Branding in Educational Entrepreneurship: Math for Kids | Kelly Clement

In this episode of Spark & Ignite Your Marketing, Beverly dives into the fascinating intersection of education and entrepreneurship with Kelly Clement. Kelly Clement, an educator turned entrepreneur, has been shaping the future of student preparation. With teaching experience in diverse locations like Jamaica, Hawaii, Connecticut, and London, Kelly shifted gears in 2012 to focus on specialized test prep.

Despite the challenges, Kelly's focus on a specific niche—young students preparing for competitive exams—has allowed her to stand out in a crowded market. She shares how her personalized approach reduces stress for her students and makes learning more accessible and enjoyable.

Watermelon Math: A Creative Solution

Kelly explains the inspiration behind Watermelon Math. With no artistic skills but a clear vision, she collaborated with an illustrator to create engaging and tactile math vocabulary cards. She discusses the continuous evolution of her business and the importance of visual and playful learning tools.
Kelly recommends embracing the inevitable challenges and disasters in entrepreneurship. By navigating through tough times and learning from them, you can come out stronger and more prepared for future success.

Kelly's Favorite Book:
The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business by  Elaine Pofeldt

Follow Kelly Clement:
MindMine Education
 @mindmine_education) • Instagram
Kelly Clement | LinkedIn

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Dare to be Wickedly Branded

Transcript

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Beverly 0:11

Welcome back everyone to another exciting episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing. Today, we're diving into the fascinating world of education and entrepreneurship. But before we get started, let me hit you with an eye opening statistic. Did you know that the global market for private tutoring is projected to soar to a staggering. 218 billion by 2027. It's a clear sign of the growing demand for tailored educational solutions. And our guest today is right at the forefront of this movement. I'm thrilled to introduce Kelly Clement, an educator turned entrepreneur extraordinaire who has been on a remarkable journey, shaping the future of student preparation from teaching in diverse locations, like Jamaica, Hawaii, Connecticut and London. Kelly has now shifted gears to carve out her niche in the world of educator entrepreneurship. Back in 2012, she embarked on a mission to revolutionize specialized test prep, focusing on the crucial I S E and S H E. Exams that play a pivotal role in elementary and middle school admissions. But Kelly's approach isn't just about sticking to the status quo. She's the brains behind all of it. Watermelon math, a brilliant concept that redefines learning for students in grades four to six with innovative math vocabulary cards designed to make education both more accessible and Go figure enjoyable Currently her groundbreaking work is making waves in the competitive educational landscape of new york and london bringing a truly fresh perspective to student prep So get ready to be inspired as we delve into kelly's journey and uncover the secrets Behind her entrepreneurial success. Welcome Kelly. Yay.

Kelly 1:58

Thank you, Beverly. What a sweet and wonderful intro. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for having me.

Beverly 2:04

With a name like watermelon math, we have to have sweet and fresh, right? That's right. Let's dive in and discover the sparks that created the unique opportunities along your entrepreneurial path. Tell us a little bit about your business and who you actually help.

Kelly 2:20

Thank you. As you mentioned in the bio, I was a regular classroom teacher for the first half of my career for the first chapter. And now in chapter two of my career, I specialize in test prep. I work with students who are preparing for admissions to private schools. Typically, they're elementary school applying to middle or middle school applying to high school. And so they have to take a competitive exam for these schools. And that exam is called the ISEE or the SSAT. Either way, it's kiddos, young kids, eight, nine, 10, kids preparing for a very stressful, very high stakes and competitive exam. So my job is to share all of the time I've spent with these exams, learning to love them so that my kids are not so stressed.

Beverly 3:11

I love that, I think back to Taking our like state exams and stuff, even as a kid was so stressful and my son who's eight is taking the PSSAs, which is the Pennsylvania State Standard Assessment or whatever they call them and they're like making a really big deal out of it and how stressful like I asked him, are you more nervous? Because yeah, I'm really nervous about this. mom. And so like it creates a lot of anxiety and a lot of kids. I love that you have found this niche that's very focused on kids at a younger age. Share

The Sparks

Beverly 3:40

a little bit about how you went from a teacher to owning a business and like how that all began for you.

