Learning lessons from 10 years of entrepreneurship (Ep576)

In this episode of “Get Paid for Your Pad,” I had the pleasure of speaking with Huzefa Kapadia, the founder of Scalar Learning. Huzefa shared his incredible journey from being a lawyer to starting his own successful tutoring business.

During our conversation, Huzefa Kapadia revealed his transition from the legal field to tutoring math, a passion he had always nurtured. I found his story particularly inspiring as he explained how he embarked on a path of self-reflection and exploration.

Huzefa immersed himself in books about finding the perfect job fit and sought advice from mentors, including myself. It was gratifying to see that I could provide guidance to someone on such a transformative journey.

Huzefa Kapadia's decision to leave the security of his law career and dive into the world of education was commendable. Starting from scratch, he ventured into online tutoring, leveraging platforms like Wyzant to establish himself as a reputable math tutor.

Attracting clients with competitive prices and earning positive reviews, Huzefa gradually increased his rates and expanded his network through personal connections in local schools.

While tutoring formed the core of his business, Huzefa Kapadia recognized the power of social media. I was fascinated to learn that he took the leap and started his own YouTube channel, where he shared math tutorials and engaging content. The channel became a significant lead generator, attracting clients from around the globe and showcasing Huzefa's expertise.

Today, his channel boasts an impressive subscriber count of over 70,000, a testament to the value he brings to his students.

Huzefa Kapadia's dedication and passion have transformed Scalar Learning into a team of eight experienced tutors, catering to a diverse range of students. He devotes 50 to 60 hours per week to tutoring during the school year, in addition to managing administrative tasks and creating content for his YouTube channel.

I was also impressed to hear about his collaboration with OpenStacks, a nonprofit organization run by Rice University, where Huzefa Kapadia contributes to educational initiatives and projects.

During our conversation, Huzefa Kapadia mentioned a couple of key contacts and resources that were instrumental in his journey:

Wyzant: The online platform where Huzefa Kapadia initially established his reputation as a math tutor, connecting with students and showcasing his expertise.

OpenStacks: A nonprofit organization that Huzefa Kapadia collaborates with on creating math explanation videos, allowing him to contribute to meaningful educational initiatives.

Huzefa Kapadia's story is a testament to the power of pursuing one's passion and aligning work with personal strengths. It serves as an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs and educators who strive to make a positive impact in the field of education.

Overall, speaking with Huzefa Kapadia was a remarkable experience, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to share his journey with the listeners of “Get Paid for Your Pad.”

Jasper Ribbers:
What's up everybody episode 576 of Get Paid for Your Pad. Well, today is a very special episode. I know I say that almost every episode that it's special, but today is a super special episode because my guest is the one and only Mr. Josefa Capadia, who is not only the co-author of Get Paid for Your Pad. He was also the co-host of this very podcast in the beginning when we got started with it almost, what is it? Almost nine years ago, crazy. And he's also. the inventor, singer and composer of the famous Get Paid For Your Pad intro tune. The intro tune that many people love, many people hate, but it's super catchy. So Josefa, welcome to the show, man.

Huzefa:
Get paid for your pad. I still remember. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Glad to be here, obviously. And happy belated birthday to you.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, thanks. Yeah. So me and Zephyr, we were just in Mexico with my wife as well. The three of us were down there for three days to celebrate my birthday, which was on Monday. So we had a, yeah, we had a great time. Since I live in San Diego, it's very easy to go to Mexico. You literally just cross the border, which it's pretty funny experience, actually walking across the border. I've never done that before in my life. And usually it's like by plane or train or it's a fun experience, wasn't it?

Huzefa:
Same, yeah, it was a trip walking by foot and I was a little nervous at first, but it was totally safe and it was just, it was a really cool experience. So yeah, the whole trip was awesome.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so the reason that I wanted to invite Huzefa back on the show, first of all, is a special episode for kind of for my birthday and us spending time together. We started this journey together and it's been an amazing journey for the last nine years. But also Huzefa, I think we worked together for like a year or so on this podcast. And then Huzefa actually started his own math tutoring business. He quit his job as a lawyer, started running his own business. And he's been extremely successful with this business that he started. And, you know, it's just been an amazing journey for me to kind of watch Uzefa grow. There was a lot of obstacles in the beginning, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of, a lot of doubts and, you know, a lot of challenges, but now he's, he's absolutely crushing it. It's unbelievable. So I'm really, really impressed with what you built. And I thought it would be cool to kind of share your, your journey of what you've been doing. And also share some advice of the things that you've learned of leaving your corporate job and jumping into your own business. I know there's a lot of people in our community that are Airbnb hosts and they have a full-time job, but a lot of people want to do full-time STRs. And there's a lot of challenges with quitting a full-time job and jumping into that. So, but yeah, Josefa, why don't you share kind of like your story of, you know, since you started your tutoring business, Scalar Learning.

