Strive For Good Life Podcast Ep 13: How to Scale a Tutoring Business to 7 Figures
Introduction
Welcome to Episode 13 of the SFGL Podcast, where we dive deep into the secrets of success for tutoring entrepreneurs! In this episode, we sit down with Doulton Wiltshire, the inspiring founder of CommAdvantage, a tutoring service that’s transforming education for Queen’s commerce students.
Doulton shares her journey from starting small to building a 7-figure tutoring business by understanding her niche, crafting exceptional services, and staying passionate about helping others succeed. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale your tutoring business to 7 figures, this episode is packed with actionable tips, expert insights, and motivational advice.
Discover how to identify your niche, deliver value that stands out, and implement strategies that take your tutoring business to the next level. Don't miss this chance to learn from one of the best in the industry!
You can connect with Doulton here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doultonwiltshire
Listen to this Episode Here:
Watch this Episode Here:
Strive For Good Life Podcast Ep. 13 Transcript:
NOTE: This transcript was computer generated and likely contains errors
Nino Pingera: Welcome everyone to another episode of the store. I forget podcast. My name is Nino pingera and I'm here with Doulton Wiltshire. Who is the owner of what's the name of it again? I just blanks.
Doulton Wiltshire: Advantage,…
Nino Pingera: All common advantage that's right,…
Doulton Wiltshire: calm advantage. Yeah.
Nino Pingera: which is an online tutoring service for commerce, right or what is
Doulton Wiltshire: for first and second year business students in University. So we tutor in statistics accounting calculus Finance economics. Basically those quantitative courses that everybody kind of hates when they get to business school. We're the to resource for the Queen's Commerce program or Smith School of Business Commerce program here in Canada and been doing this for now 10 years, which is hard to believe and I feel like I've done a dozen different businesses in that time period as well, but yeah, it's been a ride and that's what we're gonna chat about today again.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, I love that. Thanks for just rolling with that because I've probably should have done a redo, but we can just keep going. Okay, tell me a little bit about you.
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: I mean you just mentioned that you've done about a dozen things, talk to me about kind of, early influences and what initially got you started and wanting to do your own business.
Doulton Wiltshire: I was responding to necessity in all honesty. So I went to business school with the idea that I was going to work in accounting or banking or whatever. I actually worked in Consulting for a little bit and
Doulton Wiltshire: Did not like it. I definitely got caught up in that type of business school this is what yourself post to do. And That's a theme that I kind of get caught up on what you're supposed to do and then figure out what makes me happy and then yeah, honestly I met a boy and he was in grad school and I was like Wow grad school. That's so amazing. I should do grad school too because you're in grad school and I did grad school and through grad school. I started teaching at the School of Business and I realized how much I loved teaching and when my now husband moved up to Deep River Ontario to work at the National Lab here. I followed him and there wasn't a lot of job prospects here. And so I had been tutoring a little bit already and grad school and after grad school and we turned it into a full.
Doulton Wiltshire: thing but it really at no point. Did I kind of set out and be like, I am gonna run a business. I'm gonna be an entrepreneur. It was very much. I could see the need for the students. I was working with and I could see that I also needed that and therefore became a match made in heaven or sometimes less than having but there I just mean they're bums. They're bump. It's not an easy road all the time. But yeah, and so it really evolved out of Necessities I don't have a job and I'm good at this and the funny thing is that about
Doulton Wiltshire: A year after I started taking the business really seriously. I started getting those jobs offers. I come out of business school where the turnover for applying for a job was weeks not a year, so I wasn't used to kind of the National Lab Set up here and I started getting these amazing job offers and then was like, why on Earth would I do that when I can just Run calm advantage over here and do something that I love in a way that I love and so yeah, it's been 10 years of formally running the business now and a crazy ride that at times I definitely regretted but in the grand scheme of things,…
Nino Pingera: What?
Doulton Wiltshire: I do not regret in any way shape or form.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure let's talk about because a lot of people that are maybe online tutors. They're not making much typically, how do you go from kind of doing this part time to actually ramping up and being able to provide for yourself full time with it? I mean that's a feat in itself, right?
Doulton Wiltshire: So I think one really niching down when I talk to a lot of people who are tutoring they will tutor in everything and anything and that's true right a lot of us who are Educators we have the ability.