Kelly 3:47

Thank you. So I was teaching at the American school in London in back in 2011 and I was there on a one year position. So I was hired as a maternity cover someone was out having a baby and then obviously she was coming back to resume her position the next year. Now. Beverly, I was in London and I was loving it. And I did not want to leave. So I was thinking to myself, what am I going to do? How am I going to stay? And if you've ever been an expat or if you've ever tried to live in another country, it is not easy. You don't just get to live wherever in the world you want to live. So you have to have a thing called a visa as an American. And so in order to get sponsored by a company or in order to have the British company. British government say, okay, yes, you can stay Kelly. I had to have some American reason to my job, right? Because if it was just a British job, then any British person first, right? So I had to lean into my American expertise. So it was at the in the American community at the American school that I was in that network and started seeing that a lot of my families were moving back to the U S. They had to take these exams, they had to prepare for this transition. And so I thought, okay, maybe I can create this little market for myself just in London. I'm the American test prep gal in London, and maybe that's going to be the way I stay. And so I did the market research, I cooked up a plan, I pitched myself to another test prep company. And honestly, first they said no. And then I thought, okay, I guess I'm going to have to marry somebody. And then luckily just before my time was up and I had enough time to just redo the visa, the company said yes. And I stayed, I worked with a company for a little while and then I went out on my own once I came back here to the U S so now I'm back in Miami, still working with families in London, working with families in New York, working with families here in Miami, but now on my own as a test prep company.

Beverly 5:52

We all get into a different market because we love what we do, but sometimes there's things that really make us mad about the things, the industry that we're in and frustrates us. What is something that makes you frustrated about your industry and how do you want to change it or have you changed it?

Kelly 6:09

Yes. I am in a really tiny niche of test prep. So most people, when they think of test prep, they think of ACT, SAT, because there are. I don't know what the numbers are, but hundreds of thousands, millions, maybe? I don't know. There are loads and loads of people taking the SAT and the ACT. That is traditionally how we think of test prep. And what frustrates me is that the way we should approach test prep for 16 year olds is very different. To how we should approach it for 11 year olds. They are just completely different people, students. beings, their brains are different, their needs are different. And all of those sort of materials are largely focused in this very dry, boring way that teenagers can handle. They don't love it, but they can handle it. And just the approach largely in test prep is aimed at an older set of students. And so I am seeking to modify and adapt and honestly, Beverly, reimagine it for younger students and meet them where they're at. Like I, it's not their job to navigate the test. It's my job. To bend it and shape it so that it's a good experience for them.

Beverly 7:26

I love all those words. All those words as a marketer, bending and shaping and changing. And I love niching. I work with a lot of clients who really struggled with niching. And before we even went live on this, we were talking about this topic. And you said there's a hundred thousand people in your niche and that could seem really scary to a lot of people who are starting a business, but there's still a lot of people to serve. And if you are one of the few people doing it, like the demand is there. Rock on. I feel like your marketing can be so solid because you know exactly who you serve and you are one of the few that do it. And so that's already a differentiator, which is amazing. Although it can be challenging because of no one's doing it. You have to educate a lot of people that you even, that this even exists. Yes. There is a little bit of a hurdle there, but still very cool on lots of levels. So what's been the biggest challenge that you've had to overcome and what has helped you get past it when it comes to your business?

Kelly 8:25

I think the biggest challenge is that I have Started to scale my business and started to grow in many ways. And I think now that I'm really investing in my business I have this tension between running my business and also working with my students and working with my students is the thing that I love and the thing that I don't want to give up. And now I am trying to scale my business and I've given myself a whole new job. Now I have two jobs or maybe three or four. I don't know. Probably more than that, but yes, I have So many jobs. I think it's about finding that balance. And honestly, I think it will take a little bit longer still before I can take the foot off the gas. But that's just that always, it's always that challenge of just having to wear all of the hats, as as an entrepreneur as well.

Beverly 9:10

I think that there wouldn't be a huge market in the book industry for balance if that didn't exist for so many of us. whether it's your family, your business, and you're right. We wear entrepreneurs wear so many hats between operations and finance and human resources and customer service and so there is a very real challenge that and I think that is a constant. It's a constant balance. You have to and there are times where you do like you go all in and then you have to take a little pause and do something else and then go back into something, whether it's juggling or prioritizing or however you want to call it, there's a lot of that happens as an entrepreneur.

Unique Opportunities

Beverly 9:52

So what, what went from like test prep in London to watermelon math? Like, how did it convert from that? What was the spark that went to the watermelon math portion of it?

