How to Keep Learning as an Adult: Build Your Own Curriculum & Become a Student Again

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This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Continuous education helps you develop the skill of being bad at things again. Well, shout out to all the perfectionists out there. This is hard. There's always more to learn. There's always more to explore. There's always more to be curious about. And you can be open to that. And you can actually, even in adulthood, dedicate your time and energy to that. What do I want to learn? How do I want to learn? Where do I want to learn? Who do I want to learn from? So you mean who, what, where, when, why? Oh, I want to get my PhD. I just think it would be fun. And like the opportunity to be a student again and go really, really deep into one topic. Yeah. Like that's like a dream. What a luxury. Equine therapy. Equine therapy. I can't wait. I love horses, guys. I don't talk about this enough on the podcast. I'm Sheree. I'm Jean. And we're the Tiger Sisters. We are your Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. And we're a top 10 business podcast bringing late night sister talk, meets boardroom strategy. Hi, Tiger fam. It's officially back to school season. And today we're going to talk about how to be a continuous learner, even if you're not in school and even if you're not a student anymore. So growing up, most people have a very linear understanding of education. You go to elementary school, you go to middle school, high school, maybe college, maybe grad school. And then, and then what? You're just done learning for the rest of your life. Something we've been thinking about lately is why you should never stop being a student. It's about adopting a mindset of always being a student and operationalizing your own learning, which means figuring out specific ways to bring it back into your life. So today we are going to be talking through all the ways that Sheree and I operationalize keeping learning in your life, even after you've graduated. Whether it's conferences, retreats, apps, museums, reading classes, and much more. The point is you don't need to be in school to be a student again, but you can attend Tiger Sisters University. So let's get into it. I'm so excited to dive into this episode all about learning because I think it's pretty clear. Jeanne and I are pretty, pretty big fans of learning, whether it's inside the classroom, which we've done a ton of, and also outside of the classroom. Yeah. And I mean, I've said this before, but I am like, oh, I want to get my PhD. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's like a dream. What a luxury. Yeah. I mean, Jeanne and I love learning. We love being students. And I think if you are a student right now listening to this, you got it good. Like I know it feels stressful right now because you probably have midterms and exams and all these like office hours with professors. But like for me, when I undergrad was stressful, but grad school, it's just like you can go into a classroom, you have a syllabus, you have a planned out like structure of what you're going to learn when. Of course, the assignments are like kind of annoying, but like obviously you're learning through them. But it's like amazing because you have this structure in the classroom. Yeah. I mean, and I would say in that way, your own continuous learning in some ways can be even better than the structured learning. Because when you're in college, when you're in high school, it feels really high stakes and you're under a lot of pressure to get good grades. But when you're creating your own curriculum as an adult, there isn't necessarily that pressure and you could just pursue what you like for the joy of learning, for the joy of, um. Just continuing to develop yourself. Yeah. But in that same vein, I would say it's also harder when you're out of school because you're missing that structure, right? Like you're not given the timeline and the midterm to do. So it's really up to you to hold yourself accountable and to give yourself, um, permission to create the structure yourself and be very intentional about it. And so I think it's important to label what we've just talked about, which is that there are two modes of learning. There's one which is kind of learning for work and to advance your career. Versus there's learning just for the sake of curiosity and improving your, your mind, I guess. Yeah. And I think it's okay to have seasons of one versus the other. And if you have a lot of time, maybe doing both at the same time, but as you're balancing competing priorities in your life, whether it's your work or family or other obligations you have, it's okay to lean more into the upskilling work, professional learning at some points, or just dive in completely into the curiosity type of learning. Yeah. And I wanted to add one thing, which is that since you are not in school and you're not learning necessarily for a degree, it is also okay to quit your learning. You know what I mean? Like it's okay to take on something and try it out and try it on. And when you're tired of it or you feel like you've, you've exhausted, exhausted it, or like met the level that you want to go to, you can just kind of leave it be and move on to something else. Yeah. I mean that there's, I mean, there's so much to talk about there because like, I feel like when I try to learn something, I