Doulton Wiltshire: To jump into a lot of situations and make them better. But I only work with first and secondary University students in the Queen's Commerce program very specific and that allows me to make sure that all I'm like making materials that's refined for them that I'm focusing on what they're doing and that also allowed me to move from a one to one tutoring setup, which is how I started into a group tutoring pivot and it was that working in small groups where one it really can't again came out of necessity. I have this weightless. That's so long and I just want to help these students and also the hourly rate that I was charging was I'm a premium tutor that is not financially accessible to a lot of people and so by doing a group programming my main goal was
Doulton Wiltshire: Increased reach and make it more financial accessible for people and then actually what happened was this magic within group tutoring where the students are helping each other and they're gaining confidence because they're working in a group that you don't see when you're working with students one-on-one because they're really intimidated when they start in groups, They don't want to be the key to ask the silly question whatever and that's the same feeling that they carry when they're in a classroom setting and so by breaking this down in a small group we're super inclusive and super fun. And I mean, it's fun as you can be when you're learning statistics, but when they're developing this confidence in the skills in the small group,…
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: I was watching those transfer out and knew that that was the way forward and so we use a primarily group first model because of that and I think that one again it allows us to scale up and work with more students because again, we're so niched any of the pocket that I didn't personally work with I'm not actually a financier I can bring on a core group of really incredible instructors that are also helping do this and really round it out. So I think for me was mostly moving away from this perspective of kind of the agency model that I think most tutoring businesses are and just really listening to what my students needed.
Doulton Wiltshire: And then meeting that need and I think a lot of people want to talk to them and they're in the tutoring space. I'm just like yeah, but really what are your kids need and they'll tell me what? The parents think the kids need and I'm like no take a step back. You've been doing this for 20 years. What do these kids actually need and when you tap into that, I think you're unstoppable.
Nino Pingera: I think that's powerful such. a key thing to really understand the needs so that you can improve the service and Produce better outcomes, that's amazing …
Doulton Wiltshire: Absolutely.
Nino Pingera: I want to go back real quick. And you said something key about being a premium service right A lot of people that I've talked to you have a hard time,…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: really understanding their worth and understanding that they can charge a premium. So I guess you started from kind of a premium price point you didn't necessarily work up,…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: No,…
Nino Pingera: right? So.
Doulton Wiltshire: when I okay, so the very first time I tutored I still laugh back this I charge $10 an hour. So that was less than minimum wage.
Nino Pingera: Okay, so you did start at the bottom, okay?
Doulton Wiltshire: I did start at the bottom when I fart very first started tutoring when I was in my first or second year university, I was working with math kids. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was like I can help you and I remember being so nervous when I had to tell my two students that I had that I couldn't charge them.
Nino Pingera: Sure.
Doulton Wiltshire: Dollars an hour anymore. I had to charge them 15 and how neither of them flinched at that and then I found out later that they had come from private school where they had a tutor and their tutor and private school is getting paid 200 dollars an hour and…
Nino Pingera: Wow.
Doulton Wiltshire: they were like you're better than my high school tutor and I'm paying you 15. So here you can just like and it was this realization of
Doulton Wiltshire: I'm very passionate about being financially accessible and letting you know that type of thing…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: but the fact that people perceive value because of what they pay and
Doulton Wiltshire: it's not just that I do and I do a really good job. Okay, there's no one who can come to me who isn't gonna pass their course or improve their grades. I'll get you there. That's no problem. I'll get the result. but I need them to be committed to the work that they're gonna do. I can't write a test for you. I can't study for you. and unfortunately that commitment often time comes with their perception of value and their financial commitment and so truthfully the students who were put more into it and that was one of the things that got me around that kind of that premium. So I jump from fifteen dollars an hour to 60 and then 80 and 150 dollars an hour and I'm still actually was lower price than most of the Elite Toronto tutors, but it's very much about
Doulton Wiltshire: The result and if you are paying $30,000 a year in tuition and not passing this one class is going to hold you back a year. I used to feel bad about charging that hundred dollars an hour for 10 hours and really $1,000 expense in the grand scheme of a four year university education and the job offers and having to repeat the class and all of those things that happen to it is minimal, but it actually took me some mindset work there to be okay with it and very much it was just like a new number and see how people are and in hindsight for me.
Doulton Wiltshire: It's very much like that pricing at indifference. So I have some very distinct memories of students and parents calling me up late at night. I need you to help my kid passes exam tomorrow blah blah and I'm like it is 10 pm. I have already worked 15 hours today one-on-one students. I do not want to do this and I throw out what I think is an absurd number of $250 an hour and they're sure great. We'll buy five hours of your time. And I'm just like I want to sleep. I do not want to be at the library for 1200 dollars all night which is hilarious because five years before that. I was asking the cafeteria workers if there was any food they were going to throw away so that I could have it because I had no money and I was starving and I was trying to pay tuition and I like it was a bad scenario and to think that I was like, wow, I don't want to take 1,200 for
Doulton Wiltshire: This, five hours of work. It's a big jump, but also realizing if you're sad when people say yes to you then you haven't priced yourself appropriately and…
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: so yeah, it's and we've have been flowed on pricing models. There's been a lot of different things. And again, it's one of the reasons I love the group model because I've been offer somebody basically Five to $10,000 worth of services for $600 and that's just in my opinion like a win situation.
Nino Pingera: Yeah. I love that.
Doulton Wiltshire: So yeah.
Nino Pingera: I love that. many people get hung up on that and like you said it is such a mindset shift because we go from expecting kind of a set amount per hour at our nine to five right and then Yeah, taking the leap or the step into now. it's uncapped and I could put it at anything right? It's completely up to me what I charge that's difficult for people.
