Welcome  to  be  on  the  Nasser  University  of  Minnesota, Rochester's  alumni  podcast. I'm  Marco  Lands,  UMR  Director of  Alumni  Development  Relationships. In  today's  season  three  finale  2020  graduate, Bradley  Kraker,  catches  up  with his  student  success  coach,  Anna  Riba  Casks. The  two  chat  about  what  brought  Bradley  to  UMR, his  rather  unique  career  path, and  the  advice  he  has  for  rapper  undergraduates. Currently,  Bradley  is  the  owner  operator of  British  Automotive  Specialties, a  business  he  and  his  father started  a  little  over  a  year  ago. And  now  let's  check  in  with  Anna  and  Bradley. We  had  a  meeting  in  the  Twin  Cities. And  we  sat  down  and  I  asked  you, has  any  of  your  students  ever  gone  into  agriculture, looked  confused  and  concerned  and  said  no. And  we  had  a  conversation, the  end  being  that  I  was  eclectic  and  you  nailed  it. What  brought  you  to  Umar  in  the  first  place? How  did  you  end  up  at  Umar? When  I  was  in  high  school, I  had  a  microscope  and  I  got  really  into  science. When  I  toured  campuses, Rochester  was  the  most  science  oriented  campus  overall. That  was  really  the  biggest  reason  I  chose  them. But  another  huge  reason  was  that  I graduated  a  class  of  24  here  in  Hebrew. Now  in  the  middle  of  nowhere  coming  to  Rochester, Rochester  was  one  the  real  science  oriented  campus  I  saw. But  it  was  also  the  only  campus  that  I  had a  chance  at  being  part  of  a  class  of  around  24. Like,  where  I  could  get  to  know  all  my  students or  all  my  classmates  rather. Yeah.  Yeah.  I  remember  one  of our  very  first  meetings and  you  told  me  about  your  microscope. You  also  asked,  when  can  I  take  microbiology? I  remember  talking  you  through  like the  prerequisites  you  would need  and  you  were  like,  No,  no,  no,  no. Like  how  fast  can  I  get  microbiology  on  my  schedule? That's  right,  yeah. Honestly,  the  first  two  years  of  MR. Were  the  hardest  because  they  were the  classes  I  had  to  take  in order  to  get  to  the  classes  I  wanted. After  that,  it  was  all  review. I  took  microbiology,  that  was  pretty  much  all  review. Chemistry,  all  review. So,  like,  I  was  pretty  lucky  that  I  had a  home  field  advantage  for  those  later  classes. Another  big  part  of  it  was  that  I  took  a  job as  a  UAA  that  was  huge. And  I  wouldn't  have  done  that  if UAA  is  we  like  most  teaching  assistants. But  I  had  the  great  fortune  to  be  able  to sit  and  explain  concepts  alongside the  ins  built  my  relationship  with instructors  more  than  anything  because  I  did it  for  both  math  and  biology. So  I  met  the  faculty  for  all  of  those  classes. Yeah.  How  many  years  did  you  UAA? I  started  in  my  second  year, I  think  you  could  say  UAA,  for  two  years. And  then  my  last  year  I  was  gone  first  semester. And  the  last  semester  I  was  doing  in  a  directed  study. I  wasn't  quite  a  UAA. My  role  was  to watch  the  instructor  instead  of  the  students. That  was  in  think  too,  because  that was  the  first  class  I've  ever  had. The  objective  was  to  learn  how  to  teach, not  learn  what  was  being  taught. So  it  was  really  interesting. Yeah,  that  was  directed  study  with  Dr.  Kelsey  Metzker. She's  amazing. If  you  were  to  sum  some  of your  key  experiences  that  have maybe  like  shaped  things  you  know  about  yourself. What  lands  on  that  list  for  you  taking the  exams  was  something  that  before  an  exam, you  get  this  feeling  in  your chest  and  your  heart's  pumping. And  there's  two  ways  to  approach  that. Either  you  get  really  stressed  out  and  you  say, oh  my  God,  I'm  really  stressed  out  of  my  heart's  beating. Where  you  say,  well,  look,  I have  a  reason  for  my  heart  to  be  beating. This  is  a  moment  where  I  decide how  well  my  degree  progresses. This  is  a  formative  moment. Those  exams,  I  get  that  same  feeling  today. Even  when  I  like  say  just  last  week, I  had  an  insurance  inspector  here, better  believe  I  had  that  exam  feeling. Because  all  the  day before  and  the  day  before  that,  I'm  walking  around  here, I'm  making  sure  I've  got  nothing that  inspector  would  come  and  want to  shut  me  down  for  those  moments, help  me  realize,  hey, this  is  something  that  is  important, allows  me  to  clear  my  mind  and  move forward  with  that  marker. In  other  words,  to  tie  all  that  up, My  time  at  UMR  taking  those  exams, it  gave  me  that  marker  in  my  mind  to know  when  to  take  a  breath  and  realize  that. Yeah. Is  there  something  really  important?  