This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.
Hey listeners, the new year has lots of us thinking about our goals, including financial goals.
I know my listeners want to do big things, whether it's buying a home or investing for retirement.
You need a tool that's not just about tracking past spending.
Set yourself up for financial success this year.
Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier.
It brings your entire financial life budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth and future planning to gather in one dashboard on your phone or laptop.
Feel aware and in control of your finances this year and get 50 off your Monarch subscription with code BREAKFAST.
Unlike most other personal finance apps, Monarch is built to make you proactive, not just reactive.
Tracking your money is easier than ever with some of Monarch's most popular features, like a visual picture of your portfolio performance in relation to the SP 500.
In a 2025 survey, Monarch users reported that the app helped them save over 200 per month on average after joining.
Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long.
Use code BREAKFAST at monarch.com for half of your first year.
That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code BREAKFAST.
Hey listeners, as you enter a new year, think about what your year of you might look like, especially if earning a degree is part of your goals.
National University makes it possible, with flexible online formats, short courses and monthly starts.
From now through March 31st, you can apply for National University's Year of You Scholarship, which offers up to 6000 each year for eligible bachelor's and master's programs.
With over 150 different degrees, credentials and certificates to choose from, they have the program that fits your career goals.
Learn more today at nu.edu.
Hey, listeners.
There's a difference between liking a house and actually getting it.
Redfin is built to make up that difference and close the gap between finding and owning the home for you.
Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents.
So when you find a home you love, you're not a step behind when it's time to make an offer.
That means less watching great homes disappear and more focus on the one you'll call home.
Redfin helps turn saved listings into real addresses.
Get started at Redfin.com.
Own the dream.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's episode is going to be a longer one part of the series where I interview fascinating people about how they take their days from great to awesome and any advice they have for the rest of us.
So today I am delighted to welcome Alexandra Levitt to Before Breakfast.
Alexandra is the founder and CEO of Inspiration at Work, which is a futurist consulting business.
She is also a speaker and the author of They Don't Teach Corporate in College and the new book Make School Work.
So Alexandra, welcome to the show.
Thanks, Laura.
It's so good to be back and chatting with you after a little bit of time has passed.
Yeah, it's so good to reconnect with people.
I'm loving that I'm getting to share these conversations with everyone.
Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Well, these days I am a fashioned workforce futurist.
And what this essentially means is that I work with organizations and governments to ascertain what has the greatest potential for disruption in the world of work and then devise scenarios and plans for getting through those disruptions in the most productive way possible.
And how I became connected with the future of education was through an organization called GPS Education Partners, and they are shaping the world of work through training students at a younger age to participate meaningfully in the workforce through work-based learning experiences, and You and I we probably talked about this before, but since I've gotten into this field about 25 years ago, there's been a pretty persistent problem that has just kept me up at night, niggled in my brain.
And that's that there is this gap between the jobs that are available for people to take.
And the talent that is wanting to take those jobs.
And so, throughout the course of my career, I've been on the hunt for a solution that would pair effectively talent that is available for work with the jobs that organizations need to fill.
And so by pipelining students at a younger age into a specific career, or at least giving them good exposure to it, I think we start to mitigate the problem of not having the right people for the right positions.
Well, what are we doing wrong with education that leads to this mismatch, this gap?
Well Laura, it goes all the way back to my first book, which I know we talked about it a long time ago.
They don't teach corporate in college.
And that more or less sums up at least part of the problem, which is that the mandates of education don't really match up to what students need to know in the real world.
And this has only become in the last 25 years more relevant because things are changing faster.
So when you think about an established curriculum in high school or college, It is static for a long period of time.
And often, by the time a student gets out of a degree program, whether it's a secondary degree or a post-secondary degree, that material has become obsolete or, at the very least, needs to be substantially updated or assimilated into the reality of business today.
So I think what we've been still doing is relying on education, the traditional model of education, to adequately prepare young people for the workforce.
And by the way, this is any workforce.
It's not just a traditional white collar workforce or it's any kind of job.
Students don't have an intuitive, natural sense of how those work because they've never had the experience before.
So we are not providing students with enough concrete opportunities to experience the work world, to experience the different career paths that they might be interested in, both to determine what they do like and also what they don't like.
That's just as much of a valuable experience too, because if you, for example, are interested in engineering, you might, as a high school student, have absolutely no idea what that means in practicality.
And if you don't have an experience like work-based learning, you may go to a four-year college and you may get a degree in engineering and you may realize that somewhere down the line, either in an internship or in a post-graduation work situation, that it's nothing like what you expected.
You don't like it at all.
And then you've just spent four years of a very expensive education to not do something that has anything to do with that degree.
