Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From Silicon Valley to Early Education: Sanjay Gehani's Journey of Impact | Childcare Series

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From Silicon Valley to Early Education: Sanjay Gehani's Journey of Impact | Childcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:17
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:20
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:23
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:25
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Sanjay Kahani,
0:29
Managing Partner, CFO and CRO of Building Kids Worldwide.
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They are franchised early childhood Education Center with
0:38
a presence in multiple states. Their vision is to touch the
0:41
lives of 1,000,000 children through a network of preschools
0:46
and their nonprofit organizations, Building Futures
0:48
Worldwide. They believe that performing
0:50
arts are an essential part of this process as it provides
0:53
substantial enrichment and the facilitation of social,
0:56
emotional, cognitive and motor development.
1:00
Their website is building kidsschool.com and Kids is
1:03
spelled with AZ building kidsschool.com Now.
1:07
Before starting in the early childhood education space,
1:10
Sanjay held a broad range of management positions at Xilinx
1:14
Inc, where he was responsible for partnerships that influenced
1:18
$700 million lifetime revenue for the company.
1:22
We'll hear about how Sanjay won a landslide victory for Foster
1:25
City City Council and how that led to him becoming the first
1:30
mayor of Indian descent in the city.
1:32
He was born in Chile, raised in California, and speaks 4
1:35
languages. He holds a bachelor's in
1:37
electrical engineering and an MBA in marketing and leading
1:41
organizations. Now before we get into all that
1:43
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:46
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To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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Add Back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
2:13
CFO of Building Kids School. Sanjay, I appreciate you making
2:17
the time to Share your story today.
2:19
Thanks for the opportunity, Anthony.
2:20
It's good to see you. So before we get started on your
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story, I wanted to mention for the listeners that we previously
2:27
had your business partner on the show, Vanita Bhandari.
2:30
And after listening to this episode, I highly recommend
2:33
everybody go and check out Vanita's episode because you'll
2:36
hear her story. And I'm sure a little bit of a
2:38
different perspective on some of the topics that we'll cover here
2:41
today with Sanjay. OK.
2:42
So Sanjay, you started out in corporate America.
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You had a pretty long and successful career with a company
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called Xilix, a semiconductor company.
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Is that right? Yeah, Fpgas, reprogrammable
2:54
chips at the time, yeah. OK, so how did you find your way
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from a tech heavy industry into the childcare space?
3:03
Wow, I had a son my my wife gave birth to our baby boy in October
3:10
of 2012. I took some time off of work and
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when I went back to work, I found myself in Munich.
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I used to travel to Europe and Asia about 17 weeks out of the
3:22
year at that time. And I was taking a walk after a
3:26
long day of meetings. And I remember thinking about
3:30
how my parents used to be at my Little League games and how they
3:33
used to support me all the time, like in basketball, baseball,
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soccer, everything I was playing and, and in school and just,
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they were just always there for me.
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And that's how I wanted to be for my son.
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I wanted to be there for him as well.
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But if I continued down the path that I was on, I wouldn't have
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an opportunity to be there for about half of his life.
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And so I had that in mind and I came back, came back to work
4:00
basically because when I was on the forefront of my mind was
4:03
paying my bills and providing for the family.
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And and so I had a conversation with my wife in about May of
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2013, which was started out with us talking about preschools.
4:14
And it ended with me saying, hey, so isn't this like, you
4:17
know, really good time for us to start looking at preschools?
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And she said, yeah, you know, we should start, but it's really
4:21
tough to get into a good preschool.
4:23
And I said, you're cool. So if that's something you want
4:25
to take on. And she gave me a kiss on my
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cheek and said, if you do you mind if you take this on?
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Because I haven't slept for four hours straight since these kids
4:33
been born. And so I, I, I visited a few
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schools and then I visited a few more and I started bidding them,
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I went to like 6 or 8 schools and I said no way would I ever,
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I would if I had to. And I absolutely want, and any
4:53
school that I absolutely wanted to put my son into had an 18
4:55
month wait list. And so I started thinking about
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the difficult decisions that parents are making on a Friday,
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visiting a school because on Monday they had to go to work.
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They needed to do something to ensure their child was in a safe
5:05
and nurturing environment. So with that in mind, I actually
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just expanded my, my viewpoint and said, decide I'm going to
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just look at a few more schools, just kind of study the industry.
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I end up going on 50 different preschools and just try to test
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out my theory. And I kind of took it on because
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I had a little bit of time before I had to make a decision
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for my son. And you know, fortunately for
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me, one of my someone who's known me since I was six years
5:29
old, Vanita Bhandari, had preschools.
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So I said, well, how can I go look at preschools and not go to
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Hearst? I've heard so many great things
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about building kids and I went into that building kids school
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and I just fell in love with everything that they were doing.
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I mean, they had children singing and dancing and smiling
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and the teachers were super professional, staff was
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incredibly professional and the vibe with the energy was
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fantastic. And I said, I put my son on the
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wait list, obviously 18 month wait list.
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At that time, it was June of 2013 and Vanita happened to be
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in her office. And so I got a chance to sit
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down with her and I used to call her Vanita Auntie because she's
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a family friend. She's known me since I was six
6:10
years old, very close friend of my parents and growing up in my
6:13
home, all of our parents friends were called Auntina.
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And so now she said that now we're doing business together,
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you got to stop calling the auntie.
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So I don't so, but I sat down with her and had a conversation
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and she's, I said, you know, you've got five schools, 6
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schools, like you're making good money doing this for sure and
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you're helping children. This is awesome.
6:36
What's the plan? And she said, I want to touch
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the lives of 1,000,000 children in my lifetime.
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And I was like, wow, that's worth putting your time behind.
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I was like, sorry, I'm looking at the numbers.
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And I was like, what's the plan to grow?
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And she's like, I don't have time to focus on that.
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I'll focus on quality operations.
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I want to ensure a world class experience for every child that
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comes into work. And I was like, OK, great.
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Can I help you? Because I really want to be a
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part of this. I'm super inspired by what
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you're doing. I, I know this feels right,
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sounds right. And I was what I would call a
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want. I wanted to do something.
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I'd have the courage to walk out of my career to do what an
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entrepreneur really does, which I believe is spend a few years
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like most people won't. So you could spend the rest of
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your life like most people can. And I wasn't ready, I wasn't
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ready for that. So, so, but this is Colin.
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And so I said, please let me be a part of it.
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And so we talked about it and she's like, look, I don't need
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your money, but I can use your help so you can invest with me,
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learn about this industry. And by the time your son starts
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here, if you don't come on board, I'm returning your money
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with a little interest just so it doesn't cost you anything.
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But you're not keeping an equity stake in our company or anything
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that we do together unless you come on board full time as a
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partner. Gave her a big hug.
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Thank you for the opportunity. Took it on as a project as I
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kept my day job and we almost doubled our footprint over the
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next 14 months. Sangeet, my other business
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partner, who is Vinita's nephew, this is truly a family business.
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He was thinking along the same lines and he came from high tech
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and, and so he was investing as well.
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And he left his career. I left my, you know, I told my
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boss in July of 2014. I said, hey, look, you know,
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this is what I've been doing, you know, since, you know, the
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last year or so. And I think, you know, this is
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something I'm going to have to do later this year.
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So here's my 90 day notice. But I think I got to do it.