Doulton Wiltshire: And especially too if you were in that perspective of your trying to fill a nine to five, because my first year full-time tutoring I had this perspective that I wanted to be in sessions from 8am to eight pm five days a week because that's what I worked hours previously which Those are quite contact hours. I wasn't even taking a lunch break in there that doesn't account for all of the admin and the invoicing and the material prep and all the other stuff that has to happen outside of that, too.
Doulton Wiltshire: And so trying to fill time instead of optimized time is a very different perspective and I have these day planners from when I started it was just me and I was looking at this 8 AM to 8 PM every day. I'm like, because now I'm at a stage in my life. Right? now I'm 35. I have a son. I'm married where I am optimizing for me as a whole person, which if you went back in time to that Dolton old Delta would've been like that is selfish and that doesn't work for your students you have to maximize your time with your students and truthfully my students get a better service a better product now than they did. And then because of that optimization, but in order to do that optimization you do have to consider.
Doulton Wiltshire: Your pricing right? Because you have to be able to live and live your life because if you are struggling to make your ends meet you can't service your clients. right you're gonna take on an extra client just because you need the money and it's gonna deteriorate the service that you're providing to everybody else because you over exerted yourself or you're not taking care of yourself or your relationships. And so Yeah, I mean I can only speak to the client service style business where I know that I have to In a good place in order to teach statistics and really good way in order to teach Accounting in a really good way.
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: And so that has been a big mindset shift I think about the taking care of myself is not selfish. It's actually for the benefit of the business and then I am the most important asset to my business and so what do we need for me to be? Okay, right in terms of the time working the price points all of those factors who we choose to work with, it's all you get to make a lot of different decisions when you're running it yourself versus if you were working for someone else and I think That's why even though I Won't Say I'm an entrepreneur if you were dilton if this evaporated, where would you go work? I'm like nowhere. I cannot work for someone else at this point in my life. I can't optimize for someone else. I can only optimize for myself. I'll figure out a different business. I'll open a pizzeria. I don't know but we're gonna figure it out
Nino Pingera: right You're absolutely an entrepreneur don't sell yourself short.
Doulton Wiltshire: yeah, whatever once you're in it. I think it gets a little bit addicting in that Suns. Yeah. Yeah.
Nino Pingera: Right because you have freedom over your time and the life that you get to build for yourself. You mentioned a couple things that I don't want to miss. going back You a couple things. So first one being that you had a really long waiting list. So one of the challenges for …
Doulton Wiltshire:
Nino Pingera: new business owners entrepreneurs is, building up clientele or getting sales essentially right? how did you…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: how are you able to drum up such a long waiting list? Was the key to that?
Doulton Wiltshire: honestly results so I think when I'm talking to anybody.
Nino Pingera: this results
Doulton Wiltshire: you can run ads you can run promotions. You can partner with people. There's a ton of actual, sales strategies out there, but nothing is gonna work better than just the results you get your students and your clients and I'm lucky that I existed in a small enough market where that word of mouth on results is really really strong.
Doulton Wiltshire: if I wasn't in that nature of the market, it would just be like I have to share those results and I'm really bad at sharing some of the wins that my students have this midterm season get a hundred and two students out of a hundred and five beat the class average by an entire letter grade. that is something I should honestly like the emailing about and…
Nino Pingera: Wow.
Doulton Wiltshire: shouting from the rooftops and things like that. It's not really in my nature. So if I wasn't in this Niche where that just that information gets dispersed regardless, That kind of promotion of those results that you're getting and honestly focusing on the results over the process. I think we're also quick to talk about what goes into a certain result or the work that has to be done. and really it's just like hey, we just have to talk about those wins and what people can get and don't be afraid to tell your current clients that you are accepting people for the waitlist. I went from not being a full-time tutor to being a full-time tutor. I only was working with eight students maybe 10 and I had told all of them hey.
Doulton Wiltshire: you only get one hour a week. This is the max this is everything stop telling your friends. I don't have time for anybody else and I think making that kind of exclusive Vibe of it really helped as well. And then that moment that I stopped working full time and I became a full-time tutor and I basically email my eight students or texted them and was like, Hey I have room I can take two of your friends. I have a general wait list of random people but I will because you've been with me for a year if you've got two people and so they get to basically Curry favor hey I can get you ahead on doulton's weightless. So It's a win for me because if a current client of mine, you're already bought into the process you already.
Doulton Wiltshire: Are a certain type of student that I'm excited to work with and so instantly went from having eight students to having 30 students and then by the end of that week had actually launched my first set of groups because now I could start again letting people off that wait list, but I'm always shocked at the number of people who don't keep a waitlist. I have a list of everyone who's ever contact. Did us for any kind of service?
