WGU Alumni Podcast
WGU’s alumni network now has more than 350,000 graduates living in all 50 states. The WGU alumni podcast highlights the incredible work that our alumni are doing in their local communities. We also share benefits, perks, resources and partner information to help our graduates stay engaged and get the most out of the alumni community.
WGU Alumni Podcast
From Educator to Ed Tech Entrepreneur: WGU Distinguished Graduate Jessica Shelley’s Journey
Jessica Shelley, a soon to be four-time WGU graduate, rejoins the WGU Alumni Podcast following the recognition of being named a 2024 WGU Distinguished Graduate. The CEO and co-founder of Dailies, shares her journey as a passionate educator to a thriving entrepreneur. Her story is proof that it's never too late to chase your dreams.
We explore the motivations and challenges Jessica faced while pursuing multiple master's degrees, balancing family responsibilities, and transitioning from teaching to entrepreneurship.
Have you ever thought it's too late for me? Well, it turns out you have more time than you think. We're living longer, doing more and collecting more moments. On this new season of the WGU Alumni Podcast, we're sharing the inspiring stories of our distinguished graduates who went back to school to pursue a degree and better their lives. We hope their stories will inspire you to realize it's never too late to go after your dreams. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the WGU Alumni Podcast. It's Jeff and Robert back with you.
Speaker 2:Hello, robert, jeff, so good to be here to talk more about our amazing graduates. Absolutely, and again, this new theme is we're talk more about our amazing graduates.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And again this new theme is we're celebrating our distinguished graduate award winners. We really enjoyed our last interview with Brady McNulty. Fascinating story. Just as inspiring in my eyes, in a totally different way, in a different space, is Jessica Shelley. Now that name might sound familiar to you. Robert who's Jessica Shelley? Why does that name sound familiar? Well, we've talked to Jessica before. Now that name might sound familiar to you. Robert who's Jessica Shelley? Why does that name sound familiar?
Speaker 2:Well, we've talked to Jessica before we have. We're having her back because she's that amazing. That's why we're having her back. We're going to have a life update. She is completing her fourth Count them Four degrees and her husband is completing his first. So you know, we started talking to Jessica over a year ago, or about a year ago, when we had her on the on the show and got to highlight her. She's receiving this distinguished graduate award. She's done more in the community with her degrees and is getting that fourth degree, so pretty exciting absolutely, and I understand she's adding another little one to their family as well.
Speaker 1:They have five children, adding a six, which I've said this before in our previous interview with her and I'm going to, you know, ask her a little bit more about that. But I don't know how she does what she does as a mom of five soon to be six small children, ceo of a company, continually going back to school as she's doing. She's a fascinating person for me to talk to, like I'll. I would talk to Jessica Shelley every day of the week, like she's awesome.
Speaker 2:I love it and it follows this theme of it's never too late. You think it's too late because you're in the 20s, you're in your 30s, you're in your 40s, you have one kid, two kids, three kids, four kids, five, six kids now, and both of them going back to school. So love this idea and playing in the theme of it's never too late. Jessica is such a great example of that, and to hear this update and more about the good she's doing in the world is everyone's going to really enjoy this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, what do you say? We jump to that interview now. I think we're ready. All right, let's do it. Jessica Shelley is blazing a trail in the ed tech industry, driven by her exceptional vision and commitment to education. She is the CEO and co-founder of Dailies, an online learning program that bridges the gap between school and home. She was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, is currently completing her fourth master's degree from WGU and in September was named a distinguished graduate of WGU. Jessica and her husband, brian, a current WGU student, have five children under the age of 10, with another one on the way. Jessica, it's great to have you back on the WGU Alumni Podcast. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me again Really excited about our conversation today.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. You know, with most people, you know, in a six-month period of time probably not a lot changes, but for you, my goodness, a lot has changed. You remain busy and you've got some kind of some updates, as I kind of alluded to in your bio. So congrats on all that's happening in your life. How are things going?
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. It has been busy, but all really exciting things that are coming up for us.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Well, for those not familiar, we interviewed you several months ago and we had a great time getting to know you, hearing about the successes part of a new season of the WGU Alumni Podcast and that we are interviewing our 14 distinguished graduates which you, no surprise, were named to that list. You continue to amaze and do great work, and so we hope to kind of get an update on things. We've got a few different questions so it'll be an entirely different interview. You've got the floor, you've got a nice platform to give us an update and for us to celebrate you even further as a distinguished graduate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, thank you so much. Of course, you just mentioned the Distinguished Graduate Award. Being nominated and accepted, recognized for that by WGU, is a huge accomplishment and very humbling indeed for the work that I've been doing in education, and I think I've said it in our previous conversation but I'm so grateful for the role that my mentors have played in my success with WGU. As far as the business front goes, we're really branching out into the school partnership sort of mode, so expanding our business from B2C to B2B now by leveraging our support systems that we've created for families to support more teachers and school leaders as they try to support their special education students, specifically in the US, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:And then the new little one on the way in December. Yeah, so our family is growing by two more feet. We'll have six kiddos here in a couple more months.