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And he's, he's actually one of my best friends.
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He gave me his full support and I left in, we started in
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November, in November of 2014, Vanita Sangeet and I sat down to
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touch the lives of 1,000,000 children.
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How are we going to do it? But that's how I got into
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preschools. This is a great story.
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So I've got a few things I want to impact.
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First one is your comment about I decided to go look at 50
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daycares. Now this is not normal behavior
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even for a parent who is hyper concerned about their child and
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what's the best for them. So when you made the decision to
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go and look at 50 daycares 50, not 1550 fifty daycares, was it
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already in the back of your mind that this was a business venture
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for you? You had an idea here?
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Or did that not sprout until you sat down with Vinita?
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No, it didn't sprout. I I didn't really fully sprout
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until I sat down with Vinita. But looking at my behavior
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before, maybe subconsciously something was pulling me towards
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it. And looking at 50 schools wasn't
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the way a normal parent would because it wasn't really for my
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son. Then I kept saying no and then
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was looking for a yes. And at one point it was really
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more about studying the market, scanning the environment, really
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thinking about it from a business perspective.
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Like is there opportunity here? Testing out my hypotheses that,
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you know, parents are making really difficult decisions and
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putting their children in substandard environments, not
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because they want to, but because they have to because
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there is no other opportunity for them.
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And so I got attracted to that and just really wanted to
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understand what I was feeling and thinking.
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Could I actually prove it? And so that's kind of what drove
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me for the 50. That makes sense.
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You you were approaching it from a business perspective.
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A parent looks at a few five, maybe 10, maybe a, a, a, a
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business person looks at 50 because I really want to
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understand the full landscape of the market.
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OK, so you went into building kids.
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You saw what Vinita was doing. You fell in love with it.
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What specifically did you fall in love with?
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What did you see there that you weren't seeing at the other 49
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daycares that you checked out? Yeah.
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You know, and and to be fair at the, I mean there were a lot of
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phenomenal preschools and daycare centers that I went into
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that had similar aspects of professionalism of care for the
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children. Absolutely they were there.
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But I think seeing how naturally children are attracted to music,
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dance, theater, the mimicking of adults and other children to
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help them adjust to the world around them, and seeing that in
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play with the teachers and with the other children and how the
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children were collaborating. To me, I just saw a wealth of
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life experiences like things that, you know, working well
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with others towards a common goal, gaining this confidence
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about performing, you know, in front of other children and
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adults. Just kind of seeing that really
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resonated with me just and maybe because the sports I played
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growing up and where you're doing that in front of people
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watching that are kind of connected with that.
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And so this is just a different way of it.
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But I think it's also things that you can't really replicate
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in an operations manual. The culture, the spirit of the
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people that are there, how they're working together, the
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team that she formed, the team that she formed over and over
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again like she was then once I learned more about it, she was
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replicating this culture. And that's what we actually try
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to do as a franchisor. We tell all of our franchisees,
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you're not going to just be able to follow the operations manual
12:26
and be extremely successful. Our most successful franchisees
12:30
really pour their spirit and their soul into the culture of
12:34
the campus so that way parents can feel it when they walk in.
12:37
So that was something that I definitely felt and it was, it
12:40
was the people too. And so it sounds like you were
12:44
also really attracted to this idea of touching the lives of
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1,000,000 kids worldwide. I mean, everybody gets out of
12:51
bed because they they want a paycheck or, you know, as a
12:54
business owner, you want to grow your business, you want to, it
12:57
has to be profitable, you want to make money.
12:59
But I have to imagine what a cool underlying current to
13:04
really get you out of bed on those days where things seem
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tough and aren't going super smooth, to have this sort of
13:10
North star, this guiding star to say here's our bigger purpose
13:14
beyond the money. No, without a doubt, Anthony.
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I mean it. Almost like she shook my focus.
13:21
Like, you know, the things I was thinking about and that I
13:24
really, you know, felt were important with regards to the
13:27
time that I spent away from the family.
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I mean, I always describe myself as a son, a brother, a husband,
13:32
a father, a friend, now a small business owner, former public
13:36
servant. But even even when I had was a
13:42
son, a brother, husband, father, friend, corporate American, the
13:47
time I spent away from the family was focused on a certain
13:49
thing. And when she said that it almost
13:51
replaced it, it just was like, why am I doing this?
13:55
Yes, I need to provide for the family, but if I could replace
13:59
that need or that or replace it with another source, wouldn't I
14:04
be much happier doing this? And what and what I've learned,
14:09
Anthony, is whether you touch the life of one child or a
14:12
million I, that energy is bottomless.
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I can always tap back into it and feel great about what we're
14:21
doing here. The numbers arbitrary.
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Yes, it sounds great. Yes, it's, it's something that
14:25
we're shooting for. It's, you know, it's visionary.
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But even if we fell 900,000 short of that number or 990,000
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short of that number, helping one child see for the first
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time, helping a child here for the first time, helping an
14:41
orphan and abandoned child or helping, you know, a child with
14:44
juvenile diabetes for the money we dedicate there.
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These are things that Venito's Venita was thinking.
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And she shared those, and I internalized them, and Sunith
14:53
internalized them. But this really came from
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Venita. And, and I always have a deep
14:58
appreciation for her for that because, yeah, it absolutely
15:01
became a North Star for what I wanted to get done.
15:05
So talk a little bit more about what the plan is to be able to
15:09
touch so many lives. You mentioned, you know, helping
15:12
children with vision laws, helping children with diabetes.
15:15
So is it giving to certain charities?
15:18
How, how do you guys sort of think about achieving that
15:20
1,000,000 number? No, absolutely.
15:22
So that's just a piece of it. The nonprofit are building
15:25
Futures worldwide, the five O 1C3 that Vanita started is a
15:29
piece of that touching the lives of 1,000,000 children.
15:32
And within that piece, we work with the different charities
15:36
that like you said Anthony that that kind of focus on these
15:39
different initiatives and and then we provide the funds.
15:45
Vanita actually is deeply involved in overseeing the
15:50
deployment of those funds as well as the children that are
15:54
benefiting from those efforts. And that's one piece.
15:58
The other piece of it is our company owned campuses, Vanita,
16:01
Sunita and I, our partners name campuses.
16:04
We're helping children and families every day.
16:05
And the third piece is franchising.
16:09
As a franchisor, we're always looking to welcome in amazing
16:13
people that want to leave a legacy in their community for
16:16
their family by helping children develop in a world class
16:19
environment and also generate generational wealth for their
16:25
families and live in that quadrant.
16:28
We're looking for those amazing people to join our franchise
16:30
family and grow with us. So through the franchise
16:33
franchising work that we do, we're able to expand further
16:37
than just the corporate locations that we go.
16:40
And so the five O1 3C the nonprofit, where does the
16:44
funding come from? It comes from the the profits of
16:47
the franchising business. So we take buildings.
16:50
Completely and totally. Yes.
16:52
No other outside funding sources.
16:53
No. Wow.
16:55
Please continue. Yeah.
16:56
Yeah, yeah. And we dedicate, yeah, we take
17:00
25% of our profits from building kids worldwide and we route it
17:05
right to building futures worldwide.
17:08
That's significant. Yeah, no, it's.
17:11
That's really putting your money where your heart is.
17:14
Yeah, yeah. And, and Bonita's the, the
17:16
reason for that. Absolutely.