So I view it as something that needs to be at least investigated at an earlier stage in a student's development.
So what would that look like?
I mean, is it like more internships, more stuff that like courses that look like work?
I mean, I'm very curious what it would look like.
Yeah, I mean, this is a great question.
And I think we can look to other countries as an example.
Here in the US, we are not as good at things like apprenticeships as many organizations who are European-based, for example, and many governments.
They've got really much more robust public and private sector partnerships over there, where it's expected almost that you do some kind of work-based learning at the high school level and sometimes even earlier.
So what we are trying to and I say we, it's not really me, it's organizations like GPS Education Partners, who I worked with on this book.
What we are trying to do is establish a six-part framework for, if you are interested in launching a work-based learning program, which is basically what it sounds like.
It's learning by working in a real-world situation, such as on a factory floor, and to be able to work with other stakeholders and other constituents in your immediate purview.
And obviously, this is going to vary depending on where you are or what your role is.
So let's say you are an employer who wants to stay in a given geographic area but has no idea where to get talent and is struggling to get talent.
Maybe you're a midsize company.
And you don't know how to get talent to compete with the bigger companies that have name recognition.
So you want to start a work based learning program, but you don't know where to get, how to get this going.
And so you might partner with what we call convener and intermediary like GPS education partners.
And you might partner with policymakers, you might partner with school districts.
Get everyone together on the same page and just follow this blueprint for how to get a work based learning pilot off the ground.
And the most important thing about this is.
It doesn't have to be done alone.
If you're an employer, obviously you might not have a frame of reference for setting something like this up.
But to go to people who do know how to do it and do know how to get all the parts working together.
I think that's a very, very critical piece of this.
And so that is what we're trying to do with our book.
We're trying to literally tell people this is what you do, step by step, if you're interested in getting this set up.
And what it ends up as it really does depend again on the individual situation.
But in an ideal world, students would be spending part of their school day in a real world employment situation learning, for example, a new piece of manufacturing technology that's leveraging robotics to do work and production more efficiently.
That's just an example.
And the student comes in.
The student is working with employees who are a bit older, who have a bit more experience.
So they're learning not only these hard technical skills, but also the skills that are necessary just interpersonally to assimilate into the work world that we talk about so often.
And then they are using their academic education to support what they are learning in the work environment.
So this might be.
They are taking some classes on site at an education center that are related to, let's say, using our existing example, to manufacturing, getting a manufacturing certification, so that their academic education does actually line up.
And what I also love about work-based learning is that by the time you get to the end of your experience, you have a much better idea of whether this is a career path that you would like to pursue.
And if so, what kind of education do you need in order to get ahead in that career path?
And I wish, for example, my son, who is the person I was speaking of when I was talking about the engineering example I wish that he had done something like this so that going to a four-year college was a sensible, informed decision.
Whereas right now, it's kind of a crapshoot.
We really have no idea what's going to happen when he gets that degree, or if he's even going to like that degree.
Whereas if you participate in work-based learning prior to going to college, you can ascertain is a four-year college degree the next appropriate step for me.
And maybe you can even have your employer if you're help you financially with that degree, because the employer recognizes the value in you having that additional education.
So essentially, it just means that post-secondary education makes more sense for the individual rather than just pipelining every student into a four-year degree program, which is a model that we in the U.S. have had for quite some time.
Absolutely.
Well, we're going to take a quick ad break and then we're going to come back and talk more about how people can learn more while on the job, for the jobs of the future.
Hey listeners, as you enter a new year, think about what your year of you might look like, especially if earning a degree is part of your goals.
National University makes it possible, with flexible online formats, short courses and monthly starts.
From now through March 31st, you can apply for National University's Year of You Scholarship, which offers up to 6000 each year for eligible bachelor's and master's programs.
With over 150 different degrees, credentials and certificates to choose from, they have the program that fits your career goals.
Learn more today at nu.edu.
Hey listeners, there's a lot of noise in the business world today.
Leaders like you need clear insights from professionals you can trust.
That's why Truist Security is created navigating beyond the expected.
A podcast built for decision makers who want clarity in a changing market.
Every month, you'll get expert perspectives from corporate and investment bankers who are helping clients tackle important challenges.
Hear how leaders across industries are adapting to new technologies, making smarter decisions and strengthening their ability to grow and secure critical capital.
It's practical advice that cuts through complexity for leaders who need to know what's coming next.
Subscribe at truest.com slash beyond podcast.
That's T-R-U-I-S-T dot com slash beyond podcast.
Copyright Truist Securities Incorporated.
Member.
FINRA and SIPC run a business and not thinking about radio.
