Episode Transcription

And then you put it out there and you really don't get much back unless somebody reaches out and says, I love that episode or, you know, I found you because of this episode, which, by the way, please, if that ever happens, make sure you let me know. Otherwise, you just don't know what's happening. So when you subscribe, when you review, you know, leave comments, when you message me and say how much you enjoyed it or what you got out of it, that keeps me going. So please, please, I encourage you to do that. Now, today I wanted to actually talk about my journey. And some of you might have heard this before, but there's a reason that I'm talking about my journey today, because on the 17th of April, I am running Tutors Day Out, which is the first event of its kind, a live event in Sydney, full day, just for tutors, tutoring business owners. And it's all about growth in your business. And collaboration and community. And of course, lots of fun. Because, hey, why do we do something if it's not fun, right? We've got to enjoy what we do. So I wanted today to talk to you about my journey, and some of the challenges that came up along the way, and sort of explain why and how Tudors Day Out came about. So for those of you who don't know, I used to be a classroom teacher. And I left at the end of 2011 to start my own tutoring business. Now, I jumped in headfirst. I had no idea about business. But my dad had an electrical business, which was quite successful. He had no idea about business at all when he started either. And I thought, well, if he can do it, so can I. And I just went from there. And I did, to begin with, what I tell a lot of people not to do. And I winged it. And I'm not sure if there's a better word. Say them winged it. Sounds a little bit random, but you know what I mean. I made stuff up as I was going. I really didn't know what I was doing. I spent a lot of time Googling. There was no such thing as ChatGPT back then. And Instagram, I don't even think existed. Facebook was kind of on the up, but there was so much that was different in business back then to even now. Now, what I did have, though, was I had passion and I had drive and I had this desire to do something different. I loved being in the classroom. I loved working with my students. I didn't leave the classroom because of that. I had a bit of a soft spot for kids who teachers or previous teachers couldn't quite get or didn't know how to get through to. Like, I loved figuring out what made a child tick and seeing what I could do differently, what I could bring to them. And from my time working in the university, But it was beyond what anybody was even contemplating. I could see the difference that that was making for children in my class, yet I didn't have the power, the capability, the time to implement that to my whole class, let alone bring it into the school and help so many kids that needed it. I knew that a tutoring business would allow me to do that. But there was also something missing for me on a personal level. So like I said, I enjoyed being in the classroom. I loved working with my kids, but I just felt something more. I felt like I wanted to be able to build something, to grow something. And maybe this is a little undiagnosed ADHD here, but there's just that shiny object syndrome. There's always something more, something new, something fresh. Like, what's the next challenge? And so I actually nearly bought. So, yeah. are A franchise. At the end of 2011, I bailed on that at the last minute because, for a few reasons, but basically, I think my mum was a big part of it saying, why are you paying people all of this money? You can do this yourself. And she was right. I could do that myself. Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was still very capable. And I had this drive and this passion to make this work. I left the classroom. I went all in. And I had a space in Burley on the Gold Coast. And it wasn't actually the space that I initially wanted. The place that I wanted was this really cool, funky, blue, like pastel-y blue house-looking location. But it was way out of my price range. And it was next to a nail salon. So the whole place just stank. Like nail salons. So unfortunately, I didn't. Take that one. took this one, which I thought was not ideal, but I fitted it out. I put my branding into it, my style, my touch, and it was actually perfect. It was the perfect size. It ended up being a great layout, fantastic location. It allowed me to become close friends and develop good business relationships with some speeches down the road, some OTs, some child psychologists, which helped my business grow immensely. So it all worked out in the end, even though I didn't think that it was the place that I was supposed to be. So I had this space. I did go back and do a few contracts at school. I think that was more about the fact that I wasn't very good at saying no to my principal and she knew how to twist my arm. And I have a huge amount of respect for her. And so I have no bad words. But I did go back because you made the deals always sound so good. But it was also nice because I felt like I was keeping my finger in the pie, but you know, still knowing what was going on in the school system and things like that. So that was kind of the start of things for me. And like I said, I didn't know what I was doing. Um, but I was super excited. I just went, you know, head down, bum up. I was there early in the morning till eight o'clock at night. Now, if you follow along and if you listen to my other episodes, you'll know that I wasted a lot of time. I don't know what I was doing till eight o'clock at night. And I definitely didn't need to be there until eight o'clock at night. I was faffing. I was wasting time. And I had just created this busyness for myself because I think I thought that I needed to be busy to be successful. And there's probably also a Knock-on effect from being a classroom teacher where you just work and work and work and work. And so in my business, that same approach went into, so it came from the classroom into