Ep489: Jofin Joseph – Just Start

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk, but to win big, you've got to reduce it. My mission is to reduce risk in your life. Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to pause this episode right now and go to my worst investment ever.com. To take the risk exposure quiz I've created from the lessons I've learned from all my guests. It's time to learn how exposed you are to risk and your life and how to reduce it. Fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest joven Joseph, who is about to join our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. Joven Do you accept this mission? And are you ready to rock?

Jofin Joseph 01:01
Absolutely, absolutely. Andrew, thanks. Thanks a lot for hosting me. Thanks a lot for having me here. So I absolutely love your mission and glad to be in pumped to be contributing

Andrew Stotz 01:13
to it. Yeah. And I think you're going to add to this mission by telling your story, and I'm really excited to, you know, hear more. But let me introduce you to the audience. Joseph and Joseph is a third time entrepreneur who chose education, and early childhood development as an area to work within his new startup total learning. He has had a successful exit in his previous startup, and is a huge believer in failures being the best way to learn fast joven. Take a minute and filling further tidbits about your life.

Jofin Joseph 01:48
Sure, thanks. Thanks, Andrew. So yeah, so I have been in the startup space for a long time, close to 10 years now and been been building different startups, one start startup right from college, with, with a not so serious attempt to start off, then when Todd worked for a couple of years, then started again, in the in the data analytics software space. God got that company acquired, and in 2016, and started building out this was a US based company and started building out that companies in their operations. And during that time, my first child was born three years back, so and that changed my life again. So the first was in 2012, when I got started with my startup, and the second was in 2018, when my child was born, and so that got me interested, curious about early learning, early childhood development, parenting, how to do that. So started reading, researching a lot, which got me to signing off again, this time in a very different space from what I was used to this time in learning, development, childhood parenting space. And that's what I'm doing right now. So now I am this guy who's sitting in between a bunch of educators, teachers, ideating, every single day how to make lives of parents easier, and lives of children, more fulfilling and fun, in their early childhood years. So I play a lot with toys, I play a lot with little bit of children's toys every day of my work life. And there's a lot of fun. I find a lot of fun there.

Andrew Stotz 03:39
And what would be like the ideal client of yours or the ideal customer, what would be their, you know, their pain points or what it is that they're struggling with that you can you know, try to solve through your company and your solution.

Jofin Joseph 03:53
Yeah, so, parenting is much more of much, much more much more of an important topic and then it is given the importance. So, say 90% of brain development happens before the age of six. And it is for physical being development right? And 90% of the time of a child and normal school going child is actually spent at home mostly with parents and other factors. Early childhood in early childhood learning is continuous, it doesn't happen our to our lecture. It is continuous, every single experience matters. If you bring all these three points together, here it becomes the most important educator in a child's life. When 90% of brain develops. Ironically, parent is also the most under trained educator a child would ever meet in his or her life, right? We want to change this we want to give parents the awareness or better awareness about their children, better knowledge about parenting and the tools to do effective parenting and home learning. So that's what we are up to so our customers or the his parents are parents of young children below the age of eight. And especially people who are first time into parenting, getting into that experience, etc. So we are building for them. So we are actually building for the parent child relationship.

Andrew Stotz 05:20
Wow. And when someone signs up for your service, they're going to be getting some app, and they'll be getting some actual materials that they'll receive or what is it? What is it like for them?

Jofin Joseph 05:32
Yeah, if you have both, we have a free and open mobile app, which you can use to understand that about your child, your child's learning stages, etc, you will give you suggestions of activities and other things which you can engage your child with. It has got these little bit of challenges that you can take for seven days, 14 days, etc, which will make you a slightly better parent over that period of time. We don't give you lectures over the app, we don't give you videos over the app, etc. This all experience this that we provide on the app, we also have a guided home learning where you get a personal mentor to take you through the whole process, as well as physical learning packs, which you can actually use at your home. So it's a solution across the space. So you can start with the app, if you want to, we can move into the more detailed solutions.

Andrew Stotz 06:25
And for the listeners out there, if you're interested, you can go to I'll have a link in the show notes to total learning.com/app. And also, I believe you've been kind enough to give a 10% discount code, which is friend of toto which is will be in the show notes. So you can go into there. If you're interested in learning more, one last question about this. From your vision, you know, uh, your your startup you got, you know, a long way to go, you got a lot of things you're putting together, but you got a vision, let's imagine that a young couple, a husband and wife have a young kid, they're the perfect age for what you provide. They love it, and they implement it over a series of years, or whatever that period of time takes. And at the end of that period, what is the promise? What is going to be great about that kid or that parent or their relationship with their kid? Relative to if they didn't do what you provide?