It's  about  that. Is  that  half  and  a  way  to  show  your best  show  the  preparation that  you  did  put  into  that.  Right. I'm  shining  your  heart's  pumping  because you  got  to  get  every  ounce  of  energy  up  to  that. No.  Yours  to  solve  whatever  problems  come  your  way. Problems  don't  stop  no  matter  what  you  would  like. What  did  you  develop  from  being a  UAA  all  those  years?  That  maybe  you. With  you  or  now  know  about  yourself  being  a  UAA. Woke  up  something  in  myself because  before  I  came  to  Rochester, I  had  never  tried  to  teach  anyone  anything. Right.  And  once  I  started working  with  students  and explaining  things  to  them  that  they  tell  me, that  they  just  can't  get, I  realized  that  I  have  an  ability  to  explain  things. Before  that  I  thought  my  talent  was  to just  understand  everything  and no,  that's  not  really  the  case. My  talent  is  to  explain  stuff  even  if  it's  to  myself. If  I  can  explain  it  to  myself, I  can  explain  it  to  other  people. And  that's  where  I  would say  I  changed  the  most  I  went  from  thinking, oh,  I'm  just  a  genius,  to  saying  no, well  I  have  an  ability  to regurgitate  concepts  really  well. That  flexibility  you  can  use  in  a  lot  of  ways. I  still  use  it  for  tutoring. I  still  tutor  a  little  bit, but  mostly  I  use  it  to  explain  to  customers, like  in  my  auto  business, what's  wrong  with  their  vehicle, what's  causing  the  issues  that  they  have, and  what  I  intend  to  do  about it  to  make  sure  it  never  comes  back. Over  this  past  weekend, MR.  Celebrated  the  accomplishments of  its  growing  number  of December  graduates  held  that what  will  be  new  raptor  housing. The  celebration  featured  tributes  from  friends, family,  staff,  and  faculty. Served  as  an  opportunity  for UM  R's  newest  alumni  to  connect before  heading  out  in  the  next  phase  of life  to  our  December  graduates. Congratulations,  what  are  you  doing  now? What  I  do  right  now  is  I'm an  owner  operator  for  British  Automotive  Specialties. I  started  this  business  with  my  father, and  we're  the  only  two  employees  here. He  still  works  full  time  at  a  dealership, but  he's  stepping  down  more  and more  as  customers  come  up  and  up  here. Because  while  he  works  there, I  solve  things  here. We've  been  doing  this  for  a  year, but  we've  owned  the  business  a  little  more  than  a  year, and  I've  only  owned  the  building  six  months  now. Almost  all  those  six  months  have been  spent  just  improving  the  building. I  bought  it  for  a  way  below  market  value, but  that's  because  it  was  a  fixer up.  So  I  had  a  lot  to  do. But  that's  the  beauty  of  it, I  have  a  lot  of  time  because  I'm the  sole  employee  here  aside  from  my  father, and  I  don't  have  to  pay  myself  anything. I'm  able  to  get  things  done  very  cheap. And  that  allows  me  to serve  customers  with  very  little  overhead. Once  I  serve  a  customer, once,  it's  almost  a  no  brainer. They  come  here  again  because  it's half  the  price  of  a  dealership. And  the  same  exact  guy who  would  be  serving  it  at  a  dealership. It's  been  working  out  pretty  well. I  serve  Land  Rovers. So  Land  Rovers,  Jaguars, mostly,  because  that's  what  my  father  does. Ideally,  I  try  and  find  customers  that  have a  couple  so  that  we  can  service  a  flee  to  their  cars. So  every  customer  is  like  a  two  for  one. Yeah,  it's  been  interesting. I  can  talk  a  bit  about  how  I  got  here from  my  degree  in  health  sciences. I  would  love  to  hear  that  journey. You  are  like  the  king  of  transferable  skills,  I  am  Sure. Well,  it  turns  out  that that  makes  me  really  suited  for  management. But  when  I  graduated UMR  with  my  health  sciences  degree,  I  took  two  jobs. One  of  them  was  as  an  intern  at the  University  of  the University  of  Minnesota,  Twin  Cities. I  was  working  in  the  biology  department doing  qualitative  data  analysis. Basically,  you  get  written  survey  responses. It's  my  