Doulton Wiltshire: And any time because when we just started with one subject. I was just teaching this class called business decision modeling and it was like, hey, once I have 30 people who want statistics tutoring now, we're gonna do that right once we have and this is before I was in any type of online mentorship had read any book about whatever where they're Sell it before you build it, but that's exactly what I was doing. It's like crack the interest. It might not even be those exact people anymore. But by tracking that interest you can gauge what people want and then build what people want. I did not want to be a statistics in all honesty like it was up to…
Nino Pingera: done
Doulton Wiltshire: I'm just be teaching businesses in modeling all the time. I love it. Don't get me wrong now, but you respond to what people need really so I think a lot of it just comes back to Don't be afraid to actually talk about what you're doing, especially when you're just starting and don't be afraid to say no if someone isn't the right fit for what you're doing right now because it's not forever. It's a no for right now. Put it kind of in the back burner of your list and wait and What gets enough interest that you actually want to do it, right?
Nino Pingera: I love that a couple things that really stood out for me because I've worked with inconsulted with a lot of business owners as well and I'm always surprised just like you mentioned at how few keep lists of people specifically in the form of email lists, right? I come from a marketing background.
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: So I'm always thinking about the email list, they kind of assume that people are following me on social media or whatever, but it's like
Doulton Wiltshire: Absolutely.
Nino Pingera:
Nino Pingera: And I love that you brought up, I guess getting the feedback directly from them to build the next thing how many people don't do that like that that blows my mind.
Doulton Wiltshire: yes.
Nino Pingera: It's like why are you not communicating with the people that are most likely to buy your product or service? It's like Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: People ask me sometimes they're in the tutoring space and they're what should I do next and I can give you a pretty good game plan because I've been in the industry. I worked with a lot of different tutoring businesses and such but truthfully. Yeah, You've got the people ask the people and I think a lot of people get overwhelmed because they think that they should have some link fancy CRM software or website or this or that and if I'm not doing proper email campaigns, honestly, we kept Excel spreadsheets of this person email us.
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: This is what they wanted kind of thing again before I knew it tags were opt-ins are anything like that just like hey, I've got running list of a very messy data at sometimes but the point was record it figure it out and then go Go from there, so. Absolutely.
Nino Pingera: yeah, yeah the way that I view it is even if you're not ready to launch An email, sequence or…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: whatever. You're just collecting that information for later, right? So,…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah. Absolutely.
Nino Pingera: I mean exactly what you said, Even if you're not ready to make them your customer provide a certain service. Always the future right?
Doulton Wiltshire: absolutely, right
Nino Pingera: So the other thing that you touched on was Being able to put together a number of instructors. So obviously you're not doing all the Fulfillment yourself right as you're scaling. talk to me about how you did that who else you brought in to be able to scale up?
Doulton Wiltshire: so it was a learning process for some of the very first people I brought in. to just do tutoring work with the one-on-one students that didn't quite Fit until what we're doing in the group programming and me not having enough confidence in what I was actually doing in my methods for teaching and things like this where I was like, I need people who are really experienced in Acts or why and bringing in
Doulton Wiltshire: was like honestly this group of mostly male older retired teachers and professors who came in with very strong opinions on how they would teach which did not get the results in any capacity that I was getting and I had to go through a very Rocky learning process of again like finding that confidence and what we were doing and looking for people who were Bought in on the process and the values of what we were doing.
Doulton Wiltshire: He has we might be teaching math. I really use majority of the work. We do as helping people develop the skills to thrive in University oftentimes where the most regular point of contact a student has with someone when they've transitioned to University. So being aware students mental health and just being that watchful eye and that mentor and that guiding factor in addition to teaching you calculus. And so there was some not great value alignment at the beginning which I think anybody in the first time you're hiring is what you are afraid of people who are gonna either steal your stuff or just do a terrible job and honestly, I had all of those things survived all of those things, it's fine you learn I don't think a lot of people Who are like me who are so focused on just like hey.
Doulton Wiltshire: This is my product. my students is what I do have also taken the time to develop how they are as a leader or manager whatever. And so it certainly had its Evolution. Now, I work with quite a tight team. So we've actually gone through a few scaling up processes where we've had up to a hundred and fifty tutors working for us on that tutoring kind of that one-to-one side of things a little bit more.
Nino Pingera:
Doulton Wiltshire: Of that agency model and then a core group of instructors who do the group instruction I do now, I very much developed this process of starting people out in the one to one developing their skills moving them into that more like group engaged process and is it like right now? We've got a small tight-knit group doing the core of our delivery and I think the most important factor of but I love working with the people that I work with right now is again, everybody's really aligned on values and purpose. and not distracted by some of the other elements that are
Doulton Wiltshire: In a lot of other companies quite dominant in terms of pricing and feedback and just stuff we're not as interested in where I think everybody at the end of the day. It's like, how can we help and I think when you get those helpers first because that's what I am. it's all it's worked out really well, but man, there's been some headaches along the way and a lot of that's on me too. I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. Why can't you read my mind? Why can't you just do exactly…
Nino Pingera:
Doulton Wiltshire: what I need to do and
Doulton Wiltshire: That doesn't magically happen right you have to train you have to cultivate great.
Nino Pingera: yeah, I was gonna ask about that.