Huzefa:
Yes, happy to love, love talking about the story and sort of like reliving it. And I should do that more often, you know, I was just listening, somebody was talking about the fact that just we tend to be not as grateful as we necessarily could be. Maybe there's a balance, right? You don't want to just all the time sit back and reflect, but you also want to look forward and think about what you're trying to achieve and whatnot. And, but that gratitude. I think it is important every so often to reflect back and be like, man, this has been a pretty cool journey. So I love to do that. So let's go back and I'm gonna try my best because it's a long story, but I'm gonna try my best to keep it brief. And then in any areas that you wanna further explore, you just let me know and we can dive deeper. But goes back to really, since I graduated law school in 2009, because I had a pretty set path in my mind of working in, I have a background in computer science and economics from University of Michigan. Then I went to law school, graduated from Northwestern in 2009, Northwestern School of Law. And the objective was at that point with my software background and my now law degree, patent law was the obvious choice. Super hot field, probably still is. And I got in a position at what I considered to be the premier IP firm in the country, Finnegan. And I was super excited about that. go to DC, think everything is set. Now I'm gonna try and make partner, boom, boom. My life is set out. And then what I found was that even though I loved the firm, it was an amazing firm and the people were great. There were so many elements that were great. The compensation was excellent. And so these were all things that were kind of new to me, this type of compensation, this type of a cushy job. So it was very attractive. But what I realized intrinsically was that the work I was doing, it just wasn't hitting my natural strengths. And By the way, a lot of folks really tend to complain when they're in big law, corporate law. It's just that way. I think because there's a disconnect between what people imagine the position to be like and the work like and what it actually is. So there's a lot of people that are unhappy. I wouldn't say I was unhappy. I just felt like there was something else for me that would just really hit my natural strengths as opposed to sitting in an office and reading and doing paperwork like that. So I started thinking, what is something I always gravitate towards and just where I can just be me, you know, and everything's gonna flow naturally. And I did some work with a career coach. We kind of made a list of the things that I would do for free if I could. And there were two things at the top of that list. One was tutoring math, because I've always loved it. And it's always come supernaturally to me. And the other was working with dogs. And I chose the former in terms of starting a business. And that was the other component was over the, I practiced law for four years. Okay, I started at that firm that I also lateraled to Los Angeles to another firm in LA, and I worked there for a year and a half. And I kept, you know, throughout that time, I was thinking maybe, maybe I could transition into something else. Maybe it would be cool to start a business. I started getting hungry for that. But it was really scary, you know, because if you I was in Big Law, and if you leave Big Law, there's really no coming back. I mean, it can be, but it can be quite difficult. So you're essentially throwing away this trajectory of almost like guaranteed really high income, you know, down the line. So it was tough. But once I kind of went through that process and made certain that this was just gonna be, this was gonna be really naturally aligned with my skills and my strengths and my inclinations and what makes me have fun. And you add that to all the support I had from people. Like Jasper, you were probably one of the most instrumental in that. A lot of my other really close friends helped give me just that support. They're like, yeah dude, you actually can pull this off. It's not as crazy as it sounds. And that gave me the courage to eventually be like, okay, boom. Because I didn't dip my toe in. I basically, I quit full stop. Because I was like, if I'm gonna build this business, I need full attention. Because. How can you, building a business seems so difficult. How can I do it in like the evenings and stuff like that if I'm working? And that was it. So that was the beginning. That's how I made the jump. And by the way, jump in, cause that's just how I got to it. If you have a question, if not, I'll keep rolling through the next phase.

Jasper Ribbers:
I think one thing that we can go a little deeper into is walk us through the decision-making process and the emotional roller coaster as well in making that decision of quitting your job and going full into your business. What were the things that came up for you and how did you find the courage to make that decision?

Huzefa:
Okay, so yeah, it was a multi-step process. I remember the first thing I started, I love self-help and self-development books. And actually at this point though, I wasn't so into it as I was a few years later, right? Then I started getting really into it. But I was trying to figure this out. It's like, the first question I had was, okay, if this… current position doesn't really align with what I consider to be my natural strengths. Like for example, I love math, I love computations, and I felt like that wasn't really a part of my job, just you know, as a patent attorney. It was more, hey I'm reading case law, I'm helping draft motions for certain things and you know, within a lawsuit. I was occasionally taking depositions, which was really fun. But anyways, the point is, is a lot of my skills, my really natural, strong skills were not being utilized. So I said, okay. how can I figure out what this job, so first I wasn't even thinking starting my own business, what job might exist out there that would be a nice catch all for the things that I like to do naturally. So I started reading books, there's one book that always people laugh when I say this, it's called The Unhappy Lawyer, so I read that. I read other books about, hey, how do you kind of figure out what a perfect job might be? And I remember in The Unhappy Lawyer in particular, One of the things I was trying to do is I was like, if I can just reason it out and much, I'll find this perfect job and I'll go. And it made the point of, which I thought was a really nice point is that you're not really gonna know unless you try it. So you kind of, you can't overanalyze it, but you can start thinking you can maybe try something, make a mistake, try again. And that really was the first step in liberating me a bit in terms of, okay, I can kind of brainstorm a little bit, come up with some ideas and maybe see what happens. Anyway, so I was reading these books and thinking it through. And then I would go back and forth to with that massive opportunity cost of three years of law school. So expensive. Right. And you have this like really set path. So it's a lot of things like this. One of the one of the other really helpful elements in terms of crossing that mental barrier and emotional barrier, really of how can I give up all this and then try something that's really unproven was. getting to know so many people that had done similar things like Jasper, arbitrage trader, and then jumped ship and sort of did all these really cool, interesting different things. I have a lot of other close friends and like that I started meeting and building connections with that are like, oh my God, so this is possible. People have done stuff like this. And that's another point in the unhappy lawyer is that if you're just surrounding yourself with all other attorneys, in my case, right? and you start talking about this of like, hey, I'm thinking about totally shifting gears and starting a new career path. Most of them are gonna look at you and think that's just not a smart idea, not out of malice, but it just doesn't sound like a smart idea when you're in that world, you know, and you've got this kind of thing that's laid out for you perfectly. Why are you throwing it away? Why are you risking it? So

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm.

Huzefa:
that really helped in terms of making me feel more comfortable and more safe and like, this is actually a doable thing.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. Let me jump in here real quick. Cause like one of the things that I remember from when I quit my own job was, um, there, a lot of times, like when you ask friends and family for advice, they're going to, they're going to recommend the safest option. Right. And I think it's not because they don't want the best for you, but, or they do want the best for you. And I just think that's the best thing for you to do, but also, you know, it's like when you recommend something that's kind of like the risk of your option and it doesn't, doesn't kind of pan out. you know, you would feel kind of bad like going back of like them, like I shouldn't have told them that, right? I shouldn't have, I should have told them, don't do it. Right. So, you know, that's something that I noticed where a lot of people will just advise to, to take the safe route. Um, so for me, what really helped was really kind of seeking out the people that were supportive of my decision, you know, and just kind of surrounding myself with those people, um, because that, you know, it's all, it's easier to do something where you're supported obviously.

