 When I think about somebody calling me for tutoring, they're not calling me for tutoring They're actually giving me the keys for the child's future How do I not treat this with like the utmost level of respect and dignity and understanding and take that weight That's what they're hiring me for What is up ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to another episode of Amir Approved today's special guest is my good boy Sunny Verma Now before we get to Sunny's bio a couple of house cleaning notes number one Like always if you're watching this on YouTube hit the subscribe button and make sure to hit that little notification bell Because you know what YouTube does these days. I'm not too sure, you know Something's happening in the Algo people aren't kind of getting my new updates So make sure you hit that notification bell and number two if you're listening to this on iTunes I would really appreciate if you leave a review each review helps and in fact for people who do subscribe And leave a review every single week. I'm picking one to two lucky winners to receive $20 in bitcoin So be on the lookout for that exactly so Without further ado our special guest sunny So sunny verma is a ceo of tutor bright one of the world's leading in-home tutoring company that provides world-class mentoring That's amazing my friend. Thank you now. The reason when I have you on is well number one You're my boy. We know each other for a while. It's been a long time. I know I think it's almost like eight nine years Yeah But I still don't know the whole story with tutor bright. Yeah, all right after eight years I well what better place than right now exactly. So why don't you kind of take us through From the beginning the inception How you built it, you know, and then what you guys are currently focusing on today. Yeah. Oh, wow, man Your journey. I'm gonna age myself a little bit. So this is definitely over 10 years experience Okay, so I would have to start Like way into my childhood So when I was growing up, uh, I grew up in a small city called thunder bay. Have you ever been thunder bay? Yeah, I have Okay, why once why never back? Yeah, exactly It's a canadian thing to do. Yeah Check it out. Check it out once and never come back. That's right I mean I gotta give homage to that city because I grew up there But the second person I know from thunder bay. Oh, wow, I'm pretty sure john And you know john naster naster. It's so familiar. He's in toronto. He's from there, too Okay, cool. There's a few of us here. Yeah, so when I was growing up, um I had a really really cool experience when I was six years old my parents declared personal bankruptcy. So You are unfamiliar what personal bankruptcy is in candidates. I guess in the canadian version of poverty I mean many times you skip a meal. Uh, you don't have uh, I mean you don't have any material good But during that time although my family couldn't provide much what my parents did do is Love me and gave me infinite amount to that. So although I was dead broke and really really never felt poor if anything I always say this poverty was my richest experience It was my it was my school It was my true educator because what it taught me is that in life The most important thing that matters is your time Not what you have and when you have nothing all you can do is enjoy your time So it was like this really really dope experience in the sense that Like I've learned through a really interesting way that you don't need anything to make you happy And then as things progressed my parents did much better I ended up going to university Uh after my undergrad didn't know what I was going to do. So I go do a masters I learned to my masters that I didn't really belong there because I was too young to do the program And I'm probably a little bit too rambunctious and kind of wanted to go out more than I wanted to study But I did graduate and one of the biggest takeaways in there is that because everybody's older than me Wanted to do my master's program that they all have this world experience. So I was like shit. I should go experience the world too Went to go backpack southeast asia Australia fell in love of what the places that I seen I couldn't believe how much What I learned from travels that I thought I was going to go see the world instead I saw myself and it was such a like interesting part because all my identities that I had growing up were completely Shed like every time you meet a bunch of new people you could decide who you're going to show up as So when I came back to canada Um, I got a job as a management consultant because I'd pay off my student loans I'd pay off my travel fees and I realized at that time that That honestly man that Life is too short to have a shitty job ever Right, like we say something that you're going to get the experience But it is too short to even have a shitty job because guess what you have no fucking clue when it's going to end Right, so for me, I was working as a management consultant hated my life I had the case of the mondays every single day of the week I'm not kidding like every day I'd wake up with this pit in my stomach being like what am I doing with my life I show up to work I could not wait to get out man I used to like lie about going to the bathroom so much so I could like avoid showing up to my desk, right? Like I was I really disliked what I was doing I disliked what I was doing because I realized I didn't like who I was doing it for I didn't like the people uh that I was working with I like some of them But not everybody and most importantly I didn't believe what we're doing I really felt like I had no contribution to the world and the fucked up part was my friends would like that Had a full-time job. I'd be like, oh man, this really sucks They would tell me they'd be like, oh, don't worry. You'll get used to this that feeling you get used to That's like getting used to being punched in the face and saying it's okay It doesn't make the punch. Okay. That was the most fucked up part for me is that This is the way the world works like we just show up We feel super numb because we take jobs that we hate and for an income to buy shit that we don't need and For me that that was a really big problem. What traveling taught me is that I have time I can shed my identity and most importantly life should be spontaneous. The best part about traveling is You didn't know a country you're going to be in the next day You didn't know what life adventures were going to be in front of you You put yourself in situations to be spontaneous. I wanted the exact same thing So the only thing that I could possibly think of doing was actually starting a company Lo and behold, I Get a call from my friend. She tells me what a younger sister who's failing grade 12 english I decide to give her a helping hand because nothing was working in her life at the time She had this revolving door of tutors. Um Nothing like I mean nothing was working. She's because of the black sheep or family I'm how would I say it like she was considered the outcast right more of the outcast So they're like, sonny can you give her a helping hand? I was like, sure give her a helping hand We actually meet at a library that's actually very close to here. It's just down the street at the reference library And so for those that don't know what the