17:18
It was her idea. And then it was an incredible
17:21
idea. And, and I'm I'm grateful that
17:23
she brought it to life and I'm grateful that we're all
17:25
breathing life into it. That's awesome.
17:28
I feel that energy now. Something else, you said you
17:31
doubled the footprint in the 1st 14 months that you were taking
17:35
this on as a side project, Did I hear that right?
17:38
We did through the investments and Vanita's leadership and
17:41
guidance. Because Sangeet and I didn't
17:43
have the experience in early childhood education, she was our
17:46
mentor. Collectively, the three of you
17:49
as a team doubled the footprint in 14 months.
17:52
Yes, let's give, let's give credit in the appropriate places
17:54
here, but whether Yeah, so it's all three of you together it
17:58
it's still a rather impressive feat.
18:00
How did you 'cause she what did you say?
18:02
She was at 5 locations before and so now she's.
18:04
At 10, Mia and I will have this discussion, she says.
18:06
There were a few more. I I recall 5, she'll say 7, but
18:10
we ended up and so that's why I always stick with the number
18:13
that I recall, but we ended up with 10.
18:17
OK. So from my from my perspective
18:20
and, and on and candidly, that wasn't Sangeet and I'd bring in
18:23
opportunities to the table. That was Vanita teaching us on
18:27
how to identify opportunities, finding some opportunities, us
18:31
doing some of the leg work on those opportunities to learn
18:33
about how to assess a preschool, getting some of those skills and
18:38
building that in, and then working with her so that we
18:41
could invest alongside with her and expand our footprint.
18:46
OK. So did she already have these
18:48
places picked out? Because I mean to go from
18:50
whether it's five or seven to three new locations in 14
18:53
months, that sounds pretty fast. You've got to identify location,
18:57
you got to do some kind of a build out, you've got to do your
18:59
marketing, you've got to get, you know, it's staffed etcetera.
19:02
That seems like a pretty quick. Time, Yep.
19:05
So a lot of those locations were not new stars and that's part of
19:09
our flexible business model that still exists today like
19:12
acquisition and conversion of private preschools.
19:14
So we acquired schools that were already operational, that had
19:18
staff and we assessed them before acquisition about how
19:21
building kids and our model would enhance the experience of
19:25
the children that were there without changing it too much.
19:28
That parents that were attracted to that school from the
19:31
beginning would see and benefit from us coming in and enhancing
19:35
the experience and not directly changing it too much.
19:38
And so we found. So those opportunities came up
19:40
and then we were able to move on those pretty quickly and expand
19:45
our footprint. So let's say I'm a parent, I'm
19:47
looking for a daycare in one of the areas where we can find a
19:50
building kids, either corporate owned or franchise location.
19:54
What am I going to notice that is maybe different or special
19:57
about the experience for my child?
20:01
Well, there's a lot If you were to walk into a building kids
20:05
campus, let's take, you know, for example, you've got infants
20:10
all the way up until five years old on the campus.
20:13
Now, all franchisees have flexibility to provide services
20:17
for infants and toddlers and after schoolers up until 6th
20:20
grade. But all of our campuses provide
20:22
services ages 2 through 5. Let's say you have a walk in on
20:25
this campus and as you walk in the campus, you know what you
20:28
would first experience if you were to walk into the infant
20:30
room is there's music being played.
20:33
The children are that as they start sitting up, that there's
20:38
activities where they're purposefully for happy for
20:40
something building that hand eye coordination.
20:43
The music's being played because it accelerates neurological
20:46
development. So we want to bring that in
20:48
early as the children start sitting up and and eating on
20:53
their own, their specific tables and you'll see these, you know,
20:57
amazing young children in in which they're reaching out and
21:00
they're grabbing little pieces of food and they're eating it.
21:03
Again, accelerating that development that that motor
21:07
skill development, both fine and gross.
21:10
Now as the children start moving around a little bit more and
21:13
walking and balancing, they start you, you'd walk into a
21:16
classroom and you'd see them dancing to different types of
21:19
music. Not only are they learning about
21:21
different types of cultures, different types of music and
21:24
hearing that and processing that and different types of beats,
21:28
you know, but they're also gaining a lot of a lot of skills
21:33
and just being able to balance better as they're dancing to
21:36
these different types of music. So we're generating some more
21:39
gross motor skill development. It's start holding things and
21:43
being able to hold a pencil or you know, being able to hold a
21:46
paintbrush. We start introducing the Fine
21:49
Arts. It strengthens their fingers, it
21:51
strengthens the hand eye coordination, connection.
21:55
You know, all that starts happening now as that's
21:58
happening, as they're starting to develop.
22:00
There is a developmentally appropriate curriculum that's
22:04
being deployed in this and in this incredibly engaging space
22:10
for our children that they don't know about, and it is scaffolded
22:16
throughout the time that they're with us.
22:18
So it kind of builds on itself. But then there's this
22:20
integration of a few different things that you won't see
22:24
anywhere else. Music, dance, theatre.
22:27
It's not just something that's done around circle time. 2 music
22:31
classes, two dance classes, theatre class.
22:34
All of our children are learning Spanish.
22:36
But it's not just that our children are getting up on stage
22:40
and they're performing Broadway style productions at 2 1/2 years
22:45
old, right? So what are they getting right?
22:48
They're besides being one of the cutest things you'll ever see
22:50
these children get up on stage. My son's first experience was
22:55
lasted about 45 seconds, saw my parents, my wife and I in the
22:58
front row, ran off stage crying. He was like 2 1/2 years old, sat
23:04
in my lap, felt very comfortable.
23:06
It ended with him and his mom, my wife, running up on stage and
23:10
finishing up the dance at the end of it.
23:12
Six months later, he was singing his own solo.
23:14
All right, So what are they getting right?
23:17
They're learning about collaborating with their friends
23:19
towards a common goal through the rehearsal process.
23:23
And they're getting a tremendous amount of confidence by
23:25
performing in front of people that could be twice their size,
23:28
right? That's like you and I, Anthony,
23:30
performing in front of 12 footers, right?
23:32
You know, I mean, it's so so they're getting that.
23:35
So that's happened. In addition to that, thanks to
23:40
Vinita's ingenuity, thanks to Vinita's innovation, she's also
23:44
rolled out learning through life experiences.
23:47
LTLE, this is something you won't see in other schools.
23:51
I'll give you an example, right? There's like 20 to 30 different
23:54
of these models. I'll give you one example.
23:56
One of these examples is there's a grocery store and it's a
24:00
setting. It's a grocery store setting
24:01
that children can walk into small 1, like, you know, maybe
24:05
like 6 feet by three feet type of setting.
24:08
But it's got space for one child to be the clerk and a child to
24:13
walk in with instructions on picking out healthy foods.
24:16
Has a little bit of money in her hand.
24:18
She walks in, makes intelligent decisions about foods that she
24:21
should be eating, avoids all the bad ones, walks over to the
24:25
clerk, says I'd like to check out now.
24:28
Gives her, gives the clerk money.
24:30
The clerk's got to figure out how much to add up, how much to
24:33
give back to her and change. She needs to know that I got the
24:38
appropriate change back. At the meantime, she used to
24:41
make some eye contact, interact with the clerk, maybe ask him
24:44
how their day is, things like that.
24:46
Talk to him a little bit, and then walk out.
