How They Did It | Emily Padan From Teacher to Entrepreneur
This post has the key topics and resources mentioned in this episode. The original interview is published on Work In Progress Podcast. Transcript can be found at the bottom of this page.
From Teacher to Entrepreneur, Emily’s goal is to create sustainable businesses like Bloom Class and give families the opportunity to have supplemental education from the comfort and safety of their homes.
Resources
Where To Find Emily
What Emily Did In The Past
Teacher for 7 years
What Emily Does Now
Co-owns Hinter Company with fiancé and started Bloom Class in April 2020
Why Emily Left Teaching
Working as a teacher was rewarding and limiting at the same time. There was not much flexibility for vacations or time off. When she started working alongside her fiance in 2019 on his company, she experienced for the first time a more flexible schedule, one where she gets to decide when to do what. Needless to say, she fell in love with it. The need for more autonomy was ultimately what brought her to seek out a big change that will have a ripple effect on more than just her career.
The Anxiety Inducing Email
The exact moment when she decided to leave teaching was crystal clear for Emily. It was on the Christmas holiday of 2018-2019 school year while Emily and her fiancé were heading to Ecuador. She got a work email telling her to expect a meeting as soon as she gets back, without clarifying what they would discuss. This left her in a state of anxiety and that was the last thing anybody wanted on a holiday.
As it turned out, the meeting was not about anything bad, but she felt that she had let someone else control how she felt. And she was not happy about that. “Why am I allowing someone to control how I live my life and how I feel and on my two little weeks of vacation when I’m supposed to be living my best life?” A seed was planted and the idea of leaving kept growing. She gave her notice in March/April and stayed until the end of the school year.
About Hinter
After coming back from the trip, in January 2019, she started to work alongside her fiancé on his company. Hinter Company builds cabins north of Montreal, near the Mont-Tremblant ski resort, and rents them to customers who want a unique experience of staying at beautifully crafted spaces in nature. The design and architecture is clean and modern, yet warm and cozy.
Emily started by helping with the marketing and speaking to guests, and she felt more like herself again. She was happier with more control over her schedule and creative freedom. A few months later, they started working with One Tree Planted, and 10 tress were plant with every booking of Hinter.
About Bloom Class
After Hinter started to pick up speed, things were going well until COVID hit in March-April 2020, when they had to put a pause on that. As a result, they couldn’t rent due to restrictions. According to Emily, even though it was a scary time to go through, it also really gave her the space to think about how to respond to COVID as a business owner.
This time around, she felt the need to incorporate her background in education and create something new, and that’s how Bloom Class was born. To put it simply, Bloom Class is a virtual educational platform where Emily connected her network of educators and parents in need of supplemental education, as a result of schools closing due to COVID. With the changing landscape of education, Emily foresees this to be so much more than just a response to the pandemic. And to bring on the sustainability factor that they had with Hinter, Bloom Class plants one tree for every class that is booked.
The Difficulties
Starting a project like Hinter is a huge investment. Having to deal with the inevitable negative customer feedback can be very tough, but what Emily’s learned from this is to take them seriously and not personally.
TRANSCRIPT
Emily 0:00
I think the education system is changing. I think that education could change with everything going on in the world. But even more so with a society in a generation that believes in a little bit more of a nomadic lifestyle as well. People travel more people sometimes relocate several times in their lives. And maybe that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe some education could be virtual, and we could be learning from people from around the world.
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are. Welcome back to the working Parker’s podcast. Thank you guys for stopping by. And today we’re talking to Emily. Emily was a teacher and she started her own company recently. What kind of company? Is it? Is it related to teaching? Or is this something entirely different? Well, let’s find out. Welcome to a podcast. Emily, how are you doing today?
Emily 1:38
I’m great. Thanks. How are you ladies?
Dana 1:40
We are doing well. And thank you for joining us. We have a lot of questions for you because we know that you were a teacher and you left that career behind and you’re doing something different. So we have a lot of questions for you. But before we get started with a bunch of questions, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself.
