Intro
Today on the Brand Revolution Podcast:

Angeles Echols
We've got to put that over there, identify it, leave it there, and keep moving forward. But we got to keep moving forward because when we reach back trying to hit a man on his head, you know, the energy this cost?

Cheryl Hodgson
Yes.

Angeles Echols
Look at this. When I'm swinging back here, trying to get you from, it keeps me from doing what coming forward.

Cheryl Hodgson
Exactly.

Angeles Echols
It takes my energy. I need to actually turn and actually extend myself. And that's, that's an entire mentality. And that's what I believe.

Intro
Welcome to Brandaide where we answer the question, what does it take to launch your own brand (R)evolution, create evolution and who are the people that help you foster Connection, Community Contribution, and Currency for a Brand built to last. You will also meet brands changing the world and the lives of those they serve. Here's your host, Cheryl Hodgson.

Cheryl Hodgson
Welcome to part two of my in-depth conversation with Angeles Echols of Educating Young Minds. I'm going to go back to a minute because I think this is really important. You talked earlier about how people would say, well, in order to get the endowments from the big foundations. I mean, “ you need to serve more children.” Well, but you know, this is what I want to share with the audience is let's talk about results. The statistics from your program are staggering. How many, what is the percentage of children that started with you have gone through EYM who have graduated from a four-year college, not just high school, but a four-year college?

Angeles Echols
82%.

Cheryl Hodgson
That is staggering.

Angeles Echols
82% graduate four-year colleges. But check this out. 12% attend two-year colleges and transfer to four-year colleges, 12%.
And again, but that's because I decided one thing, even to the point where it's put, put me in debt personally, I decided the program is going to be first-class. We're going to have a low turnover. Our turnover is only 12%, 12% is the highest turnover. Our turnover is very, very low, and that includes those moving on to colleges. But our turnover is so low, but that's because the kids stay. And one of the things that I decided is that making certain that the foundation was strong was going to be the priority. The foundation had to be strong because now with a strong foundation, my staff, the directors, you know, I'm getting older. I don't move the way I used to. I'm not as swift as I used to be. And I now have these wonderful young people who can come behind me, who can keep this going.
That was important to me. But again, it's because I focused on programs first, but unfortunately, and I understand when they are responsible for giving away other people's money and they have to answer to people, they must keep that paper trail. I understand that. And I respect that. All I am saying is please be open, be diverse, know that there are programs like mine that may, our maximum is going to be, 265 that we may see that year, but we're going to hang on to 125 and we want to hang on to that same 125, 145 until they graduate college until they graduate. We want to be in their lives until they graduate from colleges. Why can't that be what's most important?

Cheryl Hodgson
That standard of what? Why isn't that…

Angeles Echols
Yes, why is that the standard by which we gauge. I remember one funder actually said to me, when we received a million-dollar grant, she actually said, well, I'll never forget it, she denies it now, but she made a comment. She said, “well, well, I really hope you're going to know what to do with it.” She said that to me, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. I will never forget it. And I will never forget her. And it's okay. And now what happened was once Colby hit 19, we had already developed our online program.

Cheryl Hodgson
Well, that's what I really want to get to because I know we're going to deal with this numbers game because this is a program that there's no reason why this cannot be nationwide. And I think you now have the platform. And when I first met you, that platform was in development. And I remember coming to your offices, the old offices on Wilshire and you, this was why don't you share a little bit about the new platform online platform and how it came about because I think some of your students were involved in development.

Angeles Echols
10 years ago, a couple of my students and I can call their first names, Todd and Adam. I approached them about an online piece. And so I wanted to develop an online curriculum for early learners, that was really first class. I wanted to develop resources, community resources, where people can go and access information based on their zip code. They can just get information, get resources, also develop a build our own EYM live, which is basically our own Zoom, where we were tutoring. Kids 10 to 1, 10 years ago. Ten kids online with the teacher. We developed, Mr. Craig built that, and then we had a hub. We called it EYM hub. There are 10 or 11 of them, from sports, arts, and entertainment, all the way to international trade. And underneath each of those hubs are two, three, four, 500 listings of jobs. How much you can get paid, where they're located, who are the top 10 people who are at the top of their game, in that field, what schools you should attend to study that particular trade.