Speaker 1:Well, that's fantastic, kids excited to welcome a baby brother, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, baby brother, they're so excited. We'll have four boys and two girls, and the dynamic at home is already just phenomenal. The big brother is taking care of little sisters, and so we'll see how the little brother sort of fits into the mix as we continue to grow and evolve our family, all of our family.
Speaker 1:Congratulations and that's exciting. All the best to you and the kids, your husband, who's also a student, as I mentioned, so you guys are super busy over there, but probably never, never a dull moment at your house, right, never, never. Now remind me where home is, because I know you. You've relocated, but you're in the Gulf Coast area, correct?
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, we're still here for now.
Speaker 1:Okay, remind me the city and state.
Speaker 3:We're in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Speaker 1:What do your kids enjoy most about living in Mississippi?
Speaker 3:I would say access to the beach. Our beaches are warm, the sand is warm, the water's cool. You want to be in the water more than on the sand. I would say they definitely enjoy the beach. Also, food is really great in the South. We find ourselves eating out and trying new cuisine and even traveling an hour outside of where we live to go eat in New Orleans or in Mobile Alabama, because we're right in the middle of it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great place to be from Now. You alluded to some of the success you've had in your business recently. I know you're growing, you're hiring all of the things. If there was one thing, one exciting thing that you would pinpoint that you're working on right now, that gets you out of bed in the morning and you're excited to go to work on what would you say? That is Jessica.
Speaker 3:I would say it's really our kind of revisited focus on special education students and students that are neurodiverse. It's something that has always really made us kind of stand out in the market, but we haven't really been vocal about our involvement in those communities. And so, really, with this kind of revised strategy and being more vocal about the things that matter most to us as parents and teachers and supporting students that have been underserved and that just don't have access to the resources that they need in order to be successful in whatever school setting they're in, really that kind of focused, revived, focused on both our B2C and B2B lens, on supporting families, but also these schools that are dealing with some challenges that have arose since the pandemic.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Remind me how many students you have in your system currently.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we have just over 15,000 students in our family for our B2C, so direct-to-family platform, and then we're building out our school partnerships this fall and into early spring.
Speaker 1:Do you have current partnerships with schools, or is that what you're launching?
Speaker 3:That's what we're launching, yep. So a lot of the last nine months has really just been program development, getting things in place to be able to best support schools as we officially launch into the market.
Speaker 1:Congratulations on all your success. We chatted a few months ago and, who knows, maybe we need to just have an annual call and be like Jessica tell us what's new. It's every time that we talk, I mean you're, you're providing updates. Kudos to you and your team and all the success that you're having.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Yeah, would love to update whenever, however, I can help.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. You continue to be named to the list, whether it be Forbes or, as I mentioned and you referenced earlier, being named a Distinguished Graduate Awardee. There's 14 this year, you and 13 peers scattered throughout the country. Tell me a little bit about what this recognition means to you.
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be named to this list. You know it's a much smaller population from what Forbes has done, but I also feel like it's much more intimate because the people that have recognized me for this award are people that I've interacted with in my program or who have seen the work that I've been doing in my community and nation at large, and so it does hit closer to home, I would say, because WGU has been part of my life, for goodness, the last seven years and, you know, hopefully we'll continue on with my own children as we raise them as well. So just the fact that this recognition comes from something that has taken so much of my life and has poured so much into me and my career is really humbling and I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1:So you referenced seven, eight years ago you found WGU. You decided to go back to school, you know, to pursue a master's. You already had a bachelor's, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, I want to kind of explore this with you. Why did you decide to go back to school? Why was earning a master's degree? I should say plural, right, because now you're on your fourth.
Speaker 3:But why was this important for you in your career development and all that you're involved with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so during that time of my life I was a young mom.
Speaker 3:I had graduated from my bachelor's, I had my first son about two weeks before graduating with my undergrad degree.
Speaker 3:And, gosh, two, three weeks after graduation, we moved across the country to move back home to Oregon, which is where family was, and all of the new sort of life things trying to buy a house, trying to find a new job after graduation all of those things were happening and I felt like maybe I was losing a bit of myself in the hubbub of trying to keep up with what I was supposed to be doing in life at that time.
