Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Rebecca Eller-Molitas

Curt Anderson 0:00
Next man too late Bertie, live Hey Damon, happy Monday, my friend. How do I even need to ask how was your weekend? Do I even need to ask? No, Kurt, you don’t. And do I not need to ask?

Damon Pistulka 0:17
The mariners are in the playoffs.

Curt Anderson 0:20
The Seattle Mariners won the first round of the playoffs. So hey, I am just so excited for you. Congratulations. First time in what? 2021 years

Damon Pistulka 0:29
21 years. Got my son reminds me he was two years old the last time

Curt Anderson 0:33
he was to the last time Seattle Mariners won a playoff series. So Damon has a super exciting week. So guys, happy Monday to everybody. Welcome to Manufacturing Monday motivation. What an absolute honor and thrill hope you had a dynamic, incredible, wonderful, fantastic weekend, just like my partner in crime Damon just had. So guys, I’m just honored, thrilled and just blessed to interview and to introduce my dear friend Rebecca, Rebecca, happy Monday. How are you today?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 1:02
Doing great. Kurt. I’m so excited to be here with you guys.

Curt Anderson 1:05
Oh, man, I’ve been this is so long overdue. So Rebecca, we’re gonna be digging deep into you are a fierce advocate for education, adult education, mind you. And so we’re going to take a deep dive into like your path, your journey and why this is so critical. But before we do that, I have a little question for you First, it’s a sports trivia question. In 1984. Now, I’m just teasing no sports. We’re not going to talk sports today.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 1:30
unstable. Gotta go.

Curt Anderson 1:34
Easy. No, unless it’s the Mighty Ducks. We’re not going to unless it’s a Mighty Ducks trivia question. We’re not going to go there. Right. So if you have my first question for you today, Rebecca, as a young girl growing up, and if I’m not mistaken, maybe Virginia. Are you a Virginia Gail by a great memory. All right. So we have a Virginia gal here. And as you were growing up in Virginia, who was your hero? Growing up? Who was your hero growing up in Virginia?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 2:01
Oh, wow. That’s a huge question that I should have prepared for.

Curt Anderson 2:07
That’s the whole point.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 2:08
Grandmother was a bit of a hero to me. She was she was really a role model for how to show people you care about them every day.

Curt Anderson 2:19
Oh, my goodness. Let’s you know, and what’s grandma’s name?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 2:23
Lillian,

Curt Anderson 2:24
Lillian go deep, deeper. Like what were some examples of how Lillian would just show her love and spread that care for folks in your world. Let’s go there for a minute.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 2:33
She was always taking food to neighbors who were sick or who had something going on in their lives. She was kind of the person who had all the neighborhood kids over in the background, teach in the backyard teaching us about gardening and letting us randomly harvest things we shouldn’t have. And she kept me a lot and took me to school. She gave me my first cup of coffee, which I’ll always be grateful for. But she was just a really loving community member.

Curt Anderson 3:05
Oh, that’s awesome. So hey, shout out to Grandma Lillian and for her spreading that love and that care for you. Hey, we’ve got a couple folks here. We’ve got our dear friend Val in the house. Some Monday motivation here. We’ve got Dana here today from Bellingham, backyard, Dana. Good to see. So we’ve got to say. So guys, if you’re out there, drop us a note. First off, you absolutely want to connect with Rebecca. She is a dynamo. She’s a dear friend. We’re just so blessed to have her here today. drop us a note, let us know that you’re out there and feel free to ask any questions. We’re here to talk about adult education and proliteracy. So now, Rebecca, let’s go there for a minute. So growing up in Virginia, you go off to college. And so now you find yourself as an educator. Now, I’d like you’re a huge advocate for adult education. Now, if I’m not mistaken, your earlier career looks like you’re you’re educating your young folks and you’re on your LinkedIn profile says I two to 12 How did you start with young folks? And how did you kind of, say graduate to but how did you decide to take your superpowers, your talents to help folks with adult education?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 4:07
It really goes back to where I grew up in Virginia. I’m from a super rural part of Appalachia. And I have a parent who didn’t go to high school. And that is actually very common for that generation and in that area. So I, I saw a lot about what the impact of that is on individuals and families. I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college. So very strangely, I ended up teaching English in Japan. Many people moved to the US for better economic opportunities. I moved to Japan and you know a bit against my will they stuck me with some two to 12 year olds. And I I also got to teach adults in the afternoon and I just really felt the passion for teaching adults

