Open Doors Academy

Free courses from
Dr. Kester Crosse

The book gives you the ideas. This course walks you through them one step at a time, with the drills built in and somewhere to put your answers.

Free Introductory

The Open Doors Blueprint

The ideas from the book, turned into a short guided course. Presence and value first, then communication and opportunity, with the TEEE framework used to score yourself honestly.

  • 4 sections
  • 13 lessons
  • 60 minutes
What you will be able to do
  • Recognise how emotional intelligence, presence and communication shape first impressions
  • Practise phone etiquette, small talk and networking in professional settings
  • Communicate a personal story that builds trust and memorability
  • Assess your own strengths using the TEEE framework and market value
  • Identify the next career actions and habits that support long-term growth
Start free

Opens on Open Doors Academy. A free login saves your progress.

Coming soon Parents, mentors and youth leaders

Open Doors for Parents & Mentors

The same ideas, aimed at the adults around a young person rather than the young person. How to model presence and follow-up in ordinary family conversations, and how to coach an introduction without doing it for them.

  • 5 sections
  • 17 lessons
  • 60 minutes
What you will be able to do
  • Identify the people skills and habits that most shape a young person's opportunities
  • Model communication, presence and networking in everyday family and mentoring moments
  • Coach a young person through introductions, small talk, follow-up and cold conversations
  • Recognise habits that quietly lower a young person's market value, and replace them
  • Use the frameworks from Open Doors to support career exploration and discipline

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Financial literacy

Your First Million Starts Today: Building Wealth Before You Graduate

Financial literacy for students: budgeting, credit, evaluating an offer, and starting to invest before the salary arrives.

What you will be able to do
  • Build a budget and savings system that serves short and long-term goals
  • Use credit responsibly and improve credit health
  • Evaluate job offers and benefits through a wealth-building lens
  • Create an early investing plan aligned with long-term goals
  • Draw a financial roadmap for the first years of a career

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Wellbeing

Mental Wellness Mastery: Managing Stress and Anxiety in College

Managing stress and anxiety in college, including the family patterns and campus pressures that shape how it shows up, and when it is time to ask for more support.

What you will be able to do
  • Identify how stress, anxiety and depression appear in college life
  • Use practical strategies to manage stress and anxiety day to day
  • Recognise how family patterns and childhood experiences shape coping
  • Choose the right support on campus and beyond when symptoms intensify
  • Build a realistic personal plan for wellbeing and help-seeking

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Relationships

The Blueprint for Healthy College Relationships

Dating, friendships and social media through the lens of the Black college experience, and the boundaries that hold up under it.

What you will be able to do
  • Identify the traits of healthy relationships in the Black college experience
  • Use social media in ways that protect wellbeing, reputation and boundaries
  • Apply communication and boundary-setting in dating, friendship and campus life
  • Recognise how identity, belonging and community shape relationship choices
  • Choose relationships that support growth, respect and long-term goals

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Career growth

The Success Equation: Work Ethic + Reputation + Relationships = Career Growth

Work ethic plus reputation plus relationships. What actually compounds over a career, and the habits underneath each one.

What you will be able to do
  • Define how work ethic, presence and emotional intelligence drive career growth
  • Assess the habits that strengthen or weaken a professional reputation
  • Communicate your strengths and goals through a clear professional story
  • Use networking, small talk and cold-conversation techniques that work
  • Identify career pathways and build an action plan for growth

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Networking

Networking That Opens Doors: Build Meaningful Relationships That Accelerate Your Career

Turning talent into trust and access: presence, the opening line, the follow-up, and the relationships that outlast the room.

What you will be able to do
  • Explain how emotional intelligence and communication shape opportunity
  • Demonstrate presence through phone etiquette, body language and self-awareness
  • Craft and deliver a clear personal story for introductions and interviews
  • Start conversations, build rapport and follow up professionally
  • Apply repeatable habits for networking in college and early career

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Coming soon Emotional intelligence

Emotional Intelligence Mastery: The #1 Skill for Career and Relationship Success

The deeper treatment of the skill the book argues matters most, turned into habits you can run in a real workplace.

What you will be able to do
  • Define emotional intelligence and how it affects trust, reputation and opportunity
  • Assess your gaps in self-awareness, emotional regulation and communication
  • Apply presence and communication habits in academic and workplace settings
  • Use practical frameworks to build stronger relationships
  • Write a short action plan for applying these skills daily

Not open yet. It will appear here when Dr. Crosse publishes it.

Courses run on Open Doors Academy, Dr. Crosse's own course platform. Signing up there is free and separate from this site.

Common questions

Do the courses cost anything?

No. Every course listed here is free. You create a login on the course platform so it can save your progress, and that is the only thing asked of you.

Do I need to have read the book first?

No. The courses stand on their own and start from first principles. They do follow the same ideas as Open Doors, so reading it alongside will reinforce both, and the companion on this site maps the chapters to the drills.

Where do the courses actually run?

On Open Doors Academy, Dr. Crosse's course platform. Clicking a course opens it there. Your progress and any certificate live on that platform, not on this site.

Why are some marked "coming soon"?

Dr. Crosse has 8 courses written and 1 of them open so far. The rest are finished enough to describe but not yet released, so they are listed without a link rather than sending you to a page you cannot open. They will become clickable here the day each one opens.

How long does a course take?

The Open Doors Blueprint is about 60 minutes across 13 lessons. You do not have to finish in one sitting — it remembers where you stopped.

Alongside the course

Work the book while you learn

The book carries the chapter assignments and the 14-Day System. Read it next to the course and the drills line up.

See what is inside Get the book