Kelly 10:03

Yes. I have absolutely no artistic skill, Beverly, like zero, but I have art happening inside my head. Visions, visions of all the things. I see, I imagine things in pictures. I imagine things very playfully. And there's been for years. Sort of these items that I keep coming back to in my work with my student, like these pain points, things that they constantly forget, things that they constantly mix up with other things confused. And so there's been so many times where I've just wished I could just, Peel back a hinged version of my head and show them the pictures because I have no other way of conveying those pictures through any skill. So I have been thinking of creating some products. As I said, the materials for pest prep are generally pretty boring and very useful, but boring. And so finally I decided I need to just create something. I need to make a start. And so I am obsessed with LinkedIn. Yes, that's how we met. I love finding people on LinkedIn. So I reached out to some illustrators. I found an illustrator and her name is Juliana. She's fantastic. And she helped me make it come true. She's incredibly patient with me and just lets me articulate my visions and then she makes these adorable illustrations. And so now I have this one. little product called watermelon math, which is just adorable. The cutest flashcards you ever did see for test prep.

Beverly 11:31

So how did you go from these ideas into execution with the kids? Like how they responded to this? What has been like, that's gotta be a kind of, I think, cause I don't really have a legit, like in, I guess I have my book, it's probably the closest thing to like a tangible, holdable product, but like most of the marketing is very like, It's just out there in the ethernet. It's like a logo. That's not you can't like, you guess you could print it, but it's just not as tangible as a product. Talk about going from having a tangible product and then actually showing it and using it the first time with kids and what was that experience like?

Kelly 12:09

It's fun because honestly, my students. don't see me as an entrepreneur or as a creator of a product. So most of them are pretty surprised when I tell them. So if they're using it and I say, actually I created these, they are, they're adorably impressed. Really? You did that? How did you do that? So that is absolutely a joy. And they're just, They feel really nice, Beverly. I'm using this amazing printer in the UK, actually, and they're using this beautiful coating. So I just love touching them. And my students, you can see that sometimes actually. I'll have them, I'll draw their attention to a few of them while we're in a lesson and then I lose them. I'm like, okay, put the cards down. Back to me now. Yes.

Beverly 12:56

Yes.

Kelly 12:57

They're quite engaging.

Beverly 12:59

Very tactile and visual, which is, I think, a great thing. All of us learners learn a little bit differently, right? So you're filling that side of it to the auditory visual, but the different elements of that. And I think just touching and holding something is really powerful for whatever reason, whether it's a model or a calculator or whatever, there's just something powerful in that. There's got to be like, I guess this is for all of my guests, but I'm curious about your industry specifically. How do you identify and capitalize on emerging trends in education and then the opportunities in your world of entrepreneurship, because you've created an opportunity and a trend. So how do you do that? Like, how do you stay in front of that or ahead of that or create that?

Kelly 13:44

It is definitely a work in progress and you're right. I think. The way I envision test prep for my age group and for the exams that I specialize in is not like how I see it happening in most other test prep spaces. I think still gonna take me time to fully realize, my vision. But it's just a matter of I'm trying to use really visual ways to try and convey the feeling. of my brand and the feeling of the experience I want to have with my students. And I should have told you, Beverly, to ask me, why is it called watermelon math?

Beverly 14:24

Why is it called watermelon math?

Kelly 14:25

So initially I had a really embarrassing name. Should I tell you what it was at first?

Beverly 14:32

Now you're going to have to.

Kelly 14:34

First, I called it memorable math because I wanted kids to remember the stuff. And then I looked at it and I was like, you know what? This is super boring. And to be honest, I had a little gift from the universe because the reason I had to give up memorable math was because there was a fault with the glue on the boxes. And so my printer sent me some boxes and they fell apart and I couldn't use them. I chose to rebrand at that point. And then I was thinking, what is something that everyone loves? And I had this big list, sunshine, chocolate, ice cream, palm trees. And it's a giant list of things that people just universally love. Who's mad about a watermelon? It's just happy. You can't look at watermelon and think anything bad, really. I had this big list of things that make people happy universally. And I had to choose from that because test prep falls in the list of like spiders, taxes. The dentist, things that people universally do not like. Yes. And so I want it's a small thing, right? But through many small things, I can say, is it possible? Is it possible to take something that people don't like and just infuse it with things that people do and just create a feeling around this process? That is. lighter, happier, more joyful.