Curt Anderson 5:01
Awesome and hate and we’ve got another friend here we got John dropping the note Good morning from Northampton, Massachusetts. So I think John is Norton Smith College near Northampton. I think it might be so drop me a note in the chat box, if that’s correct. So alright, so how did you pique my curiosity? We weren’t going to I’m going off script a little bit. Rebecca, what brought you to Japan? Like we can’t let that one slide? Yeah. How did you go from rural Virginia to Japan?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 5:24
You know, it was just one of those things where I felt it was meant to be. So I went for it. I knew nothing. I knew no. Knees. I know what it’s like to move to another country where you are functionally illiterate for a better economic opportunity. wash my hair with toilet cleaner got lost a lot, you know, the normal stuff?

Damon Pistulka 5:47
Oh, that is good. Because because that is truly you experience was like people immigrating to the US coming to the US for for a better opportunity that where English is a second language and and that is in Japanese is not an easy language to learn. Yeah, it is not. Yeah. And so I have to I have to ask, were you surprised at the at the size of living space that people have in Japan?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 6:21
I was prepared for that. Our friend Google, but I wasn’t really prepared for what the appliance situation was like most places don’t have an oven. You have this kind of tiny little grill door. Very unprepared for that. I also didn’t realize that my toilet was going to be in my shower. So another surprise. Wow.

Curt Anderson 6:43
Wow. Well, we could talk about that offline. So how about a couple of trouble questions? Here is a Trisha. Trisha is in the house. She isn’t what a diamond. Chris is big leap of faith talking about moving to Japan. And we’ve got Alan Dr. Ellen here. Good morning from Maryland. And Damon. I wonder why this is such an this really is close to our heart. I want to come back to Joan here. I asked if she was near Smith College. It is. So my hero, my mother in Daymond. You’re in the same boat, both of our mothers later in life, raised their children and went back to college. My mother went to Smith College right in your backyard, Joan, you know, after raising her children went off to get her master’s degree at Pitt. I know, Damon, your mother went off to get her PhD later. Right. Yeah. And so you know, so again, as you know, so for both, you know, Damon and I worship our moms and just love with the message that you’re spreading Rebecca. So let’s dig into this. Okay, so now you go from Japan, and you said like kicking and screaming to to 12 year olds, but you really resonated on that adult education. So you come back to the States. Can you take us through that walk of life, your career, and like how you become such as fierce advocate for adult education?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 7:53
Sure, when I came back, I went to graduate school in Vermont, because I knew that I wanted to teach adults and I needed some further education to be doing that in the US. Joan was actually one of my classmates. So nice. When I was there on campus, I found myself to be one of the only first generation college students who was born in the US was my program. There were very few of us. And it solidified to me a bit, what access to education can really mean for people and the trajectory of their lives. And from there, I became very passionate about helping people access it, I went through roles. I moved first to Atlanta and worked in some community based organizations, helping people transition out of English language and adult basic ed into jobs, and also to transition into college programs or career and technical ed from those basic courses. And I just loved it every year. I love it more.

Curt Anderson 9:00
Yeah. That’s fantastic. So now I’m going to take a little sidestep here. So Rebecca, you and I met this past year we both joined a group through Dorie Clark and what a dynamo powerhouse. Our Dorie Clark is Dana and we had the honor and privilege of interviewing Dory on our show, over the summer. And so Dorie has a community called recognized experts. And so Rebecca and I joined this group, we’re part of this little mastermind, where we get together it’s just just a delightful incredible high level group there motivational, inspirational. There are accountability partners, Rebecca, so let’s talk about what the what Dorie Clark and like this group that communities meant to you. And then I’m going to slide into like you do such a great job of helping folks with community but what’s that Dorie Clark Community done in meant to you?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 9:45
So many things, I absolutely love that community. It’s been one of the best things I’ve done for myself. I initially joined it because not a lot of people know about what we do in adult education and And even within our little mastermind group, I was sort of a new topic for a lot of folks in the group. So it has really helped me to learn to tell the story in a way that connects more with people outside of our field.