reference library is It's a library here in Toronto and it has cafeteria style seatings. It's like tables and chairs tables and chairs So I walk in and I see her from across the distance I'm walking past these tables and chairs I'm kind of nervous because I never tutored a kid ever in my life and english was never my forte And I sit across from her and like introduce myself. I'm sonny. She's like, hi, you know says her name We sit down. I'm like, okay. So I'm going to be your tutor the first thing she says to me She interrupts me. She's just like, yeah, I'm just going to be honest with you. That shit never works I'm like, okay. Well, why don't we take a look at your homework? Maybe you got some assignments test Maybe some essays coming up. I'm sure you got something And she looked at me again. She's Said Like I said sonny that shit never works. I can't even write I'm like, oh shit. This person's in grade 12. They can't even write. What do I do? So I think really quickly there was like a pen in my pocket the time I hand it to her She had a pad of paper and I said Can you write you can't write? She began to write the statement out. I grabbed the pad of paper and like, huh You obviously can write because you just wrote I can't write and she laughed I said Dad jokes aside like literally dad jokes aside here The reason that I wanted you to do that is because you've gotten credit to a physical disability that doesn't even exist You've been taught that's better to never try than to try and fail Like that is exactly why you said you couldn't write. You obviously could Imagine if you just looked at the world of possibilities that would be in front of you I'm sure you suppressed every goal every dream every hope that you've ever had because you've taken the label of the outcast Then I shared my story with her about shedding identities as well I'm like, maybe it's time to shed your identity like this this might do you justice for grade 12 But it's not going to do you justice for the rest of your life and she agreed And so what we actually worked on was mindset a lot more than we worked on english and eventually her grades started skyrocket And I felt really really really really good because I was like man, I'm contributing this world Now mind you I was doing this completely completely pro bono. I wasn't getting paid to do this so I uh, I had all these like contemplations like I could should quit my job. I should start this tutoring company I got these crazy ideas of how I'd revolutionize education But every single time I had a bill to pay every time rent was due it was a reminder of why I couldn't do this right So every single time I thought about starting a company. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place I felt like I was hitting wall after wall after wall And I'll never forget this moment. I was tutoring her one night and I was walking to my car Uh, and I sat in and I had a very similar pit to the feeling of when I used to have a full time Like when I had a full-time job, but it wasn't because I had a full-time job It wasn't because I was waking up the next day to have to like show up to a place I didn't want to be it was because I was Not waking up to show up to the place I should be Not to my dreams to my hopes to my ambitions the same lessons I gave to her. I'm not eating myself Right, that was like this living this disconnect and like preaching something but not practicing was really big And like I said like, you know, I felt like I was a rock between a rock and a hard place And it hit me the only time I'd ever be between a rock and a hard place is if I went mountain climbing a rock On my back. I'm doing the exact same thing that she's doing. I'm giving physical Credit to disability that doesn't even exist Right, it doesn't exist. I just keep making this narrative over or over my head of why I can't do it Uh, and that a I decided I was going to quit my job. So I woke up the next day I quit my job. I realized very quickly. I couldn't afford to uh Couldn't really afford my rent anymore reality like we're sure Moved into the ghetto Yeah, uh in Toronto and just started knocking on doors telling people I'm the new tutor in town And that's how Tutoray started interesting So you went door to door at the beginning. Yeah, I love door to door. I'll tell you why I love door to door Door to door taught me I deserved it Right like when you have no money to start a business which most people don't You have one option of selling your service or your product and that is telling people about it And if you say well, I don't have facebook marketing as I can't put this on google I can't put up a billboard go knock on doors Yeah, it is and like, you know in past people used to cold calling knock on doors Nobody does this anymore. It's vacant. I actually have a theory. I think direct response and uh outreach like that physical outreach It's going to be much more beneficial than digital ads I think so too. I will there's like here like there's an alignment of what you feel, right? So like when you knock on doors and you get a client you cherish that client Yes, you know the work that went in it wasn't a paycheck, right? You literally feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes now to service you because it took me so long to get you I got a thousand rejections and you have no idea like people telling me get off their property to do this Right, but once you start to build the stamina the stamina of rejection You feel like you can conquer anything like the one thing I always used to think like because the tutoring is an extremely hyper competitive market I mean, there's thousands of players thousands man. There's thousands, right? The only way that I'm I can differentiate myself at that stage was my hustle Like if I'm really willing to go knock on every single door that's out there and tell everybody about my company Sing the good word to tutor bright pretty much Then there's possibility of me actually shining So what were you selling like English or like what was it? Oh man, I would sell whatever the kid needs so I'd spend my whole day relearning the subject You know what the coolest the coolest part of this is that the subjects that I thought were super hard in high school Like the the chems the physics the mats like even the English stem stuff The stem shit I was just like oh like the shit that I would write off completely when I was in grade 12 And uh in great in Ontario a grade 13 at the time too Then I end up now teaching it and what I realized 99% of the shit that I thought was hard was actually easy It's just the way it was taught to me as a way I approached it It's like when teachers like stand up at the back of a Board and say listen up because the next unit's hard What are you setting me up for if I already hate the unit? Yes, right? I'm not even going to try So what I realized is that if I can like Revealinquish that identity that thought that this is actually going to be hard and teach kids Like hey, I was probably worse than you when I was here and I actually just learned this shit yesterday So it's so fresh in my head that I could actually teach it to you now It actually worked You know was it I instead of someone said it's like if you can't teach it to a five-year-old You don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I don't