Think again, because more people are listening to the radio and iheart today than they were 20 years ago and only iheart.
Broadcast radio connects with more americans than tv digital social, any other media, even twice as many teens than tiktok.
And that reach means everything.
Just think about the universal marketing formula, the number of consumers who hear your message times.
The response rate equals the results And iHeart's leading the way.
Think radio can help your business.
Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real.
Let us show you at iheartadvertisingcom.
That's iheartadvertisingcom, or call 844-844-IHEART one more time.
Just call 844-844-IHEART and get radio working for you.
Well, I am back talking with Alexandra Levitt, who is a futurist, also the author of They Don't Teach Corporate in College and the new book Make School Work.
We've been talking about work-based learning.
But, you know, that's great for young people.
A lot of the people listening to this are adults, and they may have student children who would like benefit from this.
But a lot of people are concerned about, you know, I need to keep learning as well.
You know, we keep hearing that the jobs of the future may be different than the jobs of today, or whatever the catchphrases are.
So how should people who are already in the workforce now be thinking about the skills they might need in the future?
One of my favorite topics and I get asked every single day about AI's impact on the and its impact on skills, and what we will need to do in order to, as humans, meaningfully contribute to our organizations going forward.
So I think this gets to the heart of your question, because AI is one of those things where most people in the workforce today are starting with a blank slate.
Nobody really has these skills.
If you do have skills, maybe they're pretty rudimentary, like you know how to type something into ChatGPT or Cloud and get some kind of sensible answer to it.
But that is really only the starting point for leveraging, let's say, generative AI effectively.
And so what I'm recommending that everybody do is, first of all, have a mindset of learning agility, understanding that your learning is not over just because you're no longer in formal education.
And that having a gainful employment situation for the foreseeable future means that you have to be continuously revisiting what skills you have and what skills you need.
And in terms of where to start with this, I always recommend that people take a look around and say what are the parts of my current job that are being automated?
And what do I need to learn to still have a productive role in whatever process or workflow I'm involved in?
So it really does involve a little bit of individual employees being many futurists.
You have to kind of look around and say okay, this is the area that is most vulnerable to automation.
And what additional or adjacent skills can I develop in order to continue to participate?
And I'll give you a very clean example of this.
I'm a workplace columnist for several different outlets.
When I think about column writing and I write on the workforce, of course I think about what AI is capable of doing in that process today and what is it going to be capable of doing at some point in the near future.
And from a writing column perspective, the writing itself is actually likely to be done by AI.
It's already happening.
And if I just rely on that writing skill, I could be out of a job within a couple of years.
So instead I have to look at the entire process of the production of a column and say hmm, there are things like fact checking, interviewing with sensitive sources editing,
Those are all things that let's say the Wall Street Journal, for example, is not going to allow to be done completely by AI.
Some of those things, there's got to continue to be a human in the loop.
And if I want to keep writing columns or keep doing columns, I need to think about how I can acquire the editing skill, how I can acquire the fact checking skill and how I can enhance the in-person or phone or video interviewing that I do with people, so that sensitive sources can continue to feel comfortable.
Because there are going to always be sources that are not going to be jazzed about revealing things to an AI.
And I think that's just how it's probably going to be.
I could be wrong, but I am staying a step ahead of the situation in which I do not have a role anymore, because the writing itself is being done by AI.
And everybody who is in a job, regardless of what that job is, needs to be doing that same type of thinking.
What can be automated or what's on the chopping block to be automated?
And how can I acquire those additional skills?
And in terms of where you acquire the skills.
We are lucky in the sense that there is more skill acquisition opportunity just out there in the public domain than there ever was previously.
Well, why don't you give us some examples of where people should go to look?
Let's say they've identified a skill that they would like to have, and then they basically need to design their own curriculum, because their company isn't doing this for them.
What should they do?
So I think looking online is just a great way to start.
There are so many really prestigious universities actually that are offering free versions of certain classes.
This is especially true in technology, but it's also relevant in other fields as well.
There are so many online repositories of learning content, Coursera, Udemy.
I call it Udemy.
Some other people say Udemy.
But there are dozens of those that you can go and access different types of learning opportunities.
LinkedIn Learning is another really, really good one.
I have taken several of those courses through that my colleagues have produced to learn more about what they do and get a little bit deeper on certain topics.
You can also ask.
I mean, there's the old fashioned just asking to be mentored by someone who might be in your field and might be a little bit further ahead on, let's say that, AI skill development and how it applies specifically to your workflow or business process.
And that's what I recommend.
It doesn't matter again like, what the level of the person is, because the level doesn't necessarily correlate with the knowledge.