Curt Anderson 10:14
That’s fantastic. And I’d say it’s just it’s great. The you talked about the rising tide lifts all ships. This group is just so dynamic. These are authors, their speakers, TED Talk. Daymond. We’ve had numerous folks, Maria, she came on did her TED Talk about being in the roller derby remember? That’s awesome. Yeah. But So Rebecca, let’s get into your superpowers. You are a learning Sherpa as you take yourself, you know, pro literacy. You’re the Adult Education Consultant, new readers press, talk about what you’re doing now. And I know you’re doing some exciting things, you’re out Damien’s way in August, you’re out in Washington. So let’s go there now, like what’s, what are your superpowers? What’s your excitement going on today, where you’re spreading literacy for adults.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 11:00
So I have several things going on in that realm. All of us in this field wear many hats. I’m sure that there’s gonna be a lot of agreement with that in the chat. But one of the things I’ve been doing for the last year is that I’m a fellow, a student, adult education advocacy fellow, with Kob, which is our national organization that unites us all, it’s the coalition on adult basic education. So through that role, I have got room to speak with a lot of legislators in all over my state, I’m in Illinois. So we have a really diverse range of things here from urban manufacturing, to big scale agriculture. And I get to hear from the legislators about what’s going on in their communities, and to also talk with them about how adult ed might be an asset. That’s something that I’ve loved with new readers press, I get to travel around through five states, and talk with fellow educators about what’s going on in their programs, what they need, and what training might be useful for the educators that they work with. And I also teach at a community college because I don’t like to be bored. So I’m teaching the learners that I’m advocating for and also learning from them.

Curt Anderson 12:24
That’s awesome. So now I’m traveling and somebody outside is like I think weed whacking they don’t realize that it’s money manufacturing Monday motivation going on right now. So I’m I forgot there’s a Hey, guys, do you not understand it’s manufacture Monday, motivation can’t be done. They should,

Damon Pistulka 12:38
they should. They’re not watching, I can’t believe it.

Curt Anderson 12:41
What’s wrong with you guys? So I will get back to the so I might be muted myself here and there. So Rebecca, so let’s take it further. So I know like you were out in Washington, you know, like explaining, you know, talking about the things that you’re doing for COAB. And the community college new readers press, let’s talk about some of the solutions that you’re providing the communities that you’re bridging together, let’s take a deep dive there.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 13:01
So one of the starting points for me has been to help people realize what adult basic education is. It’s not a thing that is part of most people’s everyday vocabulary. We offer education in kind of what you think of as traditional adult basic ed, which would be reading, writing and math. We also help people who might not have a high school equivalency to complete the GED or high set. We provide English language for non native speakers, and also citizenship classes for people who are in that pathway. But some of the things that are really important to the community here is that we provide training in digital literacy. Even many of our young folks who we tend to fill our digital natives use technology really differently than what might be needed in a manufacturing plant, or what’s needed if you want to write business emails, submit a resume. We also talk about financial literacy. Another member of our group Robin talks about building financial literacy with kids and we have some great conversations because I’m looking at that from the adult side, how do you read your pay stub? Have you knew how much money you should be saving? How do you pay your bills on time and not get an additional fee and we also talk about health literacy, which is huge on the impact of absenteeism in employment. So we educate people on all kinds of topics related to health literacy. And I go around and spread that joy to people

Curt Anderson 14:46
so let’s talk about this you know so many think adult education so you know reading writing arithmetic you know, kind of the basics you know, that’s right in the name of Colette. You know, I don’t know if I’m gonna say dispel a myth, but you know, you know, it’s America. Kids, we take a lot of pride and like, you know, you know, Rebecca, can you go into like, not like rattle off literacy rates per se, but how you know, I know like when you get underneath the hood, like you’re seeing how big of a demand there is for what your, what you and your team and everybody’s so passionate about doing? Can you talk a little bit about anything like Damon was asking you like, was it shocking about how small you know, the Japanese apartments were? or what have you? You know, is there anything shocking for those of us that are not in your field that we should be, you know, aware of, of literacy rates, or like, why this is so critical for our country?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 15:33
Absolutely. These stats are shocking. They were shocking to me. We have about one in five adults in the US struggles to read a basic sentence. And this impacts everything from traffic signs on the highway to prescription labels on medicine. So that impacts a lot of other people, even around those folks. It’s really a community problem, not an individual problem. We also have shockingly low numeracy skills only about one. One in every three adults in the US has low numeracy skills, which means those basic foundational math topics like add, subtract, multiply, and divide. And that’s super important because it helps people tell time, like how to be on time for work. I have students who keep the TV on all the time at home, because they know that when a certain program comes on, it’s time to go get the bus. Very things you wouldn’t think of like that measuring ingredients in a recipe. Reading a train schedule, just so many things are impacted by that.