Huzefa:
I think that yes, the support too, and then here's the other thing. I think, and this was something that I think my parents eventually saw and were like, oh, this actually was a great decision because of what I'm about to say. If you say, hey, I'm gonna switch it up and I'm gonna try something else, just in and of itself, you make that statement. You're like, man, this looks like a real uphill battle. and you're, you know, the odds are going to be stacked against you. Why? It doesn't make sense. And that's just a norm. That would be a standard, normal, positive piece of advice that this is. This is probably not a good idea. But if you can instead say and you can feel certain about this, this is the key. If instead you're saying, listen, I'm going to put this away and I'm going to go full on this brand new thing. But I promise you. that as I do this, I'm gonna be working between 80 and 100 hours a week and spending every ounce of my energy towards this one objective to being the best at this one thing. And so I know I'm gonna master it because I'm gonna be obsessive over it. If people, if like, if you could legitimately say that and people could see that and have some idea of the amount of effort you're gonna put in, then I think it wouldn't seem so crazy to most people. But it's like, you don't even know to some degree, other, or like, you might know. but other people around you are not gonna know that you're gonna give it that amount of effort. And I think that usually when it kind of doesn't work out ideally or you back away and you decide to go back to what you're doing for something like that, I think it's usually because that full effort can't get unlocked for whatever reason. It might also be because you chose something that doesn't allow you to pour everything into. For example, for me, the reason why this, it almost seemed… And not easy, but it didn't seem like, oh my God, such an effort every day to put in all this time because I just fell in love with all these different elements of the business. A lot of them I put, I forced into the business because I was like, well, it's my business and these are things that I love. So I'm gonna make math music videos because I love music and I love math. And I don't care if it has an amazing ROI, I'm gonna do it. So it's like forcing these things into the model just because I'm like, this is such a blast. It wasn't hard. to pour everything into it and give it such an effort. So it almost is like when you do that, when you commit to a commitment like that, man, the odds just skyrocket in your favor.

Jasper Ribbers:
So let's look at your business. When you started, I think it was 2013, was it when you started tutoring? I remember you using this platform called Wyzant. This was the time when all these sharing economy platforms were kind of popping up, you know, like Airbnb and Turo. And like, you know, like there was so many different sharing economy platforms and Wyzant was one of them.

Huzefa:
Yes.

Jasper Ribbers:
Walk us through like how you started nine years ago and what your business looks like right now.

Huzefa:
10 years ago, 10

Jasper Ribbers:
10

Huzefa:
years

Jasper Ribbers:
years

Huzefa:
ago

Jasper Ribbers:
ago,

Huzefa:
now, isn't

Jasper Ribbers:
that's

Huzefa:
that crazy?

Jasper Ribbers:
right.

Huzefa:
The full decade, yeah, so the interesting thing about a tutoring business that I like, because I'm not just starting a tutoring business and hiring tutors and doing the managerial side, that was never my intention. I wanna be on the ground, in the trenches, because that's one of the pieces that I love so much is working with kids and explaining this concept that can cause so much anxiety and be like, hey, I'm gonna clear it up for you. I'm gonna make. the negativity go away and make you feel empowered to do this. So I was like, hey, the great thing about this business is I'm gonna start just by being a tutor myself, building my reputation, trying to become the best that I can be at this. And really the best in the world has kind of always been my objective. Now, I started out just in LA, quitting my job and saying, all right, how can I get clients? And I didn't know anybody in the school systems. I grew up in Michigan, right? So I had no connections out here, nothing. Somebody had mentioned this platform, Wyzant. Actually, there's a friend of mine from law school. He's like, hey, you know, I know you're starting this business. Why don't you check it out? There was also another website called care.com. People had said, hey, I put up flyers. I reached out to friends, family. I also emailed a bunch of schools at the beginning, just being like, hey, can I get a meeting? 300 schools probably plus that I emailed. Hey, can I get a meeting? Can I get it? I just like to introduce myself. I'm new on the scene. Out of those emails, I got, five responses and then I ended up, or maybe 10 responses, but five meetings, I remember that. So I met with them and kind of, that led to some interesting opportunities as well, by the way, that were very, very important in my journey. But going back to what you mentioned, I also jumped on Wyzant. Eventually, it was a few months in, let's say. Wyzant was very interesting because it was, at this point, it was pretty, it was somewhat on the newer side, it took a, it basically empowered solo tutors like me to get on a marketplace and show ourselves as opposed to, you know, so we could compete with these larger companies, let's say Kaplan or Princeton Review, these test prep companies like that, that had this established name, right? And just like on Airbnb or these other platforms, you get reviews for each session, you get people can also write reviews, stuff like that. So super cool. And I started there, and I wasn't getting anybody because I had no reviews at the beginning, I had nothing. So I was like, you know what? I just need experience and I need people to say what they think about me and that's the way that I'm gonna start getting clients. Well, in order to get the reviews and get all the stuff, I'm gonna drop my price as low as I can imagine, just undercut everybody. So I dropped it to $20 an hour and why is that takes a percentage? I think at that time it was like 20%. So really. you're getting $16 an hour is essentially what I was effectively getting paid. So I dropped it to that and it worked. And I started getting clients. And that was the beginning of building my sort of brand on Wyse Ant. Then people kept leaving the five stars, five stars, writing some really nice reviews for me. And it took about a year and a half, but I'd say about a year and a half of building this brand on Wyse Ant, all of a sudden it started hitting. And it was a while, but then it started hitting and I started getting a nice flow of clients from that. And by the way, by this point, I'd like steadily raise my prices. So I'm like, okay, now I think I can raise it to 30. Now I think I can raise it to 40, to 50. It was almost in those $10 increments. Like literally I had, there was a point where I was at 40. There was a point where I was at 50, 60, 70, 80, okay? And that was that side. Then simultaneously I was sort of, and then there was a point where I was the top, in LA on Wyzant. So you'd search math tutor in LA and I was number one that had come up. And by that point, I think I'd raised it to like 120 or 150, something like that. But simultaneously, I was also doing my thing with the LA schools. And that one of those five meetings ended up being huge because she was so nice. She had her own school in Hollywood, took the time to meet me and everything. And just of her own, just to help me, so sweet, she connected me with… a gentleman who actually was a teacher, but also had a tutoring company, was a teacher at this amazing school, elementary school in the Palisades. And through that, I got brought in to a standardized test program at the school. Then I eventually started meeting families that way. So I was also, it's like, I was building my rep on Wyzen. On one side and the other side, I was getting to network and know all these families that were interested in math tutoring, got to know me, got to know how I taught. And… throughout this time too, I'm just getting better. I'm getting better and better because I'm always, I'm thinking constantly about how to communicate the best, how to just be the best teacher, how to learn not just three ways to teach a single concept, but five ways, six ways, seven ways, so I can connect with different learning styles, et cetera. So all of this was kind of how I started to build my little baseline of clients. And then once it reached a critical mass, then people started kind of spreading the word and I just started getting word of mouth referrals. The one funny thing that I will say that's interesting. If you're trying to start a tutoring business in particular, one thing that I didn't anticipate, which is kind of funny is because you're a limited resource. Now it's not like at this point, I didn't have anybody else. It was just me. And so when people would work with me and let's say we're doing especially academic tutoring where I'm going to almost become a part of their regimen every week. there is a hesitancy to refer you out because if a family decides, let's say they wanna work with me long-term, referring me out might make my schedule more compact. It might make me raise my prices theoretically, right? So, and I totally understood this. Like there was no, I wasn't like upset about it, but I understood there was sometimes a reluctance to refer me out because parents feared. feared that might happen, that might take away some of the attention I was able to give to their kids in particular. So this was a barrier. And I knew that this was happening. And some kids, some of my students actually said, had told me point blank, hey, but we don't really talk about you to other people because of that issue. I was like, wow, that's interesting. I never thought about that as a barrier to growth. And then for me, the way that I broke through that is really, comes down to a handful of clients that I have that are super, super close to me and near and dear to my heart. And I love them and they know that, or I hope they know that. I've tried to make sure that I explain how appreciative I am of them because it's like this handful of clients were like, told me basically straight up. Yeah, I know some people don't maybe refer you out, this and that, but I don't care if you, if this… If this, I don't care about that. I wanna help you. I wanna see you succeed and just referred me out like crazy. And then that was around, I think 2017 maybe, where my client list just really took off. And now we have like over 200 students that are in, part of the Scalar Learning Team and stuff like that. Back then it was, it was much smaller, but still it was substantial, 25, 30 kids. It's a lot for one person.