Beverly 15:58

As a marketer, I have all kinds of opinions about this because you and I did talk like you liked the color pink. Love it. That like totally fits in. But the seeds of the watermelon is like planting seeds of knowledge. There's so many things that kind of go into the idea of watermelon. Watermelon as a whole is probably a little bit harder to eat, but when you slice it up and dice it up and make it into smaller pieces, which is what your cards do. So from a branding perspective, like girl, my head is like all the ideas about watermelons right now. My brain is full of visuals, scary in that, but I love that reference. Plus, what Apple did. For their brand was make it super simple. And I love the idea of that too. And I worked for a startup called mango languages. And we used to actually even joke that our competitor was named pineapple. And so we would we had a whole fun thing about fruit. So I guess I feel an affinity to the fruit name because I, because of that, but very fun in the sense of not your typical test prep. I love the idea of looking for the feeling and this idea of everybody enjoys a fresh piece of watermelon in the summer, especially, right? It's cool, refreshing, hydrates you. From a branding perspective is super powerful and understandable. And when you look at color specifically related to that fruit as well, all the things come into play there. Super fun. Pink is one of our colors as well. So I'm going to give it like a huge shout out. I love pink. Pink is good. So I actually asked a lot of people about their marketing tactics. I love that you did some really strong branding. I love that you were very specific about the tactile nature of the product. As well as what it can produce like and the value it holds for your students and you love linkedin. Is there another specific marketing tactic that's been really effective for your business?

Kelly 17:50

I just Have always been very interested in The way things look aesthetically and I love details. I live in Miami beach and we have a kind of unique style of architecture and There's something about I don't know why but we have a very unique style of numbering there's so many times where i'm stop I stop and see a number on a building, like the number like it's 407 or whatever And I'm like, wow, I really like that zero.

Beverly 18:25

So like the typography, the actual font

Kelly 18:27

style. Yes. I love it. I just, those types of things really stand out to me and the colors in Miami are very bright, vibrant, super fun. And I love, I absolutely loved living in London, but London on the whole is gray and beige, so I love the bright colors. And again, it's it's just that feeling. It's like the feeling you feel when. The colors are nice and the design is clean. It's just imparting that feeling. There's a book that I read called Joyful and it's about taking these joyful elements in the sort of aesthetic world and in showing some of the research on how it has an impact on us. And that book really gave me permission to play around with my designs and spend the time that I spend with my products, with my materials that I create for my students, because all of that stuff really does matter. And I think To be honest, it takes time. It's expensive. It's not some, it's not the, it's not the low hanging fruit. It's not the easy thing to go for. But it matters. And so it's something that it's my own business, so I get to spend as much time as I want doing it. No one's going to say, Oh, Kelly, you're wasting money by spending too much time on the design. Yeah, it's just something that I've always really been drawn to. And now I give myself permission to indulge in it and make it a critical part of my brand and my mission

Beverly 21:01

recently you posted on linkedin. I just don't remember the post forgive me, but I do remember that there were math sheets involved like literal bed sheets like math formula bed sheets And I remember commenting. I cannot love this more because it's just And we talked about wallpaper, math wallpaper, and there was something else that you just mentioned before we got on the call that working with your illustrator on, and you're like, can you do that? And what was that? Wrapping, wrapping paper. Wrapping paper. Yes. Yes. Just those little, gosh, like you're making all my branding dreams coming, come true, Kelly, because all those little, almost psychological sub conscious type decisions that you're making in your branding matter. And that is just a very powerful, gosh, you're just creating a very strong visual for your brand, which we as branding people and marketers love. I'm fangirling here about your illustrator. So love, love the ideas and love the illustrations. So yes, good job. Juliana is her name. Juliana. Yes. Thank you. Share with her because it's awesome. Thank you. Has there been a specific campaign? Or is there a social media tool? Obviously LinkedIn you use a lot. So has there been others? Because I don't think you're, so your target market is young, but the people who buy for them, Is another target market. So how do you reconcile that? Just the parents and the kids, you have to get excited about this.