Damon Pistulka 16:50
Yeah, i Wow, that’s incredible. Because you think about that, and you’re gonna double a recipe and it’s got, you know, whatever, two thirds of a cup, and you got to double that. What’s it? What is it?

Curt Anderson 17:01
Yeah, and so you know what, let’s, let’s take that even further. So Rebecca is, you know, you’ve been a dear friend I love when you pop in our show, and you drop comments, thank you, for all your support your means the world to payment in myself, is you know, you know, we’re our song that we sing, we don’t sing even though we might do karaoke someday, here what Rebecca and for that one demon, but something that we’d like to sing or to manufacturers, and just think about how important it is. So I’ve been, you know, when manufacturers were like, you know, somebody comes in, you know, attempt or somebody’s no shop floor, and now they’re handed a drawing. And now, like, they don’t want to feel like a fool. Nobody wants to feel like a fool. And now they just can’t read that drawing, or they can’t measure or they can’t use a ruler. They can’t use a yardstick they can’t do basic measurement. So again, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s unfortunate, but we are so blessed to have folks like you to help tackle these things. So why should this be? Why is it so important? You know, I’m being a little Captain Obvious here. Why is it so critical for entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, business owners, to really take an ownership and be part of this process of really helping this proliteracy? You know, getting our country top notch?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 18:13
Great question. three really important topics fall under that. One of them is workforce development. So if we think about the latest jobs report that came out, there were over 10 million unfilled jobs as of August 31 of this year, we’re not graduating new graduates fast enough to fill those openings. But we do have 22 million adults in the US who have less than a high school diploma. And we also have about 7 million of that population don’t speak English fluently. But these are very motivated skilled people just think about how resilient you have to be to know what time to get a bus by watching your TV, that is clever to figure out. So these people are real asset. And one of the things that’s surprising maybe to the folks here is that typically, when a person enrolls in a program to get a high school equivalency, with that stated goal, they usually finish in about a year. So we’re not talking about an extremely low process.

Damon Pistulka 19:22

Yeah. So I got it. I got a follow up question to this. If I’m a business leader, and I’m listening to this today, and I know I have people in my workforce that may be working on my factory floor or maybe working anywhere in my business or in the community. How do I as that business leader develop? Are there programs that I can just have people in my business we set up, hey, we’re going to do math literacy training. We’re going to do if you don’t have your GED, we’re putting it on. We got it in the in the conference room on you know, Tuesday at noon or whatever the heck it is. Are there programs like that? Because I think as Kurt said, Didn’t you said, there there’s this there’s this demand in manufacturing for skilled people or to to help them become better? Because it helps us all as we do this. I think that leaders kind of get caught up in, well, how can I? How can I help? How can I help my people? How can I help my community? So are there programs that they can tap into?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 20:22
Yeah, this is easier than you might think. So there is money from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, code WIOA. That goes out through the states, it’s dispersed in various ways, much of it ends up in community or technical colleges that help these programs. So if you, if you want to start by finding out what’s already around you, I think I’ve given Kurt a link, he can drop in the chat, but we have a locator tool through co ape where you can find the program that’s closest to you. Another thing that you can consider is that many programs now provide ie t, which is integrated education and training. So all of these folks get the basic education, adult education that we talked about, they also get workforce skills. So these are your soft skills, how to talk with your boss, when you need to be absent, how to manage a conflict with a co worker, what to how to manage your emotions, if you’re angry at work, or stressed about a problem at home. And that gets career specific training. So if you want your folks to drive a forklift or do CNC machining, there are tracks for that. And if one doesn’t exist, frequently, a business can work with a local college to create one. But as Damon mentioned, many of our workers may have multiple jobs, they might work swing shifts, or odd hours, there may be only one car in the family, you can certainly create a program on site, we have some great options for that. And you would contact someone like me to help you with that.

Damon Pistulka 22:09
Okay. And I think Elon makes another great point here in the comments, Kurt. You know, minimum qualifications, we really have to go back and look because there’s a lot of positions, people have a four year college degree or bla bla bla bla bla, is that do you really need that? Or do you just need good experience in these positions? Because I think that we don’t want to rule people out just because they don’t have this specific education, when they do have the experience to do things.