Speaker 3:And shortly after we moved back, we found out we were pregnant with our second son, and so not only was I going into my first year teaching with a newborn at home, but also pregnant again and we just bought a house and I was like I have to do something for me to make me feel like I'm doing something for the betterment of myself and our future too, instead of just kind of owning the mom role. At the time that seemed to be kind of all-consuming, and so that was the initial thing that really prompted me to look for opportunity. Was I need to do something again for myself, while I'm also focusing on raising my children and being a better teacher?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, being able to provide the support to your children, your family, but also doing something for you. I think that's great and kind of along those lines. How is this decision connected to just that, a bigger dream that you had for your life?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you know early on when I got my first couple of master's degrees in education, it really was about being the best teacher that I could be for my students and really seeking to make an impact in my community. So my first master's degree in curriculum instruction, my second master's degree with licensure and special education really is where my whole heart is in serving kids and families and so knowing that the degrees that I got would help propel that part of my career so I could do more good with what I was already working with. And then, of course, since then, the business degrees, which have helped propel the business forward, have been an added bonus. But just kind of overall big picture, I never envisioned being an entrepreneur or creating a platform like I've had to. Helping me feel confident in those decisions and realizing my goal for impact is still there, it just looks a little bit different and a little bigger than I originally thought a few years ago.
Speaker 1:Isn't that interesting, right? You don't necessarily know exactly where you're headed, but you go out on a journey, you go out on a path and you work hard and good things follow.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. I'm grateful every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Was there anything holding you back? I don't know if you had like reservations. Again, you kind of alluded you were in the education space but then you've gone a little bit more business and entrepreneur. Did you have any challenges or fears or things that were kind of holding you back from going after your dreams?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think so. I mean as being a non-traditional founder, you know I don't come from a business background. I don't have any sort of entrepreneurial or like private sector business experience. I'm a teacher, you know we have a contract with tenure, we know what's expected and how to do our job, but being an entrepreneur, you don't really have any sort of guidelines to live within, and so there's been a lot of doubt and barriers that I've had to overcome and I would say mostly like my kind of mental and self-esteem belief of myself of like can I actually do this? Like there's a lot of people riding on me right now. I need to make sure that I'm making good decisions for the masses, and I feel like I would have regretted not doing my business degrees, because that has given me the confidence boost in the decisions that we're making, because I know that it's grounded in decades of business experience that I didn't have coming in, that I was able to learn and capture through the experience of completing my degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was the biggest unexpected surprise we'll call it from pursuing these degrees?
Speaker 3:Biggest surprise, I would say the general community of WGU alum and students. You know, when the Forbes announcement came out, just the support from other WGU students and alumni, like hey, I'm a WGU student too. Like I, I'm so appreciative of what you're doing, like you're such an inspiration, like even those things just kind of help boost the confidence more of okay, I'm doing something that is also recognized by others that have had a similar experience with WGU as well a foundation of education and when you're completing your degree you don't necessarily feel like you're as connected to your students except through the chat and things. But the community is definitely alive and well out there, and so that was a really cool surprise, I would say, of my experience at WGU and the recognition in general.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I would be willing to submit that you are part of that community and that I think you're encouraging others. I know you referred several people right your husband, obviously, and others and so just a thank you to you for being part of that community and encouraging and uplifting those that you know. We're tackling this theme of it's never too late and specifically right within the context of WGU. We're looking at it in terms of going back to school. You know our average age student is quite a bit older than, say, our traditional counterparts would be, but I want to ask you a little bit about that. So can you think of another time in your life where you decided that it wasn't too late to go after something that meant a lot to you?
Speaker 3:One thing that kind of comes to mind immediately is I was in high school, in my senior year and I know that this is probably like okay, you're young in high school, 17, 18.
Speaker 3:But I had always had a passion for singing and I was in choir in middle school and things, and I was like never put myself out there to do like the musicals.
Speaker 3:And so my senior year they were doing Greece, which was one of my like all time favorite things, and I was like, okay, I'm just going to audition and go for it.
Speaker 3:And so during my senior year, that's when I did my first musical or play at that kind of level, and the feedback from the director was something that still inspires me today of like man, where were you three years ago when we were doing this? Because you could be so much farther than if you were just starting in your senior year, when you're basically transitioning out of the school. And so then from that moment it was like, okay, well, it's never too late to do something, because I wish I would have done it three years ago. And so if I have the kind of vision to do something now, then I should just do it now, because otherwise I'm going to think it's probably too late and I'll never do it. So that is one of those kind of pivotal moments, I would say, in my adolescence that has really kind of influenced my perspective on taking advantage of every opportunity as it comes up, or if the inspiration is there to do something, take action now.
Speaker 1:Love that. When was the moment that you knew it wasn't too late for this, for getting your master's degrees again times four and then also again pursuing the entrepreneur route? Was there a moment that you can pinpoint or think about?
Speaker 3:I don't think so in the lens of like was it too late? I think it really kind of stems from that experience of feeling like I was too late to the game in high school and so I didn't want it to be too late for me. In my current path I think it's just kind of adjusted my kind of perspective of it's never too late and so if I feel like it's the time to do it right now, I'm going to do it right now, and that's kind of what I've lived by since then.