go so hard at it and sometimes I make it so prescriptive that like I take the fun out of it. I can share something that I quit. Oh, what did you quit? So back when I worked in finance and I thought I was going to be a finance girly for the rest of my life, like it already taken like series seven series 63, like blah, blah, blah. But it was the thing to get a CFA. And so I bought all the CFA books. And I think it was literally a thousand dollars. It's very, very expensive. You've actually never told me this before. Yeah. Because she was like 13, but I bought all the CFA books and it's very serious. It's a series of, I think three, honestly guys, I don't remember, but it's like three tests. You have to study your butt off to do it. And I was just like, I just thought it was the path. Like I thought it was the thing to do. So I was like, okay, I'm going to get my CFA because I'm in finance. But then I ended up quitting it. And look at you have never looked back and it's been totally okay. I've never looked back. And if you needed any more convincing that learning is good for your brain, there is an article on healthy aging and longevity from Harvard med school that says learning throughout adulthood with mentally stimulating activities can sharpen your thinking and support brain health as we age, which is a no brainer. I think it makes a ton of sense. And the advice in the article is that you should choose subjects that you're actually curious about. Rather only learning things you should learn, which I think if you had this article back when you were studying for your CFA, which is certified financial accounting or what is, what does CFA even stand for? I guess. I literally don't even remember. I don't even know what she's studying for. I blocked it from my mind. She don't even know. I don't even know what happened to those books. Like if I sold them to someone or just, I think I just put it out of my mind. Maybe it's in her garage at some point. Jean has a lot of stuff, excuse her. A lot of old books. But yeah. I love that. So it's being able to choose what you want to learn rather feeling like the pressure of like, I should be doing this, which I think I have a lot of hobbies, which I think we'll get into. Jean and I are going to bring personal examples into this episode of how we bring continuous learning into our lives, specifically conferences, retreats that we're all going to share with you. So really excited to dive into some examples and also hopefully our stories will inspire some thinking and reflection. And I think we're going to get into some of those in a little bit. So I'm going to start with you, Jean. a bat, but I just remember remember this in high school. Mr. K? No I think Mr. D was his name but he was just like Sheree you're gonna be you're gonna do this like I think he was like trying to instill confidence in me but I'm like I cannot do this. That is so funny. I was just swinging for like an obscene amount of time where everyone was just like come on hit the ball but anyways that was very humbling and I think in the spirit of being a beginner and specifically a bad beginner it was just necessary. Guys I don't know why that story was so funny to me. I think the mental image. Remember when you were playing European handball? Yeah twisted my ankle. Well sprained my ankle pretty badly. I was in a boot for like four months. It was horrible. That was also in high school. Point is I'm not very good at sports but I give it my all. She really does. Okay so next up we have a mini exercise to get your juices flowing and start thinking about how you can bring continuous learning into your life. Yeah so I am calling this actually a pre-mini exercise lol. I've introduced a new a new section pre-mini exercise. This is kind of our way to help you build your own enrichment curriculum for yourself before we get into telling you all the things that we do because we don't want to like bias you right so here's some time for you to think about it by yourself first. Okay so mentally pick from the following four areas of expansion. One is what is one subject that you want to learn? It could be investing, art history, nutrition, anything really. Two is what is one skill you would want to practice? So maybe it is improving your cooking, your Spanish, acting, strength training. Three who is one teacher you would want to learn from aside from us? Is it an author? Is it a professional or a professor? Is it an expert, a mentor, creator? Someone who you would put on your personal learning board of directors? And then finally what is one room you would want to put yourself in? Whether it's a class, a conference, a workshop, or a club which is you know somewhere you'll encounter people outside of your regular bubble. I like all these questions because it forces you to think kind of like in different learning modalities. It's like okay what do I want to learn? Kind of. So you mean the basics of writing a composition? I like that. I guess so. It kind of um it kind of spans all of those. I like it a lot. It is yeah what subject, what skill, which teacher, and where. Yeah and with this mini exercise treat it like a brainstorm list. Like don't give yourself any pressure of like oh my god I have to master all these things within the next like three months. No like take a breath. This is just you being creative and just putting all of your ideas down. Okay so now let's move into the tactical