Emily 1:59
Absolutely. So firstly, thanks for having me. I’m super honored that you ladies reached out and that you want to talk to me and hear about my story. So I was a teacher for seven years, one year in a public school in Montreal in Canada, and another six years in a private school, also in Montreal. And it was a beautiful chapter of my life and definitely think that I grew and I learned so much and I really love working with children. But it was also a very limiting time. It was a time where, you know, if I wanted a day, a specific day, there was not much flexibility for vacations or taking a day off or even a mental health day for that matter. There’s not much flexibility really, you have a very set schedule, and specifically in private schools. They are businesses after all, so you have a little bit of a situation where everything is expected. micromanaged now I am generalizing, of course, and I’m talking about my own personal experience. But it was quite micromanaged in the sense that my I felt my creativity was dimming was like a light that was just slowly dimming more and more, going into that nine to five lifestyle repetitive and not feeling that creative freedom. So just over a year ago, about a year and a half ago, actually, in January 2019, I started to work alongside my fiance, who started a company called Hinter company, which is essentially like a, like a boutique hotel. And this company is basically we build cabins up near Montreal, about an hour and a half north of Montreal, and then we rent them out. extremely exciting, fulfilling company. So all the sudden while I was being a teacher, I started working With him alongside him, and helping him with the marketing and speaking to guests, and all of a sudden my creative juices were flowing. And I felt more and more like myself again, I felt excited to be creating something to be passionate about something. And I would go into school to teach and honestly, my head was not there, my head was somewhere else it was in the company. Now, that being said, that was kind of the, the straw that broke the camel’s back, if you will. And I decided that I needed a break, I needed something different. I needed a change and creative freedom. And that’s why I decided to leave teaching in an official school setting. So then for over a year, or actually, yeah, about six to eight months, I worked alongside my fiance on Hinter company and we just worked on that and it was I was Probably one of the best times of my life because I had this brand new lifestyle, which was so exciting, I could travel, like work from anywhere. And I had so much creativity flowing. And then in September 2019, we decided not only to create this exciting experience for people, but more so to also create a business that gives back. So a lot of companies, you know, they they’re, they’re trying to be carbon neutral, and that losing. However, I do feel that there’s more we can do. So we started to think how can we give more than what we’re taking? So we started planting trees for every stay. Every time someone stayed at our cabin, we planted trees, which is about 1500 trees a year approximately and growing. It’s we’re getting more just fantastic, right? I mean, it’s simple, but it’s such a humongous impact. So that’s Back continued till well, essentially till COVID happened in March 2020 and early April 2020, when we kind of had to put a little pause on that. We couldn’t rent out here in Quebec in Canada, we had some restrictions there. So we had a little pause. And weirdly, even though it was a scary time and a difficult time, it also really gave me space to think and to grow and to assess what do I want to do I want to be what do I want to do? What do I want to create, and as much as I absolutely loved and still love working with Hinter company because I still am doing that as well. I felt the need to also incorporate my background and education and create something
entirely new, something that came from my mind and my heart and that’s why Blue class was born. And essentially, I’m sure you’ll have some other questions for me soon. But just to give a quick synopsis on what blue class is about, it’s an online virtual educational platform where I connected my network of educators and my network of parents in need of supplemental education, specifically, the going through COVID-19. But also, I see this as a much bigger picture, which we can discuss later. Um, and I really felt it was very important to bring on that sustainability factor. And so for that reason, we plant one tree for every class that is booked with us. But that’s kind of my long winded introduction. Just to give you an idea of who I am and kind of where this all started.
Dana 7:54
So tell me why do you think being creative is important to you or being or having the creative control is important to you.
Emily 8:03
Um, that’s a good question. I think it’s important to have creative control because creative control gives you a sense of control in your life in general. It gives you a sense of purpose. And the fact that you are creating something that matters to you and that you believe in and not just something that somebody is telling you to do. And to create, that is night and day. When someone tells you to make something and essentially gives you you know, the menu for it. It’s a completely different thing. Let’s say as a chef, if you’re following a recipe someone else gave you, or if you are creating your own creation, your own masterpiece, kitchen, for example. There’s a totally different feeling there. And I think that has to do with everything in life. When you do something out of your own vision, out of your own passion. We feel alive, you feel excited and motivated and you wake up every morning with the drive to do it. Not just okay, I have to do this check, check, check off the list. It’s because you want to do it.
Dana 9:18
Tell us about the transition from being a teacher to an entrepreneur. How did that how was that process for you?