Jasper Ribbers:
So explain a little bit more about what your business looks like now. Like you have 200 students, but now you also have your own tutors, right? You have a whole team of tutors now. Like, yeah, what does your business look like right now?

Huzefa:
Okay, well another huge component of the business is YouTube, okay? I started the YouTube channel in 2016, and that was, I was reluctant to, to get into any of this social media stuff. I just, it wasn't my thing, but we, I kept going to conferences for these online learning platforms like Udemy, and everybody just kept saying, you gotta create a social, you have to have social media, you have to have social media. Okay, fine. So I started a YouTube channel and, over the years, right? Now we're up to, we just passed 70,000 subscribers, which is amazing. I'd like to think, man, I do firmly believe that when we were talking about ACT math and SAT math, we're the best. So we have a bunch of walkthrough videos for standardized tests, practice tests, where I'm solving it in real time. We have critical concept videos. We even have the math music videos. We have everything, right? Now we're adding in also curriculum math as well, which I'm really excited about. But so now dates it, so that has grown as well. And that's ended up being a lead magnet as well. We get clients from YouTube that there's so many people that we help globally. You know, we've generated over like 8 million views or something close to that right now. So we're helping people for free all over the world, which is amazing. But then also people who want additional help, additional tutoring, they see the quality of the videos, they see the quality of the help and that they want more, they come to us and then I either work with them personally or somebody on my team. will then work with them for various price points. So now I would say, if you take all that stuff in, my time is split between, first and foremost, I'm a math tutor. That's what I love. That's my title. That's what defines me, I would say, most accurately. So I spend during the school year, 50 to 60 hours a week doing private tutoring. So I have a lot of clients and I have a very busy workload. My schedule's crazy. You know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, I'm tutoring a ton. Sunday is my busiest day. You know, you should do somewhere between like 12 and 14 hours of tutoring. And then Fridays are my lightest day. And then in the mornings before my tutoring kicks off, right, I have to attend to managing my other. We have eight tutors on the team, you know, to run the logistics, payroll, make sure everything's good on that front. We monitor the. the reports of like what comes in, hey, who have you worked with this and that. Then I'm also making content as well for the YouTube channel. I'm trying to make content every week. And right now we're in the middle of a big project. It's a partnership with OpenStacks, which is a nonprofit run by Rice University. So we're making all these math explanation videos for all of high school math right now, algebra two and trig. So that's a big component of my day today. And yeah, that's kind of the mixture of all the. things that I work on now. And I love the fact, by the way, this might be specific to me, but I will tell you that the fact that I have a wide range of things that are part of my duties, the administrative side, not my favorite, but the fact that it's like just there as something different to change up my weekly regimen, I kinda like it. The content creation, I love making stuff on YouTube. I love dealing with, you know, connecting with people that way and making content that helps people. and then the tutoring and then all these different things. The fact that it's a mixture of tasks, I don't know. I just think for me in particular, and for a lot of people, it keeps it really fun. And the beauty of having your own business is you can sort of like artificially inject that in. Yes, people were telling me to create social media, but I get to choose what type of social media content I make. So I always try to make stuff that, yes, it helps students, but it's also fun for me. And so that keeps it. keeps everything running and probably why I can work so much still for this long and still be really in the zone.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right. How many people do you have working for you right now? How many tutors?

Huzefa:
So I have eight tutors. I have to, I feel like I've got that right. Eight, I can't remember if it's eight or nine, but I think it's eight tutors. And then we have, then I have my assistant that also works with me in office. My house is my office. So she kind of comes in during the week and she's great. She helps me so much with all sorts of things, logistics, scheduling, billing. And then she's, actually she can do some video editing now, which is pretty cool. So she's helping me. work on that side, especially with our math puzzles, a TikTok channel.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah.