Speaker 1:I love that. All right, jessica, I want to get selfish for a second. Okay, you and I are in this interview and I am like I am a student. So you're the teacher and I'm a student and I love learning from successful people. I'm fascinated I always have been, and you are somebody that I admire and, again, I've gotten to know over the last year or so. We're going to let the audience in on our little one-on-one chat here, right, as we've got a growing audience, but I want to ask you a couple of questions, like advice questions as someone who's gone out and certainly took a step, you know, and there was no guarantee that you would be successful. So I'm curious what career or life hack that you've experienced or you've learned and how that's helped you be successful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say the biggest one is not taking advantage of an opportunity. So I'm a big believer and proponent of just putting yourself out there. It is extremely hard, though. I'm an introvert and I'm like I don't want to send the message what if they don't like me? Or what if they say no? And then I've kind of retrained my inner dialogue tool. Well, if they say no, then I'm in the same point as if I never reached out in the first place, and so that's kind of been my, my mindset moving forward is, you know, you do a lot of self-rejection of yourself, I think just innately by any insecurities that we might have as people. And so if you just put yourself out there and they say no, well it's the same as if you just said no to yourself and never reached out in the first place.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's very insightful. Looking down the road a little bit, one to two years, what are your goals? What are you hoping to accomplish? And I'll take maybe a personal one, if you've got that, and also obviously a professional one with your company that you founded.
Speaker 3:Yeah, personal, I would say, is, you know, surviving and thriving with the six children.
Speaker 1:That's fair.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we also homeschool and so we have our oldest. Three boys are homeschooling this year. So bringing a new family member in mid-year is something that we're going to have to kind of adjust as we get into the spring. So, short term with the family is really just kind of thinking about how do we adjust our living to accommodate for our new family member and welcome them into the family the best way we can. And business wise, I feel like the sky's kind of the limit. We have got some big things on our horizon in the next six to nine months and so, depending on how those go with like our expansion into schools and product development that we have, with integrating some lesson planning and personalized learning software and AI and machine learning type technologies into the platform, we'll be able to skyrocket our growth and broaden our impact even further than what we've already been able to accomplish.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, like I alluded to earlier, I expect an update. We're following you, we're rooting you on and we can't wait to see what happens over the next one to two years for you and beyond. Jessica, I feel like this is a bonus because, again, we got to know you several months ago and our audience, I think, was inspired by all that you're accomplishing, and we get to catch up again with you today. So I think we probably did this in our last interview, but you know things have changed since then and whatnot. I'd love to turn this over to you and to give you kind of a final word, final thoughts, as we conclude the interview. You can share anything that you want. You've got the microphone, you've got the platform, so let's hear what's on Jessica's mind as we conclude.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would just say you know.
Speaker 3:So grateful again for the WGU community, and I know that there's a lot of alumni that listen to this and also potential students that are considering WGU, and so I want to start with that first and just say you miss 100% of the opportunities you don't take.
Speaker 3:So if you're on the fence, go for it. What's the worst that could happen? No matter what, it's always a learning experience, whether the answer is yes or the answer is no and those sorts of things. So I want to encourage those people that are on the fence about something to just put your foot out there and give it a whirl, because you don't really know what's on the other end of that. So, with that sentiment too, really excited about the things that are coming for WGU, for the business, if you are a parent and you love the WGU experience of first lines education, competency-based learning, it's very similar to what we do at Dailies, which is my company, so we would love to support your K-5 or pre-K-5 learner. We just introduced middle school grades 6 through 12 for tutoring, and enrichments really were focused on impact. So, however, we can help and support more families, wherever they may come from, whatever resources they may have is really where we're headed.
Speaker 3:So again, just so grateful for the opportunity to reconnect today.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Before we let you go, give us the web address. If parents are listening and they've got kids and they need some extra support and help, they want to see their kids thrive. Where can they go to learn more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, dailiespodscom D-A-I-L-I-E-S-P-O-D-Scom dailiespodscom. Yep.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, jessica, it's always an honor to be with you. Thank you for the personal advice to me and to our audience, and just for you to continue on doing all that you do, we look forward to celebrating you, you know, as a distinguished graduate More to come on that. Again, we'd love to follow you on social media and all that you're doing. So all the best to you. Stay safe, stay healthy, hope the family's well. Cheer on your husband as well. Let him know that we're all pulling for him as he completes his degree program and you as you're down the stretch on your fourth master's as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you again, so much.
Speaker 4:Thank you for listening to the WGU Alumni Podcast. To learn more about the WGU alumni community, visit wguedu backslash alumni. Thank you to our alumni, now 300,000 strong and growing WGU a new kind of you.