Emily 9:26
That was really interesting. Actually, it took a while to hit me because I left being a teacher in late June 2019. And of course, as you know, teachers get the summer off. So the first few months didn’t feel any different at all, because I always had the summer off and I was never a teacher during the summer. So July felt normal August felt normal. And meanwhile, we actually my fiance and I were traveling, the most we’ve ever traveled kind of in a row, Summer 2019 from mid July to October. We were on and off travel. Yeah like we were home for maybe like three days here four days here. It was incredible. And I guess squeeze it in right in time now that we know but we so I didn’t feel it for the first two months but then started living all these awesome experiences like I went to Burning Man for the first time last year and 29 You girls are in San Fran I don’t know if you girls I’ve ever been because I know a lot of people are going there from though. But it was like such a beautiful experience and like not rushing back late August to make sure I’m back in time to be a teacher and then I went we went to Spain for a month in September to October, a whole month living there just like as if it was our home buying groceries cook chopping, you know the Really absorbing the life and work every day, but just from our laptops from the wives. And that was such Wow, it was such a beautiful transition actually. And I was worried that I was going to miss it and kind of feel like you’re kind of sad, emotional feeling when it would come to September. Weirdly enough, I didn’t. However, I don’t think it’s bad if you do it when you leave one thing, it’s completely normal, I think to mourn it or to feel a little bit strange. But I think feeling then fades and for me. I really appreciate going forward and that freedom. I cannot personally say I miss but for a day, even I really loved the transition.
Angela 11:56
And that your friends and family react to you in any way that was surprising. Because you did spend a quite significant amount of years, you know, doing, or working in different parts of the education system, it sounds like so, and then going from that to something completely different. What was their reaction?
Emily 12:13
Yeah, that’s a great question. So my friends who were in education and who taught that was I found I found that was the most interesting reaction. Some of them were kind of like, Oh, are you sure this is stable? You are stable, and others were kind of like, we go girl, like, beautiful.
Like, some of them were kind of living vicariously through that to like, Oh, I wish I had the guts to make the leap, you know? And, and I’m still in a lot in touch with many of them. And a lot of them still tell me like, I might take that leap too soon, you know? So that’s cool. That’s really fun to feel like you’re also inspiring some people. Some of my friends and family were saying like, are you sure you know? Do you want to give up stable income? And not that being a teacher is the largest? It’s a stable one. So it there’s the risk factor when you go off on your course. But I really do believe that anything that’s worth anything is always a risk. I think that I mean, it goes with relationships that goes with careers, sometimes you have to just take a leap, a leap of faith, and you’ll never know and what’s worse, making a mistake potentially or living your whole life wondering what if?
Dana 13:37
Do you remember the moment or the exact moment when you decided to leave teaching like how did you reach that decision? Was there something you know that just solidified this, this path for you?
Emily 13:50
Yeah, the second you asked that question. Funny enough, I can think of the exact moment though I had been thinking on and off for little while but didn’t have a big enough reason really. until it was like the Christmas holidays of 2018 2019 school year. And I went on vacation, you know those two weeks that you have off? And actually I was in Miami because we were heading to Ecuador, right where my fiance’s from originally. And we were in Miami for two three days. And I remember getting an email from my boss at the time. The Head of School basically telling me on like the very last day before going on who I was already in Miami, no oh my God sends me an email. We need to meet with new the day you get back we have something to discuss with you. Now. Like, I mean, I can say a lot of things right now but really like is the time to tell someone and put some Anxiety inducing email was about to go on a two week of vacation like, and, you know, I worried about this and I had some anxiety for the first few days of my vacation, and I was more than anxious, I was angry. I was thinking, how can you do that? And without telling you what it was, but clearly telling me it was not like a good thing. How can you plant that in my head and be okay with doing that to someone when they’re about to go on vacation? You know, it’s my time to clear my mind not fill my mind with anxiety. So that puts something in me. And when I got back, and by the way, it wasn’t the biggest deal what they had to talk to me about, but in my head and give them to allow another human being to control my level of relaxation on my trip. It angered me and it got me thinking why Why am I allowing someone to control how I live my life and how I feel and on my two little weeks of vacation when I’m supposed to be, you know, living my best life. And now I have the seed planted in when I’m worried. So I couldn’t get that out of my head. Honestly, I couldn’t get it out of my head and I got back. And then they talked to me about it. And it wasn’t such a big deal at all. But when I left that meeting, I thought to myself, I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want one dictating my life. And someone telling me how to do every tiny little thing I do and kind of controlling my, my mental health in a sense. It was something so small, but something so big at the same time, and that was what planted the seed That’s kind of where it started to grow. And that’s and then over the next few months, I knew by February, I knew I was not going to go back. But I gave my notice in about March or April. And then you know, the school year ends in June so I finished the year of course. Yeah, that’s that was the moment.