Huzefa:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
So, um, you know, so that's your journey in the last 10 years has literally gone from, you know, jumping on WISE and teaching for 16 bucks an hour to now having a full team of eight, nine tutors. Um, I remember you back in the day, like you were living in like very, for you were living very minimalistic, right? You were not spending any money living

Huzefa:
Yes.

Jasper Ribbers:
in a very small apartment, even, even until like a few years ago. Um, you know, and seeing where you were at now. with like, I mean, you have an elevator in your house. I mean, I don't

Huzefa:
Hahaha!

Jasper Ribbers:
know a lot of people that have an elevator in their house, you know?

Huzefa:
Yeah, right. That's so funny. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. It's like, oh man, it's just such a trip to think about it. Yeah, so, you know, I don't like to talk about the price points too much, but I will mention, just so you get a frame of reference. So let's say we starting at 20 an hour, but 16 if you're really taking the commission into consideration. And I'm gonna tell you my price point just, and I wanna explain it, okay? because I priced very carefully. I've priced, my price point has evolved and changed the way that I wanted it to, not the way that maybe other people would change their price point. I changed it when I felt like I was comfortable doing so, meaning if I'm at $80 an hour, and then now I feel like I've got enough experience, enough basically skill under my belt where I feel like now I'm $100 an hour tutor, then that's when I bumped my price. When I was… I'm comfortable saying it because I'm like, you know what I feel like, now I've reached that point. And over the years, 100, 120, 150, this is the actual evolution, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400, and now I'm at 500 for new clients. I do have legacy rates, obviously, I wanna value loyalty and those families that have stuck with me since the beginning. So there are legacy rates and we have an array. But yeah, for new clients sent for the last year, that's what I charge. And again, it's, there are people that charge more than me, by the way. There are definitely tutors that still charge more than me. But I believe, you know, and I'm not saying this from a, like I'm saying this because I've put in the work. I put in the time. I don't know anybody else who kind of is this obsessive over the field, for better or for worse. But I feel like I put in the time and I feel like I am the best. I am the best. When it comes to, curriculum worth as well as SAT and ACT math coaching. I've got it down, I feel really confident. And then there's also these other elements that the connection elements, you know, if you talk about what are the key, I have a video on this by the way, but what are the key components to being a phenomenal tutor? I really do put at the top of that list connection. And that means, really just does the student like you? Does the student kind of respect what you're telling them and respect you and you get along and you have fun. We have fun in our sessions, you know,

Jasper Ribbers:
Bye.

Huzefa:
and conquering this thing. So anyways, that's how the price point has changed. But yeah, and then you think about all this stuff too. And the business has all grown organically, right? So I'm really proud of that. I've never taken fundraising money. And as I built my team of tutors, I've done it gradually. And this is, I think, extremely, extremely important, okay? If you do endeavor to do something like this, if you pick the people correctly, like you picked truly, truly phenomenal people, man, it just, things kinda work just beautifully. And I don't take tutors that don't have experience, so I'm trying to cultivate a team of tutors that are experienced and that are. There's one exception to that. There's one young student that I have that is just such a natural affinity for it. And his price point reflects his lack of experience, right? And so I tell people, hey, you know, but I just knew, he was one of my students I just knew. He's got that star ability to teach and connect and communicate. So he's the exception to the rule. But in general, I've been able to pick really, really phenomenal people, and then it just works. It's magic, it really is. And why am I able to pick? really phenomenal people. I believe it's because, again, I'm not just a business owner. I'm not just a manager, hey, like this guy seems good on paper, but no, no. I know what it takes, because this is what I do with the vast majority of my time for the last 10 years. So I know how to pick. I know, and it's sort of, it's grown like that. I'm really proud of that. And then if the part about living simply, man, like I think, I feel like that was important for me. There was years from basically 2015 until a year and a half ago when I bought this house, you know, I shut everything down in my life, right? 2013 I started and I still was kind of figuring out, I didn't know what I was going to take and all this stuff. And then I made a conscious decision two years later. I was like, man, my business has barely grown. It's kind of embarrassing to be honest. And so I was like, okay, I'm shutting everything down. No more going out on the weekends. I'm going to finally commit and submit to the idea that you should go to bed early and wake up early. All these things. And as I just went into full beast mode, man, almost immediately things started working. And it really blew my mind. But then I continued to live very simply because I was like, what's the point of having more than a small one bedroom? And I had my entire… You saw it, right? I had my entire main area. There was no TV, no couch, no nothing. It was just an office and then my bedroom. And I would wake up and I loved that because I was like, right? The first thing I get up and I walk out of my bedroom, I have to work because there's nothing else to do. And so that period of time was great because it just kept me so focused. And then on top of that, when things really started picking up, but that's another thing we can talk about if you like, how the pandemic really shifted the business. And… At that point, that's when the business really, really accelerated to a new level as well. You know, it was a really sad thing for the world and terrible, but that was is how it impacted my business. And then I continue to live simply even though several years where it was just boom, because I had that objective of I wanted to get my dream house. Not only that, I wanted to get a space where like my entire bottom floor is the office. And it is because I found the perfect house where is perfect for somebody like me where I wanted to run my business out of my home. So it's crazy. Like now I've got this place which is still getting used to it, you know, for so many years. I love that, that simpler living situation. But anyways.