Kelly 22:26

That's right. It is a marketing challenge because my audience is the parents and potentially other educators, but they are not the direct user of the product and of the experience or the services. Yeah, I think my target audience is just people. Who, like me, care very much about the kids in their lives whether they're their own children or whether they're their students or whether they're their cousins or their neighbors or their nieces and nephews or whatever kids they have in their lives None of us want the kids to suffer. None of us want our kids to be stressed out. None of us want our kids to be scared and creating, an identity around a painful test experience. When kids are in this adolescent age, they are beginning to feel their way in the world. They're deciding who they are. They're asking themselves, am I smart? Am I good enough? What am I good at? When we give them this very difficult test at that time. It can have a real impact on what they think about themselves. And I absolutely do not want that to happen. I absolutely do not want them to feel like I'm not good at this or I'm not smart enough. I want them to feel capable and confident and empowered and joyful. That's going to be the same thing that any adult feels about any kid in their life. Like we all want them to feel that way. So that's my audience, which is in a way, most people, most parents. And yeah, I'm just ticking away. I work on LinkedIn. Obviously I'm on Instagram, but it's a slow build over there on Instagram. I've really only been working on my social media game for about a year. So it's a slow, gradual, I'm in it for the long game. I'll get there.

Beverly 24:02

Consistency is key. Just keep plugging away. Now I remember what the post was about when you were talking about that. The post was about, you were talking to a student who was, had a bad dream about the test the night before. And this is so real. Kids have these dreams, right? We have dreams about that. Like we have a big presentation or something. We have dreams like that. And how do you turn that dream, that negative nightmare into a positive experience? And you were really looking for some words of affirmation and comfort and empowerment for this young man. I think it was a young man, right? Yes. And that was so thoughtful. And I think that is what speaks to a parent is like how we speak to our children in those moments is really important to help build self esteem going forward. Cause they're going to take lots of tests over the next 10 years, from eight to 18 and then even in college, or if they decided to go that route and they need to be, feel good about it. Hopefully in the long run, that this isn't like the super scary, thing. So I love that you're doing that at that age and not waiting to 18, because I feel like we already have a lot of self talk by the time we get to 18. And you were so thoughtful in that post, so I really appreciated that you were so caring. in that. And it showed a lot about who you are too, which I thought was a really good post for you. So not only was it cute, but it was also really thoughtful.

Kelly 25:23

Thank you, Beverly. It's so sweet of you.

Beverly 25:25

Our next kind of section into the podcast is our lightning round where I get to ask you some rapid fire questions to uncover your favorite business insights, tools, and inspirations.

Lightning Round

Beverly 25:36

And many people get a little nervous about this, but I don't know why, but I just really want to the first thing that comes to mind, gut and share. I may pipe in, I may not. So just go with the flow. Okay. Great. So what is your favorite way to connect and network? I think I know the answer to this.

Kelly 25:52

Everybody who knows me knows the answer. It's LinkedIn. I'm obsessed. Yes, everyone's okay, Kelly, LinkedIn, we've heard you say it about that, but people are so accessible and friendly and supportive on LinkedIn and you can connect with just total heroes that you can't connect with on other social media. So I am big fan.

Beverly 26:11

I would agree. There's a treasure trove of humanity in there. I would agree. Beautiful. What did you? I agree. What is your favorite business or marketing book?

Kelly 26:22

Okay. So I have a few. One of them is the million dollar one person business. By Elaine, I don't know how to pronounce her last name. Pofelt, something like that. It's a great book because it's gives me permission. Gives us permission, anyone reading it to just do business your own way. It's, about a one person business. It's about loads of successful examples of one person businesses. And for people who choose to make money, but also do just business their own way. And so I love that because. Often when you're an entrepreneur all your friends around you who are not entrepreneurs have these big visions for you and sometimes staying, happily, Medium size is really great. So I love that book.

Beverly 27:08

I'm going to have to read that book. I'm very excited to read that book. I have not heard about this book, so I'm excited.

Kelly 27:13

What is your favorite podcast? Easy. Hands down, How I Built This with Guy Raz. He is a gem of a podcast host and all of those stories are so motivating. I just, I can't, and the production quality is so high. It's amazing.

Beverly 27:29

I would agree. It's amazing. I wish I had that budget.

Kelly 27:33

No

Beverly 27:33

kidding. If your business was an animal, which animal would it be and why?

Kelly 27:42

Okay an octopus. Cause it's like octopi, they're so cool and slithery and clever.

Beverly 27:52

They're very clever.

Kelly 27:54

And they're very clever. And they have many arms, so you can just I would love to be able to do that. Imagine how much work you would get done if you had eight limbs. I feel like I'm in the educator space. I'm in an entrepreneur space. I'm also like, I dabble in the toy and game space because that has overlap with my product, so if I were not, if my business were an octopus, I could fully have all of those things just running elegantly.