know who said it, but I love it. Yeah Like I'll be honest with you the like I learned so much shit from a con academy Con Academy is amazing and he like that's how he started to his niece wanted like some education He's like fuck it. I'll just learn it myself and teach it to my niece Yeah, and he did it over videos and a lot of people started watching that go this guy's good One thing led to the next so was The tutor what did you have your company tutor bright right away? Is it just you personally it was just me at first and then uh I had uh one like now who had considered like a brother to me Join me in the very very early stages as a tutor and then as things started taking off as like hey man You can live in my place I could probably pay you 100 to 200 bucks max per month because we're just starting out sure and uh You want to try to do this together and he's like fuck. Yeah, and then we Literally just started I'd spend my time like knocking on doors and meeting with new clients and he spent his time recruiting tutors um And making sure that we had like we kind of played yin and yang the whole time And that's how we did it. We did on my condo Interesting. So what was the next level after that? We got an office. Um, and that was kind of like a big move because like moving it out of your place gives you a sense of One a respect for the workplace and respect for your home, right? You don't ever feel like you you can't get out of the endless trap and the second thing It puts you in an environment to meet other people who are doing great things too Luckily enough my office base was actually across from one of our friends Anthony Ronella Um, who you you met I think at the same time that we met Um and in that the conversation started happening about how great would it be if we can actually change the world? Right like that that beautiful entrepreneurial conversation. So Uh, when that those conversations started to Happen it started to ignite something in me and think like wow, why don't we go for something a lot bigger than just a regular tutoring company? Why don't why don't we really try to make this expand? Uh, and then we started to look at what everybody else in my industry and that was franchise So we decided uh to jump in the franchise train and in 2011 we awarded our first franchise Hmm. How did that process look like? Uh, it was amazing. So we We took the remainder of the money that we made. Uh, we invested in marketing by going different franchise shows Uh, and our first franchise show I met my first franchise partner. Um, he loved the concept He's like hey, I'd love to do this and like cool Then we just had a next franchise show and I think we met our next five people there And then we signed to the biggest franchise broker in the world to wanted brokers out and then we started getting Then we started to really really started to take off And that was probably like 2013 ish 2014, uh, we were probably across 40 cities maybe 30 to 40 cities at the time and it felt really good in terms of the the Breath in which we were across but we weren't going in depth with every one of our students I noticed that and it's because we franchised Uh, it was because we took a scaling model where you can't really have much control over it So it's so much is going to always be contingent on the people that you're going to bring on as franchise partners Uh, I also saw like the demise of some of our competitors who went hyper-franchised as well And watching them kind of like hit these crazy peaks and now just start to go down Thinking my head. I didn't do this to franchise I did this to change the lives of the students that I come across So why am I taking the chance of scale versus going in depth with each student? So in 2015 we decided to kind of turn everything around And start to acquire some of our franchise partners back and keep the ones that we thought were great and Try to run it as a corporate model or yeah, yeah corporate model instead. Yeah, I see that more and more these days Yeah, well, I mean I think today more than ever that you know, like as consumers, what do we buy? We buy feeling Yes, right experience. We buy experience by feeling. We don't just buy the product, right? Like I want I want to know the story of the shirt I wear, you know, I want to know the story of my shoes I want to know the story of the services that I buy And that story makes me tied to that makes me feel like I made a good investment, right? So it's not just going to like h&m and buying a shitty t-shirt It's I want to go to the other store because you know, perhaps if I buy that t-shirt there They're giving another t-shirt for free to somebody that perhaps needs it So all these stories are the stories that that align with my values my beliefs And I think everybody buys like this right now, right? We we think very heavily about where we're actually going to make purchases And I think we've never been more not just socially conscious but just more conscious in general, right? Like we are thinking a lot differently than what we used to think so for me I know like, you know, when you when you when I think about somebody calling me for tutoring They're not calling me for tutoring. They're actually giving me the keys for the child's future How do I not treat this with like the utmost level of respect and dignity and understanding and take that weight And put it on my shoulders. That's what they're hiring me for So if I treat it as I'm just going to show up and just be another tutor in that child's life That's all I'll ever be but if I show up as somebody that's really wants to be their mentor Really somebody that cares for them really somebody that they can confide in a lot more than their academics And perhaps I can take them a lot more take them a lot more outside their academics Show them what they're capable of even outside school pretty much in everything anything that they're ever going to put their mind to What was your acquisition strategy though? Like what was your How did he how did he get to the growth that you are today? You know once you decide that you want to go take the corporate model What was your kind of strategy for there that care care care at the end of the day? I think we forget how much people talk when they love a service or a product I knew if I cared like I really really cared for the client like is there some examples you can share Oh, yeah for sure. Um, well for example, so I was just telling you recently like I'm way back into my business Kind of like kind of like day one day one back day one So I I haven't I you know, it's been a year since I really met with clients. I mean clients Every single day now and I was just I was sitting with one We're doing it digitally over we have our own virtual platform uh, this I believe the student I think lived in Edmonton And he it was funny because I was like, what do you want to be when you're older? Like I actually asked a question a little bit differently. I said if you could be anything, what would you be? And he looked at me. He's like, well, I'm going to go into business I was like, I didn't ask that I said if you could be anything, what would you be? It's kids in grade 12 He's like, well, I really don't know I'm going into business because that's what everybody does when you don't know what you want to do in university