Dana 17:22
And at this time, you were already doing something on the site besides teachings, I correct.
Emily 17:28
I had just just started when I got back, so back from that vacation, so in January 19, I then started and maybe that was part of it, right? Maybe my mind probably knew, like maybe this is not your long term place. So kind of explore other options.
Dana 17:47
If you didn’t experience all of the all of the you know, this anxiety inducing email, like you said, maybe you would still be teaching. So this is maybe a good thing in a way you know, that kind of remember. Mind that you that in the long term, you want to be doing something where you have more freedom more creative control over and yeah, maybe that was a good reminder for that.
Emily 18:09
I really agree. I feel like you know, a good analogy would be, it’s like walking really slowly into a pool like tiptoeing you’re getting pushed in. So I still ended up in the pool, but I would have gone tiptoe by tiptoe, but this was kind of like some man and I was like, Alright, I’m in I’m wet. Like, let’s go. Yeah.
Angela 18:35
I love that. I have a question, I guess, about what when you first started working with your fiance and then became full time doing that, at first, did you know exactly what role and what function you wanted to do? Or you kind of did everything and then realize maybe like you were able to narrow down some of the roles and functions were really like speaking to you.
Emily 18:58
I think we kind of started Like he had the idea before, before I joined him and then he started it kind of slowly. And then as I came in, I was helping out mostly with communicating with people because I think that is something that I have experienced with because of teaching I had always indication not only with children, but with the parents and with other teachers with my administrators. So I really am comfortable communicating with others and in writing and verbally, and then also the social media aspect. I started helping him out with that. I really enjoyed the visual aspect of things creating a page that looks visually appealing. So I kind of just started helping where I saw fit and then yes, as we went on, we we started to have to create roles so that we wouldn’t like step on each other’s toes. You know, because especially work with your partner in life and in business. You have to create some really distinct roles so that there’s no there’s no problems and there’s no conflict.
Angela 20:08
And then how did COVID impact Hinter?
Emily 20:12
Yeah, well, at first it impacted us negatively. It impacted us because in Quebec, where, you know, in our province, there are some pretty strict rules, which probably was a good thing in the large scheme of things. But they started to restrict Airbnb short term rentals, because they wanted to make sure that people were not, you know, spreading their germs. And so they put for about two months, there was a hole on that, and we were not able to rent out. So those two months it did impact us of course, financially, mostly in terms of our brand. We continued to market. We continue to Be in people’s faces and you know, in a very subtle way as the brand is, but we we didn’t let go. But financially at the beginning it did affect us. Absolutely. And then now it’s it’s changed a lot because we’re allowed to be running again. And although I have any American guests, which usually we do have quite a few. The local economy here in Quebec is it I mean, it’s booming in a sense from local support and local travelers. And that’s all we can really do right now is travel within our own province and we can also go to Ontario, so we’re getting a lot of Ontario guests and Quebec guests and it’s, we’re actually booked until January at this point, almost. So and we’re in August right now. So it that was a really nice, kind of an a nice comeback, at least, you know, impact us in those first two months. It really does. Yeah.
Angela 22:01
And so I don’t know if I understand Hinter completely or correctly, but it sounded like you built cabins or boutique hotels and places that you pick and you choose and based on some research, you feel like people would love to have hotel with amenities in certain areas. And then you will like essentially own those hotels that way. Is that Is that about right?
Emily 22:23
Yeah, that’s that’s pretty accurate, actually. So we build cabins, very modern Scandinavian cabins up right now up near Milan trombone, which is a ski resort, about an hour and a half north of Montreal. And I say right now because we do have plans to go elsewhere. But right now we have two locations and we build them ourselves. You know, we found the land we found the area we built the cabins and we designed them in a very modern Scandinavian way where it’s also incorporates some Japanese elements of minimalism and we, we rent them out as hotels essentially. So, you know, instead of just renting a room at a hotel you you have a space. You have a two bedroom, one bathroom house in the middle of the woods. One of them is on the lake with a little canoe. The other is in the mountains with a private sauna down a little path into the woods. And there are little escapes hidden escapes in the woods to reconnect with nature, reconnect with yourself and disconnect from the busy city around you.