You know, I have all these kids who want to go into medicine, right? Kids who want to play basketball. All my life I was going to be a basketball player … could you imagine if LeBron, James and Anthony sat in front of these kids and said, look guys, and their manager, okay, because they also know what's going on in these communities, in terms of these careers. There are so many jobs other than, if you really want to be in the game, there are jobs you can take that, from agents, you know, to writers, there are so many jobs in this field, the field of sports that you will probably be excellent at, but they've got to have those conversations. Now coming from an educator, they receive in one way, imagine talent. The executives of Google, the executives of Netflix. Imagine the wonderful players who are building schools, who have a passion for this.
You must have that passion though. They can talk and articulate the need and reach these kids. Imagine since they can't find the world, what if we bring the world to them? What if we bring the world into their bedrooms and to their homes and say, Hey, guess what, and we're telling you that after we give you this information, then you have an opportunity to actually research the information and actually find opportunities. Do you know how many kids would go into colleges with already ideas of what they want to study and what is possible for them? The kids with varied learning abilities, those who are a lot more comfortable with their hands, they love building things. Kids are very visual. They love color. They get excited about it and they want to be a part of it and jump in it. You know, I have experienced all of that. What if we bring this world to them?
I just partnered with a very wonderful company. I have fallen madly in love with them. Two of them. One does the immersive labs and the other company that that's international, they do the augmented reality series. Imagine taking these kids to places that they could not have imagined. One of the augmented reality pieces, a kid can sit in their room and actually enter the world. Enter.
Imagine kids who want to go into medicine and there, they entered the augmented reality world and there is a body and they can take the parts of the body and really study and learn and be encouraged. Interspace labs can take a jet engine apart, but really, and it's one on one. It's just them. And no one's judging them. No one's saying whether or not they have to look or if, whether or not they were properly attired, you know, their dress code. They can sit and learn and grow and develop. That's what I have in my community. And my determination is, and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful partner, my husband, where he agrees with me. And he works with me where I have decided that as long as there is breath in my body, whatever resources given patience and love, whatever tools we can find if we have to counsel kids, if I sometimes I'll have a mother who's abusing a child, you can't do that. That's not an answer. If we have to, if they're hungry, we feed them. I've got two kitchens on this campus, two kitchens, because I don't want a hungry child. But again, that's what we must do in terms of coming together. The online piece is, is a piece. It's an extension of what we do on-site. And it gives them even more opportunities, I think even more opportunities, but we've got to give it to them and we've got to give it to them with class. And with dignity, we must give them equity with dignity to, not equity because you're black or you're Latino or you're Asian, but you give equity with dignity because I think that is deserved. Everyone deserves that.

Cheryl Hodgson
Yes. And people are looking for an opportunity, you know, they just,

Angeles Echols
They are.

Cheryl Hodgson
When you grow up in a disadvantaged situation. And that's where I think, you know, not to be judgmental, but some of the racism, and I think, well-meaning, I mean, we have institutional racism, which is one of the things probably the most difficult to overcome. Then there are individual people who grew up hating someone who's not like them. But then I think, and I don't know what your thoughts are on this, the thought has occurred to me in my own life in the last couple of weeks, I've been asking myself, even though I don't consider myself racist, I question, well maybe there's some part of me that is holding some beliefs that may be somewhat racist, you know? And I, I don't, it would be at an unconscious level. I mean, I guess it's veering off a little bit from education, but how do we, as a nation come together and, and bridge these diverse ways of thinking and develop some compassion for the other person. Because, you know, as my mom used to say all the time, there but for the grace of God goes me, you know, and …