ways that we, our building our own curriculum for learning. So the first one I want to talk about I'm really excited about because it is upcoming. Yes. So we are we're just like bubbling over with excitement for it. Do you want to introduce? Yeah so Jean and I are going to our first ever wellness retreat and wellness retreat doesn't even cover it because all the programming and like the itinerary looks incredible which we'll go into. But I'm really excited for this getaway. It really is focused on wellness and it seems like there's going to be around 40 people there who are also like-minded that they want to take the time away from their very busy schedules to be like okay let me take a step back and bring wellness practices into my life. So as part of this weekend retreat Jean and I are like pushing ourselves because we're doing things we've never done before. There's also a learning from experts at this retreat that I cannot wait for. So there's going to be an expert there on longevity, Frank Lipman, Dr. Frank Lipman. There's going to be a session with the CEO of Hoffman Institute which is all about giving you the vocabulary to talk about emotions and feelings within yourself and also interpersonal interrelational discussions. So I can't wait for that. And also on the itinerary there's like things like equine therapy. Equine therapy I can't wait. I love horses guys. Like this is hanging out with- I don't talk about this enough on the podcast. She's actually a horse lover, a horse girl. I love horses. I'm such a horse girl. But she's also allergic too. Only dirty horses. Oh. She did have an allergic reaction once on a horseback ride. Oh my god in Cuba. I got hives all over my neck. Everyone was like are you okay? So I was like I'm in heaven. But I was like dying. So there's gonna be equine therapy. There's gonna be like a drum circle. There's gonna be stargazing. This like itinerary I think really just pushes us to do things that we've never done before. And I think in that vein it feels like a really holistic way to do continuous learning especially in a new environment. Yeah. So this wellness retreat which is called ReWell by Robert Port is going to be in the Arizona desert which I've never been- I don't think I've ever been- To Arizona? Have I been? No I don't remember. Have you been? Yeah. Oh Camp Snowball? Yeah I've been to Arizona quite a few times. Oh. I went to a leadership summit when I was in high school twice two summers in a row in Tucson Arizona. Called Camp Snowball? Oh so you've been to Tucson? Yeah. Okay I don't think I've ever been to Tucson. It's gonna be hot. Yeah. It's gonna be very hot. Yeah. So one thing I'm really excited about for this retreat is the type of learning it is. It's not career-oriented learning right? It's learning from these experts on all these areas on how to almost better manage yourself and better manage yourself. And I think that's going to be a really cool retreat. I think that's going to be a really cool retreat. I think that that's something that I'm really learning as I'm getting older that it's important to also invest in these areas of self-development. Yeah I don't think it's like as obvious of like take this public speaking course or take this course in learning how to incorporate AI into your workflow. Yeah. But this is more like holistic learning. I like I truly believe that if I like learn more and more about how to incorporate AI into your workflow. Yeah. Like I truly believe that if I like learn more and more about how to incorporate AI into your about myself about longevity about how to sleep better like it will have a profound effect on the way that I live my life and also do my work as well. Yeah. And I want to see what equine therapy will do. Truly. My therapist says that equine therapy will be very good for me and I'm like what do you mean. He's like you just have to find out. Okay. No. There's so there's all these studies. I think I don't know if they're you know clinical studies but there are studies that horses because they are such a large organism they can sense your heartbeat and your state of being even from like farther away and then it helps you because they're bigger. I think like you can sync to them and you can sync to each other. I don't know. This is not this part is not scientifically researched but it is. She just says vibes. Like horses have vibes. This part is vibes but I think that the vibes it might unlock something. Yeah. I mean they also say like I don't know if it has to do with the size of an animal but also like elephants are like really smart and also in tune with like human emotions. So next elephant therapy. Elephant therapy. Elephant therapy. Okay moving on. I think there's something to be said about changing your environment and going to a new place to learn. Yes. Because sometimes we can really be stuck in our day to day routine which I love routine don't get me wrong but like bringing yourself out of that every now and then and really being able to experience something in person I think is really beautiful. Yeah. And in this retreat we're going to be learning by doing. We're going to be attending the sessions. We're going to be engaging in the drum circle and also meeting other people who are like minded. And I think learning by doing is also a very specific modality that I love. She loves the modalities. Well speaking of learning by doing that takes us to our next section which