24:48
Very simple thing. And just one example of an
24:52
entire curriculum that Vinita's brought forth to this to all of
24:57
our schools. You won't see that.
25:00
You won't see that anywhere else.
25:02
So as you're going up, this is happening as you're getting up
25:04
to five years old. And now as you're getting older,
25:07
we backtrack in the academic expectations of the elementary
25:10
schools that our children are going to be going into, so that
25:13
we exceed emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, and
25:17
physical development. But we also prepare them
25:20
academically for elementary schools, their transition
25:22
smoothly. So these children are learning
25:24
about math and science through music and dance.
25:27
And these are things that you don't normally see and
25:30
definitely don't see it in a daycare that doesn't have any
25:33
curriculum. You won't see it there.
25:35
And then even if you elevate yourself to a preschool that
25:37
have curriculum or have curricula, you're not going to
25:41
see this anywhere else. And I can say this with Poppins
25:43
because we're open in eight states now and we're not, it's
25:46
not just California. We're not seeing it anywhere
25:48
that we're playing. Yeah, yeah.
25:51
What you're describing sounds really amazing and you're
25:54
talking about that grocery store experience.
25:57
I, I'm like, wait, did I lose focus?
25:59
Is, is he talking about preschoolers 'cause that, that
26:02
seems like a whole lot to ask from them.
26:05
But I think it's great. Start young.
26:07
And if you can sort of teach them those, those people skills
26:10
and the math skills and making change and the eye contact and
26:13
you know, the chitchat, the conversation, it's fantastic.
26:17
No, thank you. Thank you, Anthony.
26:19
And, and, yeah, and, and it is and, and that's what's really
26:22
exciting, especially, you know, coming out of the pandemic when
26:26
we saw children that hadn't engaged socially in a long time,
26:33
you know, and, and you could see this huge gap, you know, and,
26:38
and to be able to help them reacclimate the things that we
26:43
feel are incredibly important in the development of a human
26:47
being. Yeah, it was.
26:50
These were things that were leveraged that were helpful in
26:54
that we saw in the children that were coming into building kids
26:57
to kind of get them back on track for sure.
26:59
So for somebody who's looking for perhaps a business
27:03
opportunity, franchise opportunity, what would be
27:07
attractive about the building Kids opportunity to them?
27:10
Lowest investment just from a business side, lowest
27:13
investment, highest margins in the industry.
27:16
All of our schools are branded the same and none of them look
27:19
the same. We're opening churches, stand
27:22
alone building, retail center, converted home business complex
27:26
on the 1st floor. At the end of the year, we're
27:28
going to be open in an apartment complex on the 1st floor where
27:31
they have some commercial space there.
27:33
Our smallest campus is about 1500 square feet, 27 children.
27:37
Our largest campus is over 350 children.
27:41
There's a tremendous amount of flexibility in our business
27:46
model and not only the size of the school or where you open,
27:51
but also in how you open. If you want to buy a piece of
27:54
dirt and build a world class campus and build up some equity
27:57
in a building while you're building your business, go for
28:00
it. On the other end of the
28:01
spectrum, you want to buy a school that's for sale and
28:04
accelerate your ROI and transfer and convert it to building kids,
28:08
Go for it. In between, you can remodel a
28:11
space that as I shared with you earlier, there's church,
28:15
standalone, built in retail center, all these different
28:17
physical spaces. We can modify and customize the
28:22
experience for children in various physical spaces.
28:25
And that what that allows for Anthony, is the focus to be on
28:30
the franchise. In franchising, generally
28:33
speaking across our country, it's one type of Model 1 type of
28:38
franchise, and we're going to marry the two.
28:41
And that's it. We're going to keep doing that.
28:43
And that's incredibly beneficial for franchisors because you get
28:47
things like average unit volume, you get an idea of how much
28:50
you're going to make from each franchise, and that's great.
28:54
But Vanita Singh and I made a commitment a long time ago that
28:58
we're going to do business with people we love to break bread
29:00
with. And those people that are good
29:03
cultural fit for us come with varying levels of investment
29:07
capacity. So we're not going to say no to
29:09
somebody who doesn't have a high level of investment capacity
29:14
just because they don't have that.
29:16
We're going to say yes, so long as you can meet the minimum
29:19
threshold and and that allows for a tremendous amount of
29:22
flexibility in our model, which other franchisors cannot provide
29:28
or have not provided in this industry.
29:31
What geographies are you guys looking to expand into?
29:35
Shoot, Texas, which we've just picked up our fifth franchise,
29:41
which welcomed our fifth franchise into our building.
29:45
Kids, family from Texas, Chicago, Arizona, Washington,
29:55
Florida. These are some of the some of
29:58
the markets that, you know, some of the areas that we feel we can
30:02
definitely excel in. We've been doing pretty well in
30:05
California thus far. So we'll continue to grow here.
30:09
But yeah, these are some of the other states that we think.
30:12
What is it about those markets that you find appealing?
30:16
I think you know what we're finding is the demand obviously
30:21
is there. We're not seeing a lot of
30:24
schools that are coming up for sale, which we really like.
30:28
We like to, we like to see that. What we're also seeing is that
30:31
there's a tremendous amount of knowledge at from the parents
30:35
perspective about the value of early childhood education.
30:39
So there's less education for us to do about the importance of
30:43
why you're sending your child to the building.
30:44
Kids, there's more, thank God you're here type of mentality
30:49
there. Also, our competitors are there
30:52
and I like that. You know, there's 900 daycares
30:55
and preschools in the Bay Area, you know, within a 30 mile
30:58
radius of where I'm speaking to you from.
31:00
I love competition, you know, and so.
31:03
What do you love about it? Keeps you sharp.
31:06
Well, yeah, exactly, exactly. You know, you have to continue
31:10
to innovate and you have to continue to provide value.
31:15
You have to continue to be a partner to parents in the
31:17
development of their children. And it gives us an opportunity
31:21
to really prove to our parents that select us that they made a
31:27
great decision in picking us. But I also, I like winning and
31:33
to be honest, like, you know, I, I just, I like winning.
31:36
And so, you know, that's why I don't like to compete with my
31:39
family. Like I'd rather just compete
31:41
with people I don't know, you know, and, and, and, and win,
31:45
you know, and so I, I think there's a lot of positive
31:48
reinforcements that come with it.
31:49
And when we, when we lose, I always look at it as an
31:52
opportunity to improve. So, you know, learn about where
31:55
we're falling short, test ourselves out, you know, things
31:58
like that. That's what I like about.
32:00
So you're competitive, You've mentioned participating in
32:04
sports multiple times. What what were your sports were?
32:07
Were you any good to tell us about your?
32:09
Your I think I was good. I was good to a degree.
32:13
I I played baseball, basketball, soccer was my offseason sport
32:17
for 12 years growing up in the age of five.
32:19
I was an all league athlete in baseball and in basketball in
32:23
the Mid Peninsula, the Bay Area. I got a bunch of Division 2
32:25
letters. I got recruited by the Dodgers,
32:28
decided to go to college instead.
32:30
But even the Dodgers recruitment, it was more of a
32:32
conversation. It wasn't like you're going to
32:34
go pro. It was going to go.
32:36
It was I was going to go to the minors.
32:37
I was a pitcher for baseball. I was too skinny.