Dana 23:38
And I have a bit more questions for when you guys started Hinter together in the beginning or in the early stage or their difficulties in starting this
Emily 23:50
to be completely transparent, the biggest, the biggest factor when you started a project like this is it definitely is it It’s not a cheap endeavor, you know, you’re, you’re investing a lot. you’re investing in land and in a property. So in that case, financially, you know, it’s, it’s a big jump to take. However, this was something that my fiance, Mauricio, he, he had this dream for a long time. And he had a vision, he worked with an architect and different artists and came together and created this brand, that he really I mean, it came from a dream and it now it is reality. And that I mean, that’s the most beautiful part of it, seeing something come from a vision and then being you can walk inside of it, which is like, incredible. But problems along the way. I mean, I mean, there’s always there’s always going to be problems. And I think something that I learned was that I’m a sensitive person. I’ve always known that, and I do tend to take things to heart. So when you know you can have 10 amazing guests that love everything, but then you have one guest that has a complaint or two or four, and, and maybe doesn’t say that the nicest way or, you know, there’s always there’s always going to be that person and that’s okay. And they have the right to. But it’s it’s a learning curve when you learn that. You can’t take that seriously. Sorry, not seriously, you can’t take that personally. You should take it lightly. You should take it seriously and learn from it and see, can I make improvements from this person’s words of advice? If I can’t and it’s physically not possible, then it’s also possible that that person is just not the right fit for your brand or your company or your vision. But if you can take anything at all that they’re saying And not take it personally but actually take it constructively and say, What can I do better? That is a humbling practice. And I had to learn that I had to learn that not everyone’s going to love you and not everyone’s going to love your vision and not everyone’s going to understand your vision. That’s okay. You’re not creating anything in this world for every person to like, I think that’s impossible. something beautiful and amazing. We’ll always have people who question it and not like it too. And that’s,
Angela 26:36
to me, it almost sounds a little bit like some kind of an Airbnb experience is what Hinter is offering as well. And that could be just my you know, unfamiliarity with the whole hotel industry, but were there any major giants that were already in the market or in the industry that made you guys concern about starting Hinter even though I do see there are definitely differentiating factors.
Emily 27:01
So, actually Hinter was born, when Mauricio went to Norway even years before I met him, actually. And he went while he was working in a software company, and he went there, and he saw the architecture and he saw the structures. And he thought to himself, why is there nothing like this in Quebec, or in Canada or maybe even North America? And he said, Why? And I’m going to do it. And so that, that actually kind of answers your question in a weird way. But I will continue to elaborate a little bit there is we didn’t really see competition or something that was exactly the same. And Murray co taught me something very valuable as well. He taught me that competition is healthy and that We shouldn’t run from it or worry about it, or compare ourselves to other people doing similar things. But rather we should collaborate and or learn from each other, respect each other and see it as a healthy economy and a healthy way of a business growing. So he also told me and I really applied this to both Hinter and Bloom, that when you have competitors can’t see them even as competitors. It’s, they’re also doing something which is not entirely the same as you are. And you should keep it that way. Don’t even look at them. Just you do you be yourself. Follow your vision. And that’s when I think some of the most beautiful companies come to be because you can tell they’re not always looking at the competition. If everyone is always looking at each other, then no one’s ever going to be Different, everyone’s going to be doing thing.
Angela 29:03
Yeah, I think that that is a wonderful, wonderful point.
Dana 29:06
How did you decide to start Bloom like in this whole, you know, the context of 2020? And when did this idea start? and How were the early days? What were they like for you?