Doulton Wiltshire: When someone comes in there's an entirely different process for getting them on board and understanding what we're doing in the Dynamics. It's not just like a go do this thing. but that took time to develop in I think for worse than my good trait is I'm always listening to feedback. So let clients feedback from the people who I've brought on to the team who are like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm drowning here. I need some help. I'm like, okay, we're in it. And so yeah, it's a much more kind of established process, but honestly still evolving because we change this I completely changed the model that we were using compared to the last three years of being online.
Doulton Wiltshire: And so okay, we're gonna try different things and having a group of people who again because they're bought into the value and the purpose and know that are ready to jump into a change when they see that it aligns with the goals that we all have. yeah.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, that's great advice to anyone listening to. make sure that the values align and have some kind of a training some kind of something so that your new employees are on board with your vision because That's so important.
Doulton Wiltshire: yeah, I honestly think that having people who are aligned with the vision and with your values is really important and the other thing too is If you haven't figured out by now listening I am super ADHD that gives a lot of benefits in some way and a lot of drawbacks. So part of what I realized is the people that I work with have to be a compliment to how I work too and at the very beginning kind of have this aspiration of I've rarely had a challenge that I haven't figured out and in some way or another so it's like I'll figure out how to manage. this type of person whatever type that was and
Doulton Wiltshire: it's not gonna happen. I am who I am and really having a good understanding of that sets everybody up for Success because there are some great people that I've worked with that we couldn't continue working together for the long term just because the type of feedback they need to really Thrive is not what I can provide to them. And so that's an unfair kind of situation for them as well. But that's taking a lot of work on my part to realize where my knot strengths are and then kind of accept it for what it is and make sure that I am bringing on people who can operate in the Way that I operate or complimentary to the way it operate. I don't really need people who work in the exact same as me that would just
Nino Pingera: Yeah, so it takes a lot of stuff awareness to be able to see that though. Do you have tips for people that maybe I don't know don't understand whether they're blind spots are and the roles that they actually need to fill as opposed to just kind of what they think. They need to fill.
Doulton Wiltshire: I think it's really hard to receive feedback in an honest and open way and it's hard to pull on its feedback out of people so I think for me some of the biggest steps is really being. Vulnerable in things that I had messed up and I'm like, hey, I will take ownership. I messed up I messed up this way of communicating and then asking people what they need. And not saying anything about it in the moment. Just listen to it do a recording meeting if you can and then listen to it later like we always have I think it's a natural human tendency to kind of get To amp up and be like no, that's not me. We get defensive a little bit because we want to be the best versions of ourselves. We don't like hearing about the things we miss up.
Doulton Wiltshire: But I'm a person who wants to hear about the things that I mess up. I need the other person to respect where I'm like I need a minute and then I'll come back to this for…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: But I think it starts by asking those hard questions and then sitting with it and for me thinking about what's the outcome that I want you marriage and parenting as well. It's like what's the outcome that I'm going at here and is my ego getting in the way of achieving what I actually want right? I can want to be a profound artist. But if I don't accept that when I try to paint a pumpkin, it looks like an orange bowl and not a pumpkin then I'm never gonna start developing the skill. That's gonna turn me into a good artist. I mean the same is true in anything so I have a background like I went to business school. I have an operations degree. It's very Dada driven.
Doulton Wiltshire: All of our student feedback right very data-driven. And so I've always iterated based off of that data and it's really no different for me and what I'm doing that we can look at the data of The feedback that people are actually giving me but we can also look at the data of are we meeting,…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: our key performance, indicators like our kpis where I know for the business to run we have to be doing certain things every week. Am I getting those done because if I'm not something's a miss and I have to fix that and so I don't know. I think you just got to figure out how you can take feedback and then dive into that that was very roundabout. I guess I don't have one and…
Nino Pingera: No, I love that. No, that's perfect.
Doulton Wiltshire: we'll divide advice there but
Nino Pingera: Because you can only improve if you're getting feedback. If you're exposing your weaknesses in a sense and that takes a lot of vulnerability like you said and we absolutely allow our pride to get in the way of that our egos.
Doulton Wiltshire: yeah, absolutely.
Nino Pingera: Gosh, so, I think that's incredibly valuable if people can find a way around that and I like your suggestions of doing a video recording and then to think about it rewatch it,…
Doulton Wiltshire: But later, yeah.
Nino Pingera: take a step back and let those ideas kind of marinate in your brain a little bit. Because it is easy to just get offended and get turned off right my wife and I have a lot of these conversations because in a marriage that you're constantly exposing weaknesses, right?
Doulton Wiltshire: that's what I was saying. I also use this in my marriage right because I think in the moment. True when you're having a conversation with your spouse true when you're having a conversation with a employer contractor as parent or a student or whatever. It's an emotional thing and I think pretending that it's not an emotional thing that we don't have feelings and we're not human is.
Doulton Wiltshire: Not going to get you anywhere. And so in that moment, it is natural that you're gonna one latch on to certain things that people said or jump to those conclusions or just have that emotional response. And so just in my marriage the go back was said think about the intention think about what I could do reflecting what the goals same thing with business feedback. I can't record my husband what he's grumpy welcome you hi.
