Kayshree Govender

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back, everyone, to the Tron podcast. This is your host, Rashad Woods. Today I have a very special guest halfway across the globe from Johannesburg, South Africa, the founder of Dreamers and Founders, Entrepreneur, Resiliency, and teaches kids how to be CEOs and more importantly, business owners, not consumers. K Street Govender, thank you so much for your time. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Thank you. Thanks for having me. [00:00:19] Speaker A: I really appreciate you reaching out to me. So, first of all, like I said, I think you do incredible work. I got a chance to read, you know, what you do. So let's talk about specifically Dreamers and Founders and get a little bit dive into your background. You're an early entrepreneur. You actually started your first business at the age of 10. Yeah. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Yes, correct. Yeah, I started with a dance school. So that. [00:00:37] Speaker A: How the heck does a 10 year old even think of a dance school? Like, real, like, honestly. [00:00:41] Speaker B: So I was. My mom got me into dancing and modeling at a very young age. And you were performing, like, locally? Because I grew up in a very small town in Nelspruit, and we used to do cultural performances. So having that done, we used to perform for every government function and they got us to have groups of kids and I was like, yeah, sure, bring them along. I would love to dance with them. And it went on years and years and years. And then eventually people were like, we want to be part of that. So that's where the whole dance school actually came about. It wasn't because, you know what, I had a vision to say, I'm going to open a dance school. It literally just happened as a byproduct of literally helping other people or teaching other people how to, how to dance. [00:01:28] Speaker A: So your background, Abby, obviously gained momentum from that ever since because, you know, we'll talk about, obviously the story in between. If it's okay, I'll go specifically to Dreamers and Founders. So I thought what. The work you did was very important because it started with a very personal story where you said, I need to get my son away from what he's doing on just his handheld. And as a father, I know exactly that same feeling. It's like, you know what? I don't have, quote, unquote, time to do anything else. This TV or this handheld or this electronic device will ultimately be your fun time. But you realize, you know, at a certain point that that needed to stop. [00:02:01] Speaker B: That's so true. That is like, spot on. And, you know, I said, parents, you just like, what am I doing? How do I help this child? Because with everything happening nowadays with technology and Life being just so busy, you know, it's. It's like the next best thing. [00:02:19] Speaker A: You go. You go to autopilot kind of a deal. Right, Right. You know what I mean? And so, you know, it almost. And I don't mean to, you know, cut you off or dominate, but it's the easy thing to do, so to speak. Right? Putting. Teaching them how to actually do something takes work, time and effort. Handing them an electronic device or a remote in their hand is the easy thing to do. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Correct. And it's something that they actually enjoy for the time being, you know, in that moment. And I think that's where we came in. And Dreamers and Founders literally took that away to say, we understand exactly what parents are going through. We understand the struggles, because this is a mom that struggled. And, you know, I take the kids as my own. There is several of kids. The parents are just like, oh, my gosh, I don't know what you've done to my kid, but like a different child completely. And I said, you know what? I understand exactly you as a parent, how you feel because you're so swamped with work, you're so swamped in your personal capacity, in your relationship, and now you must come home to such a busy child. And, you know, how do you feed the right activities and the right conversation with child when you yourself is just trying to just get your daily routine correct, you know, sorted? [00:03:34] Speaker A: So Dreamers and Founders, to go into the specifics of it, it teaches kids from the age of 8 to 18 to start their own businesses, which I was. I was blown away because we're very structured when it comes to school. And I love the examples you gave. Hey, you can memorize this and pass a test and get a diploma, certificate, and that's great, but you've never actually learned how to do something right. And then all of a sudden, when you have to pivot to that mindset, you know, or they lose that structured environment, people can get, particularly. Kids can get kind of lost, so to speak. So this is where Dreamers and founders steps in. [00:04:06] Speaker B: 100. Yeah, so just exactly what you said. But it's also. It's more than that. You know, I think we schools and just now life in general, it's. It's taught kids, okay, you know, curriculum is there. What. But what happens to kids after that? So I go and I study and I've, you know, come up with your degrees. And now what? I don't have a job. I don't know how to fend for myself. I'm reliant on a parent. So we are not saying, you know, we're taking a child away from school. School is important and we encourage, you know, to have that background. However, Dreamers and Founders is meant to support that schooling structure and the schooling career, but just better equip the child with to handle the pressure and the stress of it. Because if a child knows how to bounce back or how to be street smart and you know how to think and solve problems by themselves without having some someone constantly telling them what to do or help from either side, it puts them at a better position to actually do well. Because I mean, if you think about it, when you were younger, mom and dad did not come in at every struggle that you had. You went outside, you played quite a bit, you know, and, and that activities, kids don't have it anymore. You know, we are seen like it's not safe anymore to just leave a child bare feet outside. You know, figuring we've actually. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Because it's kind of crazy, we've got to become more nurturing when in reality, even though technology has advanced, we get more. They sometimes lack social skills as well too, or practicality because we didn't. They don't have the luxury of being able to actually go out and make a conversation, talk and interact and things like that. So when it comes to Dreamers and Founders, do you have like a mentor section where you have business partners come in or mentors of CEOs, successful business owners, etc. Talk to children about their successful endeavors or potential. Potential successful endeavors. [00:06:04] Speaker B: 100% we do. We have an entire community of very successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs that have made millions and have lost it all. Words of encouragement to show them what they are capable of. But also if they don't follow the right steps, if they don't, you know, protect the income and you know, different ways of not just going there and blowing it up and you know, so we've got all amazing CEOs on the platform that come share their wisdom, share hours of just, just pure, you know, that servant leadership that they give back to these kids. It's absolutely amazing. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Is it all remote over the Internet or. I know you started in Johannesburg in South Africa or whatever city it may have started in. So I don't want to say specifically Johannesburg, but did it grow organically to where it's more over the Internet with mentorship? Because obviously that's very successful now. But do you do locally too? Just how do you reach people? [00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah, so we've got an online platform whereby all the courses and the webinars get run and then in terms of in person events. So we host twice a year like a summer camp kind of vibe. We choose different locations and parents can come along with their kids or if they just want to send the kids, that's also perfect. The whole reasoning behind that one is to physically build the business with the children so before they leave that camp the child will have a fully pledged working business. And also to. To ensure that the child has practical skills. For example, we would take them into sort of a. We call it like a fell school which basically means that they go out in not a safari, it's out in nature. And we teach them how to do a fire. We have conversations and leadership camps at the fire. We teach them how to make their own food. Just a little bit of building them as. As children because you know some of the parents are so busy and so caught up in their life that as much as they would love to do this, they just don't have the time and the capacity to do it child. So this is where we come in and we help and we assist and we also show children the importance of parents and what parents go through. Just like how a child can go through a lot, so can a parent. So it builds a relationship and the bond between a parent and a child and they can understand better and it actually becomes more loving and they become, you know, more understanding towards a family dynamic situation. [00:08:39] Speaker A: Well, I thought was very interesting. I listened to a previous interview you did on the Chris Voss show and it was essentially you know, a building block to other things that they could be interested in. Because you'll see often that and you'll hear successful stories of a kid who wasn't attentive in school, wasn't very good at sports but then suddenly when they got handed the tools or became driven to start their own business or their own journey, suddenly the attention span is completely like. You're like where did this person come from? And so it gets the parents involved too. Are there. What's the curriculum like when it comes to. Because there's lots of different things you have to cover in a short amount of time and sometimes just kind of give us an overview as their sessions and courses. [00:09:20] Speaker B: Okay, so we hosting a free MasterC class on 26 June that in that master class we literally going to teach the child how to build confidence because that's the first step to actually getting a child to understand what's entrepreneurship about and who they are as a person. So we would teach them that we would Teach them how to spot and how to get an idea. Because a lot of kids, you know, don't know really what's entrepreneurship about, how did they go about getting an idea or a business, where does it all start? So we've got the foundation steps of that and then we go further from, from getting a business solving and that would mean they finding a problem, they solve the problem and from solving the problem we then create a business and we show them how to create the business and then we go further on from the, we teach them how to pitch it, how to sell the idea. And during our courses we would actually do their first sale for them. So they would have an idea of, of what's really going on, what is expected of them and, and how they, they would carry it through. And then it doesn't stop there. We teach them making their first sale, what happens? We teach them how to do their money, for example, how to price a product, how to get profit from a what to do profit and how to grow that business. And then. [00:10:51] Speaker A: Go ahead. No, you're fine, go ahead. [00:10:53] Speaker B: Sorry. Yes. So in the course we teach them also as kids, you know, in terms of discipline, what to do now after that. Because once a kid has money, a lot of people are like, my child's got attitude now, you know, so there is a discipline that's taught to them and then we go further to, you know, developing further and seeing which level they at. And then they reach their first hundred dollars, they reach their first thousand dollars and then it's just a gradually growing process with them. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Beautiful. [00:11:25] Speaker B: So we running something over the school holiday because a lot of parents would be what is my child doing on the holiday? This is the perfect time to get them involved because what are they doing? They've got all the time in the world and let them start something that could ignite their personality and just feel it in the right direction to get them in a good flow of. [00:11:48] Speaker A: And not only that though, but like they'll find other like minded children as well too. So like, you know, we gravitate towards ultimately who we really are. Right. So oftentimes, you know, if you want to be negative, it's not hard to find negative people, particularly when it comes to the Internet. Right. And so you will ultimately find that avenue where kids are going to, hey, I thought I'm unique, I can't really fit my peer circle. But then you get into something like this and all of a sudden kids like, oh my gosh, there's so many more kids like me than I thought than I thought that like these particular things, so they're starting at a young age, they get an idea and then they kind of have that spark of how they want to bring it to market. Obviously, I've seen what you said. You have people as young as seven years old, which is amazing because when you're curious and as a kid, you're not thinking about failure, you're not thinking about test market, you're just thinking about this works, other kids should like it. So it's actually like, in a way successful or helpful? Very much because they're not thinking of failure. They're just thinking about whether people like something or not and in the business ultimately becomes successful along the way. [00:12:45] Speaker B: Yep, that's. That's spot on. So the other thing is, you know, we always teach kids that it's okay to fail as long as you're failing forward and it's leading you to success. Because success to me, success to you is two different things. We do not associate success with just monetary value. And it's important for kids of various backgrounds to understand what it means to them because you can just be happy. That's enough for me. But I've got to see some kind of work, some kind of effort, and then, you know, we would know how to get it out of your child. We would know how to push them, where to not push them. We've got very strong team in terms of the psychology behind it. So they support the kids extremely, extremely well. Just to give them support structure, whether it's in the household, in school, just amongst friends, amongst peers. So that's, that's also a really great thing to have. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Here's a good question for you. Do you have them particularly with, particularly when they're inventing things? Because I heard from the CEO, from Lois, like he was telling me, you know, people who are pursuing the white collar field. So he's like, hey, you're better off being by the cash register at this point because they can automate a lot of things that, you know, the C suite can quote, unquote, do. Do you tell kids, like, hey, it's better to go towards things that are automated artificial intelligence, things that assist more with the technology sector or customer experience, so to speak, as opposed to other fields. And I say that because, you know, there's a shortage of people who are like electricians, plumbers, and he, you know, the CEO of Lowe's, I don't know how you're familiar with that. In South Africa, it's a large retailer for home improvement. But do you gear kids towards? This is the growing field that has opportunities. [00:14:31] Speaker B: So we do have a panel whereby kids go through a process where we would see what they're good at, what they do like, and we try them in different fields. We'll show them where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are. Because remember, a weakness is not a bad thing because sometimes they can push through that weakness and that can be their biggest idea because they are the ones that understand all the problems that go with that weakness. So we would explore with the child and we have various options available to the children to basically say, you could try this, you could try that, and we will try you out. If that's not working for you, that's okay, we go on to the next one. But we will not discriminate a child. Especially if a child feels that they want to, for example, do coding or they want to be robotics or, you know, we've got the correct structures to show them how to do it. Sometimes, you know, kids want to do something and it's, it's beyond them because at a later stage, I think, you know, they've sort of had it in their mind that this, this career makes so much money and they have to go in, in that line of work. And once they start see it and, you know, practicing and going through the process, it sort of comes back to them and they are like, okay, I've actually found something better and something that, you know, excites me and that's what they end up loving and end up doing. So, yeah, we do have the correct structure. [00:16:06] Speaker A: How did your company grow? How did it go from the kitchen table? You said, it's back of a cereal box with your son. So how does it go from that to, hey, tapping somebody on the shoulder, is