You could have young people who are really, really good at AI.
You could have senior people who are really, really good at AI.
It is a bit of a misconception that all young people are good at technology.
I don't think that's necessarily true.
It just depends on the person.
And so looking for that person within your purview who has a generosity of spirit and who also seems to know what they're doing and shadowing them and learning.
How are they prompting the technology to get it to work for them for what they're trying to do?
I have learned so much just in passing with conversations.
People, oh my God, you're using AI to do that.
Really?
How do you do that?
And then you literally just learn it on the job right there.
So what are you using it for in your life currently?
Oh, it's a really good question.
So Laura, I don't use it for any writing.
And I'll tell you a little bit, kind of a funny story.
One time, a few months ago, a client said to me that they thought a white paper that I had written was generated by AI.
And I asked them, how did they come up with that?
And they said well, I put it into one of the AI detectors and it says it's got it's 85 percent of.
Sounds like something that's already out there.
But what the client didn't do was click on the source that the AI was generating this information from and found that the source that the AI had been trained on was my own content.
Absolutely.
So it was like, you know, you and I have been in our spaces for a while.
And so we've generated a lot of content.
And AI is only as smart as the content that it's trained on.
So therefore, it can't necessarily be relied upon A to be unique in its thinking and B to put things together in a way that makes sense.
If I look at the AI version of my content, sometimes...
If I dig a little bit below the surface, I can see that it doesn't quite make sense.
And this is why humans still need to be in the loop when evaluating AI content, because people who are new to an industry or new to a role might not have that institutional knowledge or skills to recognize that what they're reading is not 100 accurate or relevant.
So I definitely use it for things like background research.
I do want to give the caveat with research, you have to be very careful about the data you're getting and making sure that you are still looking at the sources that the AI is citing to ensure that those are reputable sources, because a lot of times AI doesn't know the difference.
So this goes back to having some degree of knowledge in your field.
But just summarizing and I would say a collating a bunch of information that is in a lot of different sources.
I think AI is really, really good for that.
I think sometimes it's a good thought starter if you just don't even know where to begin on a topic or on a project.
It can give you some starting ideas.
It can absolutely hold you accountable.
I am now... experimenting with using AI for personal coaching, for career coaching.
And I am recognizing how sycophantic it is which, for those who might have not have heard that term, it really means that AI is blowing smoke up your butt and validating you, kind of, to an extreme extent.
That's a great point, Alexandra.
That was very funny.
Yeah, so it does that.
And you have to really be, and this goes to AI skill acquisition, right?
You have to understand how to prompt it.
So it's giving you a really unbiased view of what you're working on, not just telling you everything that you think and do is great.
But that's a skill, just like any other skill, understanding how to prompt AI effectively.
So these are the things that I'm noodling on, I'm working with.
I still think it's highly useful, but I don't think it's as good as we sometimes give it credit for.
Will it get that good?
It might, but it still isn't going to have the ability to think truly independently.
And so we have to continue, as content providers, to Put really really good, strong content into the world, so that the AI, in turn, can be more accurate and effective in what it's recommending.
Because without humans, AI can't think on its own.
And we are probably a while from it being able to do so.
We're a ways from there still.
All right.
Well, we're going to take one more quick ad break and then I'll be back with more from Alexandra Levitt.
Hey listeners, as you enter a new year, think about what your year of you might look like, especially if earning a degree is part of your goals.
National university makes it possible with flexible online formats, short courses and monthly starts.
From now through March 31st, you can apply for National University's Year of You Scholarship, which offers up to 6000 each year for eligible bachelor's and master's programs.
With over 150 different degrees, credentials and certificates to choose from, they have the program that fits your career goals.
Learn more today at nu.edu.
Hey listeners, there's a lot of noise in the business world today.
Leaders like you need clear insights from professionals you can trust.
That's why Truist Security is created navigating beyond the expected.
A podcast built for decision makers who want clarity in a changing market.
Every month, you'll get expert perspectives from corporate and investment bankers who are helping clients tackle important challenges.
Hear how leaders across industries are adapting to new technologies, making smarter decisions and strengthening their ability to grow and secure critical capital.
It's practical advice that cuts through complexity for leaders who need to know what's coming next.
Subscribe at truest.com slash beyond podcast.
That's T-R-U-I-S-T dot com slash beyond podcast.
Copyright Truist Securities Incorporated.
Member FINRA and SIPC.
Run a business and not thinking about radio?
Think again.
Because more people are listening to the radio on iHeart today than they were 20 years ago.
And only iHeart Broadcast Radio connects with more Americans than TV digital social, any other media.