Angeles Echols
You know, back that's such a, that is an absolutely an important question. And the only way I can answer that, and I can only answer in terms of what's worked for me. We have leaders in this country and they are making decisions, but we must vote. Where they are, has a lot, a lot of times to do with, with us because we did not vote or we did and we went in a certain direction. My attitude is, could you imagine, if we always start with us first, let me just start with me. I can only fix me if I think of me in terms of fixing me and making me better, but I want to help you. When I extend that hand and point, that finger to help you, there is a finger always pointing back that says you must help yourself. In helping you, I've got to help myself in order to make that happen. You helped me. You're helping me, empowered me, but it then turned around and enabled me to come and do this with you and hopefully extending the message you are now standing with Brandaide and with your (R)evolution podcast, it's, that's that cycle that we must continue very positively and not todisrespect our leaders because I work with children. I am very careful, but it's okay. If we have a situation and we know that certain people are not very bright, it's okay, but we've got to make a decision. And we've got to say, okay, that was not a very good answer, not a very smart thing to do. I don't think I'm going to go in that direction. And then, you know what I'm saying? We've got to because we've got to be very careful that we don't take this hard stance in terms of judging people to a point where we can't come together. And that's what I'm afraid of. We, that's why we've got, we've got to be careful from even judging our president. He is, whoever raised him, what we see, he wasn't born that way. This is coming from his development. That's his methodology and his culture. Do you know what I'm saying? We've got to put that over there, identify it, leave it there, and keep moving forward. But we got to keep moving forward because when we reach back trying to hit a man on his head, you know, the energy this cost? when I'm swinging back here, trying to get you from, it keeps me from doing what? Coming forward.

Cheryl Hodgson
Exactly.

Angeles Echols
It takes my energy. I need to actually turn and actually extend myself. And that's, that's an entire mentality. And that's what I believe. I literally had to terminate a very brilliant staff [member] because this person said to me, stay in your lane. You need to stay in your lane. Those were the words that devastated me. Stay in your lane. This was years ago, stay in your lane. What in the world does that mean? Had my mom, had I taken that stance in Memphis, Tennessee when we were living on government cheese and welfare and my mother was raising her girls in the project with $50 a week … stay in my lane? Come on. And I can tell you, until this day, I'm so grateful to him because that got me motivated. He was telling me to stay my black blood in my lane. I'm sorry.

Cheryl Hodgson
You said you don't know me yet. Let's face it. You know, I can relate to this because I, as a white woman going to law school, there weren't many women. Even at that point in law school, when I graduated, there were some, but I mean the idea of social justice or equal rights was to, for the women to picket. The bar association was having its luncheons at the Playboy Club in Denver, which was quite typical back in that day. But you know, no one ever really got down to the real issues underlying. I know I had my share of challenges. Trying to leave Louisiana, working my way through high school, undergraduate law school. I mean, I had more jobs, I literally worked three and four jobs at a time, and I slept three to four hours a night for years on end.
But I'd like to just ask you from just an individual personal standpoint, what is it like to be a woman of color? I mean, being white, the white person I am, I've experienced a lot of prejudice as a woman, you know, where it's like, who do you think you are? What makes you think you're worth that much? Do you know? Yeah. You're welcome to represent the people who can't pay because you know, the stuff that makes money, we're not going to give it to you. You're a woman. Right. As a black woman, how do you navigate, which is which at any given point in time, is it racial bias, or is it female, or a little bit of both?

Angeles Echols
Okay. it's definitely both. And it varies. Under one circumstance we may have one condition and being black, it truly is in your face first. First, you're black and then the woman. Then there are other situations where it's about being the woman, because the woman, the people you are around are, are very open-minded are very fair. And it's all about the issue, what it is we are dealing with, what we're trying to decide. It's simply about being the issue and then I deal with it as a woman, given how I feel, because I am who I am, also given my sexuality and then being black comes next, but there are a lot of situations, but this is what's interesting. I'm not speaking for anyone else. For me, when it comes to being a woman of color, when I have you to defend myself and deal with that first, or handle a particular situation from a black perspective, it's because I'm being forced to do so.

Cheryl Hodgson
Yes.