Emily 29:22
Yeah, that’s an interesting question. Because it was such an interesting time. You know, for all of us, for that matter, like, flows in and everyone is expecting this incredible time this incredible year. Actually, I was supposed to get married this year. So like, a lot of really different things happen than we all expected. So that being said, it kind of had like 2020 before it happened was completely crystal clear to me. It was me continuing to work full time with Hinter. It was planning my wedding. It was all those things. There were tons of trips planned, there was all kinds of things happening. And then March happened and COVID. And all the sudden, like I was mentioning before, we had to stop renting our cabins for Hinter. And, of course, financially that put us, you know, at a loss, of course, because we’re used to getting income and then it stops. But more so your creativity and your motivation starts to get hindered as well. I mean, you’re used to creating something or working on something and then all of a sudden, you’re told, You can’t go anywhere. You can’t continue your business model as is. And you come to a point where you can either crawl into your bed and cry or you could say, you know, I like I’m going to do something. I’m not that relaxing and doing self care. is not a good thing either because I’m really a big believer in that I think you have to listen to your own body and your own mind and just do what feels right for you. For me at that time, I felt that I needed to have a project. And I’ve always thrived with projects and creativity and diving into Bloom in it was April when I started it like mid to end of April 2020. And I decided, you know, what, what do I love most? Out of all the things I’ve ever done, one, education, too, creating a business and three, being sustainable and creating a business that gives more than it takes. And those three kind of recipe or or ingredients, I should say, created the recipe for me to create Bloom Blue class is essentially a Virtual Education platform where I took people I knew and respected in the education world, ask them if they wanted to join. And I worked with the network of parents that I grew to know over my seven years of teaching here in Montreal. And that’s how it started. It was a very small group of educators. We were like four or five educators. And maybe you know, 30 families that jumped on board and sign their kids up for some supplemental education, whether it be private one on one tutoring, or small group extracurriculars. Four to six kids with one educator, could be a math club, a debate club, book club, things like that. And they put their faith in us and I put my faith in those educators that I, you know, wanted to work with. And it and I built my first website in my life. Never knew that. And I learned so much and, and now I mean fast forward, what is it four months later in August and we’re 18 educators and we’re we started out just Montreal families that I knew personally. Now I have students in California, I have students in of course, Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, I have oxygenators, in Ecuador, in Singapore, in Chicago, in Boston in San Diego. I mean, it’s, it was completely unexpected. I really did not expect to happen. But it’s, it’s a beautiful thing and it’s a dark time can bring forth time to reflect and space to, to just be yourself and see what happens. And for me that was bringing on something that maybe I wouldn’t have noticed or paid attention to. If I had been so busy only doing one thing.
Angela 34:13
Would you credit the growth of your business to some sort of or some combination of word of mouth and then some maybe exposure on social media? Or is there anything in particular that you thought contributed to growth in such a short amount of time?
Emily 34:30
Yeah, absolutely. Um, the beginning was really word of mouth, like you said, and we stayed quite local Montreal, Toronto. I also worked with a few mom influencers and like kind of mommy bloggers and I worked with them to, you know, offer them some discounted classes in exchange for sharing some things on their stories. So that was really great for the Montreal and Toronto Community. It really did it opened up a lot of it gave us a lot of exposure, but something that was really great for us and made us more visible in the West. In particular, we were featured in a newsletter in the good trade newsletter. I don’t know if you girls know that. That newsletter but it’s a daily during the week, a daily newsletter that goes out to like 130,000 women mostly, also men, I’m sure but it’s focused mostly on women run businesses, and sustainable businesses. And this one happens to kind of blend those two things together. So I was super, super, super honored and humbled to be featured on that. And that was a huge factor for me. It brought on new educators. That’s how that grew to and I met so many incredible educators from around the world. It also brought on new families who heard of us and took a leap of faith and trusted us and booked with us without even knowing who we were. So now
Angela 36:08
I feel like anytime you create this kind of education, whether it’s supplemental or at home schooling full on type of education experience, I feel like trust is a very big piece of why somebody would feel comfortable enough in Rolling or working with you. And tell us about how you built that into the virtual experience. Sometimes it’s a little difficult. I feel like when you go to physical school, you see somebody that you know, there’s a lot of credibility and authority kind of that’s just naturally established because we’re in school and the art teachers in front of you, but virtually, sometimes I feel like that can come across a little more difficult or less apparent or obvious. Yeah. What are your tips and how did you do that?
Emily 36:49
Yeah, absolutely. To be quite honest, I was super surprised that people would have trusted us without knowing us who we were. We got some bookings. They didn’t even leave offer a free chat. So for 15 minutes, we can be half an hour even but you can book a free chat with me to learn more about the company and understand what which educator we write for your child. We offer that on the website, but I have had so many people just sign up without even doing that. And to be honest, I’m completely surprised I would never do it myself. Like, who are these people? Where do they come from? I know that I’m a good teacher, and I know, educators are good teachers. But as a stranger, I’m like, wow, these people are risque. I love it like they are. They’re putting their faith in us which is a beautiful thing. But also it is a very big deal. And as when you are in that position, you also have to realize, wow, this person is putting their faith in us. They just put their credit card into our website paid for a class when they have no idea who we are. You also then have to make sure you above and below delivered to these people because, I mean, I really commend them, they’re, they’re taking a huge risk. So for the for the people who heard of us from word of mouth, that’s a little easier to understand Of course, because those people are referring their friends and we actually have a referral program. So, books a class, they then get a little link that they can send to their friends and their friends then get $20 off on their first class. And the person who referred also gets $20 on their next class. So there’s an incentive there and I think that has worked quite nicely, because that’s the best type of expansion and growth when it comes from people who really believe in you and spread it to their friends. I think that’s, that’s really been helpful for us and social media to has an effect. We have an Instagram account. At Bloom class, and that’s a we don’t have a lot of followers yet, like 400 and something but we’re growing every day. And honestly, my biggest advice to anyone who’s concerned about their social media accounts and how many, it’s not about how many followers you have, it’s about the quality of followers. And if you have people who genuinely believe in your brand, your company, your services, your products, whatever it might be, that’s what matters. You can have 400 people who are diehard fans or you know, real customers, and then you can 20,000 and like four of them are real customers. So it it really does make a huge difference how authentic your following is to Mm hmm.