Jasper Ribbers:
So I want to go into the factors that have driven your success. Because I see, obviously you're doing tutoring, people listen to this podcast, doing Airbnb hosting, of course, but there's a lot of similarities, I think, that make you successful that are common in any type of industry. No matter what you do, if you have your own business, there's a number of things that can drive your success. And I want to go into a number of these. Because I'll tell you what I see. you know, because I've watched your journey so closely, I'll tell you what I see that I think has, you know, has really driven your success. And you let me know if you agree. But I would say the first thing, like going back to you, what you were saying, I don't know anybody who worked so hard. Seriously, like it was crazy. You know, the amount of hours that you put in is just unbelievable. And so that's to me, that's an obvious contributor to, to hard work of, to success. It's just plain old hard work. Right. And the sacrifice that comes with it. Right. You know, as, you know, when other people are like going out and taking vacations and doing all the stuff, you're there, you know, just cranking out and putting in the hours. So that's one thing. But, you know, I think in order, in order to be able to put in that many hours, I think there's a couple of things that have to be in place. Number one, which you mentioned before is you have to do something that you're really passionate about. You know, you have to do something that you enjoy. And it goes back to, you know, when you were saying like, okay, I got to do social media. Well, let me pick that one thing inside of social media that makes it fun for me, right? Don't try to force something that you really don't like doing because you're not going to be able to, you know, put in those hours and the consistency. And that's the second thing, the consistency of, you know, I've watched your YouTube channel. And by the way, if you haven't seen Josef's YouTube channel, he makes some amazing music videos about math and with the kids. super, super fun to watch. So definitely check out Scalar Learning on YouTube. But just the consistency of you putting out video after video after video and not really seeing the numbers go up, but you're still consistently for years just pumping out that content, which is incredible. So I think the hard work, choosing something fun, the consistency. But then also one aspect that I want to get into that I know is very. timely or like it's big for you recently in the last few years is in order to put in so many hours, we have to feel energetic and we have to be productive. So tell us a little bit about the changes that you've made when it comes to your lifestyle, when it comes to health, when it comes to your mental health, and all of that. How are you able to put in so many hours and be so productive?

Huzefa:
Yeah, man, it's a multi-step journey to figure all this stuff out. But the first thing that I did at the beginning, the first massive change, and man, I'm telling you, it's like, it is almost like the universe said, okay, you've actually made your mind up to put in everything, now we're gonna help you out. Because it was so weird, it was like a week and a half after I made up my mind that I'm gonna fully submit and just give everything. that things started going really well, like it was crazy. But anyways, the first thing, and I'm not saying everybody has to necessarily go to these lengths, but I kind of feel like if you do commit to just going all in, it's almost like a bit of a cheat code. It's almost like you're probably gonna win if you just become almost a little crazy in terms of how hard you work. But anyways, the first thing I did was, and just to give you a little bit of context, right, you might think, Hey, you're just, you'd never like to go out. So whatever, it's no big deal. You just sit at home, but for somebody like me, I need my time with my friends and you're just different. Well, and Yastar can attest to this. Let me correct you on that. If you look at the, you know, that extrovert scale, I'm like, as high as you can be, I love being around my friends. Socializing and going to parties and traveling and doing all that stuff was so important to me for so long, really up till 35, to be honest. I'm 40, I just turned 43. And… So giving that stuff up was, I thought, impossible, really. I thought it was so ingrained in me and such a part of my life. But when I did, and it wasn't even hard, because I just, I came to a point where I'm like, this is not working, this is not making me happy anymore, so I'm gonna just drop it all. So that fully committing and really making it. the everything in my life. And we were doing stuff at Get Paid for Your Pad, we were doing the podcast. That's the reason why I stopped being on the podcast, even though it was awesome. And it blew up afterwards, by the way, right? It really blew up after I jumped off. So maybe that was a good thing, right? But anyways, that was the reason why I did it, because I said I need to be all in on this one thing. I don't know why, I just had that note, I had that feeling that was how my path to be the best of the best. And so that's one thing I can say. And then in terms of working really hard at it, like I said, if all these things you start to intrinsically, like I've spoken at a lot of conferences about how to start a math YouTube channel, okay? And one of the things I tell people is, man, at the beginning, you're not gonna see any rewards, right, you ask, how did I make all, I was making so many videos for years that were just getting no views, but. I don't know, like I'd always loved making videos since I was a kid, you know? So it was the artistic process of just being like, okay, I got seven views, but man, I'm proud of that. Man, this is really, I feel like if somebody would watch it, they're gonna get a lot out of this. The music videos, the other videos. So just appreciating the almost like the artistic element of it made it easy. So I have an idea, I get to do it. I'm gonna see it and wow, that came out how I envisioned it. It was fun, it was exciting and it was. you know, gave me, just gave me excitement, endorphins. So I think that's also really important. That's the beauty of having your own business. You can weave these things into it that are intrinsically fun and man, it just, it really does magic. Now, if we talk about the fitness side and how that's become, you know, I've always been into working out and stuff like that, but my diet has not always been on point. Definitely not. I mean, you know, from me back in the day, I really didn't know anything about nutrition and health. And people always say, I look really young for 43 and I think a part of that is definitely my commitment to fitness and nutrition and whatnot. Not just from a physical standpoint, definitely we all like to look our best and all that, but man, for mental clarity, for energy, it really makes a difference. So one of the things that I've basically committed to since I turned 40, I would say, but even before then I was kind of dabbling in this, you know, I've locked in for me. I know there can be a lot of variation for people. So you can kind of do some exploration, maybe even some food allergy tests, but I've found for me that a paleo diet really makes me feel my best. That combined with intermittent fasting as well, like it's 11 o'clock, I don't plan to still eat for another three, four hours, just drinking coffee and lots of water. And I work out every day. Now I know that might seem excessive for some people, but that's the way I am. I like to make it a daily thing, not so like, oh, I get to take this day off and then man, I have to go to the gym tomorrow. No, plus. I don't know what it is about working out, but I love it. So, lifting weights in particular, training Muay Thai, that type of stuff. So, if you can find those elements, again, just like the entrepreneurial journey, find stuff in terms of exercise that you enjoy, and then it's like, it's dope, it's easy. But anyways, all these different components, I think keep me at that optimal energy level. I'm a naturally like happy, excited person, but that keeps it optimized. Another thing recently, this is very recent, and I'm just gonna, tell people this because at this age of my life, it's man, it's really giving me a lot of energy and a lot of mental clarity and strength and much better sleep. So I just wanna put it out there. I just quit drinking alcohol about four months ago. And I'm not telling you that that's something that you have to give up by any means. I will say, I can say with a really, you never know right futures in the future, but I'm pretty positive that I don't think I'll ever have a drink ever again. And not even one just for fun because I just don't see the point anymore. And man, it was doing a number to me that I had no idea. Just even moderate drinking really is disruptive to your sleep. And I think it's more so as you get older. And that's what I started noticing. I actually did notice something was changing. I didn't even attribute it to the alcohol. Anyway, so I don't want to harp on that. But these are the different things that I'd say kind of keep me in the mix. Plus, well, sorry, one last thing. It's your business. You get to be the choice maker. If you think something sounds like a good idea, and even though maybe people may tell you it's not the best idea, but it excites you, and you see promise in it, and you see that even it doesn't go viral or do all this, but it's gonna be a beneficial piece of content for people to consume, I say run with it. Because not only, yeah, there is still a chance that it's gonna do great, but it's not even about that in a lot of ways. It's like, it's gonna make you feel happy, it's gonna make you get up out of bed, it's gonna make you feel excited. Why not? That's gonna just keep your drive that much higher.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, one thing that I like to touch on as well, when it comes to the lifestyle changes, like you've mentioned, uh, you know, paleo. What about the sort of the mental side of like meditate, meditating, breath work, like that type of stuff.