my business, and I just worked and worked and worked and worked. Now, the problem was I wasn't focusing on the things that were actually making money. This is something that I talk a lot about inside of the Profit Pathway and, you know, all of my programs, because you don't go in business to not make money. If you're doing tutoring and your intention is not to make money, then you have a hobby or a non-for-profit or a charity, and that is fine. But I'm a business coach, so I'm here to show you and help you to make money as well. And that's not a bad thing. It's not a dirty word. It's okay. You need money to look after your family, to pay your bills, to take your family on holidays, to send them to schools, to do what you want to do in life as well, okay? It's not a bad thing to want more money. And I think that's probably why I had initially thought of purchasing a franchise because there would be somebody who knew something about business who could support me. My goal as a business coach in the tutoring industry is to give you that support so that you do not have to pay tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds, depending who you buy with, to buy a franchise and then pay your profits every single month to continue your business. Now, I am not here to talk about franchises. I'm here to empower you to know that you can do it and you can develop those skills. But you have to invest the time and the finances to actually get those skills. We go to university for three or four years and we spend a lot of time and a lot of money learning the skills to become teachers. We have to do the same when we are business owners. So I kind of got to a point where I knew that I needed some help and I just didn't know where to go. I ended up finding this place on the Gold Coast that offered some business courses and I went along there. I was so out of my league and not in a way that I couldn't understand what was being talked, spoken about or anything like that. But just the people in the room were not my people at all. I could not relate to anybody in there. Also, out of the 15 to 20 of us in there, majority of the people were doing product-based businesses. I was running a service-based business. And then the guy who was actually running it had no idea about how a tutoring business ran or what it was like to deal with parents and children. And so I did the whole course, you know. service business. was was Got the certificate, whatever it was, I can't even remember, and wrote lots of notes and all of those sorts of things. But I remember just thinking, I wish somebody in my industry could help me. And honestly, I now feel so blessed that I can be that person for others because I love nothing more than talking about business, helping people come up with ideas, helping people map out those ideas into action plans, and then helping people create that success. So I love, love, love that I get to do this now. And I love that I get to share ideas and tips and things and strategies on the podcast as well. But I wanted to take it one step further. And obviously, I have my program, so I have the Profit Pathway, which is a group coaching program. Small group coaching program and I've had the tutoring and growth membership which is also group coaching program and what I saw what I have seen what I am seeing over the years is the amazing community in each of these groups. I feel so lucky that every single person that I've worked with has been so supportive of each other in this group like I'm lost for words right now because I just think every single group literally every group of every membership that I've had we come together and I say we it's not just me often people will support each other before I even get an opportunity to jump online and comment or answer a question like it's that kind of vibe and at the end of you know when somebody's finishing up with us or if I'm collecting testimonials or feedback One of the things nearly every single person says is, I stayed on for the community. I stayed on for our private WhatsApp chat. I love our private WhatsApp chat. I love that we come on and we do our collaboration sessions. For example, just in our Profit Pathway, we've just added an extra bonus session, a live session every single month that was not ever a part of this program, where a member is coming and sharing a strategy that is working for them in their business. And so this month, we had Kirsten come in and talk about running markets and what markets, you know, the stalls at your markets and what's working for her. And she's talked about her journey through how she started and, you know, the failures that she has had all the way through to a bit of a system that she has now that makes it really easy for her and simple for her. So, and we've also, the month before, we had Christina come in. And talk about Instagram carousels and how to create some really amazing content that you can use for Instagram and Facebook. They're two people who willingly are sharing what's working in their business. I love that. They're not afraid. They're not sitting there going, I'm not sharing what's working because you're competition to me. They are so confident in what they are doing and in knowing that there are so many children and families out there that there are enough people for us all to work with and they want to see each other succeed. Like, I don't know if you guys, if you're listening and you've worked with me, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't and you've never been a part of a group like this, then I don't feel like my words can truly express how amazing it is. Especially people outside of the industry. So for me, at that point in time, I thought, I cannot at all count on anyone else. And that wasn't like a, I've got to go and do it all myself kind of moment. It was a, I have just realized the importance of me in this business. And that as much as people care about me, they don't care about my business in the same way that I do. So I then, it probably encouraged me a little bit more to find other businesses like