your kid interested? Like, where did it start? Community based. And did it kind of just grow? [00:16:20] Speaker B: It was a tough journey. Okay, it was a really tough journey because what I did was in South Africa, a lot of people don't believe that kids can open businesses, number one. So I tried and tested with kids in South Africa and I, I think I didn't choose my battles wisely because I chose proper rural areas. So it was very. These kind concepts were not acceptable. And people were just like, no, what are you doing with my child? So I said, listen, I'm gonna do this for free. I would just like, you know, some time with your child. And a lot of people were just like, no, I'm coming to sell their child. Or, you know, when you first get into it, because skepticism but luckily I, I pushed. [00:17:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Yes, correct. So I pushed through that. I hosted classes and I think the parents were amazed to see what the children came home with. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Are you integrating, are you integrating yourself with community colleges or local educational departments, schools and say, listen, this can be a complimentary tool as opposed to a standalone service. I listen to some examples again on that podcast you did where. And this isn't a knock on school counselors or career counselors, but they're like, hey, you need to get these grades just to get into this college. Or you need to. It's all geared towards passing a test so that, that way you can go to the university or college or trade or the next step. But somebody says, well, I don't want that. And then there's no tools around them. So did you find that this is a complimentary tool in the educational systems? [00:17:53] Speaker B: So definitely it would be a complimentary tool because I mean, when I was growing up, I wasn't the best in school either, although my parents pushed me and the teachers pushed me. But it was like I dreaded school, you know, to be honest. But it was just the tick box that you needed to get through. Everybody was like, no, she's not going to excel, she's not going to excel. Like I passed. But it wasn't like, you know, wow, out of this world. As opposed to when I got involved in businesses and. Exactly. With, with kids, there's a lot of kids that, you know, can share the same sentiment and schools we would like to partner with schools we just haven't gotten there as yet. But if there is any schools that would love to, you know, just know about us or wanna try us out and let us come and just offer it as a service in the school, we'd be happy. [00:18:44] Speaker A: I think that because of the access, availability now children obviously, you know, can, can look up YouTube on their own, can look up on the Internet of their own. And there's. It's not, it's a very open market to be able to kind of segue yourself into the field of your choice as opposed to having it dictated to you than it was when you and I were growing up where you kind of just say, okay, your degree will take care of everything else you have in life. So I think that that's a beautiful tool that you utilize. So how global is your reach? You know, I know that's in Johannesburg, but you've had opportunities and people from other countries. So how far does your company reach? [00:19:17] Speaker B: So at the moment we are in seven countries. So in the Us, uae, we in the UK and many others. So we have, we have explored quite a bit. We just expanding as it's going along. And I think the more people get to hear about us and get to experience, experience it. And that's why we're hosting this free master class to say, bring the kids, it is free. Let them, you know, get hyped up, see what the difference would be in a child. And then you can make a decision. [00:19:48] Speaker A: From just watching the next music video or YouTube short clip, right? Absolutely. So if you have time for that, you have time to be able to grow your life. Because at the end of the day, entertaining videos will always be there. But the opportunity to start your business may not. Right. Which is a wonderful thing for sure. [00:20:02] Speaker B: And not only that, if kids can pay for their own games, if kids can pay for their own shopping or new laptop or whatever it is, don't you think that child is going to appreciate it way more? [00:20:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. Because then they'll have to ask permission for mommy or daddy's debit or credit card. So they can say, you know, obviously parental supervision is big, so, you know, for everybody's, listen, make sure you know what your kid is buying. But at the end of the day, if they're like, hey, I want this cool T shirt, like, and it's 75 bucks, ta da. Have a nice day. Right? So to speak. They earned it with their own money, you know, which is a beautiful thing. Here's an interesting perspective. I'm a parent. I see my kid is quote, unquote, goofing off all the time, and I'm like, I gotta find the right avenue. What would make dreamers and founders the most? You know, I need to be with this particular avenue that's going to be best suited for my kid. Your track record, your reach. I'm just curious, you know, how that would, how a parent will make an informed decision. [00:20:58] Speaker B: Okay, so in terms of our track record, every child that has come through, okay, we're gonna say out of the. We're gonna take 10 kids. For every 10 kid that has come to us, eight kids have gotten already successful businesses running. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Wonderful, beautiful. That's a beautiful track record. [00:21:17] Speaker B: And that's purely because, you know, we place the right structures and for every child to happen. But some kids would be a little bit slower in terms of execution. And that is. Okay. So it's not to say they do not or they're not going to have their business. It just means that they're going to take a little bit longer than you Know the class that goes ahead. So we do take in terms of our one on one private coaching. We only take 10 to 15 children in, in a slot. [00:21:50] Speaker A: Got it. To not overwhelm and have size issues in that slot. [00:21:53] Speaker B: And the reason correct? Because we don't want to overwhelm kids. We, we want to give direct attention to the children. I don't want, it was never created to just be a mass production and I want to give individual attention and my team and I are amazing, even if I must say so myself. But we give children dedicated attention. We sit with the actual business. We craft the funnels for them and they love it. We craft a signature message for them, a pitch where it's not just oh you know what, here's something, go figure it out. How to make it your own. We make correct, tailored. [00:22:31] Speaker A: I like that. I didn't mean to cut you off. [00:22:33] Speaker B: But I was just teen in my head and yeah. So even after that there's a whole process of just making sure we check up on the children. There's motivation for the children. There is, you know, like extreme support structures. Whereas anyone else or another program would give your child a very theory based approach where with us it's very practical because we understand that children have busy minds and you know, they can only grasp grass to a certain level. I cannot throw theory at them and expect them to have results. I want to make it fun and they love it. So we include a bit of dance, a bit of music just to you know, get them up and going but to get ideas flowing because it's very important for us to get the imagination and their creativity side of their brain active so that we could bring out the best in them. Because if they bored of a course or lecture that I'm giving, for example, you're going nowhere, you know. And I think with us we super fun with the kids and the team is amazing. Everybody loves what size is your team? They've just built. So we've got a team of about 80 to 100 people that's dedicated for sections for the kids. [00:23:55] Speaker A: So you grew fast. This was almost like people were like oh thank goodness this actually exists because now I can contribute. That's wonderful. So and this is year round offered or is it, you know, when it comes to your, your I know you have your master class, you have something coming up in a few days but is this something that people can take year round if they say hey I want to be in this in September, I want to be in this for, for Christmas, you know, December Season. Is this something you guys offer year round? [00:24:18] Speaker B: Yeah, so we have different packages for throughout the year. However, you know, you can decide which one you want to do or if in terms of financing it or purchasing it, they could send us an email or pop us a message and we could work something out if they do the cause and you know, the payments would be done at a later because like I'm saying, we just want to make sure that the kids get the benefit. We're not so focused on the money and you know, at the end of the day, everybody needs to make, you know, a good profit to ensure that our daily bills are paid and our staff is paid. But that's not our goal and that's really not our focus. Our focus is making sure that we can help. [00:25:02] Speaker A: I think that's the one today. I think that's amazing. And I love the fact that you trying to get them at a young age where their mind is still curious about things because then it'll become organic and natural for them. Sometimes we can get older and then we become less adapt to change. We become less likely to want to try new things because we're kind of quote unquote baked in our way, so to speak. So it's good that you've gotten them where hey, this is just another level of curiosity. And then you know, plus kids like to tell other kids what they're doing and they're a vocal, they're very social. Right. It's very. And then, and then they find kind of what they're great at or what they're very good at, so to speak. Right. And it becomes something that's a part of who they are. So my question is, I ask this to everybody. Where can people find. [00:25:42] Speaker B: So on Facebook we add dreamers and founders on insta. We are dreamers and founders. TikTok it's Dreamers and founders on YouTube. It's just case three and I've got some free content. It should be uploaded before Thursday. You know, if they just want to go through some of the content, it's very quick snippets so they can just learn a few things. But yes, if they could join us, it's going to be massive. So they must click on the link. If they log on to our Facebook page they would see it is or they can go on the website. It's ww.dreamers and founders.com it will give you all the information about the masterclass and yeah, they can sign up and link themselves and bring their kids along. [00:26:25] Speaker A: You know, ultimately you know, the best way to kind of live, you know, is today was tomorrow. So whatever you think about starting tomorrow, today is that day, because all you're gonna do is punt it infinitely. So I tell you what, you know, I'm very excited. I got a chance to check out your website, listen to other podcasts, and I think the work that you've done to inspire the next growing minds is fantastic. And sometimes personal experience can lead to drive and innovation. So I really appreciate you carving out time out of your busy schedule, being on the Tron podcast. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Thank you. Thanks for having me. [00:26:54] Speaker A: I appreciate that. K Street Governor, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you being on. [00:26:57] Speaker B: Thank you.