Angeles Echols
If I'm being pushed in that direction, because my issue is going to be, I'm going to be concerned about that child, about the needs of that child, the needs of that parent, the needs of … it's so interesting. One of my kids, his name was Adam and also who built the All Access and one of the young men who built EYM live. And I remember when his mother brought him to me, he was 12 years of age. And when she brought him to me, she said, now they are putting him in classes and they're going to type him and I don't want that to happen. And I heard you can help him, help me with my child. I said you know, the first thing I said to her, I said, well, you know, I'm black, right? And she said I can see that.
That was the first time, one of the first encounters that taught me so much when I was the one putting that first. She did not because they were, of course not black. And again, it depends on the situation. It is going to vary. What I know that I can say in terms of being a black woman is I love it. I love it. I think it's the sexiest. I do because we are, we … it's like, we're like a huge question mark, for a lot of people, you know, what are they really like? I have had situations, everything from touching [inaudible], questions of getting in water, the size of my hips, is it fake? I mean, some really interesting … I’ve learned, my mother taught me to embrace that and to embrace who I am. And I have to give her that credit.
And I love the sexuality. I love, you know, it, it's, it's so interesting. When I get a tan and I only notice it for like a couple of hours.

Cheryl Hodgson
I've always wanting to know, do black people tan?

Angeles Echols
Oh, we come in so many shades.

Cheryl Hodgson
Exactly.

Angeles Echols
When I was younger, I thought this was like a really hip thing to do. But again, it takes time to become comfortable with who you are, your identity. If we can teach all of our young black girls to wear that with pride and grace. Could you imagine, entered to work together, you know, the most difficult, the most difficult experiences, the challenges for nonprofits, and I'll say this, and that's working with other nonprofits. How so? Collaborations when you're working with low income at-risk kids, because it's very difficult and it's challenging and, and we're all fighting for the same $2 that they've allocated.

These foundations, well, they've allocated 10% to go here. And then they select their, you know, this is their organization of color for the day, for the week. This is their Hispanic organization and it's … what I would like to see is that they look at the need, look at what's going on in our society, and then address the wants. We're moving, given what's going on, given the temperature at that moment. That's what I would like to see. I would love to see that. What is going on in our world right now, how many people and families and kids are we losing right now? How can we stop that? What are the programs that are moving in that, moving in that direction?

Cheryl Hodgson
Well, in my humble opinion, EYM is one of those. And it's about time the world knew more about it because you know, I, as a citizen, I don't mind paying my taxes. I don't jump up and down about it, but I would like to see that some of my tax dollars are going for something beyond building more bombs and pork-barrel for people in certain congressional districts. And that actually, that if there's going to be funds allocated, it's going to be something that's boots on the ground that is going to make a difference in changing children's lives.

Angeles Echols
Absolutely. And you know, if I may say this before we close, I do want to say this. We were on Wilshire Blvd.

Cheryl Hodgson
I remember.

Angeles Echols
In about 10,000 square feet of space on Wilshire and our rent had gotten up to $15,980 and it was going up, she said it was worth $20,000 a month. We couldn't handle the increases. Couldn't handle it. But let me tell you how powerful the community is. And I'm referring to a community of black, white, yellow, and blue. Everyone came together for EYM. I had, this was at the end of May and we had April and May, what comes after March, April, May, June. Right? We kept getting ready for the summer, but we still had a month and a half left of school. And we had nowhere to go. I shared this with my pastor, a faith-based organization that said, I have, we have a home. The church owns property. If you'd like to be there, you know, to finish your classes, but we've got to have the building back at a certain time.
I said that's fine. That'll get us through the school year. First, Cheryl, we were able to make that transition. We were able to pack all of that, find seven storage units. And then that wasn't enough. We needed an entire floor and we called a wonderful politician who made a phone call and got us a warehouse. We were able to take all of the things we needed, put it in this warehouse and move the classes into this house that was owned by my church. And we were able to finish our courses there. And then they shared. And then, we ran the tutorial out of that, out of that home. And we ran all of the administrative offices out of EYM during that period, we had a month and a half before school would start again. We needed to find a space that would accommodate all of these kids within a month and a half.
I moved the administrative offices and to my house.