is basically learning through classes like classes of any kind. Quick pause Tiger fam. We've been using granola lately and it's been an absolute game changer. Granola is an AI powered notepad that helps you stay present during your meetings and you can look at all the notes and transcriptions after the meeting ends. It's actually so useful and you can use it for so many instances. But the one that actually me and my girlfriends were talking about this weekend is that you can actually use it for interviews. Wait that's so true because an interview is one of those instances where you actually need to be so present. Right. So with granola you can actually still take notes in the interview like you normally would if you want to. But granola is securely transcribing the entire meeting in the background and it turns it into these really useful notes when the meeting is over. And for an interview I love that you come away with transcription and notes but you're not sacrificing the need to be fully engaged the entire time. Yeah that's my favorite part too because in the meeting or in the interview you can be curious you can ask better follow up questions you can actually follow their line of thinking and dig into it more. And so it's actually just your normal meeting but with superpowers. Yeah I've just been in meetings where like I'm talking to someone and I'm like typing at the same time and I'm like kind of like half listening half typing. And so I think with granola because you have the transcription you don't have to be doing so many things at the same time. So if meetings are eating up your day granola is a no brainer. You can try it totally free just head to granola.ai slash tiger sisters. That's granola.ai slash tiger sisters to get your time back. Try it for free. at granola.ai slash tiger sisters. Thanks guys. Now back to the show. So Sheree what are some ways that you've been learning through classes or tutorials or anything like that. Yeah I think Jean and I have really been more intentional about bringing this like format into our lives and maybe in ways that are not super intuitive like when you think about class you think about sitting down in a classroom and there's a teacher but one example I'd love to give is personal training I think this is one form of learning that Gina and I have been doing where we have in case you guys can't tell yeah can you guys tell turn on your video yeah turn on your video and take us out in the studio great but we've been doing personal training sessions in tandem with the both of us and one trainer and it's been really like I actually don't think it's exaggerating to say it's life-changing I really do feel like it's life-changing I've never had a personal trainer before this in my mind before I was like it's so expensive like I could just go to the gym and do things myself I can you know learn through like YouTube videos but I feel like with personal training and also with weightlifting which I'm not very familiar with I've yeah I've learned by myself but like I've never actually had any formal training in weightlifting and I think doing it correctly so you don't hurt yourself is something that's very important to me and Jean and also just like looking good with weight training is like this is something I'm so excited to invest in yeah and so we have a personal trainer we've been going once a week we've tried to bump it up to twice a week which we just started doing that so so you guys will see that in the next episode exactly you'll see the results of that in the next episode but I really love this because it keeps us on a schedule for weight training which I find very difficult like I think it's really hard to get to the gym I think there's some people who are like they can go every day they have that internal motivation I am not one of those people I need to like pull myself to the gym I'm very comfortable on a couch after I work out I'm very happy that I did but I think I really lack that motivation to go sometimes so having a trainer who creates the exercises so you don't have to think about it I think is a way to make it easier for us to do this type of class this episode is brought to you by google chrome you think you know a browser but gemini and chrome that's new it can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks gemini and chrome is here for it ready to make anything online make sense there's no place like chrome check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus when you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work use indeed sponsored jobs it gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills certifications and more spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast that's indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need a hiring hero this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs yeah I think in many cases self-directed learning is really important and beautiful and wonderful team to invest in but I will say that having the personal trainer has been also huge for me because prior to working with our trainer I never ever even entered the weight room she never lifted a weight no I lived it but I would only go to this other section where they had some weights but it was like near the you know bar or near the pilates room but I never went to the actual weight room where all the like muscular people were and like pumping iron it's kind of scary it's