I was like bullshit. Tell me the truth and his mom's sitting right there I'm like part of my english, but seriously that's bullshit. There's something inside you I know there is and he's like, okay. I want to be an entrepreneur I love what Gary V says and I started laughing. I was like, oh That's awesome that Gary V virus and this kid's 16 years old listening to some really positive shit. Yeah, great stuff. Yeah, right So I was like, wow, that's that's amazing. So then we took the entire conversation of you know Why couldn't he be the next Gary V or the next Bill Gates or the next bezos or the next Oprah? It doesn't matter. Why couldn't he be one of these people, right? And that started to stem a conversation in his head a narrative in his head being like I never thought that was possible, but thank you for inserting that mind The second thing as we're talking I said so like he doesn't really like english um, he Some of the books that the reading are kind of irrelevant. I said have you ever read a book that you like? He's like, yeah, so which one he said rich dad poor dad. I started smiling. I was like, all right Kawasaki in the house Okay, this is good already going And the mom's now the mom's listening to this and being like I've never heard somebody have this conversation So while he's doing this I go to amazon and while we're doing this he has no idea And I send him a book. I send him thinking grow rich And uh, so while we're finishing up the conversation. I said, okay, you know, I'm definitely going to help you with your academics I got like I already know who's going to be like the most perfect person that's going to be able to help you with this I will every single one of your goals that you told me we're going to talk about the habits and behaviors and actions You're going to modify to change them. So one of those was like put away his phone Um, when he does his homework uh to always complete his homework to ask his teacher for extra sport especially when he feels like he's falling behind how to youtube things like the con academy and use them for Opportunities to gain better academic excellence. And then I told him I'm like, hey, I'm going to send this to you Put your name at the top and Filling your goal. I want you to list all the changes you're going to make and then I want you sign off with love That's going to be a contract between you and yourself and that's going to be the most important contract you're ever going to sign So I did that sent in the book the parents were like I don't know what the fuck you just did to my kid because nobody's ever had a conversation with him like that So that's what I mean by care is seeing something in somebody that they can't see in themselves Or perhaps that they want to see in themselves and showing them that it exists Especially at that age when you're at that age when you're most fragile, you know Like you feel like you feel probably the most insecure that you ever going to feel in your life And in those moments to have somebody that's not your parents that tell you that you're capable of something I think sets the tone for the rest of your life. Do you think that's um ongoing trend do you see most people are just not being told that you can do it or Man, okay. So get this. Yeah So every time I used to meet with the kid. I'm starting to do this again Like I told you I asked the question of what you want to be when you're older and if you could be anything What would it be? So especially when I'm working with young kids if I say what do you want to be when you're older? I'll get I doctor lawyer engineer cop nurse whatever the same shit I said I was growing up probably same shit you said when you're growing up generationally this shit never actually changes And I say hey here in my hands a magic pill if you swallow this magic pill you could become great at anything What would you become great at now? They're eyes wide in there's hesitation excitement their voice You know their ears perk up and this one I hear I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to cure cancer I want to be a world leader. I hear these crazy crazy ambitions, right? But there's a really sad underlying story. I pretty much asked the exact same kid the exact same question I say what do you want to be when you're older and if you could be great at anything What would you be if the answers are distinctly different? Why so it it makes me think why do we suppress our dreams at such a young age? And you know what parents used to say to me they'd be like sunny this amazing that you got my child really excited about their future It's amazing that that you uh, that you know, you got them feeling ambitious, but can you please simmer down? Let's be realistic. Let's be realistic. Can you please simmer down and say why why would I simmer down? They're like we don't want to get their hopes up You don't want to get their hopes up. What direction do you want their hopes to go? There's only two directions your hopes can go in this world up and down Yeah, right and you know the definition the singular definition of depression, you know what it is It's hopelessness So we are wondering why we have a rise to depression anxiety and sadness in this world is because we we ourselves protect ourselves By saying I don't want to get my hopes up, you know, it's funny I was hanging out with one of my friends and they're they're doing something something really great just happened in their life Uh, and then and I was like, oh man, that's awesome. Let's relish and they're like, no, no, I don't want to jinx it That's not getting your hopes up. That's fucked up Right when when bad shit happens we we dwell we are so good at dwelling and nitpicking every Thing that we did wrong so we can prevent it for a future But when things go right, it's like, whoa, I don't want to I don't want to go in that realm in case it doesn't happen I don't want to get too excited that the future could actually be good So we sit there and I'm telling you man. I see this in kids. I see this in it Not just kids. I see this in adults. I see it in parents. I see everybody man I was asked to I always say this question. How is that working out for you? Yeah When people tell you something and I look at them. I'm like, how's that working out for you? It's not Why it doesn't walk would I take advice from you? Yeah, it's like someone gives you advice financial advice How's that working out for you? Well, you know, or like health advice. How's that working out for you? Or like life advice, you know, are you really fucking happy? No Well, you have you know, the unhappy teaching now the people become happy You have the poor people teaching people become rich. It's a really fucked up world that we live in Right, like it's like and you know why it's working. Yeah, because we've never had such a high level of insecurity We are so desperate to learn how to feel better in our lives that we will listen to anything We will listen to anything. I literally go. I know people that teach people how to become rich that are dead broke It's fucked up. I'm like, how are you teaching this? And they're like, oh, they'll pay me That is crazy I mean our integrity is so shot that we don't even have our intuition sniffing it out anymore because We desire it so heavily, right? We want it like we'll listen to