job  to  turn  those  survey  responses into  numbers  that  can  be  measured  by  categorizing  them. Basically,  that's  the  simplest  way  I  can  put  it. The  overall  goal  of  the  project  I  was  a  part  of  was  to build  a  program  to train  graduate  student  teaching  assistants. Yeah,  it  was  cool,  but  it  was  only  for  a  summer. At  the  same  time  I  was  doing  that, I  took  a  job  at  the  dealership  because the  internship  didn't  pay  me  very  much at  all  and  I  needed  to  make  some  money. So  I  started  working  at  the  same  dealership  as  my  father. When  the  internship,  when the  quantitative  data  analysis  dried  up, I  just  continued  working  at  the  dealer. About  a  year  ago,  I  quit that  job  and  I  took  my  savings  and  I  did  this. I  invented  British  Automotive  Specialties  LLC, and  then  I  made  another  business, Great  Lakes  Works,  to  own  the  property. So  I'm  my  own  landlord. It's  awesome.  The  best  landlord  I've  ever  had. I'm  also  the  best  ever  had. I  have  an  the  building  across  my  lot, but  he's  not  as  good  as  me. Yeah,  I  can  see  your  initiative  and  your  problem solving  nature  and  your  relationship  building  skills have  all  taken  you  in  a  pretty  good  direction. You  got  to  be  able  to  build  a  relationship. When  a  customer  comes  out  here, they  often  have  to  drive  an  hour  or  more, and  that's  how  far  they'd  have  to drive  to  get  to  a  dealership. That's  part  of  the  reason  I'm  able  to  do  this  is  because there's  a  huge  demand  for  the  service  I'm  providing. I  got  to  be  nice  to  them,  I  got  to  be  buddy  buddy. And  when  I  was  in  college, I  took  a  job  at  Advanced  Auto  Parts and  I  was  a  sales  associate. So  that's  where  I  learned  how  to  deal  with  people and  how  to  work  with  a  customer.  And. I  learned  in  that  job  you  catch  more  flies  with  honey. You're  going  to  sell  the  most  stuff if  you're  genuinely  trying  to  help, the  person  you're  selling  to  a  person  is  going  to tell  right  away  if  you're  trying  to feed  them  some  line  of  Malki. That's  true  in  auto  sales, That's  true  in  part  sales, which  is  what  I  did  my  part  time  job  at, when  I  worked  at  university. That's  true  for,  I  think  teaching  people  too. I  think  one  of  the  reasons  I  was  a  good  tutor is  that  I  genuinely  wanted  to  help  the  student. I  wasn't  there  to  collect  some  money. And  I  wasn't  there,  I  don't  know. I  was  there  because  I  wanted  those  students  to  succeed, that  I  understood  that  could make  the  difference  between  them  being a  Dr.  or  not.  That  meant  a  lot  to  me. Um,  R  would  like  to  hear  from  you. Please  visit  this  episode, show  notes  for  how  to  connect  and  share  your  UMR  journey. Now,  back  to  the  conversation and  Bradley  shares  advice  for current  students  and  chats  about  how  to  build  confidence. Today,  I  don't  have  such  a  grandeur  story. My  difference  is  making  sure  a  customer  can  get  to work  or  not  or  paying  a  fair  price  for  service. I  plan  on  getting  back  into  education. I'd  like  to  do  some  philanthropy if  I  can  make  enough  money  here. What  does  that  vision  look  like? Yeah,  I've  basically  never dropped  the  idea  that  I  want  to  have  an  impact. But  somewhere  along  the  way, looking  at  jobs  in education  and  applying  for  jobs  in  education, I  started  to  realize  that  the  way  it's  set  up  right  now, the  impact  I  want  to  have. I'm  not  sure  one  person can  achieve  that  by  working  in  education. The  impact  I  want  to  have  is  bigger  than  that. That's  part  of  why  I'm  doing  this. This  is  the  only  way  that  I  can think  to  generate  enough  capital  to, to  do  what  I  want  to  do  in  education. What  I'd  like  to  do  is  come back  and  operate  as  like  a  board  on a  university  and  help  fund  a  university  if  not  one  out. Right.  