Nino Pingera: alright
Doulton Wiltshire: Could you just video this for me? So I could reflect on it later. We do have that Advantage, Workplace scenario, and then I think it's honestly though about that trust that you establish with the person providing you feedback because if you get good feedback from someone and…
Nino Pingera: Absolutely.
Doulton Wiltshire: I'll listen people talk about an angry client they had and they gave them all this feedback and they just basically told me screw off. that was a gift that feedback even though it might have been thrown at you is a gift and when you have an employee who might be less than happy with something that feedback is a gift. If you go back to it really hard and harsh instead of actionable and hey I've listened to this and this is what I hear. You're not gonna get that feedback again, and I think it's okay to disagree with feedback. You've been given certainly there are things that people will bring up and I was like, no you're off base here and let's talk about why you don't have to act on every single thing somebody tells you but I do think you have to have a response that honors that feedback. Otherwise, you're never going to get it again and you stop that process.
Nino Pingera: That's so true. That is so true. So speaking of kind of Find business right? It's an emotional roller coaster being an entrepreneur. So talk about that. How have you managed? To just keep yourself motivated not let yourself get overwhelmed emotionally. I guess.
Doulton Wiltshire: I have a hundred percent. Let myself get overwhelmed emotionally hundreds of thousands of times. I'm sure. I am still here.
Nino Pingera: But you're still here. You're still going.
Doulton Wiltshire: As someone with ADHD, I'm externally motivated. And so I do have that advantage that if students need something for me, we're gonna pull it off regardless. And so there are a lot of times where I'm gonna throw in the towel. Like I quit I am either burnt out or someone has upset me in a way because again, I'm a human being and please don't yell at me because of something outside of my control and at the end of the day it always comes back to the fact that I have good wonderful students who are always asking for the next thing so you're like, I guess we're doing the next thing.
Doulton Wiltshire: But I will say the last few years since I've had my son this is shifted a lot for me because I used to just operate under the headings of I'm either okay or not. Okay, and I would just work until the point of not okay, because my business is quite cyclical A month off around the holidays in December four months off during the summer. There's reading weeks here and there I could basically push myself to that breaking point. No, when we're calling it quits and then spend the entire summer trying to recover from burnout and then doing it all over again. And that doesn't work when you have a three year old who? climbs all over you and wants the best version of you. And you want to be the best version for them, so.
Doulton Wiltshire: The last year has been a really big focus on some of those trade-offs that happen. I don't run the business exactly how I wish I could because I can't because I have to have energy at 3:30 when my kid comes home. and again getting really Honest with myself there's a lot of therapy going on in there for sure to ride those emotional ups and downs and not let them derail. and I think for me the big thing was moving away from this perspective that I had come out of business school and Consulting and traditional working of
Doulton Wiltshire: when I was coming up as a female in bit, completely male dominated areas, even in operations for grad school. I was the only female in North America in my area. It was like you can not have emotions about anything and I have very big emotions and so moving that away from That perspective of just shove it to the side. you Recognize it and then do what you need to do with it. I think changed a lot because if you go into Running your own business. I'm sure you deal with this as Expecting they're not to be ups and downs or expecting not to get or overly excited about an upper whatever it is.
Doulton Wiltshire: I can't do that and I think trying to not do that hurt more than it helped and so yeah, I will say a big thing of what I do now is the plan my downtime and I like paint terrible watercolors that I love doing and it's just time to refocus and making sure that when I'm spending time with my family, I'm truly spending time with my family. The fires that I used to think existed in the business was like people will die. If I don't do this tonight, no one will die. I do not work in an industry that is life or death like that.
Doulton Wiltshire: It's a calculus task. It's a Statistics test. I will deal with it at 8am tomorrow. But again, I think that's more my ADHD nature like everything is an emergency all of the time and so it's taken a lot of work and honestly the feedback and the listening to feedback and trying something new and being like, nothing burnt down when I didn't answer emails after 5pm. Okay, maybe we can do that. More often and just baby steps in the right direction and my husband's gonna love that. I said this was listening to my husband. Who's this not an entrepreneur in any way shape or form but
Doulton Wiltshire: And is the most neurotypical and stable human being that I've met in my life, but who's watching all of this happen and watching those highs and those lows and being like I don't like what this is doing to you and therefore I don't like what it's doing to us and actually listening to that and then again acting on it because I spent a lot of time in that defensive it's fine. You just need to deal with this better husband.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: No. No, we need to meet each other halfway and
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah, but it's a process its I don't think you can wake up and be like I'm just gonna handle everything beautifully today no your goal is to handle it a little bit better than yesterday.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: And then hope that five years from now when you look back you're like, wow, look at all this progress. Look at this. This is amazing.
Nino Pingera: That makes sense. I think it's interesting. I mean you have to have a lot of resilience as an entrepreneur, right and so to be able to ride the up and downs and figure out some kind of equilibrium.
Doulton Wiltshire: You're gonna get punched a lot.