anything We'll buy the snake oil for the one social media exists. Yeah Human nature human behavior, right? Yeah cognitive pressures through millions of years of evolutionary psychology and biology O and E Wilson on my favorite biologist has a saying We have heliolithic emotions Godlike technologies and medieval institutions paraphrasing something like that Which is like we're not really different at all from like a million years ago No, and so you have the advent of of tech and the tech is hyper accelerating our default behavior. Yeah Yeah, it is you know, you know, it's kind of fucked up about social media though Is that we we give it so much credit. It's kind of crazy. Like I I hear it all the time You know, my kids are failing or I can't get anything done. Yeah I'm addicted to facebook instagram tiktok, whatever the fuck it is today, right? I can't get off youtube et cetera et cetera and like The one thing that we forget is that you know We own our phones our phones don't own us and the same like when somebody's like instagram is like the devil There's all this information that's going to feed you that you're don't look good enough that you aren't rich enough That you don't have the right life I'm like, who the fuck are you following because everybody that I follow is kind of the opposite, right? And what did you forget that you pressed follow you could also press unfollow So if you know that shit's causing you some anxiety some discomfort in your life You have the ability to press and follow social media is the ability in which we give it Yeah, that's a tool right people need to be trained It's like any tool in this world. You're right. It requires a sense of training, but the training isn't Necessarily how to use it the training is how to use your mind to know that you have the capacity in changing this Right you could use it as a source of all positivity Right if you if you know if you follow people like that kid who follows gary v Right and it's like man. This is making me feel really good. What if I could be better than what I currently thought I am Right, what if gary's right? Why am I not putting myself forward for my dreams? Maybe I should be doing that It's an amazing tool, right? It's the same way that I could have spent watching like I don't know or reading a books back in the 90s because we didn't have social media It's how you access it and the fact that I I don't ever want to give credit that I didn't press follow I I never want to do that. I'd never want to be like, oh man This this is ruining me like this is ruining me then then you can also press the delete button too Like it's all in our control. So why don't we take back that control? Why don't we change your mindset that we've chosen this because the second that you realize you chose it Is the second that you realize you can un-choose it ownership It's ownership 100 as opposed to ownership because ownership is more You have more vulnerabilities. It's more exposure. It's the responsibilities on you. Yeah There's this is why I always recommend this book But I tell I read this book every quarter but victor frankle's message for meaning It's one of the best books out there like every court. It's on my audible It's literally every quarter I re-listen to it. I'm like read that book understand ownership understand that it's going to be painful Yeah, but the freedom that you get With the knowledge that you can pretty much control Things for the most part. Yeah, especially here in North America, you know, obviously circumstances do matter like where you are geographically Can you say certain things? Okay? How do you behave? But in North America, man? Skies a limit there's so much So much opportunities for people You know from here. Let me kind of switch back over here So that's the side of the clients, you know going above and beyond talking to them just being human in the human level really Not just not not talking to the person but listening to the person. Yeah really understanding it What did he do then to attract really good tutors? That's that's probably the the largest challenge is that our demand always supersedes our supply Right, man supersedes your supply always Uh, I can never hire somebody who I don't think has the capacity in changing somebody's life Right, um the difference between two to bright and everybody else in the marketplace is that we look at the holistic approach, right? I don't think of it's like let's say somebody wants to go lose weight, right? And they go see a personal trainer, but they don't have a dietician or they don't understand the calories that they're actually And the package isn't there man. The package isn't there, right? So it's the same thing like if you don't have the mindset and the right approach to academics Then you're going to hate academics. So we have to take in a very very strong holistic approach for every single student The second thing is that with tutors one of the coolest things that we've done is develop And it's launching really soon. It's called the happiness curriculum Now this curriculum looks at everything from how do you change your negative self-talk To how do you do goal setting because it's really fucked up that you don't learn goal setting until you're in your mid 20s Sure, right? Yeah, a six-year-old can learn how to goal set, right? It's extremely important It teaches you about Gratitude and how that becomes an underlying emotion that should be your default emotion So instead of like trying to practice gratitude and bring it to emergence Let's try to make it your default emotion, right? And then it also teaches us how overall to become resilient And a lot of people say well, how do you teach people to become resilient through narratives, right through narratives Man, if you hear stories of people overcoming adversity, this just becomes your norm The unfortunate part is that we've surround ourselves with narratives that are like All about failure failure means they need to quit not I need to persevere So by Institutionalizing these four aspects into academics and training our tutors that have they had to practice in their own life In order to be able to practice in the students life is where we see the little largest change Because then because you hit on both ends you have A tutor who's let's say 23 years old that's learning these life skill sets and saying wow my life is really changing I actually want to give this to the next generation So we just use academics as a vehicle to institutionalize characteristics of greatness So you're finding tutors who specialize in certain topics, right? Yeah, academically. Yeah, but they have to be extremely open open to self-development. How are you finding these tutors? Oh every single Avenue that I can if you know more tell me because this is what I want the most Well, I'm asking this question. What has been the most successful partnerships with universities Um when I do talks and uh paid job banks And then you I guess you have multiple rounds of different interviews. Yeah filter system. Yeah, you got it Yeah, that's exactly I either go through uh a screening then to an interview then through an orientation If they pass all that and they're good to go and then we have to do right before they're about to take on any student There's an in-depth call Uh, we send them in-depth information