Cheryl Hodgson
I am not surprised.

Angeles Echols
Into my home be all the administration was at my home. And all the classes were at that building. And Cheryl, we never missed a class. And then my pastor, the church came again and said, we have a place on Crenshaw, come and take a look at it. And he called my husband and I just have so much respect for this man and my church, he called my husband and me, and, and also some politicians. There's just some great people out there supporting us. He called my husband and me, he said come and look at it. We went to see it. And I went in, I was in tears. I said I can't do anything with this 16,000 square feet of space. I've got a month and a half. We'll have to gut this. We got a gut it, right? Like we don't have the money for that. We don't have the funds. Right. My husband turned to me and said, Angeles, you started this company with two kids. You have a Rolodex that's that people would envy I'm, but I don't like asking, I'm bad at asking. I never should run a nonprofit because I'm horrible at asking for money.

Cheryl Hodgson
But you're great at teaching kids.

Angeles Echols
I can teach kids. I called the producer of my annual events. Right? We had just finished an event where we honored a wonderful man from the Grammys. Wonderful man, a kind man. I started calling people and my producer said, Angeles let me call my contractor. Let me let, let me bring him to the site. The next morning we were here, everyone was here. They looked at the place.
The contractor said you're going to need about $150,000 to get this ready. I said, well, I've got $2,800.

Cheryl Hodgson
How much would that work?

Angeles Echols
$2,800. Okay. I told, I started talking about the program, our history. I said, listen, I can draw this out. I see how this building. We have to gut it. [inaudible] Right? He gave me a pencil and a piece of paper. He said, draw your vision out right now, Cheryl. And this is the truth. I took a pencil and paper. And with Tim standing right there, I drew out all of the space, where I wanted the classrooms, where I wanted the computer labs, where the kitchens would go, the bathrooms, first and second floor. Right? He said, okay, I tell you what. Then he said to me if you can raise $30,000 just for the demolition, he said, if you can raise $30,000 within one week, I know you can raise the rest to get this done, but we need about a month and a half. But we're going to be pushing it, I went into tears. I made two phone calls, two calls. One wasn't available. I just left a message. The other, she picked up the phone. I told her what was happening. I had $30,000 in two days. We put the $30,000 in the bank, did the contract and the rest is history. This space. I know what is possible again. Would we all come together? And that was the community of politicians, of teachers, of parents, of kids. We sold hot dogs. We sold sandwiches. We ate, we had those Ethiopian plates, a lot fallen in love with Ethiopian food, by the way.

Cheryl Hodgson
I hear it’s good, I haven’t tried it.

Angeles Echols
Oh you gotta try it. I'll take you to one of my favorite restaurants.

Cheryl Hodgson
Okay.

Angeles Echols
Okay. And they all came together and now we have this beautiful, incredible, incredible facility.
Again, that is the spirit in which I work. That is the mission. All of us coming together with love and peace, helping one another as much as we can. And those who are negative, who don't have the compassion and the heart that we have, we must forgive them and keep moving it forward. I'll say it again. We must forgive them and keep moving it forward. We cannot live in bitterness. We cannot. And the hate.

Cheryl Hodgson
Well, I want to thank you because I think that's a great place, to end on a high note sister and I, before we go, I want you to let the audience know two things. Number one, if they're so inclined to assist in some way and make some contribution to EYM, how would they reach you? And number two, if they wanted to learn more about the programs and the educational aspects, how would they learn about EYM?

Angeles Echols
Okay, first we have a website www.educatingyoungminds.org. And I know you'll list that we'll put that in what they call the show notes. There we have a beautiful yellow donate button. Yes, we are now, we have two missions right now. We are launching the online because I do not believe that schools are going, we're going to be back in session on-site in September. I don't see that or August. I think we're going to still be online. And so what we're doing is providing all kinds of resources and tools for these kids online to keep them busy and also to give parents a break cause our parents are overwhelmed. We're doing that. And also we have kids in colleges I'd like to, one of our missions is to restart our college scholarship fund because we do have kids who won't go to a four-year college because the loans are so huge, so massive.