32:42
I was 64, but I wasn't, I wasn't big enough to and didn't have
32:45
enough a quality jump shot to to go above division two in
32:51
basketball. And my athletic career ended in
32:56
Division 2 college where my fastball tapped out at 89 miles
32:59
an hour. And, you know, in the late 1900s
33:02
when I was playing, it was it wasn't good enough.
33:07
And so, but it taught me a lot. And, you know, other than being
33:12
like probably one of the biggest challenges I ever went through
33:14
in my life, that and maybe one or two other things kind of
33:17
happened to me, you know, that was that was one of the big
33:22
ones. You know, just losing my
33:24
identity at that age, like I wasn't mature enough to really
33:28
handle it from people like interviewing me, being in the
33:31
papers, being recognized for who I was, having to define me, You
33:36
know, the people cheering for me, even though were smaller
33:38
numbers, it was still exciting for me to the silence of it all,
33:43
to feeling like I kind of lost my identity a little bit was it
33:47
was a pretty big challenge for me at that age.
33:49
And I just took that competitive spirit and I just applied it to
33:52
my degree and then just applied it to my career and then just
33:55
applied it to the next thing and the next thing and the next
33:58
thing. And, you know, and I, I can, you
34:01
know, I'm still connected to that kid that I was, you know,
34:05
and, and just try to keep him alive.
34:08
I, I want to touch on this a little bit more because you, you
34:11
bring up something that I find really interesting and it's
34:13
something that I've gone through before when I've exited a
34:17
business venture in the past, My identity was very much attached
34:21
to that business that I had started, that I had built, that
34:24
people had come to know me. For.
34:26
Right. That's oh, Anthony, he's the guy
34:28
that does that. And then when I exited the
34:32
business, that wasn't part of my identity anymore.
34:34
And if I didn't have something new to latch onto, the next
34:38
business venture, in my case, it was very destabilizing.
34:42
And it, it's really hard for me to put it into words for people
34:45
who haven't experienced it before.
34:47
But what you're describing with the the sports career sounds
34:52
like almost the same thing. It's, you know, this was your
34:55
identity. This is what people identify.
34:56
This is what you showed up in the papers for.
34:58
People are cheering for you. And then all the sudden it goes
35:01
away. And it's like, who?
35:03
Who is Sanjay now? Sanjay, you used to be this guy.
35:06
Sanjay was a basketball player. Sanjay was a baseball player.
35:11
Now who's Sanjay? Yeah, and, and I, and I love
35:14
that, Anthony, because I and I didn't learn this in my 20s, but
35:17
I think I picked it up in my in my 40s about being present and
35:21
the importance of being present. How do you get there?
35:24
And I think it for me, at least in my personal journey, and this
35:28
is probably more philosophical and spiritual, but for me, it
35:32
was more about who am I in here, not what you see or your
35:38
interpretation of me or am I memorable or not to you based on
35:43
what I've done. And that's why even when people
35:46
ask me what do you do, I give them the answer of who I am.
35:50
I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a husband, I'm a father.
35:53
These are the things that matter to me the most.
35:56
You know, I'm a small, but even my relationship with my team
35:59
here as a small business owner, knowing that the team that
36:04
people that come into work every day chose us.
36:07
Choose me, choose Vanita, choose Sandeep, choose their teammates.
36:11
I respect them so much for coming in and giving me 100
36:14
percent, 100% of the time. That's all I ask for.
36:17
Just give me 100 percent, 100% of the time.
36:20
We're all going to make mistakes, but when you're out of
36:22
here, I promise you that I'll give you 100 percent, 100% of
36:26
the time, meaning that I'm not going to bother you while you're
36:29
here. Will, let's do it while you're
36:31
not. You're not.
36:32
Go be a mom, go be a dad, go be a brother, go be a sister,
36:36
because those relationships are critically important.
36:38
And I think these are all stepping stones for me, Anthony.
36:40
Like my failures and other things kind of corrected me into
36:44
that maybe. And even some of my successes
36:46
reinforced my internal belief that I arrived at in my early
36:49
40s. But looking back on it, you
36:52
know, I think I was, I, I felt like I'd lost, like you said,
36:55
you know, when you vet, when you exited out of a successful
36:59
business and you're like, oh, well, that's who I was, who am I
37:02
now? Right.
37:03
And I think what I came to the realization is I'm still the
37:06
same person. I'm just doing something
37:08
different. For you, who you are isn't
37:13
defined by what you do. It used to be, but you made a
37:16
transition to when people ask you what you do, you actually
37:19
tell them who you are. I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a
37:22
father. I'm a these.
37:24
These are the. Roles that I play in a in a in
37:27
personal relationships. How I choose to spend my time,
37:32
How I choose to spend the present.
37:35
So for a little while you chose to spend your time in politics.
37:40
Tell me how that came about. There was a there was a bully.
37:45
OK, so schoolyard bully, huh? Yeah.
37:48
Yeah, pretty much. I don't know if he was always
37:53
that way, but he just came across that way, unfortunately,
37:56
with our community. And I'd come back, I'd moved
37:59
back to the community that I was raised in, in Foster City in
38:03
2017. And my wife and I decided that
38:07
we wanted to raise our son in the same village I was raised
38:10
in. And so he came back and, and in
38:15
June of 2018, I was just, I was hanging out with a friend of
38:18
mine and one of his wife's friends came in and she was very
38:23
like, she was crying. And So what happened here?
38:26
She's like, Oh, well, this council member just yelled at me
38:30
and and I was like, what's a what does a council member do?
38:35
What exactly do they do that they're yelling at you?
38:37
It's like, oh, well, you know, they make decisions for the city
38:40
and they want me to support one of their candidates.
38:43
And I said I couldn't. And so he yelled at me in front
38:45
of a bunch of people. And I was like, wait, this is
38:47
happening like where my mom hangs out where my wife is or my
38:51
sister. I mean, what are we talking
38:53
about? Like somebody who has been
38:55
elected by us is abusing us. Like that doesn't seem to add
39:01
up. And so I started doing a little
39:03
bit more homework. It kind of intrigued me, you
39:05
know, about what was going on. And, and I started seeing some
39:09
of that behavior. And I started thinking about the
39:11
culture that our city staff was probably subjected to by a few
39:17
elected officials, in which what this staff's trying to do is
39:22
create an exceptional quality of life for all of us in this
39:25
community. And instead, they're dealing
39:27
with these types of behaviors from elected officials.
39:33
I said, wouldn't it be great if the community just stood up and
39:35
said, no, we don't know. We're going to.
39:38
We're going to have transparent, respectful and independent
39:42
representation. We may not agree on everything,
39:46
but we're going to have that as our culture.
39:50
So I thought about it and kind of forgot about it.
39:53
And then the elections came up and I was just, I was on
39:59
Facebook or something and someone, someone had put this
40:01
post up. Hey, we're looking for really
40:02
good candidates because we really need to and.
40:05
It's the candidates for what? For City Council.
40:07
For City Council, OK, yeah. For City Council, just local
40:09
governance. There's 5 council members that
40:12
drive the policy to the city. And I saw that and I remember
40:16
sitting there and I don't know how long I was sitting on my bed
40:19
for when I saw that, but I almost like it took whatever
40:23
time it took to see the next four years.
40:25
And I was like, OK, like I, I, I want to do this.
40:28
And my parents were outside, my wife was outside.