intimidating it's super intimidating at least it was for me I was really really intimidated because first of all you don't want to hurt yourself and second of all I don't really know what I'm doing in there so I just never went in there and now I'm occupying like literally physically occupying a whole new space wow let's take up that space girl take up that space I think previously like you would do um like lighter weights you're comfortable doing like five ten pounds 15 but like now Jean is like hip thrusting like 210 215 15 so like that is crazy going from and also doing it safely whoever is watching I can probably hip thrust you but I'm very proud to say I think doing it safely too because she didn't start at 210 or 215 like you work your way up and we have a personal trainer who's directing us to do it in a safe way we keep saying safe because like obviously we don't want to hurt ourselves and injury especially at this age it's like hard to come back from I know a lot of friends who injure themselves doing weights so weightlifting anyway that's one example that's one example okay another example I'll bring up for self-directed learning um I am taking acting classes um it's all about her guys it's all about her I mean you can you can share your learning next but I am taking acting classes and I'm exploring this facet of my life I'm am I acting right now is she not acting is she acting um she's only done two classes I've only done well technically I've only done one consultation and then um another free audit and Jean and I are actually signed up for another free audit consultation next week so I think get ready guys get ready we're gonna up level me post one consultation I don't know what I okay so for acting the goal there is to see if what can I learn and what can I take away from acting and what can I learn from acting and what can I take away from this new realm and also curriculum of acting can it make me better at podcasting that's a question I have will it translate can it translate and the second thing I have is like we're in Hollywood baby I kind of want to try out acting right like it seems like the perfect time and maybe I'll like it question mark that's something I need to figure out um and maybe I'll be good at it question mark or maybe I'll be complete shit at it and that's okay too because like we said learning it's okay to be a bad actor I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing I'm not a bad beginner at things I also think it's good because in a way by taking these classes we're manifesting the things that would be coming after the classes right it's like you're kind of getting ready for the next stage of where you hope to be right like if we want to be in commercials or in whatever a Christopher Nolan film sorry am I am I she aims high am I girl bossing too close to the sun right now I'm just gonna put it out there she said Christopher Nolan she said his name say his name three times though you never know who's watching the tiger sisters podcast but I think also something here is two points one I am looking at all the free things out there and I have not exhausted the free things yet because I still need to do YouTube deep dives and figure out like what information can I glean from the internet that is out there and is for free because these acting classes are expensive yeah and I'm like I I need to figure out an alternative and that's why we're doing all these free audits yes I think that's actually a really good point is that what Sheree naturally does is she does a lot of research we need to be free maxing in this economy in this economy we need to be free maxing yes and I don't think that's taking advantage of free things but I think it's being able to find them and use them yeah because they're offered like there's these free audits for all these different studios and I want to go to all of them to figure out which one's the right studio for me and maybe I'll pick up different things and different methodologies from different um teachers the second thing for the acting class which I just started is I'm trying to figure out a way to incorporate and incorporate it weekly oh to have momentum another weekly thing I think it's kind of hard to take one thing once a month to build a habit or a class yeah I think it can be done if it's like a structured curriculum but because I'm on the hook for myself like I'm trying to do something weekly whether it's a class or like a sit down watch YouTube and learn like for an hour a week but like I kind of want to maintain that habit and curriculum myself I've already asked Sheree to bake bread weekly because she's baked bread two weeks in a row and it's so so good bake bread meaning like literally like use flour and water and yeast and create a I've asked her to get that bread both figuratively and literally at this point Jean's point is I have a lot of hobbies and a lot of continuous learning that I'm doing so it's she's homesteading so I need to prioritize in my life she's also gardening she's she's yeah there's a lot well so Jean what is um one class or way that you are bringing continuous learning into your life um one thing that I've invested in in the past is tennis lessons and I guess I'm not taking them right now but I will say it's also okay to have different seasons of continuous learning because I was doing those tennis lessons when I had a little bit more of a flexible schedule than now and