Huzefa:
That is a newer addition to my life, I'd say starting in 2021. It's been something I've been wanting to get involved with for, I mean, you read all the most successful people in the world meditate and do breath work and all these other things. So I've been meaning to, meaning to, and it kind of scared me a little bit because I like thinking a lot and having ideas and you almost become a slave to your mind in some cases. You don't realize it, but when your mind goes, like mine does, Sometimes maybe you almost get addicted to that busyness, but then you start seeing all these super successful people meditating and calming their minds, slowing their mind, and having all these potential benefits. So I started getting interested in it. Now for me personally, since I was having trouble sort of doing it independently, I eventually hired a meditation coach. She would work with me via Zoom. actually, this was still during pandemic time. So it was perfect. We jump on, we do a meditation Mondays and Fridays, and it was guided thing and started getting into it. Now I have an in-person coach in Los Angeles that comes and does the meditation with me in person, which actually for me, I find that to be, it makes a difference, okay? I didn't know that, but I was like, let me try it and get back into it, because I kind of took a little break. And then I got, I was like, man, okay, this is really, this is really what I need. But anyways, the meditation practice, yeah, I don't know. Like once you get into it, it's a blast. Like I can't say, it's hard for me to say the direct, let's say the direct causal impact on my mindset and whatnot, but I gotta say, I really enjoy it. I value it. I think, I believe it centers me. So it's kind of like a little cherry on top of everything else I'm doing. Let's put it like.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. Is there anything that you feel like has really contributed to your success that we haven't discussed yet?

Huzefa:
Well, I think another thing is at the beginning, I really didn't think too much about, if I had an opportunity, even if it was free, like meaning nobody would pay me anything, if I had an opportunity to get hours in and to get work in, I just took it. One of my first clients was an hour and a half drive away and hour and a half drive back. So that's three hours of driving. And I would go for like a two hour session or a three hour session. And this was, I was charging them $30 an hour. So let's say I'm driving three hours and then let's say even a two hour session or a three hour session, let's say at the max for $90 and coming back, you factor in time, gas money, all that stuff. It really wasn't maybe from an ROI statement. People get so obsessed with ROI, but it's like, but I knew that it was doing something beyond just the monetary gain. I was getting better, getting experience. I'm getting the word out. People can know, hey, this guy, he came in. really had a good connection with my child and help them in this and that, maybe you wanna try. So I knew there was some intrinsic value to that. And so that was, I think that's something that, like the whole time I viewed this as an art form, I wanna be the best at this craft. So put in those reps, put in those hours. So I think having, just being humble about, like even if you come from a high paying job, but like get rid of that attitude that, yeah, I used to get, paid this much and I need that to whatever. Like if you can kind of let that go and just take advantage of all these amazing opportunities to cut your teeth, I think that was really important for me. And now today, people keep telling me, and maybe there will come a day where I have to reduce the amount of hours I tutor, but there's something to it. The fact that I still to this day put in so much time teaching and tutoring, I know that keeps me. on top of my game, like nobody else is getting that much experience of one-on-one time with students. I don't believe very few people probably out there, they even want to do that, right? So these types of, and look at the message of what I'm saying, it's so simple. Just work. Just put in the work. Put in the hours and magical things will happen. Really,

Jasper Ribbers:
That's amazing.

Huzefa:
it's like, it's almost like magic. Sometimes people look at me from the outside and they're like, oh, you're such a businessman you You've got this marketing strategy. You've got this and I'm like now you're missing the point I am NOT like I actually don't like it when people say that about me because I'm like you're missing the point All this stuff has kind of worked out on accident in a way because I wasn't thinking Necessarily about how to capture leads or how to do this I was just coming from a pure place of like how do I be the best at this? How do I make the best videos that have the highest teaching value and when you approach it from that standpoint? You don't have to think so much about these strategies that like some of these accelerators or startup training grounds will tell you like, hey, but you need to get, think about the customer and think about this and think about them. Just like, just simplify everything and be like, how can I help? And like I said, all these things just work themselves out.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. And I think that's, that's one thing that's just consistent over, over all industries. I mean, get paid for your pad is an example of that as well. Like when we started this, like I wasn't, we weren't sitting down of like, all right, let's, let's say I come up with this like million dollar marketing strategies and like all this stuff. We're just like, Hey, this is fun. Let's, let's consistently just do this and share, share this with the world. You know, and, you know, when it comes to, when it comes to marketing, that's actually a very strong marketing strategy, right? To just literally share with the world. Which is something that it's actually, we have that in our, in our Legends X program, actually that we're teaching our students too, of like, how do you get more properties? Well, consistently share your story with the world. Try to be, you know, the best you can. Try to be the best at what you do and share with the world, whether that's for YouTube or Instagram or meetups or whatever it is, tell the world about what you're doing, right? And if you do that consistently, then opportunities are going to come your way. You know, your example of reaching out to all these schools, you reach out to 300 schools, right? Five came back and one meeting in particular, like, was a huge help. That's the same thing that we see as well in our industry too. One of our students like reached out to, you know, all these, all these, uh, people that organize like meetups in the real estate space. And suddenly he got one opportunity where he was able to speak in front of 300 people. Right. And it's like, it's the hustle, you know, you got to put yourself out there. and do that consistently and share yourself with the world. So I think that's one thing that's just, you know, along all industries, whatever you do, that's always a powerful strategy to use.