40:30
And it took me like 2 minutes to walk up to him and say, this is
40:33
what I want to do. What do you think?
40:36
And my sister, Well, so my parents were like, dude, you
40:40
sound like you've already made the decision.
40:42
I'm like, I literally just thought about this like 3
40:44
minutes ago. Like I'm just telling you this
40:46
is how I feel though. They're like, no, we know you.
40:48
It sounds like you've already made a decision.
40:50
We totally support you. And my wife's like, can you
40:53
handle this and building kids and, and everything because it
40:56
was, it was a part time thing. So we talked a little bit
40:58
through that. And I was like, well, I'm going
40:59
to have to talk to Vanita and Sindhi and ask for their
41:01
support. But yeah, you're absolutely
41:03
right. I need to talk to them.
41:05
And my son was like, Oh yeah, Papa, go for it.
41:09
Just going to be awesome. And my sister's like, you're
41:11
born for this. So I was like, OK, came in, I
41:14
talked to Vanita and Sindhi and they said, absolutely, you got
41:17
to do it. So that's, you know, we'll
41:19
support you. We'll we'll pick up the slack.
41:21
We'll work with you. Just go do it.
41:23
Go do it. And so I got this tremendous
41:25
amount of support. I filled out my paperwork two
41:29
days before it was due and I put my feet up on my desk.
41:32
Oh man, I got like two months before this election.
41:35
Like this is plenty of time and everyone here has got like short
41:39
term memory. You know, I just got to come
41:41
through in the next, you know, 4 weeks before the election, make
41:44
a big splash and, and I'll, and I'll be good to go.
41:47
That was on a Thursday. The following Monday, all my all
41:50
my competitive competing candidates signs were out
41:53
throughout the city and I was like, I'm I'm hosed.
41:56
It's over. Like I've got a platform.
41:58
I don't have anything. No one knew me, none of this
42:00
stuff, blah, blah. Long story short, because of the
42:04
grace of many amazing people and because of the support of this
42:09
incredible community, we I got elected.
42:13
I say we because I really believe it's more it was this
42:16
entire organization that was form, but I got elected with the
42:21
most votes in the history of falsity elections up until that
42:24
time. And and it doesn't happen.
42:27
My father had tears in his eyes the night of the election.
42:30
It was like tonight, the night of the election just in 2018 and
42:35
just like tonight. And I was at my election party
42:38
and my father gave me a hug and he was, you know, as a son of an
42:42
immigrant and he's like, I can't believe you.
42:44
You went out and you tried this and, and I'm so proud of you,
42:47
but I just don't want you to get, you know, just if it
42:49
doesn't work out, just don't get disappointed.
42:52
Just don't get disappointed if it doesn't work out.
42:53
You're going up against, you know, planning commissioners and
42:56
people that do this for a living and, and all this stuff.
42:58
So guys like you, it just, it just doesn't necessarily work
43:00
out if you come out of, you know, from the side and.
43:03
Dad's trying to protect you. He's trying.
43:05
To protect you always, always been there behind and always put
43:08
his arm around me and so and my mom's like no, this happened.
43:13
This is. So essentially you got to
43:16
connect the dots. For us, though, two months out,
43:19
you didn't have anything. You didn't have a platform.
43:21
Everybody's signs are in the yards.
43:23
They're light years ahead of where you were.
43:25
How did you not only close the gap to win, but close the gap to
43:30
win by a landslide? What, Like what?
43:32
What were those in between points?
43:34
What happened? How did people get to know you?
43:35
How did you get Well, I think, I think it stems from, I think it
43:38
stems from authenticity. I think that's, that was a
43:41
source that was a source of my energy that I'm going to walk
43:44
out and tell my community that I was raised in this community and
43:46
I don't stand for this type of behavior.
43:48
And yes, we're going to deal with all these different issues
43:50
that I'd identified. I had to go out and do the
43:52
homework. So I mean, a lot of sleepless
43:55
nights for the 1st 2 1/2 weeks studying years of years of
44:01
council meetings to really get, just get, get comfortable with
44:05
what political situation we'll be in, move away from the
44:09
emotional one about the culture and changing all of that.
44:12
But let's get, let's get the foundational policies down,
44:14
right. And so then I could supplement
44:16
that with the appropriate energy level that, hey, you know, if
44:20
you, if you stand with me, we're going to change this whole
44:22
thing. This is how we're going to do
44:24
it. And by the way, this is the
44:25
platform that I stand on. So if that resonates with you,
44:28
I'm your guy, you know, and you're going to have to trust me
44:31
that I've never done this before, but I got what it takes
44:33
to get it done. And so that trust was there and
44:36
I was raised in this community. And so, you know, there were
44:39
people's doors that I knocked on where, you know, I got hugs and
44:42
a lot of support and said, dude, you know, yes, we've been this
44:44
is a breath of fresh air. And I think it's a matter of
44:46
timing also, but more importantly, there were people
44:51
that came out and said, I'm going to stand with you and I'm
44:54
going to help you and I'm going to help us.
44:57
And it wasn't about me. It was about what we stood for
45:02
and their their trust that they were going to put in me to go
45:05
out there represent us. That's what it was all about.
45:10
And so just quick. So how did you deliver the
45:13
message? You know, are you?
45:15
I don't know. Are you on podcasts?
45:17
Are you on the street corner? Are you?
45:20
Organizing the door to door on OK, we did a few videos that got
45:26
seen by quite a few people in the community.
45:30
We even did a video where my wife and I were actually talking
45:34
at one point. People were defaming were like
45:36
just putting weird stuff on my signs and destroying them.
45:39
And the people that didn't want me to win the guy.
45:41
You know, there was another group of people that were very
45:44
much in favor of the same type of behavior because they were
45:46
getting things done from their elected officials that they
45:49
wanted to get done. They didn't want to lose that
45:50
power. And so they were doing things
45:53
and my wife and I were having a conversation about playing fair.
45:57
And she's like, well, you know, we, we got a bunch of friends
46:00
here. Why don't we just take out all
46:01
their signs? You know, I was like, oh, no,
46:03
no, we can't do what they're doing, right?
46:05
And my son was in another room and at the time, you know, he
46:10
had just turned 6 and he was almost turning 6.
46:16
And he remember coming in and going, hey, Papa, like what's
46:20
what's going on? And, and why are they doing this
46:22
to your signs? And I started talking about it.
46:24
Long story short, we turned that into a video, a conversation
46:28
with my son and I walking along one of the Piers in Foster City,
46:31
talking about the importance of playing fair, talking about the
46:34
importance of standing up to this type of behavior and being
46:37
and held responsible for your own actions.
46:40
That got seen by like 20,000 people in my community.
46:43
And so it started resonating that, you know, you know, he's
46:46
got a family. Like he's here with us.
46:48
This is what Sanjay stands for. And you know, by the grace of
46:53
God, hard work, good luck. We ended up getting that council
46:57
member, recall the the other council members that were along
47:02
the same team eventually lost elections in subsequent years.
47:07
We have. Yeah, it was, it was crazy.
47:10
It was a crazy time I went through when I was in four years
47:14
in council. We had seven city managers,
47:16
which is like 7 CE OS of your company.
47:19
We had a change at the city attorneys, 2 chiefs of police, 2
47:23
fire chiefs, two public works directors, 2 park and rec
47:27
directors. I mean, it was just a revolving
47:30
door. Then we threw in the pandemic,
47:32
the fires in California. It was incredibly insane.