Curt Anderson 22:35
Yeah, that was fantastic comment there. Ellen. Again, thank you for joining us today. I deeply appreciate you dropping that comment. Want to go back to a couple of comments real quick and then come back. Again, our dear friend Trish Stuart’s here today. She’s been a guest on the program. She’s a dynamo. She said reach out to my cousin state. State Rep. Katie Stewart. She’s a teacher and she’s an Illinois State. So again, Trish, you need to connect with Rebecca here. You guys are tons in common to amazing people. And my dear buddy, Dr. Jeff candle, man, we’ve been best friends since we were teenagers played football together. So Dr. Jeff, he’s at University of Minnesota. He’s a psychologist. And he’s thank you for joining us. The pandemic has severely impacted literacy rates for students this manifest to work for many years to come. And you are so right there, Dr. Jeff. And one more shout out. Jan is in the house. Janee. Good morning from Michigan. Happy Monday to you, my friend. Thank you for joining us. Connect with Rebecca. So Rebecca, let’s go there. Let’s continue this. Okay. So let’s say like, again, we’re talking about manufacturers, 75% of all manufacturers are 20 employees and less. So a lot of the manufacturers, you know, so maybe like the John Deere is a publicly traded or, you know, you have four or 500 employees, you have the bandwidth, you have the resources to offer some services, say a small manufacturer who just really cares deeply about their employees. You know, and you know, let’s go there for a second. And please correct me if you know, I put myself in that in those shoes of that entrepreneur, I care deeply about my employees, how do you how you know, without insulting anybody, how do you approach an employee to say, hey, you know, how do you pull them aside and say, hey, there are some opportunities, if you want to advance your education, how do you come from a place of like this? Authenticity? You know, what I’m saying genuine and like inspire that person, say, like, education is power. Education is going to advance you it’s going to take you to a higher level. How do you how do you approach that employee at the smaller companies, the 10, maybe you only have 10 employees? How do you approach those folks?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 24:38
That’s a fantastic question. One of our partners drew Robinson may be here in the chat and he can shed some more light on this. But one of the things that we’ve been finding can be really helpful is to not push this as you need improvement, but rather to make it a benefit through HR. So it that’s a very strong One way to give students something that they want very often these low and mid skilled employees identify further education as one of the top benefits they’d like to receive from a job. So it can be as simple as offering a learning app through your HR department as a benefit, and maybe giving out a prize occasionally for the person who’s completed the most work or moved up the most employees get really excited and invested in that. And it’s a way of seeing, seeing them in a positive way instead of a deficit way, as Damon mentioned.

Curt Anderson 25:40
That’s perfect. And I got this guy’s got to be watching, manufacturing Monday motivation, he shouldn’t be out there read back. But anyway, so. So the benefits to the employer, again, you know, I’m think about those small employers out there. And again, I’m getting a little bit of Captain Obvious Rebecca, but just think, you know, like, you know, and let’s put ourselves in the shoes of that entrepreneur, you know, boy, they are busy all day, one minute, they’re, you know, dealing with operations. Next minute, they’re dealing with HR, hey, I need to do marketing for five minutes, I have this fire to put out that fire to put out. But if they could step back and take a breath, and just really think about boy, the competitive advantage that an entrepreneur, a man or woman is, again, in our space that we’re talking in manufacturing, by elevating our focus and resources, let’s talk about what’s in it for them, what’s in it for the entrepreneur, the business owner, you know, taking the time and energy to help educate those folks or to get them into the right programs.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 26:35
Absolutely. So we’ve talked about workforce development. And of course, that’s important for entrepreneurs, we need people that we can rely on in our small businesses, right, it takes a lot of time, energy and money to be out hiring all the time. One of the things we know National Skills coalition has some great research showing that these lower to mid skilled employees are incredibly loyal, their retention rate is high. So to to offer them something that gives them a path to like succession planning in your business, you can take somebody who knows who knows your landscaping, and scale them all the way up through your business with this, it’s a lot cheaper than hiring, and you make a friend for life that way. Another thing is economic development. So we want our businesses to be in thriving communities, right? We need the people around us to be able to afford our services and to know about them. The Barbara Bush Foundation has some research that will rock your world. If we could bring every US American up to an equivalent of a sixth grade reading level that would add $2 trillion annually to the US economy. I mean, just think about that. Think about that purchasing power for just a minute. Yeah. And of course, you know, on another prong is the health literacy. The CDC tells us that, that the five primary chronic illnesses in the US cost employers $36 billion each year, just due to absenteeism and higher health insurance premiums. So even being able to raise a person’s health literacy, you know, these adults often have multiple people in their household that they’re making decisions for, they need to know what’s on a food label, is it worth the risk to smoke? A really common problem is what’s the difference between primary care, urgent care and er, and particularly under insured adults tend to go directly to the ER, because they wait until the problem is very severe before they seek care? Due to the cost. So all of these things when and where to eat, how to read a medicine label, have a direct impact on employers. Yeah.