Jofin Joseph 07:24
Yeah, so great question. And thanks for asking that answer. So two things. For the parent, there's the short term and the short term, long term impact of just being a better parent, right? So just being more emotionally better at parenting, take off all the stress out of parenting, take off all the hard parts of parent can make it easier for you, right? Really think about it, you might be struggling to take care of two kids at home, or a teacher does 30 Kids easily at school, right? Yes, they have their tactics, we are trying to give you that those tactics of doing effective parenting and better connecting with parents. So we want to make child time your best time. Right? So and that's the promise for the short term for the parent. For the child, a great childhood actually builds a foundation for everything in the future. So the way we see it early learning a strategy, it is aimed at a world which is 20 years later, right? So imagine a world which is 20 years later, it is going to be trumped heaven, it's going to be ruled by creativity, human creativity, because that's what cannot be replaced by machines or anything. So our systems are built in such a way that kids explore their own creativity and grow with creativity and life skills. So we prepare your child for a world which is 20 years later, by preserving their creativity, enhancing their creativity and making them better humans. So that's what we promise for your child is a very long term impact for you. It's a short term long term impact, which will change your life as a parent.

Andrew Stotz 09:00
That's exciting. I love the idea of tips and tricks, too. I just tell you one last trip tick trick that my mom did when I was a kid, and maybe maybe the listeners out there can apply it. I know mom's listening. So she remembers this well. I was a young kid, I would say I was probably about, let's say about maybe seven or eight. And I did the same thing that most kids do in the summertime Mom, I'm bored. And so she said we had a you know, White House. And she said to me, why don't you paint the house. And I thought to myself, I'm not old enough to paint the house. I'm not allowed to paint the house. Only a professional could paint the house. And my mom said you can do it. And I said okay, so my mom got a bucket of paint a can of paint in those days. We had coffee cans. She got that campaign. She put it down next to the wall outside of the house. She gave me a brush. And she said, put the brush in the paint, and then paint the wall. Didn't matter that the wall was dirty and all of that. So I started painting in my mom went back in and did her work. What I learned later that I didn't really realize, as a young kid was at what was in the what was in the can was water, not paint. And when I was painting, the paint change, because it was a dirty wall. So the wall got clean as I was painting inside, I'm painting it. So there's a little chip and trick that I'm sure your team is going to provide a lot of those types of fun activities and ideas. So that's my little tip and trick that comes from my mother. And now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Jofin Joseph 10:51
Sure, so yeah, so as I said earlier, I started off pretty early, two years into my car, work life. So but even before that, we had this very small startup experience in college. So ran a man a small little services, software services started for three years. And from the second year of college to the fourth year of college, served a few customers, built websites, etc. And at the end of the college, we decided to Okay, parties, go to someplace work, gain some experience, gained some money, and then come back and start up again. So the company that we each was to do was, by chance, mostly one of the one of the largest IT services companies in India. So it was a great place, it was a wonderful place God in there. A huge lot of exposure to the world out there. And three teams, great people to work with great culture in the company, everything right, everything was great. So six months down, one year down, he was having a blast create life. For the first time in life, we were actually earning money at the end of the month, which was great. So, that went on for some time, one year past one and a half years past, and then it started hitting us that we are probably not doing it, we will probably do more in terms of having fun building stuff in court than in a work life. Right. So every day, we will come back from work thinking that okay, what have I done to it? Not much, except for the fact that we get a salary at the end of the month, there's not much that we've done. And if you think what is a learning that you would take into your future startup that you would be building? There's not much right. So and having done something like a startup in college always came back to you saying, Okay, you got to start, you got to sign up, right. So it took us two years, to actually again decide to come out of work and start off. After starting two months in the startup was more learning than two years at the corporate life. So those two years, I would say, is my worst investment. Right? I went to a place which is huge. And you had a tiny bit piece of that huge piece, expecting to learn about how to run a company. And it was a huge mistake that I did. It was a great place, but it was not aligned with my objectives are starting up. So if I were to go back to my younger self, just out of college and doing it again, I would either start off right from college, or join a startup to learn the tricks of the trade. So that's a big piece. That's my worst investment. Got

Andrew Stotz 14:02
it. So what lessons did you learn from this?

Jofin Joseph 14:06
Yep. So a lot. First of all, the importance to start, right. So having a great set of people around you, having a great set of early say, family friends around you, who encourage you to do that is a great asset, right? It's an undervalued asset, always. So I was lucky enough to have which, which is great for me. Second, the very importance of starting, right. So until you start it's very difficult, right? When you plan you feel like it is very difficult. But when you start it's easy. Everything becomes easy, right? Everything starts falling in place. I'm not saying that it's going to be a no risk or no hardship time, but it's going to be a lot of fun doing all those things. So those are my biggest learning style as as early as possible. No time is too late. It's today's the day is the best time to start as early as possible, right Stop thinking start doing is the is foundational that I learned from experience.