47:37
What a hectic time for you to be there and at some point you were
47:40
mayor, am I right? Yes, yeah, yeah, I was.
47:43
So in Foster City we get elected to City Council and selected by
47:46
our peers or vice mayor and mayor.
47:49
And so I was honored by my by my colleagues on council to be I
47:55
was a council member of my first year, vice mayor my second year,
47:59
mayor my third year, and then a council member of my fourth
48:01
year. OK, so their one year terms at
48:04
mayor is? That how it works.
48:05
Yeah, we rotate. Yeah, we just, it's, it's called
48:07
a weak mayor. So there's no, there's no power
48:11
to from from the mayor's position where my vote counts as
48:17
much as the council members or I can veto things, nothing like
48:21
that. Everyone's got the same power.
48:23
I just run the meetings and I'm the face of the community and
48:26
outward of outside events and I speak on behalf of the council
48:30
to our community at events. And so you had a four year term
48:34
there on on council. One of them was as vice mayor,
48:37
one as mayor. Your term was up and you
48:40
decided, OK, I've I've done my public duty and I'm going to go
48:43
back to full time at building kids.
48:46
Any thought of getting back into politics at a different level?
48:50
Or well, in, in, In all fairness, I got tremendous
48:53
support from Benita and Sakit to, to continue if I wanted to,
48:57
OK, but I wanted to, I wanted to, instead of being a little
49:02
bit of something for the rest of the world, I wanted to be the
49:05
world for a few. And so I wanted to be a dad.
49:09
And what I found during that time was I would gave my son
49:14
exposure to what it meant to be a part of the community.
49:17
I've made him, he could feel through me and my efforts and
49:20
energies and just what we were talking about, He became he, he
49:24
actually studied like everyone's campaign, like he just fell in
49:26
love with like everything we were doing.
49:29
And so he became a part of it. And so I felt like even though I
49:32
was dedicating this time away from him, he was getting exposed
49:36
to what it meant to be a part of something bigger.
49:37
And so I felt that was justified.
49:40
But the time is limited for me to spend time with my child.
49:44
And, and by the time it was, you know, at that time, it was
49:49
20/22, he had just turned 10. I wanted to go back to being dad
49:53
coach. I wanted to coach Little League,
49:56
you know, coaches basketball teams.
49:58
And so that was really the driving force where I said, no,
50:01
this one turns enough for now. I want to take all that time
50:04
that I spent on serving my community and I want to take
50:08
that back. And I want to be a dad.
50:10
I want to spend more time with my wife, with my parents are
50:13
getting older. I want, I want that now and then
50:17
kind of see how things go, you know, the, the accountability,
50:23
the responsibility, the, the, the public trust, incredibly
50:28
attractive to me being held accountable to behave a certain
50:31
way to represent our community. It was such an honor.
50:35
You know, I, I would, I would definitely, I'd want to do it
50:38
again. But I think like a few things I
50:41
have to settle up first. Like, you know, things have to
50:43
just take care of a few things first and then maybe dedicate
50:46
myself again. So Sanjay, as we talked about in
50:50
the pre interview, I always like to ask a question about a
50:52
particular challenge either personally or professionally
50:55
that you've gone through, what that was like and lessons that
50:57
you learned coming through the other side.
50:59
And we did talk about the challenge of sort of losing your
51:04
sports career early on, but I wanted to give you a chance in
51:07
case there was something else that you wanted to give voice
51:09
to. Sure.
51:11
I mean, I've got, I got 2 quick ones, you know, if, if that's
51:15
all right, one's in corporate America and one was, you know,
51:20
and one was when I was, when I was on City Council.
51:25
And I had every opportunity for growth when I joined Xilinx in
51:29
August 23rd in 1999, when I started my career there.
51:33
Within a year, they gave me a chance to write an article that
51:36
went or write a part of our operations manual for for a
51:40
device that we were working on to give it transceivers.
51:43
That got that got published. When that got published, I got a
51:46
chance to go to Tokyo, be out there for a year, work with
51:50
Fujitsu, NEC and Sony, come back in the sales, marketing,
51:54
business development, operations, pricing.
51:56
And the whole idea behind that was to give me exposure to all
52:01
aspects of the business so I could be an effective executive.
52:04
I had executive level relationships and I lost them
52:07
all in 2009 and I was in the middle of my MBA and I went from
52:14
someone who was going to be a leader in the organization to
52:18
one person speaking up for me and me keeping a job.
52:24
And that was incredibly humbling.
52:26
That was incredibly humbling because I really thought I was
52:30
going to be a very young executive at Xilinx.
52:32
I, you know, I, I felt like they gave me every chance to succeed
52:36
and I was executing and delivering.
52:39
And when there was complete turnover of the entire executive
52:42
staff, I lost all those relationships and I had a big
52:46
bullseye on my back from people that, whose jobs I'd taken.
52:49
People had competed against me and were still in the
52:52
organization and weren't very thrilled that I got the
52:54
opportunities I got. And, and so, you know, I, I bit
53:02
my lip and just put myself back to work and whatever job that I
53:07
got, I worked hard at that. And I put my faith that
53:11
something will come around. And if not, I'll finish my MBA
53:13
and I'll get a job somewhere else.
53:15
But I was very fortunate that a gentleman came around by the
53:20
name of Dave Tokich. And he, he came in as a senior
53:26
director of partnerships. And not only did I fall in love
53:30
with his energy and the way he carried himself and the human
53:33
being that he is, but I fell in love with the way he the way he
53:37
was doing his work and the work that he was doing.
53:39
And so I remember talking to him in in 2009, mid 2009, I just
53:44
said, Hey, Dave, I got my job that I'm doing.
53:47
But if there's anything that I can do to help you or the
53:50
organization just on the side, just, you know, if you give me
53:53
an opportunity to, to prove to you that I can do it and give me
53:57
an opportunity to learn, I'd appreciate it.
53:59
Gave me a few projects and then came up to me about six months
54:02
after that and said, Hey, you know, you want a shot, Come on
54:05
over. And, and that kind of, yeah,
54:08
breathe. It was a breath of fresh air for
54:10
my career again. And I was able to move forward.
54:12
And I guess what I learned from that is even when times get
54:15
tough, you know, to just really lock down and, and just hug the
54:19
people that you love and, and kind of just, you know, remember
54:23
that your strength can come from within.
54:26
And there's a lot. And if you have people that love
54:28
you, just cherish that because the rest of it's extremely
54:32
fragile. So that was that was one lesson
54:34
that I learned from that. That was a pretty tough time in
54:36
my life. The other one was, you know,
54:40
when I picked the fight with this bully and I thought, and I,
54:43
you know, that was on council and I won the election.
54:47
I walked in like, hey, man, this, this fight's over.
54:50
Like I won, this is over. And it wasn't.
54:55
And they, they tried to, they as in him and my perception, this
55:02
is my perceptional him and a few others try to Take Me Out and
55:06
the sense of destroy my credibility within the
55:09
community. And they stated that I try to do
55:13
some shady dealings and behind count, you know, behind outside
55:18
of the public eye and that I'd violated certain rules and
55:23
regulations. They try to get me removed from
55:25
council and, and during that period of time, I had to learn a
55:32
very important lesson because ah, my friends tell me this, I
55:36
have thin skin. So for me, if someone insulted
55:42
me or my family, like there had to be something else that I had
55:46
to do to overcome that by insulting them or what not.