Curt Anderson 29:09
I take this so this Yeah, but let’s I want to I want to give a shout out to entrepreneurs for a second. And I think what I absolutely love with your mission and what you do, and I think this guy might be coming back, he was like, right outside my door. But anyway, what I love when you think about entrepreneurs, you know, you know, I was I was just reading I’m reading Dorie Clark’s book again for the second time. Rebecca marina, I just read the long game for the second time I read entrepreneurial you and she was one of two phenomenal books Daymond man so we got him story back, but not for Nouriel you. She was interviewing a gentleman who had 15 employees. And he was talking about how like he feels responsible for those people and Nike you know, it just it was just so inspiring, just hearing how he’s talking about it. But I love what you’re talking about Rebecca I’m like you know you treat you know, many entrepreneurs treat their business like a cause and they session in what how you can elevate and this illicit benefits that you’ve rounded off on how the pride that an employee can take and how you’re elevating them. Yeah. And the badge of honor by Ed by in showing that you care that retention is like you just impact so much right there. I want to slide into David, do you have did you overcome? Yeah, and

Damon Pistulka 30:19
I just, I just think about, you know, entrepreneurs, small business owners are usually really involved in their community. And this is something that they may be overlooking, because like you said, Rebecca, if I can help my employee that walks through the door, that might be doing whatever, to maybe upskill, educate themselves to be better at what they’re doing there and then move up all the way through the company, how does that affect my community? How does that affect their family? How does that because entrepreneurs want to make a difference, right? Just think of the difference you can make when you when you help an employee become better and better and better. And they move up through your organization with the difference in the lives of the others and them and the people around them. I just think it’s, it’s

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 31:04
really, really and this goes back, I think, to what Kurt’s Powell Jeffries was saying earlier, we’ve had a lot of literacy loss in the country in the last two years. And we know from research that the number one predictor, absolutely number one over everything in a child’s academic success is the literacy rate of the primary caregiver, usually the mother. So if you think for example, about my dad, I have a 12 year old brother, my dad’s back in Appalachia, with my 12 year old brother living in a place where only dial up is available. He isn’t particularly digitally literate himself a nearly as a 12 year old to homeschool for two years, that has a tremendous impact on what the workforce is going to look like four years from now, there are a lot of people in that position. So helping the parents also helps the next generation. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 32:02
I absolutely love this. And David just, we had a guest couple weeks ago and Rebecca you might have been on we had. David, I think you’re off that day I hit Simone and Paola, from IMEC, the Illinois I mean, P and Paula shared a story, her folks came straight from Puerto Rico, she’s first generation. And on Saturday mornings, at 17 years old, her mother, Paula and her mother would go stand in line at a manufacturer and whoever got first in line would be picked to work that day, to get on the line. And she shared such a powerful story on how what manufacturing did for her for her family, for her career, and how she went off to be come first educated in her family, and how important these jobs are. So you know, so for folks out there, and I’d like what you were saying earlier backup, you know, like we’ve hammered, you know, like, boy, for your degree advanced degrees, PhDs, amazing, we need them. We’ve got a couple of PhDs here today, Damon, your mother has a PhD, but folks that you know, pursuing that education isn’t for everyone. And there’s a tremendous amount of opportunities in manufacturing that we talked about here on a weekly basis, you know, for folks to elevate themselves. Rebecca, I’m gonna slide here for a second. You are huge on bridging communities, bringing together folks building that culture taking, you talked about, like folks that were English is not their first language, and really kind of raising the bar for folks. Can you talk about your what’s your in, in your experience, where you found success on bridging and building communities in the education world?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 33:33
Absolutely. One of the interesting things is that many of us have tended to work in silos, and just the structure of funding in the US now is is working to change that. But I think the conversations like you guys are having between employers and the community that wants to prepare people for employment are super important. As Elon mentioned, we don’t need everybody in the world to have a bachelor’s degree, but we really messed up around my generation and told everybody go get a bachelor’s degree. So we have some PR work to do about all the great opportunities that are out there. Even if you eventually want a bachelor’s degree. I mean, you can get certified in welding, make a fantastic income. My mom worked on the line in a manufacturing plant. She was the person who kept our family together gave what got us all health insurance and braces and those really important life things. So I think we just have to get the conversation out further about what is available. I’ve learned so much from my students just by listening to what they want. I have some students who are super passionate about getting CNC machining jobs, and they talk to me about how great it’s going to be when they get the job. I have Have a guy in my class who drives a forklift. And he talks about the next thing he wants to move up to. And he’s taking some computer classes in addition to his English because he wants to move up. He likes the organization. He’s. So these, these conversations that have voices from a lot of different places are so valuable. Yeah.