Andrew Stotz 15:11
Let me summarize, you know what I take away from it, it kind of reminded me of when I graduated from university, it was 1989. And I had an undergrad in finance. And I decided that I wanted to get my MBA right away. I didn't want to wait for five or seven years. So I signed up at the same place, I went for my undergrad, Cal State Long Beach in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Los Angeles. And, and so, and then on the day that I started my MBA, right after university, I went to work at Pepsi. And I worked in manufacturing. But the thing is, I had no thought in my mind of a startup, you know, that it just wasn't in my mind, maybe it's just because, okay, my father worked for one company all of his life. And that's mainly what I saw around me. And it's just so interesting, the world we live in now, where there's such this, you know, that people even think, I mean, you're probably going to fail at your first startup. So you know, even, even though it's gonna be hard and challenging, it's just not something that even went into the mind of my generation in some ways. Then I moved to Thailand, and I started teaching, and then I started having to do some other activities to make extra money, like teaching privately and other things like that. And then eventually, I got a job in the world of finance. And then it's like a whole world of opportunity woke, you know, I woke up to and I guess the big thing that you remind me of is that the dynamic, the dynamic nature, of developing and emerging economies is so exciting. There are opportunities at every single corner. But that's not the case in a developed kind of, you know, in some ways, rigid place, like, let's say, in America, you just don't think about a lot of that. And so you just remind me of the excitement I felt when I came to Thailand, but you also remind me that the new generation, for the listeners out there, you know, you are thinking about this idea that, you know, I want to start something on my own, I want to do a startup, is there anything you would add to that?

Jofin Joseph 17:11
No, no, that's, that's it, that's one great fine. So being in a being in a place, development place like India, you are faced with problems, every nook and corner, right. So there are problems are out there are in there are tons of problems to solve. And as a, as an entrepreneur, as a startup person, it's all about solving those problems in the right way. That's where that's where the triggers, right. So that's the starting point. And if you look well enough, you have a lot of those problems, which is great. And, and that is when you meet a set of people who have the drive to succeed, strong willed to succeed. And that's another big piece of starting up. So yeah, that's a great point. And

Andrew Stotz 17:59
yet, it's everywhere, there's opportunity everywhere. And you know, it is also in the West. But I would say that in if all you did was go to the west and look at an idea that worked well there and came to your own hometown and said, I'm going to bring this here just doing that is not necessarily innovation, but it's just taking, you know, and I have had as an financial guy, I do have a lot of investors from around the world that asked me that question, like, you know, what, how should I look at, you know, Asian markets, you know, is it over and they already developed or what's going on, I just said, there's so much opportunity. And there is a population that is striving for more, they're striving, they're complaining, this service here is not so good, the products not so good, you know, and they want more. And it's that drive to want more and better products and services that ultimately will drive entrepreneurism in Asia that will ultimately, you know, make these countries even more dynamic. And I've seen after 30 years in Thailand, a huge transformation. So based upon what you learned from this story, and what you continue to learn what what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Jofin Joseph 19:12
Yeah, so I'm very sure the situation that I had while I was in the corporate working. There are a lot of people in that situation, right. I speak to a lot of friends who want to start up who want to do something, but they're stuck in that journey of like, every month in fed paycheck, right? So there's a lot of comfort there and they stuck in that comfort zone. So the one thing that I would say is start, nothing is as difficult as you think it is. Once you start, right. So that's a big thing, right? So you just get started, and you don't have to really quit to get started. You. You can start right now right today. So stop planning Start doing right. So that will put you in motion. And that will put you in the right track to actually elevate your life to a different level, both from a work, satisfaction and happiness perspective, as well as an economic perspective. So just start, stop planning start doing, ladies and

Andrew Stotz 20:21
gentlemen, that's your challenge. Why don't you pick today to just start? And you heard what he said you don't have to quit to start, just start. Last question. What is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Jofin Joseph 20:35
Yep, so bringing up this baby called toto learning. So we have the very early stages get just getting out there and working with a few parents, etc. But over the next one year, I want to touch 50,000 parents and change their lives for the good. So that's where we are gearing up to.

Andrew Stotz 20:53
That's exciting. So ladies and gentlemen, if you want to join that journey, you're interested. I know some of my listeners are venture investors and others. If you're interested in investing, if you're interested in joining, just go to total learning.com. And also you got a 10% discount coupon code friend of Toto, which I've got in the show notes, listeners. There you have it another story of loss to keep you winning, remember to go to my worst investment ever.com to take the risk exposure quiz. It's time to see how exposed you are to risk in your life and how to reduce it. As we conclude, Jovan, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Jofin Joseph 21:45
Thank you so much. And Joseph says this is great that you're doing so impacting the lives of a lot of people, right? So reducing risk is equals growth, right? So you reduce rescue growth, right. So you, you want to reduce risk, you have the flexibility to try out new things and grow right so which is a great mission and, and happy to be part of it. And thanks for having me.

Andrew Stotz 22:09
Fantastic. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect your wealth. This podcast is about one person, one story, one mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.