Nino Pingera: Right, right. And in our last call you something interesting. You said that no one really believed in your business in you being able to be an entrepreneur.
Doulton Wiltshire: yeah.
Nino Pingera: Talk about the resilience that it takes to hear that and keep going.
Doulton Wiltshire: I think That characteristic of hold my beer is something that I've had my entire life. I ended up going to my school business literally because my guidance counselor in high school because I went to a public school that anyways, and she was like you can't get in there if that's where top-tier private school kids get into and I was like, Let me apply I was gonna go into Sciences. I was never gonna go into business. I literally only applied to that program despite. Her I'm gonna prove that I can and when I was in business school and people like me girls don't really do Consulting as much. Thankfully. That's not the writer that happens.
Doulton Wiltshire: Back in my day. I was looking again. Hold my beer. let me do this for better for worse and with the business. When I started tutoring. Yeah, I don't think that there was a single person other than this other guy who tutored finance and I tutored businesses modeling where we have something special here and I knew it he knew it nobody else. knew it and
Doulton Wiltshire: like listening to your students or clients or whoever you're working with if you can deliver results you have magic there. It doesn't matter what anybody else. Says it's there and the first time I ran something on a bigger scale and we made ten thousand dollars, which is more money that I had ever seen ever in my entire life all at once and six months before that. I quite literally was again getting day old discarded food from the cafeteria because I could not afford to eat and the food bank wasn't well-funded where we were and now I'm sitting here with $10,000 from running exam review sessions.
Doulton Wiltshire: And I was like this is proof of concept. look at this money. it works and I thought that earning the money would prove to people that it worked or being able to be look here are 150 kids who showed up and loved it that would prove that it was a concept that worked and It took a long time it took way longer than I really would have thought it would have for people in my life to kind of accept that it. Works and even I joke that I'm not even sure my husband was fully on board that this was the long-term. It's gonna work until I rebuilt the business again in covid with a baby figure it out. And I was reflecting on this from our last conversation because nowadays.
Doulton Wiltshire: My friend circle is such that everybody knows it works. Everybody is on board. Everybody can see it and just While share the few close people in my life, not so much just that I should have probably found more entrepreneur friends. Sooner and I think that it's mostly about you have to surround yourself with people who can see it and it's great to be like, I don't have a lot of resilience because she did it anyways, but in hindsight, I'm like, wow, I put myself through so much more. Hassle and burden by not seeking out people even if my original group didn't see it but not seeking out people who could see your vision and could support you on that entrepreneurship.
Doulton Wiltshire: Type view and so I joined the teacher project which is an online tutoring. kind of Mastermind group a few years ago and what I get out of that group is the fact that everybody can see it. knows everybody's a tutor. Everybody's online. Everybody knows how it can work. And therefore I don't have to explain it to them. They get it because when you have those lows right that entrepreneur high and low when you have that low of the only people you have to turn to talk about that low are people who are just looking for a reason to be like it doesn't work. it doesn't work. it doesn't work. That's really hard to deal with and that's what I did for a long time.
Doulton Wiltshire: And I'm just saying you shouldn't do that. you should find people who in those lows are This is a low what can we do to help? even if they can't actually help that can they know it happens and they know you're gonna reach a high again and they're gonna support you in that because It's hard to always have the confidence in yourself. Great if gold stars if you were that person who can but I think having people around you who can boost you up and give you back a little bit of your confidence when you are lacking it or you're in that low is really valuable. So find your people like that's the key here.
Nino Pingera: yeah, yeah, that's so important to have the right Community or the right support because even your spouse it has a hard time. Yeah, seeing you in a bit working in the business. I'm imagine that he can't really relate to what you're going through because he's never done it right? So I found that with my wife. I mean I'm so grateful. That she's really supportive and trust me and all that but I can't turn her and talk to her about the stuff that I'm trying to figure out because she has no clue. And so yeah having some kind of a community Mastermind group or something is invaluable to people
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah, especially I mean, I don't know about your Dynamic but my Dynamic is often that I'm gonna go talk to my husband when things are not going. I didn't do a very good job of always looping him when things are going well or normal. So to him all it feels like is things going wrong all the time and Again, that was on me listening to his feedback me I have to tell you about the good stuff as well. And also using because I am ADHD and I can think through a thousand things all at once in five minutes that when I go to him and I do want to talk out a problem or something like that.
Doulton Wiltshire: His is not my way of working through a problem and that is okay. But when it comes to a business thing where I want to go fast. iterate I want to do this and that there are far better people need to talk that stuff out with then Andrew, even though he's willing don't get me wrong, but I think our spouses If you're supposed isn't an entrepreneur. They kind of get that short end of the stick right…
Nino Pingera: It's like we're unloading them.