Huzefa:
And let me

Jasper Ribbers:
I

Huzefa:
say

Jasper Ribbers:
want to

Huzefa:
one

Jasper Ribbers:
ask

Huzefa:
of

Jasper Ribbers:
you,

Huzefa:
the, oh sorry, I

Jasper Ribbers:
go

Huzefa:
just

Jasper Ribbers:
for

Huzefa:
want

Jasper Ribbers:
it.

Huzefa:
to add on to that. One really important thing that I do want to put out there is I want to let, the one thing is, especially in my type of industry and services related, I think incorrectly, the vast majority of people right at the beginning, the first question is always, how do I get clients? How do I get a client, a second client, a third client? That should not be the first question. Absolutely, in my humble opinion, but if you're doing this business out of love and you're trying to do it the right way, what should your first question be? It shouldn't be how I get a client because maybe you don't deserve a client right now because maybe you're not good enough yet. So the real question is, how do I get good? Okay, and then all these things, you build it around that and then you're getting clients when you deserve them, when you're good enough, when you're helpful enough, and when you deserve like whatever you're charging. You understand? I think if you reframe things as that's your central question at the very beginning, how do I become excellent at this, it's going to work out.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Like how do I, how do I get really good at this and how do I bring value? Right. And then everything else we'll, we'll come back to you. Um, before we, uh, rep this off, rep this off, rep this up. I want to ask you one more question. Like if that's one, if you could go back 10 years, what's one thing you would have done differently.

Huzefa:
I don't do anything different. No way. And I'm a person, you know, I don't even like to go there mentally because number one, what's the, you know, what's the, there's, that's it. I'm not saying this is a bad question by any means, but to me, I wanna look forward, I wanna look at things that are… that I can impact and stuff like that. So I don't know, I'm just not a huge fan of that exercise in general. And also too, man, you change one thing and then maybe I'm not here where I'm at right now. And we were talking about this over the weekend, dude, I love my life so much right now and I wouldn't have wanted it even in the short term of like, hey, maybe that was a bad decision because it had a short term effect that made me sad or something, right? But look, it all worked so beautifully and you know, some of these experiences that I've had over the years that were tough, I have to believe that they were impactful and helped me going forward. So I want to change one thing.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right. Now that's a great mindset to have of thinking back and saying, like, hey, you know what? Everything that happened was part of the journey, and it brought me where I am right now. So I love that. Before I let you go, tell the audience how they can find you.

Huzefa:
Yeah, absolutely. So I think our biggest social media presence and probably where you can find the most awesome content, especially if you're a student or if you have a student that you know or whatnot that's interested in SAT, ACT prep. And now we're gonna have math for all levels of high school. We're gonna have algebra two and trig done by the end of the summer and then we're gonna keep churning them out. This is in concert with OpenStacks, which is the most amazing collection of totally free online open source textbooks on the planet. So you can check us out on YouTube, just go to YouTube and type in Scalar Learning. S-C-A-L-A-R Learning. So that's our YouTube channel. And if you have questions about tutoring, you can hit us up at tutoring at scalarlearning.com.

Jasper Ribbers:
Boom. Awesome,

Huzefa:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
man. Well, I appreciate

Huzefa:
we

Jasper Ribbers:
you.

Huzefa:
have Instagram, we also have an Instagram page too, around 60,000 followers, so that's like math infographics, stuff like that, if you want to check that out, hit us up there as well. Oh, can I say one last thing too? The channel

Jasper Ribbers:
Alright.

Huzefa:
that I'm so excited about, but it's still growing, it's still in its infancy, and I say infancy is like almost, it's getting up to four years old, but we just have barely over a thousand subscribers, so it is what it is, but I truly believe that this channel is fantastic, and it's our math. Puzzles channel, so if you also go, I'm sure that will be in the description link, you can click on it, but if you search for math puzzles, Huzefa, you'll find it, and we've got math puzzles that are just fun for all ages, for parents, for adults, keep your brain active and moving, and they're fun and they only take a couple of minutes each, so I think we have like over 100 math puzzles up there right now, and we're gonna turn a bunch more out this summer, so you can also find me there.

Jasper Ribbers:
Boom. Awesome, and well, I appreciate you jumping on here. Again, this was a special episode for my birthday. I thought it'd be fun to get Josefa on here, the man behind the famous Get Paid for Your Path intro tune that has stuck in so many heads of the people who've been listening to this podcast. And last but not least, to celebrate my birthday, I thought I would do something crazy. I thought I'd offer a, because I turned 46, I figured it'd be fun to… to do a 46% discount on Legends XO. If you're on our email list, you should have an email with a link if you wanna take advantage of that. So you get 46% off, it's pretty cool. This offer is only valid today, expires today. So if you're listening to this, and you wanna take advantage of it, just email me team at overnightsuccess.io, team at overnightsuccess.io, and I'll send you out the details. But if you're on our email list, you should already have a number of emails with links and stuff. With that said I'm gonna wrap up this episode as I've had things again and so the

Huzefa:
Thank

Jasper Ribbers:
old listeners

Huzefa:
you.

Jasper Ribbers:
Hope you found this episode inspiring a little different from what we usually do of course But you know, it's been being so incredible to see to see his I felt like be so successful is you know If anybody deserves it is him because the amount of work he's put in is incredible. So congrats, dude It's been amazing. Thank you for all the told listeners and that will be back on Friday. We're not upset

Huzefa:
Later.