But  it's  far  off,  honestly. Day  to  day  here  in  the  business, I've  always  got  stuff,  I'm  always  just  treading  water. It's  just  like  a  university. I  remember  sitting  down  in between  meetings  with  you  saying  like,  look, I  don't  know  what  I'm  going  to  do  after  college, I'm  just  treading  water. If  you  had  told  me  then  that,  hey, you're  going  to  own  your  own  business  and  you're going  to  have  problems  to  solve  every  day. At  any  hour  of  the  day, my  phone  can  ring  and  it'll  be some  game  breaking  problem  that  I've  got  to  figure  out. I  don't  know,  I  love it  when  you  look  back  on  your  journey, like  what  advice  did  you  have  for your  younger  self  along  the  way? I'd  say  first  and  foremost, a  if  your  plan  doesn't  work  out, have  a  back  up,  right? Have  an  idea  of  what  you're going  to  do  if  things  go  wrong. I  didn't  have  a  plan  for if  I  decided  I  didn't  want  to  do  it. Les,  I  didn't  have  a  plan. If  my  excursion  to  the  Twin  Cities  didn't  work  out, I  didn't  have  a  plan  until there  was  just  the  plan  has  to  change  sometimes. And  if  you're  not  flexible enough,  that's  going  to  hurt  you. The  other  thing  is  to  explore  opportunities. The  biggest  thing  in  Rochester, there  were  so  many  opportunities. I  got  to  do  so  many  things, and  I  could  have  done  so  much  more. So  that's  the  other  thing,  I  being  in  Rochester, most  of  the  people  that  I think  are  going  to  listen  to  this, our  students  at  Rochester take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  that  you  have, because  it's  not  going  to  last  forever. Eventually,  you're  going  to  be  graduated and  those  doors  will  close. It's  going  to  be  new  doors  open, but  you  only  got  one  shot  to  make  the  most  of  college. How  do  you  develop  that  confidence? Where  does  that  come  from? It  comes  from  experiencing success  and  the  only  way  you can  get  there  is  by  working  really  hard. You  got  to  apply  yourself  like  whatever  you  do. Try  to  be  good  at  it.  What  else  is  the  point  of doing  it  on  your  confidence? Comes  from  observation. It  comes  from  observing  that  you're  succeeding. And  if  you're  not  confident, it  might  be  for  a  valid  reason, you  might  not  be  succeeding  right  there. But  there's  things  you  can  do  about it  after  working  in  education. I  don't  believe  that  there's  anyone  who  doesn't  have the  potential  to  be  great  at  whatever  they  do. If  you  work  hard  enough  at  it, you  will  get  better  at  it  and  eventually you'll  be  good  enough  to  feel  good  about  it. This  business,  put  in  one  more  plug  for  your  business. I  don't  think  the  listeners  will  be  coming  anytime  soon, but  maybe  you  never  know. It's  British  Automotive  specialties. If  you  Google  that,  our  website  will  come  up. It's  Skip  British.com  Skip  is  my  father. I'm  working  on  this  business  with  him  and  eventually I'd  like  to  start  moving  more  towards  education  again. But  until  then,  I'm  getting a  solid  footing  underneath  this  business. Yeah,  if  you  have  a  Land  Rover and  you  feel  that  you're  paying  too  much  at  a  dealership, maybe  you  should  give  us  a  try. I  love  it.  I  absolutely  love  it. All  right,  any  other  final thoughts  that  you  have  here  as  you reflect  on  your  journey and  the  impact  of  UMR  on  that  journey? One  of  the  best  parts  about the  students  that  wanted  to  be  doctors  and therapists  and  health  care  professionals in  general  was  that  they  wanted  to  help  people. The  best  educators  I  ever  met  wanted  to  help  people. And  the  best  salesman  I  ever  met  wanted  to  help  people. I  don't  think  that  this  is  a  coincidence. If  you  spend  your  time  trying  to  help  people, things  are  going  to  work  out  for  you. That's  probably  the  only  major overall  reflection  I  can  think  of  from Mar  and  that's  one  of  the  biggest  things  that  comes  to mind  is  like  it  was  a  science  campus. Yeah.  But  it  was  a  campus  about  people  trying to  use  science  to  make  people  healthier, to  help  people  get  better. That's  what  makes  Amar  great  place. Thank  you  to  Bradley  and Anna  for  their  fascinating  conversation on  Bradley's  unique  path  after  graduating  from  Rochester. And  thank  you  for  listening  to  me  on the  Nest  Omar's  alumni  podcast. We  will  return  in  the  New  Year  with  a  new  season, a  season  focused  on  the  history  of  UMR. Over  the  course  of  five  episodes, we  will  examine  how  UMR  came  to  be, the  personalities  behind  the  push to  build  campus  from  scratch. And  the  choices  Umar's founding  generation  made  that  makes this  campus  one  of  the  most  innovative  in the  country  until  then,  tool.