Doulton Wiltshire: because they get the unloading. They get the bad mood. They get the stress they get the worry and sometimes you might get those wins. But again for me, I'm a person who doesn't wins very well. I don't celebrate them with my students or me. I'm just like Congratulations, we had the best month over ever move on and…
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: that you can't do that. you can't do that for the people you work with. You can't do that for you gotta celebrate those positives and again, it's not selfish. It's not ego. It's just that if you don't highlight the good then you don't have anything to balance out the low and everybody deserves to see that there's balance there. Otherwise, why would we do this is a terrible life Joy..
Nino Pingera: right yeah, it's funny because the whole name of the show is to show people, the kind of Freedom that entrepreneurship can create but we have to be careful of situations like this where it
Nino Pingera: Dumping our problems on people that don't deserve that. Right, then it can put a bad taste in everyone's mouth and…
Doulton Wiltshire: and…
Nino Pingera: you got to avoid that.
Doulton Wiltshire: I think it's not something that people talk about that much right It's really easy for me to talk about the fact that hey, I set my own schedule. tomorrow is Halloween and I have a three year old and he wants to be a puppy for Halloween and I have taken the afternoon off so that I can make sure that he's excited to dress up as a puppy really. These are things that Can prioritize I can take a painting class because that's what I need for my own mental health. I can do all of these really wonderful things and I think it's
Doulton Wiltshire: Easy, especially I see a lot of the BS online with you can work four hours a week and make a million dollars and just be happy all of the time you can be happy a lot of the time don't get me wrong. But I think you have to be prepared to navigate the whole package. it's just like Parenthood nobody benefits from you only telling people with the good side of being a parent because then all of a sudden your kid throws up all over you or screaming all night, you're like no one told me this. This is BS and…
Nino Pingera: All right.
Doulton Wiltshire: just part of the package it doesn't negate all the good things but yeah,…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: it happens and we all need that kind of support and community in those lows whether it's a low in parenting or your marriage or your business knowing that that is just temporary and having a game plan to get out of it as always kind of the important factor there. I don't want to sound I'm nagging on you.
Nino Pingera: Yeah. no, you're not at all right this
Doulton Wiltshire: I love it. there's a reality to it.
Nino Pingera: And that's exactly I do want to expose that to people right…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: because you're right when it feels like no one prepared you for it, and you get hit in the face. Right that's very discouraging and a lot of people will quit they'll give up as a result of that and…
Doulton Wiltshire: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: and so knowing what to expect a little bit right it helps you roll with the punches a bit better. I didn't realize we're pretty much at a time. I want to be respectful of your time. Of course, where can people connect with you.
Doulton Wiltshire: So I'm on Instagram at calm Advantage CEO and Advantage because the Commerce courses are Co and them or on our website. You can check us out. Like I told you it was like there's nothing to sell. Nobody come at me for business advice or anything like that. If you're an online tutor, I'm gonna send you to Ellie that the teacher project I can't help you he can…
Nino Pingera: right
Doulton Wiltshire: I think that there's such a beauty in entrepreneurship and
Doulton Wiltshire: just in figuring out yourself and the value you deliver because I think one of the things that has been by far the biggest mindset of anything is like I am not working for one person or that chain of command where I'm waiting for my manager to tell me I did a good job because their manager said I did a good job because the director notice who I was like, thank you where instead I get to look at right now we work with a thousand kids and though, I know that we're improving all of those students lives and I get to see that and feel it on a daily basis. And that's magic and so I will say to anyone who's considering. I want to start a business. I'm a little bit nervous. Whatever. don't worry about the business side of things like
Doulton Wiltshire: I watch a lot of people that I gotta set up this Corporation or I need to get this or that or whatever it is. Do you have people that you help or do you have a product or service that actually does what it needs to do great focus on that because if you keep that Focus the rest of it's gonna happen pretty organically right at the end of the day, can you deliver results and then can you tell people about those results if you can do those two things congratulations, the rest of Entrepreneurship is someone will build your website someone. Help you like whatever no one can help you actually really know your clients and know your results and know yourself like that's on you. The rest can be figured out and so my perspective has always just been like hey if I'm thinking about my students first and I make good decisions for them.
Doulton Wiltshire: I'll figure out the rest along the way I will say it shifted to I need to make good decisions for them good decisions for me and the Russell figure out along the way and so yeah, that's been the takeaway. So thanks for watching today.
Nino Pingera: If you're being on the show, that's a perfect note to end on because we need that reminder. As often as we can get it that it's not just about the money or the logistics of running your business. It's about the value and the service that we provide and if we continue to focus on that and improve that then Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: The rest follows. I run away from anybody…
Nino Pingera: You're gonna succeed.
Doulton Wiltshire: who just tells me what they're financial goals are in their business. I'm like I congratulations on those but at the end of the day,…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Doulton Wiltshire: we'll drive what drives that and at the end of the day hitting random Financial numbers as never been. What makes me excited or happy or content? It's those emails you get from a random client or a text message is like hey, I just did this because of you. whatever this thing that was really hard isn't that hard and scary anymore like that. That's where it really sits with me. But that's my jam and that's what I've made work for me. So to each their own and it's been a ride. So thanks for letting me chat about it today. I appreciate it.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, not thank you so much for being on the show.