Curt Anderson 35:20
Well, first off, I want to thank your mother for that radiant, amazing, beautiful smile that you share. You just have a contagious enthusiasm. So manufacturing brought those pearly whites. That’s let’s see that big smile there. Let’s thank mom for that beautiful smile. So I love what you just said, and how, you know what manufacturing can do. You know, these manufacturing jobs, you know, they build communities, these manufacturing jobs they built, you know, these are families that can now take a family vacation. These are families that can go off on a picnic, they celebrate holidays, you know, these are the opportunities that, you know, by pursuing this education, and what manufacturing can do for families. This is just wonderful. Rebecca, I know, you’re I know, you’re super busy. We’ll start winding down here in a minute or two. Couple more questions for you. What, Where do you see things going from here? Okay. 2022, we’re in the fourth quarter. What are you? What are you super excited about on the education adult education front coming into fourth quarter and into 2023. From your perspective, hopefully, as we’re kind of getting out of this little pandemic thing that we’ve been playing around with,

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 36:23
I’m very excited about new legislation that’s trying to build digital literacy and access. So we have a federal legislation that will help build an infrastructure for internet to reach more people than it does now to help people get devices to help them learn how to use those devices, effectively, just to give us that foundational infrastructure, I can’t even make a doctor’s appointment. Now without using an app, I can’t get a refill of my prescription at the pharmacy. So this really has become an essential, everyday need. And I’m excited that there’s a plan to tackle that. I’m also excited about the continued intertwining of what employers need and what adult education can provide. I think the conversation is really exciting and promising. Most of the people who come to us come because they’re looking to to improve their lives through work in some way. So it’s really important to have that conversation at a lot of different levels.

Curt Anderson 37:31
Perfect. Now I know you’ve been starting to travel as you have travel plans coming up or any any events or anything that you want to share with folks that should be on their radar in any capacity or things that are going on with your organization’s that folks. I believe I dropped that link in the chat that you know, anything that we should have on folks radar as we’re coming into this quarter.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 37:49
Absolutely Coalition for Adult Basic Education does monthly webinars, usually three to four a month, which you can find through their website. They bring a lot of really interesting perspectives together. I am affiliated also with proliteracy proliteracy provides research and a journal on adult basic ed. So if you’re looking for some facts about what what adult literacy is like in your area, we have some great resources for that. And I would also say You know, we have a lot of conferences coming up. I’m heading out demons way in two weeks for the Washington English for Speakers of Other Languages conference. I’m heading to Virginia on Wednesday for the South East region’s English language conference. But they’re they’re all over the place. We have our State Conference in Arkansas at the end of the month. Louisiana is at the first of November. I’m going to be in all those places to come and say hi to make

Curt Anderson 38:53
your have heavy road show coming up for Rebecca. Guys, as we wind down I dropped a co Ed David I think in the past I didn’t know I could jump comments I think I don’t know if this is new for stream yard. So I just I dropped COAB into the chat box. I dropped that map in there. So guys, you want to connect with Rebecca, please connect with her here and Dr. Ellen just dropped proliteracy thank you for dropping that in there. Rebecca we shared grandma Lillian was your hero. Mom did an amazing job working in manufacturing, providing for you your family creating that stability. You just shared such an abundance of boy thank you for the super powers that you are exhausting and sharing and just educating our country. My last question for you today. It’s based around inspiration. Who or what inspires you today you are just a fierce advocate for adult literacy and education. You’re traveling all over the country just fighting the good fight, who or what inspires you today to keep this drive