Cheryl Hodgson
Yes, the financing of public education...

Angeles Echols
Yes. It's crazy. Yes, educatingyoungminds.org. Our number (323) 840-3556.

Cheryl Hodgson
Aren't you doing a launch? Can you mention and share it?

Angeles Echols
We are. We have a wonderful entertainment company, Treadwell Entertainment Group, and they've come forward and they are putting together this unbelievable, unbelievable list of scholars and celebrities and talent and artists, business leaders, entrepreneurs. I mean, I mean, computer tech, so many, and they are now putting together a seminar webinar series, 45 minutes long, where we're asking you to just share that world and become the teachers for these kids. Talk to these kids, inspire these kids, kids. Our summer program with the webinars series starts the week of July 6. Our eventual goal, 12-month eventual goal is to reach 350,000 kids.
That's our goal to reach 350,000 high school kids. Give them so much information, just information. They'll actually get an opportunity to select two of 10 hubs. And within those two hubs, those who say, well, I want to be in medicine or I want to be in agriculture, I want to be a scientist, but they can select two of the 10 hubs and actually interact with people from those fields, learn career opportunities. And if they're having problems in math and English, calculus, geometry, if they're having problems, guess what? We will teach them online. All they've gotta do is register online. Every time you register, you will be with a teacher, but each of your sessions is an hour and 15 minutes long. That is what we're building. And guess what? It's free. If you are in need, we want to give you those resources and let you know, the world is available. It's your world, it's yours. And we need you to be okay. We need our young people to be okay.

Cheryl Hodgson
We need you Angeles. And before we close, I just want to share with the audience, for those of you who are on the video, this is a picture from the LA magazine, I think

Angeles Echols
LA weekly

Cheryl Hodgson
LA Weekly, excuse me, I got the wrong media there, LA weekly with you and some of the kids from EYM. And I just want you to know that you

Angeles Echols
Berkley, UCLA....

Cheryl Hodgson

Wait, really? I mean,

Angeles Echols
It's crazy if I just, Oh, Oh, I'm going to be in tears.

Cheryl Hodgson
Well, I already am in tears. I'm touched. I'll get those. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making time to speak with me, because I feel very honored and privileged to have had you on my show. And I, I feel that I just like to close by saying that, you know, Brandaide may not seem like the obvious title and it's a fairly new show, but my mission when I use (R)evolution is I believe that what matters is anybody who's successful in the world that creates something that has a major impact is they start out with some sort of revolution. It doesn't mean in the streets. It means a revolution in industry and addressing a need and evolving our society or the, and the customers they serve into a higher level and a different place. And that's exactly what you are doing. And you've proven it because you're not talking about it, honey. You have given your life for 33 years.

Angeles Echols
Well, please know, I'm not doing it by myself. I have a beautiful board of directors, a beautiful group of children, wonderful parents, and a beautiful community like you so we can do this. Let's make it happen. Cause those are all really great young people.

Cheryl Hodgson
I know they are. And we love young people. I, you know what, we're going to have you back in fact, if it's okay, I would like to put you on the spot before we go. I'd like to come over to EYM and we could do a live session where …

Angeles Echols
I would love it.

Cheryl Hodgson
We could tour the facilities and meet some of the kids. Wouldn't that be fun?

Angeles Echols
We would love it.

Cheryl Hodgson
That would be awesome. Thank you.

Angeles Echols
Be safe. And be well.

Cheryl Hodgson
Angeles Echols is the founder and CEO of Educating Young Minds based in Los Angeles. EYM has helped change the lives of thousands of disadvantaged children of color through education, encouragement, and caring. EYM is a nonprofit providing support, nurturing, mentoring, and tutoring that has been sorely lacking in public education for decades.

Close
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