of that tutor that student how they're best going to perform as a student As soon as they're done they have to that first session. They have to let us know how it went So how does the packages look like so is it uh or I want to say package. Let me rewind. How does the Program look like so if I'm a student. Yeah, all right. Let's say I'm a 16 year old student That my parents want me to use a tutor. Yeah Is it like I sign up for three months with the same tutor? Is it four months? Like how does that work out? We don't we don't hold anybody any level packages. Okay. Um, I I don't think that's fair if You shouldn't have to stick with me because you because Because of financial obligation you've already set for with me I think the only reason why you should stay with me is because I'm doing the best job Totally you're like, yeah, forget finances on the side but more or less like success rates Like have you seen like if a person stays more than three months with one student? Oh, yeah. Yeah, everybody does everybody does Yeah, I mean, that's why I don't hold you packages because proofs in the pudding Yeah, right our lifetime value for each client is pretty significant because There's no risk for you But you don't want to leave the only risk of leaving us is that it could do your child detriment Because of the service so far that we provide and tell they're ready to be What I would consider an independent thinker and somebody who's Accomplish the goals that we set off in our first initial conversations So what do you think the industry is going to the industry? I think um, I think we're heavily relying on AI I think we're heavily relying on chat bots mean you're talking about this prior to it I think there is a lot of um text tutoring that's happening text. Yeah texting back and forth. Uh I think we've missed the entire boat I I mean I talked to like being back and talking to parents Although they call to get academic help Why they stay and what really holds them tight is the people the people and the self-development Like when you start talking about like like an AI tutor is not going to walk you through goal setting It's not going to feel the care the love the compassion. This is more than tutoring. Oh my god. Yes way more way more Yeah, yeah, they're I've never considered like we're tutor bright. So when you google tutoring we pop up, right? If you ask me what I do my job is to raise your child's self-esteem self-worth And self-confidence through academic coaching. That's what I do Academics is just my vehicle. That's all it is, right? So like you like the thing is like I don't know if you've ever had a Executive coach or a personal coach, right? You perhaps have you I know we share a lot of mutual friends that have that Parents will never pay for A self-development coach for their child, but they will pay for a tutor. I get to play both roles So the way I look at it is I'm playing both roles here. So like when I when I first meet with your child I am doing a full assessment on their learning style. So what type of learner are they? I want to know their academic strengths and weaknesses. So we will assess for that But most importantly I want to know who they are and what motivates them because that's going to be the glue of getting that That's an incentive right there. Yeah, yeah Like parents always think like, you know, there's this work and reward system, right? Like if they work we'll get them more time on their phone or etc Which is temporarily it works like it's it's a short term growth But what we what I always tell parents and I think it doesn't matter if you're Grown up as well if you work and if your whole thing is working reward, you're fucking up You need work to become the reward When work becomes the reward is when it feels really good. This means when you're addicted to progress, right? For example, we were talking about kettlebell training before this podcast, right? Because he used to were you can is like champion? Yeah So don't right so don't different lives, right? It's amazing But in that think about that like I'm sure you craved it, right? You craved hitting those kettlebells. You crave it today, right? Yeah, no, right. So the kettlebell training and hit the sparring bag for like 15 minutes So think about that like when you crave it, right? The difference between discipline and desire, right? You need discipline for the shit you don't want You need desire for the shit that you want if you can convert all the things that you need discipline for Into your desires. Men are you living a good life, right? That's when you start to be like shit. This is fucking awesome, right? And that's when the kids like I hate calculus Well, let's make you love calculus. I'm not saying you're ever going to need calculus But I want you to get in love with the progress of improvement of showing yourself that you're capable Of so much more than what you gave yourself credit for that's that addiction that addiction to improvement, right? The addiction of progress that's the most addictive feeling in the world That's why we go to the casino, right? Whether we're up or down. We're still going to play Right? It's progressive by nature. Yes. So at the end of it what we need to get people to right? We need to get them to start thinking that progress is what I should be going for Unless helicopter appearance Yeah, man, that's uh, you know, we helicopter our kids even the whole society's helicopter men like dude We helicopter ourselves. I know right and and you know, we limit like that's the whole protectionism, right? So we've been taught um, we teach ourselves like prepare for the worst And hope for the best that's just a level of protectionism man. You should be hoping for the best And preparing for the best that is preparing for the best is the number one form of visualization You know, you first have to see it in your mind before you see it in your life Right, whether that be good or bad if you can use this for your good That means you got to visualize it yet. We don't do that Like the way I look at the if it's raining outside bring a fucking umbrella prepare for the worst, right? But for every other thing when it comes to you everything you ever want to achieve You have to prepare for the best you have to accept that it's going to actually be coming and then of course hope for it as well And we've helicoptered herself being like, I don't I don't know. I don't I need to protect myself What if that doesn't happen? What if this relationship doesn't really work? What if they really don't love me? What if this what if my boss really does fire me? What if the economy does crash? What if bitcoin goes down again? What if blah blah blah good? Please go We go buy it right? But it's all that shit that we we've conditioned ourselves to protect ourselves, right? The what ifs of everything going wrong is the same thing as a helicopter parent, right? Like I got to make sure I got to protect every angle that they don't get hurt I got to hover over them to make sure that they're capable. You know, it's funny. I asked parents What's the number one thing that you want your child to become? They all say I want them to become an independent thinker I think we use this term without even knowing what it means what it means Yes, right independently thinking means I won't conform Irrespective