so that was like the right time in my life to do it the other thing I'll bring up that I think is a really cool idea is a friend of mine has been taking community college courses at I think Santa Monica Community College and she took one about art history love that I think it was actually her and her husband did it together and she doesn't have an art history background that wasn't her major in college but it's just something that she wanted to learn more and get to be more proficient in and so she did that I think it's fabulous you can sign up for community college classes um or I think if you you know do a little bit of extra research figure out the professor who is teaching the class and email them and ask them to audit that is a way you can get in for free free maxing um I've heard of people doing that however if you do enroll in the class and you know pay money for the class supposedly you get a student email yes and a student id and a student id and you can go far with a student ID, you can get into a lot of things. of things you can get that student discount for amazon prime you can get this is not sponsored but yes you can also get student discount um for the icon and epic ski pass oh which is thousands of dollars and you can save hundreds of dollars if you have a student id you know someone who did that yes i do an adult yes i do their community college classes yeah with their higher education oh hot tip hot tip hot tip free matching although that's not free but you know it's saving money yeah you can get into a lot of museums for a discounted rate with student ids anyways there's many pros of being a student again and also formally being a student again hey tiger fam take five seconds to subscribe to the tiger sisters podcast when you subscribe you are notified every single time a new episode drops and if you're listening on spotify or apple podcast please you is five stars and leave a comment about this podcast because it really helps people discover our content and it helps us to continue to make the show for you if you're listening to this on spotify right now take this opportunity to turn on the video thanks now back to the show so we talked about retreats we talked about classes and now we're going to talk about conferences jean and i are huge fans of conferences for many reasons i think it's a very easy way to tap into continuous learning usually conferences are like one day i mean there can be half-day conferences but like one day two day three day conferences there are sit-down sessions where you're literally looking through the itinerary finding a panel or a discussion conversation that you're interested in and you go in i always have my notebook taking notes on those panel discussions but i think there's also a lot of informal learning as well that happens at conferences that we love where you're meeting people you're networking and you never know who you're gonna meet at a conference really where it can spark the next big unlock for your career so right now we're kind of talking about like professional career conferences but obviously there's many types of conferences where you can meet people who um kind of help you up level i think that that is such a good example of the concept of actually being in the room right there's something very is it intangible or is it literally tangible about being in that physical space where other people are yeah and everyone is there to kind of give and get energy yeah right like it's something that you opt into nobody for the most part you don't have to be at a conference yeah so you are choosing to go there you're choosing to spend your time your money your energy to be in that space with other people so they are it's a unique opportunity where for the most part other people are open to meeting you and vice versa yeah and we have a really great conversation with matt abrahams who was on our podcast who specifically talked about conferences it's and figuring out how to network and how to talk to people because it can be awkward especially if you go by yourself to a conference you're like i feel so alone and there's like a hundred people next to me how do i go up to someone yeah so check out that episode with matt abraham yes who is the professor of communications at stanford yeah so i think that's a really great way to ease into conferences so one example of a conference that we went to earlier this year that was very fruitful was the milken institute conference back in may in beverly hills which is a gathering of kind of like political finance culture philanthropy just kind of like thought leaders across all of those industries and it was the first time going for both of us i would say the learning there i wasn't really sure what i was going to get out of that conference i was like okay i'll attend these few panels and that'll be great but i really wanted to bring up um one conversation that blew my mind and this was kind of like unexpected so gene and i went to a conversation between rahm emanuel and former governor of virginia glenn yunkin and we had rahm emanuel on our podcast several months ago and as you know he has a reputation for being a pretty feisty debater and this stage was it was kind of electric i i don't know have any other word to describe it but um these two politicians really got into it in front of us it was what i would like to call a live debate between rahm emanuel and glenn yunkin and it was