Beverly 28:18

Yes. I like that. I like that. And the fact that they're clever too really fits as well. They're always trying to figure things out. So I like that. What is your favorite marketing tactic?

Kelly 28:29

I guess I'm not sure if this is considered a tactic because all of my marketing is, obviously self taught and intuitive and but I would say connection, I think as we get older and as we get more mature and more confident in our businesses, we allow ourselves to be more honest and more genuine. Everybody speaks to that, everybody can receive that and everybody can learn from that and everybody can connect with that. And obviously we're humans behind every single business. So I think that's something that I enjoy is real and comes natural for me. So I think that's my marketing tactic.

Beverly 29:10

Connection is key in today's day and age. So you have to connect with the user, the end user, people who buy from you as a human, not as a brand, and be really authentic in that space. So who or what is your favorite source of inspiration for your business specifically?

Kelly 29:30

I listen to a lot of podcasts. As I said, Guy Raz is a big source. I live in a walkable place and I don't drive. So every time I walk somewhere, I'm listening to something. And that's a business podcast or an audio book. It's hard to choose a favorite.

Beverly 29:49

It's like choosing your favorite musician or favorite movie. Like how do you choose, right? It's

Kelly 29:54

really hard. There's so many there's a, I listened to the audio book of the guy who invented Pictionary. It's called Game Changer. That was a fabulous story of him creating a game. I watched this series on Netflix called Abstract, and it's about design. And there was a whole episode on typography. And I, I loved watching a team of six people sit around a table and have a discussion about, the angle of the serif on the lowercase a and it's because these details to us as the, the user, we, we feel them, but we would never imagine that a team of six people sat around and discussed it. So honestly, there's endless Inspiration, I could never choose just one because it's A zillion sources that I just, I

Beverly 30:42

feel like you're a marketer at heart. I can't turn it off. My husband teases me because I'll go to a restaurant and I look at their menu and I'm looking at their fonts and the color choices and the photos that they chose, like they chose specific photos and why they I'm already thinking of an intent and why, and it must, that must either be really good and they must really want to feature that. So I'm, I can't turn it off and we're driving, there's billboards, right? And most people might just consume them some subconsciously. Like I'm looking at the billboard, what color they chose, how big the font is, what image they chose. I'm thinking about all of the things that go into the billboard and I cannot, we are bombarded by marketing every single day. Yes. It's like that movie, with Tom Cruise. What's the Oh, jeez. Where the stuff pops up in front of him as he's walking. Minority Report? I think it's Minority Report. I don't know. I'm terrible at this. Okay, so it's very futuristic and the stuff is pop Yeah. It's very personalized. It's very like, AI ish. There's a lot of the things that have come true, I feel like that with the world, like a commercial or an obvious I actually like staying home because if I go out, I can't like stop. It's too much stimulation. And you go places like Disney World, I am analyzing. Everything they're doing because they are the GOAT for how to do things really well in every detail and the trash cans, I'm looking at everything. So I feel like you're a marketer at heart because you are looking at things like the curve of the A there's times where I'm like I got like a font and then I hate the way that the ampersand shows. And I'm like, no, we're not using that font because the ampersand's ugly. So I like, it has to look good in every single letter. Yes. There's like things like that, that people who are in marketing and branding really geek out at. So you're here for it, Kelly. I absolutely am. I think you are a marketer at heart, even though you're an educator. You're a marketer at heart. I love it. Okay. So we've wrapped up the lightning round and that last question wasn't so lightning. But if you could go back to the Kelly, he was 18 years old, just getting out of high school, going into college or the next step in life, what advice would you give Kelly? Who's just starting based on the wisdom that you have now.

Blaze Forward

Kelly 33:01

If I were to think back, I feel so grateful to have. Like the job I get to have now, like the job I invented and the job I continue to invent and create on a daily basis, but I couldn't be where I am without having worked, as a teacher and having learned from so many other, professionals and experts in many different spaces. So I would just tell 18 year old Kelly, it is just. Follow what she feels like doing and that she has the guidance within her to just make the decisions that feel right. Because everything that we go to is right in the moment. And then if it's wrong, we figure it out

Beverly 33:45

and we learn from it, it makes us part of who we are. Even the mistakes. Yeah. I think more so the mistakes even. That's, yeah, I would agree. I think trusting your gut and trusting who you are and what feels right is super, it's a superpower.