of what my parents think or what society thinks or what my teachers think I'm not going to conform I'm going to listen to my intuition to my heart and go for that Yet if you're hovering over them watching every step and then guiding them accordingly They'll never become an independent thinker and if we do that to ourselves We'll never independently think we don't understand We have the capacity of limiting ourselves so much But we also have the capacity of removing all our limitations But we have to first be aware that we've imposed these on ourselves Of course we have yeah, you know, everyone falls into the hedonic treadmill too, right? and then You know afop's fable with the fox and the sour grapes And so, you know the story is the grape tries to get these sorry the fox tries to get these grapes He eventually fails and makes a narrative in his mind that these grapes are sour Yeah, right to justify the fact that he failed and so people are always justifying You know why they haven't achieved their xyz dreams or whatever And so they always carry these belief system on to others, right? Because if they can't do it, how can possibly sonny do it? No way, you know, I mean you can't do it bro And so it's a vicious cycle and it perpetuates even worse when you hit the educational system as well like I never finished high school man. I got kicked out in great nine I remember I was like 14 15 starting great nine And I remember the guidance counselor reading me about something. I'm like Like what the fuck I'm making more money than all you guys What the fuck do I need this shit for? You know and they kicked me out and never looked back and I'd be able to pass elementary school and so When I look at all these like systems, I'm like Like how can you sell this to people doesn't work? Like you're you're actually selling the story of like just fall in line and Finish this degree and magic things are going to happen to you. Are you really selling that story? I've never ever met somebody who ever just Followed a linear whip pathway to success. Never. I've never met somebody said I've did well in high school. So I got in my university of my choice. So then I got my master's program So then I I got my dream job and then I got had the best life of ever No, it's riddled with insecurities because we listen to everybody else on what was right Every time that we listen to our intuition is completely illogical But the only logical thing to do is to listen to your intuition Whether that be drop out of school. That's what Aristotle said. Did he? I didn't even think I was quoting Aristotle. There you go. I thought it was a sunny brim original um But in that I the way we we I think we have to like remember that it's it's not even that Success is like this up and down backwards way of achieving something I think we have to just remember that nothing is linear nothing You know crazy cool shit opportunities happen to you in moments that you could never even imagine right it's like Like it's like you get half halfway met by the universe in some like beautiful mystical way that you're like Shit, I didn't even expect this thing to happen and it happens, right? And that's like every single success story that's one like somebody's like, yeah, I got really lucky Right. Yeah, some cool shit happened that you could never predict. That's how we define luck It's like I had no idea the shit was going to happen other than the feeling of that something good was coming Right like that feeling of like hey something good is coming I'm putting my time putting my energy right and sometimes that feeling something good is coming is dropping out of school And many times it is like I mean, you know It's funny because like I was talking to a parent the other day telling me like, you know They want their kids to be like then they want them going to technology like to computer sciences Because they want them to start a big tech sure and then that's like And then I was like, so why do they have to go to school? Right because the kids like I don't need to go to school and they're like, well, you got to go to school You got to get your dream like, you know, I'm going to politely interrupt, but bill gates dropped out Zuckerberg dropped out jobs never went If you're talking about like tech icons that you want your kid to go To me it almost makes more sense that they don't go I mean, if you want to talk about the statistics of success with the money behind it This is probably more likely that if they go this route, this is another option And so most people like, you know, we've been so conditioned so conditioned to think that there's one way and only one way And think about the pressure Right now if you fucking don't get a decent mark in grade 12 Like You're told your life is over You're told your life is over. That's fucking crazy. You're like 16 17 years old and you're like, you're fucked You're fucked. You just fucked up everything Right, this is crazy shit. You're not fucked. You can always go back. You can drop out. You can still do great things But we have told people that you are fucked And I see this I sit man like the amount of parents that tell me, you know the number one symptom The parents say they don't sleep anymore They don't sleep anymore. They're always stressed or always crying Yeah, because we fed them. I don't know if the parents, but I know societies fed them a narrative that they're fucked Right, you don't do well in grade 12. You're fucked. What school is going to accept you? You know that emptiness, you know that feeling you know the one thing that I realize The biggest insecurity in this world is not belonging Right, you feel like you don't belong What are we telling people when we're saying well, we need to help our kids. We need to help our society We need to help our adults feel like they belong then let's stop fucking creating exclusivity Let's stop telling people they're fucked if they don't do ab plus c Because this constant narrative that we fed each other like we fed it to each other to justify our own shitty fucking actions It's a problem that we all have to now live by and we don't understand that we impose this year after year generation after generation Hoping that it's going to somehow justify what we've done with our lives. It never does right? That's why you know why people are attracted to entrepreneurs now Not because it's some money. It's because of the freedom That's what it is like wow you get to pick your own schedule. Yeah, it's called 100 hour work weeks Yeah, but when work is love man when work is love, right? Yeah, right, but like that's the difference You get to pick your own schedule. Yeah, I do Isn't it weirder that you're asking me if I get to pick my own Entrepreneur is funny too. Like I have a good friend of mine. He's I don't like what old he's uh experienced wisdom, you know coming up 80s And uh, you know from Europe and uh, he's like It's like this word entrepreneur is like when I was growing up everybody was that If you didn't support you and your family you pretty much You died you didn't have food on the table. So this new High of entrepreneurism is just the natural way of living Like back in the day is like you had to farm you had to hustle you had to provide your own Crops and cattle and then maybe you traded that or sold it for some other goods