mine. And I did actually come in touch with Breakaway Tuition in, I think she's in Sydney. And there was another one, I cannot remember the name of it right now. Who was in Adelaide and just started. And I know that a lot of you do this, which is great as well. But also in this day and age, I don't even think I would have been able to have those conversations properly because everyone is just so busy. But back then, there was no Instagram, there was no scrolling, there was no, like it was very different to reach out to someone. You actually got on the phone and you chatted to them for a while and it was nice. And that's sort of really when I started to feel this little fire in my belly about helping other people and bringing people together. And there was actually then a couple of other businesses that I created a little, that was my first little mastermind with, which was fantastic. Because prior to that, I was so lonely and not in a sense that I was completely by myself, you know, I had kids, I had my husband, but I was lonely in my business and I didn't know. What to do? Where to go? You know, the whole you don't know what you don't know. I had no guidance. had no plan really other than what I wanted, what I thought I wanted my business to look like in 10 years time. I didn't know exactly how to get there and I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. Sure, my dad, like I said at the start, he had an electrical business that was quite successful, but he didn't know anything about a tutoring business. My mum would often give me her opinion and advice. She has zero idea about running a business and mum, if you're listening, I love you, but that would just often frustrate me because what she would say was exactly the opposite to what I knew had to be done. So sometimes, and then also talking to my husband, he would listen and say, oh, you know, whatever you want to do, that's great, that's a good idea. But again, I to sit down in a mastermind with people in my industry. So you might be feeling that as well. You might know what I'm talking about. You might have gone through those experiences or those times where you felt lonely in your business, where you felt like you just don't know who to talk to, who can help you. And I want you to know that we are here. And whether you join a membership of mine or not, I would love to invite you to come to Tudors Day Out in Sydney in April because that one day will give you a taste of what it's like to be in a room with other Tudors who are not competing. They're not protective of their things, what they're doing, what's working. They're actually there to share. They're actually there. They're to meet other people. They're actually there to collaborate. So for me, really, things started to change and shift when I hired a coach. So I did hire a coach eventually, and she had nothing to do with tutoring, but it's because I couldn't find anyone who did have anything to do with tutoring. She took the time to try and understand where I was coming from, and that was helpful. And it was with her guidance that I started implementing systems and things like that. And that is key. It is so important in any business that you have the structure and the organization of your business running, because the problem is you need to, if you want to grow a million dollar business, for example, just saying, you've got to have things in place for that million dollar business. If you want to grow a 10k a month, 50k a month profiting tutoring business, you have to have things in place to allow for that. If you just come in and focus on the tutoring side of it and getting students, and if that's all you focus on, then all of a sudden you have 100 students, you cannot handle them. You probably can't physically take any more than 25 students yourself. 25 is a lot of tutoring. 25 hours a week, plus all of the admin, plus all of the planning and any feedback that you do just for your contact hours of tutoring. Then, invoicing, marketing, dealing with parents, following up payments, onboarding new students, hiring staff. 25 hours a week is a lot. So, and I mean, it's still fine to do that, but for you to be able to do that in your business to continue to grow. You've got to have those systems in place, those structures in place. So that was a big turning point for me. I think after about 18 months of being in business, by this point I had staff, I had groups going, I had one-on-ones, I had school readiness. I'd run some parent workshops and I was actually opening my second location in northern New South Wales. So there was a lot going on and to begin with, the wheels were really falling off. Hence the reason I reached out to a coach to learn what can I do right now because I can't physically be in two places at once. So I had to create those structures so that somebody else could implement things at one of the centres that I wasn't at. And this worked so well to the point where I could actually step away altogether because at this point. I now had a one-year-old. So I had a one-year-old and two businesses. I could completely step away and these centers would run themselves. The staff knew what to do. The parents were trained. The kids knew what to do. Everything worked really well. So I think what I notice happening in a lot of businesses is they start really enthusiastic and passionate and just like I was. And they go all in, but they get to a point where they can't see how they get to that next level. They just don't know and they just say to themselves, I just have to get this organized or once I just have this sorted or once I hear it all the time and I just think, no, you have to right now take action to learn how to change your business. You have to learn. You have to learn how to be a CEO and then you have to start acting like it because at the moment, and this is majority of people, I would say, get stuck at that point acting like an employee and they do not level themselves up to the CEO. So I definitely think that is what changed for me. I stepped out of doing the day-to-day, you know, constant