and everything. And the United States is the only country where education costs a ridiculous amount, at least the only country that has a lot of people where education costs just an arm and a leg here. I'm glad that I brought you on today so we can talk about one of the alternatives to college, which is an apprenticeship program. And so you discovered Praxis, which, you know, is an apprenticeship program. They're very selective. They only, I think they only select around 150 to 200 people every year because they're extremely hands on with how they help people decide the best career for them and then get into that career. So kind of tell me about your experience working with Praxis. Absolutely. So just to give a little bit of context to how the program sort of operates. So there is, as of right now, things are constantly changing. They're constantly innovating the college alternative program. But how it goes is there's going to be a three to six month bootcamp. That's where you're learning anything in the corporate world. So it's just giving you the basic information on how to be valuable in a certain corporate position. So that's anywhere from operations, marketing, sales, and customer success. So during that time, it's going to be broken up into one month. It could be focusing solely on the marketing side of things, understanding what's valuable in the actual job market. And then it goes to sales, customer success, so on and so forth. So my experience was great. So I had went through that three to six months, just really building up my skills, building up my portfolio during that time. You spend coming up with, you spend that time coming up with projects that you can then add to your portfolio and share with the hiring manager eventually. So that's when we're doing anything like chatbots, coming up, finding, doing prospecting for any tech startup, generally, and then sharing that information with the hiring manager to prove, hey, I might be green in my career, but I can be valuable because I'm motivated enough to learn about these skills so I can make an immediate impact or at least demonstrate that I'm a self-starter to be able to learn about anything that you can throw my way as a someone that's early in their career. So after that three to six months, it goes to job placement. So fortunately for me, I didn't have to go through that because since Discover Practice is big and networking, they have a lot of partners that they will place you at a job or at least get your foot in the door with one of the hiring managers at a tech startup. I didn't go through that process, but generally they help you submit applications, build out your resume, sharpen up your portfolio to start going into the roles that the aforementioned roles of marketing, sales, anything related to that and demonstrate your value there. So then you start developing pitches, trying to, again, get your foot in the door and prove to a hiring manager that you're valuable. So that's anything through value propositions and emails, even cold calling the hiring manager or the head of sales, creative things to, again, get in front of a hiring manager to prove you're valuable to kickstart your career. So fortunately for me, though, again, since Practice has that network, I was reached out with the job offer or an interview that eventually became a job offer at a tech startup called Bear Metrics. So at that point, I got to start off my career, stood there and then I bounced around in a couple Xenon portfolio companies. And that's when I started to launch my career and been doing sales ever since, but that's how my experience with Practice and then how that got me to put my foot in the door and got me kickstarted with my career. So basically in the first like three to six months or so of you going through the program, they're kind of helping you figure out what you want to do with your life essentially. So they're helping you evaluate like, hey, what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? What are my passions? What what am I innately just really good at? What do I already have a lot of experience at and things like that? So and then you decided to go into sales, you decided to go into like kind of cold calling a tech sales type of role like sales development representative business development representative type role, which is one of my favorite roles that I recommend on the channel. And how do you think that matches with your personality? Do you think that that's like a really good, you know, at least like entry level job that's going to help you to achieve your goals later on? Or do you think it matches with your personality relatively well? Absolutely. So I'm naturally, I'd like to think of myself naturally extroverted. So I like talking to people that's definitely one of my things. And then I'm just a naturally curious person. So when I heard about the idea of working as B2B SaaS sales sort of space, I was very intrigued with it, making cold calls for a living and sending out emails. It's really psychologically driven. So trying to what what makes people tick, what makes people want to respond. That's what got me into it originally. But during the program, I think it helped me realize that developing those skills of how to make a pitch during a cold call, how to communicate effectively in the workspace or professional space to other professionals was very appealing to me, because I think that again, being able to communicate that value, being able to articulate yourself and speak clearly was very aligned with my future goals of wanting to be an entrepreneur at some point, whatever that might be. Eventually, I figured starting off in a B2B SaaS sales space was definitely something that I felt could be very valuable long term. So absolutely. I mean, you're you're spot on, in my opinion. That's what I recommend. Anyone who asks me, Hey, what's your advice? I want to start a business. My first piece of advice I give them is learn a valuable skill, get a steady income from that valuable skill. And then after you've gotten a steady income, start your business on the side. And then once it gets to a certain size, then you can kind of jump ship, so to speak. That's kind of the analogy, right? You're on a ship and then you're building like a raft on the side. And the ship is your steady income and skill that you have. And then you can build that raft. And once the raft gets to a certain size, okay, you can jump shift and jump ship and get on the raft and do your own thing. And that can be great because there's a lot of freedom. You could potentially make a lot more money than a normal job. But I don't think that's the main reason people do it. I think most people do it just for the freedom, the flexibility, and just the passion side of things, just doing what they want. So I would say you're definitely on the right path. That's the advice that nobody really gives that advice because it takes a long amount of time to do it. And usually when people give advice on business stuff online, it's like, I'll buy my $1,997 course, make $10,000 next month. And that's what sells, but that's not the best advice in my opinion. So I really like the direction you're going with that. And it's great that they kind of found a career that has a lot of demand. It pays really well. And it's entry-level. You can get in without a college degree or too much experience. And it's also something that matches your personality really well. So it looks like Praxis is doing a really good job there. So awesome. Let me go ahead and ask you a question. If you're not comfortable answering this, that's totally fine. But I'm going to ask it anyways. Either how much were you making with the entry-level role or how much generally