Even twice as many teens than TikTok.
And that reach means everything.
Just think about the universal marketing formula.
The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results.
And iHeart's leading the way.
Think radio can help your business.
Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real.
Let us show you at iheartadvertisingcom.
That's iheartadvertisingcom.
Or call 844-844-IHEART one more time.
Just call 844-844-IHEART and get radio working for you.
Well, I am back talking with Alexandra Levitt, who is an expert on all things future and how to change the school and work and how we learn these days.
So I want to pivot, though, to your own personal productivity.
We've been talking a little bit about what you use AI for, but I'm curious about any routines you have.
We love to hear about people's productivity routines, morning routines, anything else you're doing that you think makes you more productive.
Well, I and I know this is this is your sweet spot, so I would love some advice from you.
But what I do is I try to get started as early as possible in the day because I find that on something that is concrete,
So not just checking emails and answering messages or scrolling LinkedIn, but the the project that I am working on on that day.
I try to get a start um by nine o'clock in the morning, so at least I've got some momentum for the rest of the day, because I find that once I get going I am a lot more productive.
If I'm putting things off um, then it tends to get later in the day.
Then I procrastinate even more.
My energy level dips.
So getting started early, getting some momentum and then everything else that has to be done that day on that project seems a little bit easier.
It doesn't seem like as much of a hurdle to get past.
I also.
It's kind of a similar point, but I break down very large projects into their component parts.
And the I try to assign a component part per week.
And I do this for every single project that I'm working on, so that I'm not following this kind of amorphous well gee, I have to write a book in the next six months, but during the week of February 23, third or 24th, I am going to research and write this particular chapter.
And I've got a workflow that goes week by week not day by day yet, but week by week.
What needs to be accomplished?
And I find that that keeps me on track with multiple balls that are in the air, that have to be juggled effectively.
Let's see, what else do I do?
I try to collaborate whenever possible.
Although a lot of my work is solo, I find that I get a lot of energy and enthusiasm out of working with other people.
And so, wherever possible, I try to integrate some of that, because that helps with my motivation and my momentum.
So those are just some top line things.
I mean it's important as a solopreneur and a lot of your listeners are going to be entering gig-like work over the next couple of years.
Just the way the world's moving.
And I think it's harder to motivate yourself and to keep yourself on a schedule than if you have a boss who's looking over your shoulder or an organization that has very concrete goals.
And therefore I think self-monitoring of productivity and what you talk about is so critically important because you're not going to have that external reinforcement.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I love the idea of doing a little bit on a big project every week, just so you keep touching it.
So Alexandra, I always ask my guests what is something you have done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
So I like the days that I've done this a few times now where I have devoted an entire day to getting to know new people in my field.
So you could call that networking.
You can call that informational interviewing or skill acquisition.
Depending on the person, it could be any it could serve any number of purposes.
But my best days are when I make an interpersonal connection, because I do work a lot, as I said, on my own.
I find that I'm in an echo chamber of my own ideas a lot of the time.
And I just love to talk with people about things that we mutually find exciting invigorating, to get a new idea in the pipeline, about a new way of thinking about things.
So I've done this now a few times, but that's how I can take my day from just being good, writing what I normally know, to let me think about this in a whole new way and also feel like I'm motivated just by through the process of collaboration.
Yeah, it's the best.
It's the best to bounce ideas off of intelligent people.
So, Alexandra, where can people find you?
Well, I'm at AlexandraLevitt.com.
And if you want to learn more about work-based learning or what that's like or how you might get a program off the ground, we have makeschoolworkorg.
And feel free to get in touch and just let us know what you think of these ideas and what you think you might be doing with it in your community.
And we would love to hear about it and perhaps help.
Awesome.
Well, Alexandra, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you to everyone for listening.
If you have feedback about this or any other episode, you can always reach me at laura, at lauravandercamcom.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Think about what your year of you might look like, especially if earning a degree is part of your goals.
National University makes it possible, with flexible online formats, short courses and monthly starts.
From now through March 31st, you can apply for National University's Year of You Scholarship, which offers up to 6000 each year for eligible bachelor's and master's programs.
With over 150 different degrees, credentials and certificates to choose from, they have the program that fits your career goals.
Learn more today at nu.edu.
We'll be right back.
Download the free WeatherBug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7.
T-Mobile has the best plan on the best network.
Just ask Kevin Bacon.
Today, business happens virtually everywhere.
That's why you need Super Mobile from T-Mobile.
The best plan on the best network.
Letting you run your business from your phone like never before.
In moments of high demand, T-Mobile's network adapts to put your business connection first.
Discover more at supermobile.com.
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed Human.