Kelly 34:01

It really is. And I think as women we sometimes question it because it's hard to justify like externally in the world. But the older I get, the more I can tune in and just listen to it. And. Trust it and just go with it. Just go with it. Yes.

Beverly 34:19

And I think as women, 20 years ago, even like things have changed. So fundamentally for us as business owners as well it's easier to honor that in the space that we live in now too, like actually age is important, but also the times we live in has changed as well. So yes, yay. For sure. So if there was one easy step that one of our listeners, maybe they're going to start a business or they're going to change direction, or they're going to do some big step outside of their comfort zone today, what advice would you give them to spark their unique opportunity as an entrepreneur? What would you, what would Tell them or maybe some marketing idea. Maybe it's to look at their font. I

Kelly 34:58

don't know What would be the thing that you would tell them? I think that there's going to be times where you're gonna fall down and there's gonna be some disaster and That's inevitable, and this is part of the reason why I love listening to how I built this because on the, on some of those episodes, the amount of suffering and disaster is just wow it just. It's inevitable. Like we all have it. We all go through it. And so like we, and then we all get through it. So just that's going to be inevitable. It's not a matter of trying to avoid all of the terrible outcomes. It's just a matter of going into the terrible outcomes, making the best of them, navigating them. And then the next part is good after that. And then it'll be bad after that. And then good after that, it's just up and down the whole way.

Beverly 35:55

But I think even leaning into some of the disasters. So in October, my business kind of changed tremendously. For a multitude of reasons. I like, I have a couple of clients. I lost a couple of clients. There was lots of stuff that happened, but from that experience, I leaned into it. Like, why don't these customers work for me? Why is this like I really leaned into it and did some self discovery and business discovery and just realized, you know what, the reason why this is not working. This is my business, but this is my perspective, right? The world that I live in was I wasn't being authentic to myself. And I was letting my customers build my business, not me build the business intentionally. And it was like, I don't know like the curtains opened. It was like, Oh, like the angel saying it was revolutory moment for myself because I was open and leaning into the discomfort of the moment. Yes. And really wanting to come to terms with that in some way, like how, why what can I make this better? What did I, how did I not fail them, but how did I not serve them well? And the reason why I wasn't serving them well was because it really wasn't a good fit and I was putting a square peg in a circle hole and of course there's going to be splinters. It's going to come out of that. That was a very huge moment for me and I am so glad. My customers at the time taught me that lesson. Yes. And the people that I've met along the way in that process are really good, powerful friends now. So when you're vulnerable and you're in that kind of like leaning in moment, the people who are in your corner and that are there cheering you on are your people. That's your tribe. Yes. So they're like really foundational moments of truth about yourself, about the people around you. About your business. And if you lean in, I think that can be. And I'm going to use a pun, game changing for your business. And the rewards can be very sweet. So yes all wonderful stuff, Kelly. Before we go, please share where our listeners can learn more about you, about your business, keep up with your latest projects and buy some watermelon math flashcards

Kelly 38:09

to use with their kids. Thank you. My watermelon math flashcards are available on my website, which is just www. mindmindeducation. com. I'm on Instagram at the same handle, mindmind underscore education. And then I'm on LinkedIn as my name, Kelly Clement, maybe Kelly Clement watermelon math would be an easy way to find me. I post a lot about test prep and test anxiety and vocabulary resources and math resources. So even if you're a family who is not taking the particular exam that I prepare students for I think you might, enjoy some content regarding my fanciful, imaginative approach to math, vocabulary, and test prep. And

Beverly 38:54

fun. fanciful and fun.

Kelly 38:57

Yes.

Beverly 38:57

As we wrap up today's episode, I want to thank Kelly for sharing her wealth of knowledge and expertise and innovative education. Thank you so much, Kelly. Thank you, Beverly. This has been so much fun. Thanks for having me. Your words listener's journey, offering them nuggets of wisdom and practical strategies to supercharge their digital marketing game for their unique business. To all of you wonderful listeners out there, I hope you've soaked in as much inspiration from this episode as I have. Now it's time to roll up your sleeves and put these valuable insights into action in your own small business. And remember, if you ever hit a roadblock or just need a friendly ear, both myself and Kelly are here for you. Keep those ears perked up for more uplifting chats and actionable advice to fuel your marketing journey on future episodes of the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing podcast. Until then, let's keep those sparks flying high and your marketing burning bright.