speaking can people expect that go into that role at the entry level? How much can those people expect to make? Yeah, that's a great question. So it depends. I could talk a little bit to my personal experience and then generally speaking for at least my role and then the potential of becoming an account executive in the B2B SaaS industry. So for me personally, it's 35 K is the base pay and then 70s with commission. So that's pretty typical of any BDR or SDR. That's going to be, that could range depending on the company. I know a lot of other companies that start off a 50 base and then it's more 70 on target earnings, which is again, that commission, other commission part of it. So that's how much I'm at right now. And then for an account executive position, which is just a step up above that BDR or SDR level is going to be anywhere from 60 K to 120 K on target earnings. So 60 being that base and then 120 being on target earnings. So for those who aren't familiar with it, on target earnings is going to be commissioned. So you have your tasks with a monthly or quarterly quota. So if you hit that every month, then it's going to be totaling to that on target earning of in my case, 70 K and then that account executive case of 120. So generally it's going to be a 50 50 split of base pay. And then that commission of equaling your on target earnings. Okay, got it. And one thing I wanted to clarify a little bit. So during the first six months, were you actually making money during that time? You were actually in a job making money during the first six months of the apprenticeship, or did I hear that incorrectly? So yes, I was, but not during the program, like doing work for the program specifically. So I actually had a full time job at a warehouse at the time. So I was working and then outside of working hours, I was working on discover practices, going working through the program. Got it. And then the second six months, did they get you sort of like an apprenticeship where you were making money during the program? Is that how it worked? Yes, absolutely. And my apologies. I'm kind of all over the place. I get really excited talking about the program. But let me talk a little bit about the program entirely, and then I'll break it down into where I was making money and being compensated. And when I finally found my role. So the three first three to six months are going to be a boot camp style where you're again, you're working on those main four roles, customer success marketing, sales, operations. After that, you're going to be the job placement. So that's where you could get your place in a job, like hence job placement. After that, it's job support. So that's when the program is going to help you essentially kick ass in your first couple months in the role and get you adjusted. So you're not floundering and trying to figure things out by yourself. So just some assistance with the community. After that first three to six months, instead of going through job placement, that's when I found my job as an SDR at a tech startup. And that's where I started being compensated as an SDR making money through my apprenticeship. All right. So I know that, you know, practice isn't free. Obviously, you know, they are extremely hands on. They help people out. You know, they haven't really scaled because of the fact that they're so hands on, they only accept about maybe 150 to 200. They're also very selective about who they accept as well. So let's kind of talk about, like generally speaking, maybe like how much practice costs, also like how much you were making during the program. So like that sort of like balanced it out. And just, yeah, can if you want to speak on that a little bit, absolutely. So the cost is going to be anywhere from 12 to 15,000. So the 12,000, you don't start paying anything until you officially started an apprenticeship somewhere at a company. So that's where you could pay either 12,000 upfront, or you could wait, and then it's going to be 15,000, but only $500 payments. Of course, there's going to be some loan assistance that you could get to be able to pay it off. But again, you're not going to be having to pay those make those payments until you have officially started your apprenticeship. Got it. And then at the apprenticeship where you're actually making money, just to clarify this for the audience, how much were you making at the apprenticeship itself, if you don't mind me asking? Yeah, absolutely. So at the apprenticeship, it was a three month contract. And I started off with 36,000. So that was give or take about 3000 a month. So got it. Okay. So it was covering basically the cost of praxis plus your your life costs, essentially. Okay. So that's good to know. So it is it is pretty pricey. But at the same time, they put they place you in an apprenticeship that covers your monthly costs. So so that's that's good to know. Is there anything else that people should know about praxis? If they're kind of considering maybe joining praxis, they're on the fence about it, they're thinking like, you know, this college thing, I, you know, none of the degrees that are actually worth it actually appeal to me. But, you know, at the same time, I don't see any other alternatives that are any better. But I'm looking at praxis like an apprenticeship. Is there anything you would say to those types of people? Absolutely, I would say off the fence and just jump in. I had my hesitations as well, especially something new, something that's emerging and you know, as a college alternative program, I'll just say, get out there and give it a try. If you want to equip yourself with high, high demand skills that with high income earning potential, this is definitely the place to be. It's going to equip you with valuable skills. And you're always going to be able to take that mindset that praxis is going to instill in you of being valuable, whatever that might be. Again, that could be entrepreneurial, building a personal brand, or if you really want to play the corporate world or that career game of climbing up the ladder at any sort of mindset or long term goals that you might have praxis is going to be overlap and help you get there quicker in comparison to the four years in college, the hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. And I just say, get out there. I think this is going to be, you're going to see this happening a lot more. So get in while the getting's good. And it definitely will help you be successful. Awesome. Yeah. And you know, the whole college thing, it's college, a college degree has been losing value since I'd say probably the 70s. And colleges in terms of the value that they give has been going down since probably the 70s as well. So it's this thing that's happening where it's costing more and it's becoming less and less valuable. And this has been happening for a very long time. And it's really just a matter of time before something happens and the whole system just blows up. It's just a matter of time. So there are going to be a lot of really good alternatives. There already are a lot of good alternatives. And I think in the next 10 years, there's going to be even more alternatives. Right now, like the apprenticeship thing, it's becoming really big. It's even bigger in the United Kingdom right now because of how they sort of incentivize apprenticeships. So it's actually very big in the United Kingdom in the United States, still relatively low for careers outside of the trades. But it is getting definitely bigger. And it is a viable option that I see a lot more people taking. So thank you so much for coming on the channel. I really appreciate you sharing your story and your perspective. And I think this is going to help a lot of people out.