55:49
Growing up and what this taught me as a council member, you
55:54
can't do that. So I had to learn.
55:56
I had to keep my mouth shut for seven months.
55:59
That's not easy. Oh, it was brutal.
56:02
When your integrity's being attacked, that's not easy.
56:05
And my mom had a seat in the papers and it was just, it was,
56:08
it was, it was tough, it was painful.
56:13
It it was hurtful, it was painful, it was frustrating.
56:17
I, I exercised more like I just took it out.
56:21
I tried to, I always try to tear negative stuff into positive.
56:24
I always try to do that. And so I try to like just keep
56:27
pushing, pushing, pushing. And but, you know, fortunately,
56:31
I think by by putting my faith in in those that put their faith
56:36
in me and and you know, and working with them and working
56:39
with the community and working with, you know, continue doing
56:41
the work of the community. I was able to to work with
56:45
organizations that recalled that council member.
56:49
I kind of broke apart that entire triumvirate destroyed
56:53
that. And then we were able to
56:54
introduce an amazing culture at City Hall that was much more
57:00
about support, about autonomy, accountability, way less about
57:08
being yelled at for making mistakes and things like that
57:11
and just being abused, which was incredibly rewarding because we
57:16
were able to give back to the people that give our community
57:18
so much from so. Let me see if I understand what
57:22
happened here at a high level. Sanjay, you won the election, so
57:27
now you're a council member, but some of the remaining council
57:29
members is probably as well as the one that you had just
57:31
ousted. They're coming.
57:33
After we didn't oust anybody there yet.
57:35
OK. Yeah, yeah.
57:36
Well, but you, you won the election, weren't you replacing
57:38
somebody then? Well.
57:40
There was someone that was stepping off there.
57:42
There was one person that was stepping off, actually two
57:44
people. And then there were a bunch of
57:46
people running for those seats. So the yeah, the the three
57:49
people that the team that they formed was based upon the
57:52
results of the election. They picked up one, had two and
57:55
then there were two others. So they were out of five.
57:57
They were controlling the counts.
58:00
OK, so one of them was a bully. The people that were remaining,
58:04
one of them was a bully. He comes after you.
58:06
He starts making up some stuff. He's saying some really bad
58:08
things. He's getting stuff written about
58:10
you in the papers. This is hard to see.
58:12
There's probably a part of you that wants to swing back.
58:15
You, you know you, you want to protect yourself, you want to
58:18
defend yourself. But you came up with a different
58:20
plan. You're like, hey, there's a
58:22
process to get this guy recalled.
58:25
I'm going to go through that process.
58:26
Let's just let's just take the poison out of the council.
58:31
Let's just remove it all together.
58:33
That like that's a bigger project than just snapping back
58:37
at him. But the end result is, is way
58:41
more positive. Did I understand all of that?
58:43
Correctly, 100% right and and it was a commitment to serve
58:47
without regard for award. I said I'm sitting there, but in
58:51
this seat based on the trust that my friends and neighbors
58:56
have put in me and I'm going to serve without regard for reward
58:59
and put them first. And if, and that's easy to say
59:02
when things are going well, but you find out what your values
59:06
are when you get challenged. And when I got challenged,
59:09
that's what I committed to as opposed to my own feelings.
59:14
Serve without regard for reward. And that's how you approached
59:18
your public service. Yes, Sir.
59:21
I like that. I'm going to put it on AT shirt.
59:25
I'm glad. I'm glad you're keeping me on my
59:27
path. Thank you for that compliment.
59:30
Absolutely. Sanjay, I just have one more
59:32
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
59:34
let people know the best way to get in touch with you.
59:36
You've got an infectious energy. Maybe people are looking at, you
59:40
know, they want to get you back into a public service.
59:43
Maybe they're interested in the franchise opportunity.
59:45
What's the best way for people to connect with you?
59:48
Again, the best way is just to just to reach out on
59:50
buildingkids.com. Just share your information with
59:53
us. Just go to buildingkids.com.
59:55
That's kids with AZ and just submit.
59:59
You know, if you want to reach out to me, you can reach out to
1:00:01
me there. You can send me an e-mail.
1:00:03
Sanjay GSANJAY g@buildingkidswithaz.com.
1:00:10
Send us, send me an e-mail. Happy to connect you know and.
1:00:16
I love meeting great people, Anthony, you know you've got
1:00:18
great energy. I can't thank you enough for
1:00:21
giving me an opportunity to share our story and what we're
1:00:24
doing here on your platform. And congratulations on all of
1:00:28
your success. I appreciate all those kind
1:00:31
words and the the honour's truly been mine, Sanjay.
1:00:34
So last question I have for you is I kind of want the your
1:00:39
perspective on where you see the childcare industry going in the
1:00:43
next couple of years. What do you see the big changes
1:00:45
are that are coming? Nationally, you know, I think I
1:00:54
think it's a little bit more, it's going to be interesting,
1:00:57
you know, because we've had this conversation before, a decade
1:01:00
ago, 2 decades ago, how, you know, a lack of affordable
1:01:05
childcare or high quality childcare has not only
1:01:08
implications on children and their development because they
1:01:11
do develop better. And, and we've got tremendous
1:01:14
amount of studies that children that are exposed to great
1:01:17
programs at a very young age have better outcomes.
1:01:20
But how the impact it has on women in the workforce, because
1:01:26
we even saw this in the pandemic, the impact on women
1:01:29
was completely unfair compared to us with regards to access to,
1:01:35
to jobs, having to stay home with the children, things like
1:01:38
that. So we've had this conversation
1:01:40
before and we're at that cusp again, you know, so it's very
1:01:45
difficult. There's a lot of fog in that
1:01:46
crystal ball when you talk about where nationally we're headed
1:01:50
from a childcare perspective. But if you take a look at some
1:01:52
of the messaging that's been coming out with regards of it
1:01:55
being a dialogue or A at least a, a policy topic about the
1:02:01
importance of affordable, high quality childcare, not just
1:02:05
affordable childcare, but really, really driving a, you
1:02:09
know, I think I think we're having the right conversations.
1:02:12
I think the deployment of that leaves a lot to be desired.
1:02:16
We're, we're seeing that, whether it be in California and
1:02:18
other states, it's, you know, some states are doing it right,
1:02:22
Some states are not, you know, And so I think that we need to
1:02:26
continue to have that conversation with our elected
1:02:28
officials, educate them on the implications of the decisions
1:02:33
that they're making and keep the focus on children and families.
1:02:39
And, and I think, you know, if we do a good job, if we actually
1:02:43
do a good job of creating opportunities for children to be
1:02:49
exposed to exceptional world class environments consistently
1:02:54
between the ages of infancy and five, I think we'll do a
1:02:57
tremendous service to our country.
1:03:00
The, the results will come, you know, 1517 years later, you'll
1:03:04
see great things from these children, not just because of
1:03:07
the, the preschool that they went to, but partially because
1:03:10
of the preschool that we used. I love it, Sanjay, I want to be
1:03:14
the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:03:16
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:03:19
Thank you, Anthony. Thanks for the opportunity.
1:03:22
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:03:25
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:03:26
today.