fascinating they were talking about education they're talking about policy they're talking about like global economic policy as well um which honestly i am not a policy person i think i have much to learn there so hearing two experts in policy um kind of go at it i was like it felt what i would imagine like a presidential debate to be like yeah it had that kind of vibe yeah it was actually really fun see this is such a good example of being in the room where it happens because they were like slanging barbs at each other like they were getting glenn yunkin or former governor sorry we should probably say their former governor glenn yunkin was all red in the face yeah he was like super super ruddy and then rahm was like getting all like worked up yeah i mean it was just like you had your time let me have my time oh my god this felt like a real political debate it was it was electric i would say and also i would say because it wasn't um because it was in a smaller format i think they were saying things that they wouldn't normally say on tv for example or in something that is sort of like more prepared i liked it because it felt very candid and in the spirit of continuous learning it was definitely something i had never seen before so i thought that was really special to go to a panel like this at a conference and be like whoa i had some takeaways that i was like taking notes on like about policy but also just seeing the environment of this type of debate between politicians really opened my eyes to like wow this is a sector that i don't really understand yes and it actually made me more interested in the sector i will be honest yeah it made me more curious about it made me more excited it made me want to learn more and maybe get involved in some way yeah i think that's a great outcome from going to a conference yeah being like let me dive into this more or you're being exposed to new topics yeah areas that you're like i didn't know this about this yeah it was good it was good and it was not what we expected from that conference at all like i thought it was mostly going to be focused on finance and philanthropy which we did go to some of those uh talks as well but this was a nice surprise yeah so i would highly recommend and going to a new environment like we said going to a conference i think conferences usually have an air of excitement around them because it's kind of buzzing you're like with people who are open to conversation generally and you will be exposed to a ton of new ideas hey guys it came to my attention that some of you don't know we have a matcha brand what a matcha brand yes like some of my friends were talking to me like wait you guys have a matcha brand and it's called sisters matcha gene and i started it in october 2024 and it's something that means a lot to us because i lived and worked on the farm where we sourced the matcha from this matcha brand is our baby and we are so passionate about it and we really love everything that has gone into it there's just so much love and passion that goes into our company and we want to share it with you guys we source from a small family farm just an hour and a half outside of kyoto called wazuka is the name of the town and it's absolutely incredible we've visited the farm we've worked on the farm and we're so excited to bring it to you so you can find out more at sistersmatcha.com that's sistersmatcha.com alrighty now back to the show okay tiger fam so we want to wrap up with a mini exercise after we've given you our own personal examples we want you to think through some of these questions for self-reflection so the first one is if you could take one class right now purely for fun what would it be ceramics really i love ceramics so much okay cool that's what i did um in high school yeah when you finish your aps and you have basically one month free you can do a self-directed study and i did a self-directed study in ceramics and watercolor it was like one of my happiest times oh because i would just spend all day with the clay okay yeah but it was wonderful yeah okay for me wait where are we supposed to answer these questions i don't know you answered them so i'm gonna answer them but i really liked how your friend sam took an art history class yeah i would love to take an art history class i took two semesters in college but that did not really same it it fed the fire in me but i need more i need i need more more more more more art history i want to know everything i want to know every i want to do more architecture oh my god i would love to learn more architecture okay you know what if we change the question a little bit to also be what would you want to be an intern in oh i would love to be an intern at sotheby's or christie's especially the hong kong ones oh or singapore the asian ones specializing in asian art oh wouldn't that be amazing yeah you would learn so much and like i mean that's kind of always been my like side dream to be like an art girl to be charlotte from second to have your own art gallery yes that's so chic oh thanks okay i like that so if you could take one college class right now what would it be just for fun and if you can be an intern in anything just for fun what would that be oh my god um my answer because i'm into acting right now sorry that's not what actors do but i would love to work on set um or i'd love to be the intern for christopher nolan wow she said his name four times now or i'd love