within your village You know people didn't grow up and he didn't grow up in a metropolitan Like maybe a village like 4 000 and the other village new people everybody was self-sufficient everybody was Entrepreneur and It's hilarious like right now. It's we're going around full circle. That's we see the gig economy coming up You know more and more people are like well fuck this nine of five full-time bullshit It's like if I can do my little hustle on the side and then focus on what I like to do Why not you know So like for when I when I view the word entrepreneur, I like to like substitute like just Suffer lying. Yeah, it's like regardless of what you're doing how much money you're making It's still the responsibilities on you and that's the freedom the fact that everything's on you Like I mentioned beginning that is true freedom Yeah, then you can sit back and be like man I can design whatever the fuck I want to design think about that think about that What a beautiful way to play in life that everything is on you Yeah, you get to design your future you get to use Things that happen your past you construct the future and the reality that you want That's fucking amazing That's life's too short man. There's so many things to do man You never know how things can change like I look at my parents like my dad went through three wars Yeah, shit world war one world war two and The Yugoslavian civil war Right, so you can plan all the fucking things you want, but then you really look like oh, shit I can't control what's happening with nation states. I can't control this stuff It's like people try to plan way too much and don't be wrong planning is important, but at the end of the day it's like You will blink And you will be older and then you will have regrets which you and I know it's one of the worst psychological Um that the worst psychological things you can do to yourself is have regrets would have could have should have Oh my god, and I have this vicious cycle in your mind. It's like man Figure out what figure out what you want to do today and do it now I'm not saying just go quit your job I'm saying plan it accordingly like obviously you got to pay rent. You got to have food on the table You know But figure it out man. Maybe like most people really don't understand how much time they waste Like wasting of time is ridiculous as a plague complete plague. I'm like, uh, you know How do you do that? I'm like, well you plan accordingly you figure out. How do you maximize your time? You know you work nine to five. Fuck you still have like five thirty till midnight What are you doing in that times? What are you doing on the weekends? Right, what are you doing before nine o'clock? What are you doing with that time? That's a whole different job. You can be doing a whole different life. You can be living So what let me ask you is why do you think people don't do it? fear You really think it's fear For the most part if you look at human psychology, it's uh You mentioned something earlier. So You have fear and fear ties into also social pressures So you have social pressures of do I fit in with my community with my religion with my family with my culture, right? If I go out on my own depending on what culture you come from religion It a lot of social pressures on that yes extreme social pressures Then you have the fear failing, you know, that's a massive fear So you have two you have a double edge fear you have a fear of not being accepted by your let's say Community cultural religion then you have your own fear of what they'll think of me if I go try to do this But I fail right so the best way for human being the easiest way for and this is a buddha saying the easiest way for human being To be happy is to have zero expectations. That's why we that's why we get depressed. We have expectations I expect x to happen. It doesn't happen. Guess what? I don't get my dopamine high. And so I'm depressed, right? If I have zero expectations I have nothing to be sad about nothing to fear about it is what it is, right? um, so I think We have millions of years of cognitive evolutionary pressures onto us that If we can just become aware of them and understand them, you know understand Why do I think this way? Why am I feeling this way that if you know, my family Will not talk to me if I do x, you know Why do I feel this way that if I want to you know, go after this that Maybe it goes against my beliefs for my religion, whatever, you know what I mean Just kind of auditing the feelings that you have because most people they have a feeling Right. These emotional evolutionary pressures are feelings words are very hard to describe the feeling they have limitations This is why we're attracted to to uh poetry and we're attracted to art. They surpass the words They get into the realm of like oh, it's like I can't even describe what I'm feeling right now I'm just like wow, you know whenever like for example, if you walking out to nature And you're looking at the rocky mountains or some beautiful beach you're like You know, it's like I can't even describe to you what I'm feeling So we had these emotional feelings whether we get angry or we're crying or anxiety But it's very hard for us to then distill The meaning of what we're feeling And I think just having like more one-to-one conversations with people that you can trust I think that's missing specifically in society more peer groups specifically for men And boys everybody in fact they're just really good supportive like what you're doing is almost less a supportive peer group Yeah, if you think about it, yeah Like it's a it's a trusted zone a safe zone where that student feels Safe with you to share his or her belief systems with you and that's powerful. Yeah, it's very powerful Right, because then you feel like you belong Then your fear failure dissipates Also from the student perspective He or she actually feels like here somebody's willing to listen to me. Yeah As opposed to ridicule me. Yeah That's a massive difference It's what it's it's how It is what the way I look at it that perspective change is what will change your life Right, if you feel that you're not going to be ridiculed and you can be supported How much easier would life be? Oh, fuck. Yeah, right way easier, man Like 99% of the shit why we don't do it. I think you nailed it. It's like, you know, if the people in our lives Whether it be culturally whether it be from society whether it be from, you know, our direct family If the people in our lives don't support us, we feel empty. Mm-hmm There's this really sense of like like I'm doing something wrong or tribal. Yeah, that's what we are, man. So Well, man I'm really happy what you're doing. I think it's much needed Thank you, my man. And I just want you guys to keep on pushing and I wish you all the best and success in the future Thank you, my man. And if you if you were going to leave one message to everybody out there, what would it be? The number one thing that I tell people is that Life is beautiful and it's short. So make sure you live it well Thank you, sonny If people want to reach you and get a hold of you, maybe I want to figure out what to do bright is all about. What's the best resource? Probably instagram. Okay. It's that tutor bright or at sunny v underscore tb. Cool, man. I think same brother. Yeah, thank you, man