Angela 39:50
Yeah, something I’ve heard actually, about building a product a lot of the times this, you know, you want to be focusing on your customers, and you really want to focus on your first 100 customers that are diehard, super loyal, won’t go anywhere and really just build for them and then not sometimes not overthink how you need to grow where, you know, what do you need to do in order to scale but you know, really to start when you’re kind of in the beginning, just focus on like your home base almost and then go from there.
Emily 40:21
Yeah, I love that. I think so too, because you want repeat customers too. You don’t just want to keep reaching more and more people but not having loyal people who keep coming back. You want to keep repeating and coming back? Yeah.
Angela 40:39
Yeah, so I was curious, because I think a lot of people nowadays because of technology and how everything is so available, and you know, it’s definitely very enticing the lifestyle of being entrepreneur, but we all know that it’s very difficult to get started and sometimes you know, people just don’t even know how or where to start. Now that he’s done it. I feel like oh, Two times. If you could create some kind of a runbook, or like a step by step guide for those that want to become entrepreneurs, what would those steps be?
Emily 41:11
I love that. Um, okay, well, number one is have an idea because you really, you do start there, it has to be something that’s igniting inside you. It has to pay you can’t just if you go and you sit down and you’re just like thinking that for ideas looking for them, I don’t think that’s the answer. I think naturally things have to be born somewhere number one would be have an idea. And then number two is start. Like I know how many times people have told me like my friends, good friends of mine. Oh, I have this amazing idea. Imagine a company like this, this this this. And then 10 years later crickets, you know like, you have actually Do it and it’s scary and it’s hard, but you actually have to just do it. Step three is understand that there will be doubts and there will be hurdles. And there will be people who don’t believe in it or don’t believe in you, or doubt it or give you bad vibes. That’s okay. Not everyone doing this. And that’s also how the economy will sustain itself. If everyone was an entrepreneur, we would not be able to run society. Not everyone has to have these ideas and be willing to risk stability in order to create something new. That’s okay. But if you want to you do it and ignore, not ignore actually, sorry, I retract that statement because sometimes people have the points. Listen to it, absorb it noted down whether it’s mentally or in a notebook or in your iPhone. Note it down, but don’t let it stop you. Just Maybe notice it. Um, where was I step four. Really. Step Four would be, persist. So you might have hurdles and you might not find it easy and you might not be able to do it the way you’ve fully intended in the beginning, maybe you’re going to have to do it a slightly different way. But persist, go on, do it anyway. And listen to your instincts. If it’s telling you it will work. Follow it. And then, I mean, forget the numbers at this point, but just the word of it. And just understand that it’s not it’s not all glamour, and that’s okay. They’re not an entrepreneur. It’s not like, Oh, I’m just at the beach. I did an hour of, you know, emails this morning. Now my whole day is free. No, I think a lot of media make it look like that. And we know with all due respect, that’s okay. Like, but it’s not real. There have been nights where I’m working till midnight. There have been weekends where I work the whole weekend, but I choose to. And that’s the beauty of it. That’s why it’s worth it. No one is telling you to no one is telling me a deadline for something sometimes it create my own deadlines, as I stressed myself out, because I’m like, I need to do this, you know, but I’m telling me to do it and that is very empowering. I think you also do have a sense of organization and I plan to I love like planner. I like a physical planner where I write things and I plan things and I map out my week, sometimes my month. I like to plan ahead. I like checklists, I really enjoy keeping things organized and managing but also equally important to put into your checklist and to put into your day is that self care time to because you can forget about yourself sometimes and work on your baby or in other words, your business. And you have to you know, take that bath for three hours or make the glass of wine or just put your feet up like it’s really important to shut down sometimes we interconnect.