to be an intern on set like a directing intern yeah yeah um just to be around and absorb everything that's going on so for the odyssey maybe a greta gerwig your fellow yes barnard alum fellow barnard alum greta greta call her well i was gonna say for the odyssey um christopher nolan who's the director he had travis scott like come in or travis scott came in who was also an actor who was also an actor in the movie but he came in and like shadowed him like from the wee hours in the morning for like all day so he can absorb the movie set and everything that went on i'm just like what a one-in-one experience yeah i think that'd be really oh my god i would die i agree okay let me give you one last question is there anything you were once considered good at that you realize you need to relearn or revisit oh okay for me yeah since she asked the viola oh that's so sweet i used to be really good at viola guys i was i was the first chair of the metropolitan youth orchestra the new york metropolitan youth orchestra in high school in high school yeah yeah and i used to perform all over the world yeah that's so beautiful but now i'm i'm like terrified of revisiting it honestly honestly because i feel like i can't even read music anymore i don't know if i would even know how to read music anymore i don't know if i could even play anything anymore that's okay this episode is brought to you by google chrome you think you know a browser but gemini and chrome that's new it can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks gemini and chrome is here for it ready to make anything online make sense there's no place like chrome check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus when you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work use indeed sponsored jobs it gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills certifications and more spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsor job credit at indeed.com slash podcast that's indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need a hiring hero this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs that's the whole point oh my god i want to hug you it's okay to be a bad beginner i know begin again i know that's really tough well like shed all the expectations you have of yourself it was when you were like freaking 16 17 like you can revisit it i love that i know but it's it is really scary because i used to be really good yeah and now i think i would just be terrible that's okay you can be terrible yeah yeah you can be terrible okay for sure um i don't know i think maybe something around the like the arts as well what about soccer no i played soccer when i was jeans referencing them when i played soccer in kindergarten and threw up that was really traumatizing i i told you i want to be good at sports i give it my all even in kindergarten and i threw up i threw up she threw up i threw and it was the one time where mom was like okay you don't have to play anymore right she like withdrew you from she's like the team she's like you gave it your all honey i don't know i understand um see i'm like not good at sports but i give it my i'm very determined i would say i would love to revisit singing oh yeah oh because i was in women's choir um and also in chorus all throughout uh middle school high school i stopped obviously in college um but i think that could be fun to take some voice lessons or singing has gotten better yeah over the years it has right your ear is more tuned yes and my singing has gotten worse because i haven't exercised it as much yeah true her singing has gotten worse guys but it it used to be much better than yours because i have like a higher level of musicality totally totally it's kind of reversed she was always the better singer for most of our life and within the last like three years somehow i've become a better singer because i kind of stopped singing yeah and you started singing more she stopped singing i don't know why but that sounds like such a depressing line she stopped singing and she stopped singing okay we won't we won't sing phantom of the opera but i hope these mini exercise questions help the thoughts kind of just percolate in you so you can figure out um what you want to start learning again or perhaps revisiting so i think one takeaway is that in this world of ours there is always more to learn there's always more to explore there's always more to be curious about and you can be open to that and you can actually even in adulthood dedicate your time and energy to that i love it i think there's always more to learn i think that's also the mindset that jean and i apply to our lives our daily lives and our professional lives there's always ways to learn and grow and in you know our day-to-day it's just figuring out ways you can be more intentional about it so going through these mini exercises really reflecting and thinking through what am i curious about how do i stoke that curiosity and how do i really um you know tamp down on like what should i learn and being like very too prescriptive about it but like figure out what you're curious in all right and tiger fam please remember to follow or subscribe wherever you're getting this podcast it really helps people discover tiger sisters and helps our podcast grow also we have a newsletter the tiger sisters newsletter which you can find in the description below thanks so much and we'll see you next time bye you