day-to-day of my business, leveled myself up, probably because I had no option because I was at home with a one-year-old and became the CEO, became the person who oversaw the running of the business. And I know that there's a few of you listening now and that's what you want for your business. And maybe you wanted that from the start, but you've lost sight of it. I definitely think being surrounded by the right people and being coached and inspired by the right people. It's very powerful in helping you to get through that sticky, middle, side-hustle-y phase that you are stuck in. So that's kind of all I wanted to say, really. I want you to know that if you're stuck in that stage, you can do something about it. You can collaborate with other people. You can join memberships like mine. You can work with a coach like me. And obviously I'm biased because I love what I do and I would love to work with as many people as I can. But no matter if it's me or somebody else, you want to work with somebody who understands your industry, who understands your business, and who understands where you're trying to take it. Why work with somebody who has no idea? Like I would not, you know, I'm just trying to think of an example really quickly. Yep. I would not ask a driving instructor to teach me how to drive a truck because, sure, they might know, well, you know, you stay on this side of the road and these are the rules and whatever, but they don't actually have the full comprehensive understanding of the engine of a truck and how you brake because I'm pretty sure they use braking, do something different. It was a really bad example to use here, wasn't it? But I think you get my point. Think about the person who can help you best. Think about the place that you need to be that can support you best. You want to step into who you are trying to be, not just staying comfortable and trying to keep your head above water. So on that note, I'm going to finish with a final reminder. of if you haven't ever put yourself in a space like this, Tudor's Day Out is the perfect opportunity. I will put the link in the show notes. 17th of April, this year, Sydney, Bull Day, early bird tickets are currently on sale so it will save you money. It is going to be an opportunity not just for those people but also for anyone wanting to grow your business because we will have a panel of people talking about exactly what they have done and are doing to level themselves up from employee to CEO. There has been some really great success stories that I have had working with clients who have done exactly that and have got to a point now where their businesses are running themselves. So I want you to see how they're doing that and I want you to see that it is real, that it is a thing that you can actually make happen for you. We will also be doing some actual practical work. So when you leave at the end of the day, you'll have some really juicy planning in your hot little hand. And I don't mean planning that you'll never use again. It's actually implemented things into your business. So you will need to bring your laptop. It's not just going to be a boring sit there and listen to me speak all day. You will be implementing. I will be walking around and helping you. There will be lots of opportunities to connect with other people. And don't worry, if you are shy, you don't need to talk to everyone. I'm saying this now. I'm not going to make people dance. Oh, if you're listening to this and you run an event and you make people dance, I don't mean to be rude, but I just don't get into it. So I don't want to make other people do that. I mean, we might do a little brain gym session because You know, we're educators and we know that that's good for us. But I won't make you dance. But if you are shy, come along still because it is a beautiful group. Like I'm looking at the names on my list so far and I actually know most of these names, whether they work with me currently or have worked with me. And they're all amazing people and they're all going to be, you know, coming with these big, kind, caring hearts that as teachers we generally have. And if you've been on, you know, one of my retreats, if you've been on to any of my other workshops, you know that everyone is there to grow their businesses but also to make sure the person next to them feels comfortable and feels inspired. And that is truly the kind of day that we are going to be creating at Tudor's Day Out. But if you've got any questions, let me know. I really, really am excited for this event. We haven't seen anything like this before in Australia. I don't know overseas, haven't looked into it, but nothing like this has been done here. So you will be a part of this first time ever event and the venue will be released soon. But I'm basically wanting to make it really special. So I'm in conversations with this one particular venue that I would really like. And if that works out, I will be able to let you all know in the next week or so. But it will be in Sydney and I'll have it close to public transport and all those sorts of things. So it will be easy to get to. But if you've got any questions, I'm going to stop because I feel like I'm rambling. I'm so excited about it. If you've got any questions, let me know. If you've got a tutoring business, come along. If you want to bring a friend, you can bring a friend and there is a discount. So far, we've got people from WA flying over. You've got people from Queensland flying down, from Victoria flying up. We've even got somebody from New Zealand who's sitting on the fence saying she might be coming too. So there's no excuse, guys. You've got time. 17th of April means it's the holiday, so you won't need to skip any of your sessions or classes. But I would love to see you there. I would love for you to help me make this the most amazing event ever. And then you take that inspiration. You take that community, those new business friends that you've made on the day and just all of those feelings that you feel after you've been connected with the right people learning the right things.