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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:22] SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Phil Bliss and welcome to stop, think, focus and execute.
[00:31] SPEAKER_01: Today I'd like to introduce Vanessa Vicaria, founder of the Math Guru.
[00:36] SPEAKER_01: So Vanessa, why don't you give us a little bit of background about yourself?
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it all started in high school when I failed Math twice.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: I was like pretty much kicked out of school and my parents sent me to a totally different school.
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: It was a totally different model of education.
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: I had this amazing teacher and I ended up getting a 99 in Math that year.
[00:55] SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't because the school was easy, it's because I was taught to think about Math from a totally different perspective.
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: And I remember it being like this crazy light bulb moment and I was like, oh my god, I thought I was inherently bad at something my entire life.
[01:08] SPEAKER_00: And I've just realized that that's not true.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: That was your first start in focus execute moment?
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: I guess it was.
[01:14] SPEAKER_00: I guess it was.
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: Sorry, interrupt you, do you?
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: No, no, that's okay.
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I ended up at Teachers College and I ended up in the classroom doing my practicum and I like hated teaching.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: I'm all about mentoring, not just teaching and really in a classroom.
[01:25] SPEAKER_00: There's very little opportunity for mentoring because you have 30 kids in front of you.
[01:29] SPEAKER_00: Basically, I spent all day yelling at kids and I'm a really bad disciplinarian.
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: So all the kids had to sort of be like, guys, leave Miss Fee alone.
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh my god, this is horrible.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: I decided to go to India, but I needed to make money to go to India.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[01:41] SPEAKER_00: So that might have been my second stop.
[01:43] SPEAKER_00: Thank focus execute moment because I was like, how can I make some fast cash?
[01:47] SPEAKER_00: I'll tutor people that I've been teaching.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: So I ended up tutoring and it was like the best thing ever.
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: I sort of was like, this is where I meant to be.
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: It was so rewarding to sit with kids one-on-one who really, really wanted to learn.
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: And no point during this that I want to start a business, I was just like doing what I was doing because I was making money doing it.
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: And that was just the immediate need that I enjoyed it.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: But before I know it, I'm working 40 hours a week and I'm turning students down, which I don't want to do.
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: But I sort of reached that glass ceiling, right?
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: Like I'm working as much as I physically can.
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that happens.
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: That's it.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: That's it.
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: And so that's when I was like, okay, I can either keep doing this or I can actually like change my business plan.
[02:26] SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, plan a function.
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get an apartment.
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: So I had people now coming to my place.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: So I could fit more students in.
[02:32] SPEAKER_01: You thought about it.
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: You were still executing in exactly the same way you would be doing.
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: I guess so.
[02:39] SPEAKER_01: You just changed the location from the students to your house.
[02:44] SPEAKER_01: Which meant you could fit more in.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[02:47] SPEAKER_00: I wasn't driving around.
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: But again, like there was still no plan.
[02:50] SPEAKER_00: And I was still like just doing, right?
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: So I think probably the pivotal moment came when kids were starting to ask if I tutored science as well as math.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I know fuck all about science.
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: I got to know how to know I don't.
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: But again, like I've always been sort of entrepreneurial.
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: Like as soon as that question came up, the competitive side of me was like, I don't want you going to someone else for science.
[03:10] SPEAKER_00: Because then you're going to go to them for math too, right?
[03:12] SPEAKER_00: So I was like, all right, what if I actually create some sort of business?
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: What if I like bring on someone who can tutor science?
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: And what if I actually create a company?
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: So that was less of a stop moment than the think moment?
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm thinking about being bigger.
[03:28] SPEAKER_00: What am I, okay, is this focus now?
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: Am I focusing?
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: How do you get that?
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: That's the focus.
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: So how did you get that?
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: So I thought of all the students I had had that were really, really smart.
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: And I decided to just email some of them and say, hey, are you interested in a part-time job?
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: Do you have a business plan at that point?
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: I've never had one.
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: I sort of like think a few steps ahead instead of like a mile ahead.
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: What you're really doing is, you know, increasing volume, adding resources.
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: Increasing volume, adding resources.
[03:58] SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
[03:58] SPEAKER_01: What you're really doing is staying in that and focusing an ex-coding.
[04:03] SPEAKER_01: You don't necessarily have to stop because you stopped earlier on.
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: Since you did the original stop and think what you've really been doing is focusing.
[04:13] Speaker UNKNOWN: That's a nice, cute.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's kind of like a staircase, I guess.
[04:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really cute.
[04:16] SPEAKER_01: That's a good staircase.
[04:18] SPEAKER_00: There are moments where I had to like refocus.
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: Am I starting a full on like tutoring center?
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: Or am I going to focus on math and science?
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: It's one of those things where, and you see businesses do this all the time,
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: where they try to put out too many products.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: They're not focused on their actual expertise.
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: You're absolutely.
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: You start, you thought about it, you refocused to math and sciences.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: Where are you now?
[04:39] SPEAKER_01: With that refocus and executing.
[04:42] SPEAKER_00: I would say at that point is when I actually came up with the brand of the math guru.
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: So that was about seven years ago?
[04:48] SPEAKER_00: I think it was like, yeah, probably like six years ago.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: Six years ago, okay.
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: Excuse my math.
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: Just needed that guy.
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I came up with the math guru and I was like,
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: like focusing execute has literally been like so now I'm up to two, three units and twenty tutors.
[05:07] SPEAKER_01: Forks are actually the business building.
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[05:10] SPEAKER_01: Like focusing and executing, you've gone from four to twenty.
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: And the math guru brand in a discipline that you love.
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: And now like we've sort of built up that reputation for being like the math and science go to.
[05:25] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[05:25] SPEAKER_00: Which I couldn't have done if I had been doing all these sort of like random things.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty good stop think focus execute story.
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: Immediately you connected the tutoring to what you love.
[05:37] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[05:38] SPEAKER_01: Then your business zoomed ahead.
[05:40] SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what stop think focus execute is.
[05:43] SPEAKER_01: When I meet people like you, they're very successful entrepreneurs.
[05:47] SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of leap that all of a sudden that they make.
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: It's not just focus and execute, it's not just stop and think.
[05:55] SPEAKER_01: It's all four things going.
[05:56] SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden boom.
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: This feels like Dr. Phil now.
[06:02] SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be Dr. Phil, you know.
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: But I know you're okay.
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: Dr. Phil is okay.
[06:07] SPEAKER_00: He helps people all the time.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: He helps people all the time.
[06:09] SPEAKER_00: He changes the line.
[06:10] SPEAKER_01: You help yourself by stopping thinking, focusing, executing.
[06:14] SPEAKER_01: So I'd like to thank you.
[06:15] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: Wonderful experiences.
[06:17] SPEAKER_01: And I'd like to thank you for watching a great stop thing.
[06:21] SPEAKER_01: Focus execute moment.
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: It is a logical process.
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: And it is a mass business.
[06:28] SPEAKER_01: So I guess they move together.
[06:31] SPEAKER_01: Speak to you soon.