Dana 45:44
So when you were transitioning away from teaching and when you were starting this project, what would be some information that will be useful for you at a time and wondering if you had some piece of advice from other people or You know some information about what you’re about to do that will help you be more confident and the switch we’re about to make. What are some of those information?
Emily 46:09
Yeah, I wish that when I was in my teaching career, I do wish that I had been surrounded by more people that were kind of living outside the box a little bit. I love living my life. Don’t get me wrong. That’s not saying that I want to trade anyone in. But in addition to all the wonderful people in my life, I wish I had some friends or colleagues or acquaintances that were living outside the box, thinking outside the box and taking those leaps of faith. So I didn’t have much of that. Except for my fiance, and when we met, he was in a stable job as well, but he had this dream already and he was working on it on the side and planning to leave so Having someone, anyone in your life that also is in that same mentality is extremely empowering, uplifting and motivating because it shows you Okay, I’m not alone. I got this, I can do this, that that would have been really helpful maybe even earlier on in my life. But now that we have so much incredible technology like this podcast, it’s amazing because we can listen to people who who have taken a leap of faith and have to jump into a completely different career and going off on their own. So I maybe wish I would have done more research, too. I wish I would have listened to more podcasts and read more books about entrepreneurship and taking that jump. No, I think that’s what I would recommend. I will say do your research. broaden your circle a little bit. Learn from other people who inspire you.
Dana 48:05
What do you think you would be venturing into next? Because it sounds like you’ve had a very interesting path like you started as a teacher and you joined the company with your fiance and now you have loom class, which combined your past experiences, you know, sky’s the limit at this point. What do you think you could go into next? Well,
Emily 48:25
I don’t think I would be creating more businesses, at least for now. I think that you also have to come to a point where, what’s in front of you, if you believe in it, you have to put your heart and soul into those businesses or that business so that you don’t spread yourself too thin. So I do see myself continuing on this path. And without giving too many spoilers, I do. I we do see a really big vision for Hinter It, you know, we’ll give you a little hint. It’s that we won’t only be in Canada, for too too long. We do have plans and potentially even to relocate ourselves temporarily somewhere else so that we can grow the business elsewhere. So that’s really exciting. And down the line, I also do want, we want to start a family. So that also, you know, as a woman, sometimes it does have to put certain little pauses on things because we want to do both motherhood and entrepreneurship, that’s something that is going to be a whole other challenge in itself. So that’s going to be kind of a an interesting venture. And for Bloom, I really see I mentioned before that I don’t just see it as something for COVID. And I really see that Bloom is a really interesting platform to connect. educators and students from around the world. I think the education system is changing, I think that we don’t necessarily have to. And we won’t necessarily continue to only see education as a classroom setting where there’s a teacher, and there’s 2030 kids, and they have textbooks and they go home every day in their backpacks. I think that education could change with everything going on in the world. But even more so with a society in a generation that believes in a little bit more of a nomadic lifestyle as well. People travel more people sometimes relocate several times in their lives. And maybe that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe some education could be virtual, and we could be learning from people from around the world, which is really exciting to me. So I do see Bloom as something that can continue on with a growing company. Unity growing team of educators from all over the world. And something that can kind of be a steady and steady rhythm throughout my life as well. It doesn’t always have to be a heavy workload like I might not teach much on it in years to come, but still have an incredible team of educators who I trust and believe in teaching. And so that’s, that’s what I see coming.
Dana 51:32
Great. Thank you. Um, so with all this being said, thank you so much for stopping by today. We’ve learned a lot from you. And I’m sure a lot of people are dying to go to your pages to find out more about Bloom and about Hinter where can people reach you?
Emily 51:48
Yes, so if you want to check out Bloom glass, you can check out our Instagram which is at Blum bl o m dot class. You can also check out our website Which is ww Bloom class.co. And for Hinter, we have two Instagram accounts right now we have at Hinter company and Hinter is h i n tr. And then we also have at Hinter house. And if ever you want to check out I have a personal account as well. And you could just stop by and say hi. And it’s my full name at Emily den. So that’s Emily with a Y and p a, DAN.
Dana 52:30
Great. Thank you so much, Emily for your time today. It was such a good conversation with you. Thank you so much.
Emily 52:36
Yeah, thank you so much. I really enjoyed my time talking to you.