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 40:00
That’s a good one. So I’m going to I’m going to shamelessly plug Elon social media here guys follow LM Beatty, she is very inspirational to me. I’ll also see that the students are a huge factor. Sometimes when people think about teaching an adult ad, they don’t realize how, how fun it really is. When these students come to class, they’re there because they want to be there. They pay attention, they work hard, they network with one another and build a community within the classroom. And, and sometimes I’ll teach a class from six to 10 at night, and the students are always worried about me, old teacher, are you tired? Don’t be tired. Thank you for coming to class. But that student has gotten up to three o’clock in the morning and gone to work. And they’re worried about me. So it is just, it’s the most amazing community to be a part of, I get a lot more than I give on this was awesome.

Curt Anderson 41:01
I’d say that’s awesome. Dr. Ellen’s gives a big shout out and a thank you for the important work that you’re doing. So I believe we will wind down So Rebecca, we mentioned how to connect with you hear on LinkedIn, your socials, objector websites, any other things that you want any last words of wisdom, parting thoughts that you want to share with everybody? How to connect with you your organization’s anything you want to do there?

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 41:25
Yeah, reach out. If you’d like to chat. I’d love to have a conversation. My email is our L r e l l e r at pro literacy.org. So you’re also welcome to reach out by email if that’s better.

Curt Anderson 41:39
Perfect. So, hey, how about on this Monday morning, thank you for being flexible time, we usually go off at 1230 Eastern Time, and you guys made adjustments for me. So I appreciate you guys. How about everybody. If you’ve been sitting let’s give a little stand. Let’s stand and rise. Let’s give her a little round of applause for our wonderful, amazing, incredible guests for what she’s doing helping make our country as competitive as possible. What a great boy, don’t you just feel great about what you do every day. Rebecca, do you ever feel like you’re working you probably don’t even feel like you’re working.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 42:08
You know what those 2am fleets home are rough. But everything else is pretty great. And you guys are a really fun way to start a Monday morning.

Curt Anderson 42:18
Well, hey, awesome. I just want to give my thanks to you your friendship. I love you know if anybody popped in late, Rebecca and I are part of a little mastermind group together and I just I worship you I adore you I respect you I admire the work that you’re doing. It is just such great work keep it up keep that foot on the pedal. We need you Damon any words of wisdom that you want to put everybody on this manufacturing Monday motivation?

Damon Pistulka 42:45
Not today. This was great to be able to talk to Rebecca and it’s really I think there’s so much that that manufacturers can do to help help their people their community by focusing more on education and just just start to reach out reach out to Rebecca and and and others in your community to see what you can do.

Rebecca Eller-Molitas 43:06
Absolutely and, and Kurt the love is mutual.

Curt Anderson 43:09
Well, it’s Thank you man it is I’m so blessed to be part of the group that we’re in. And hey, one more Tricia. Man, Trisha, you’re just amazing. Trish, Rebecca, please do me a favor. You guys need a connector. You have a lot of collaboration opportunities here. Here comes my weedwacker guy again. So we’ll we’ll wind down on this. So guys, October 10 It’s Columbus Day so go out enjoy celebrate this wonderful beautiful fall day. Damon we got baseball this week. So everyone out there if you’re not a baseball fan just go out and root for the mariners just for Daymond sakes so there’s big baseball playoffs this week. So guys hopefully we love bring it thank you thank you thank you for taking time to spend with us. We it is such an honor privilege. We bring amazing incredible people here like Rebecca who just motivate, inspire and just do great work for for man, so many people that you’re impacting so many lives that you’re impacting Rebecca so hats off to you. We wish everybody a great amazing week and our parting thoughts be someone’s inspiration today just be someone’s inspiration. And man just make everybody’s world a little bit better. So as we’ll see, you got Asmir fact fellow RXR you got rosemary on faces of business tomorrow. Six o’clock Eastern three o’clock Pacific. We have Paul Van Meter on Friday from pro shop this Friday. It’s gonna be crazy.

Damon Pistulka 44:31
You have Dana, another Bellingham guy.

Curt Anderson 44:34
Yeah. Oh, that’s right. And I’m done. I’m hitting a manufacturer in Texas and I go live this week down here in Texas. So guys have a fantastic week and we’ll see you soon. Rebecca hang out one second. We’re gonna close it out guys later on, buddy. Thank you