#31: Faith in Possibility with Dori Roberts, Founder & CEO of Engineering For Kids
Have people ever told you that you're crazy for wanting to quit your job to focus on your business?
Dori Roberts, Founder and CEO of Engineering for Kids, certainly heard those exact same things but she didn’t let them stop her.
Currently, Engineering for Kids have franchises in 26 countries in over 150 locations!
In this interview, Dori shares how:
As a single mother of two, she left her teaching job in the middle of the recession in 2009 to start her company
It all paid off when she learned how much kids (as young as 4 years old!) and their parents loved and enjoyed her program.
Her own two children have been part of the business since day one!
Listen to my interview with Dori for tips to discover if you're also ready to take that leap of faith.
Learn more about Dori here: https://www.engineeringforkids.com or follow her on Instagram @doriroberts.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
This is the Scale with Joy podcast, episode 31: faith in possibility with Dori Roberts.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Scale with Joy show, a podcast about scaling your company while living your most purposeful life, because here's the thing: there are no rules to say you can't grow a massively profitable empire and have joy in the everyday. My name is Laura Meyer and let's get started.
(00:34):
Are you somebody who's listening and you've been dreaming about quitting your day job, but you just need that little bit of extra inspiration? If you've been told that you're crazy for dreaming about this, Dori Roberts was a single mother of two who left her teaching job in the middle of a recession in 2009 and went on to found and become the CEO of Engineering for Kids, a STEM program for afterschool students and summer camps that are now in 26 countries and 150 locations. It all paid off and just when she learned how much kids as young as four years old and their parents enjoyed their program, she was able to actually include her own children in the process of scaling, which is going to be so inspirational for those of you who are listening, who really want to take that leap of faith and feel like maybe things are stacked up against you. Dori is a huge inspiration. So stay tuned for the next interview on the Scale with Joy podcast with Dori Roberts.
(01:46):
Hey everybody. And welcome back. I am here with my friend, Dori Roberts, and you may not know Dori, but you may know her company, Engineering for Kids. If you have a kid and engineering for kids is local to you, you've probably heard of it. Your kids might be in the program and what you might not know is this awesome chick who started it all. So thank you, Dori. I asked her to be here with me today because she has done so much to advocate for creativity, women in engineering and sciences. And she also did this as a single mom. So it's so cool. So you think all moms out there, the women that love single moms, she is going to be a total inspiration. So thank you Dori for coming. T.
Dori (02:29):
Thank you, Laura. I appreciate you having me love what you're doing and this is exciting to be part of this.
Laura (02:34):
Cool. Awesome. So if you wouldn't mind sharing with our audience here a little bit about how you got started and then what your company is like today.
Dori (02:42):
Sure, sure. So I'm a former high school engineering teacher. And through that process, I also was the school's advisor for the technology student association. And that's an afterschool club in which kids can participate and compete nationally against other schools in areas of engineering, science, technology, things like that. While I was doing that, I had my own children and my own kids fell in love with what my high school students were doing. And so through that, I started thinking about, okay, what can I do to involve my own kids more? They were only five and seven at the time.
(03:28):
And so I had already been thinking about this because I had so many kids who would come into my program and they would find out about my classes because of the club. And they heard that the club was fun. So I was getting people signing up for my classes. Didn't really know what engineering was. And especially girls who said, I wish I had known about this sooner. This is so much fun. I love engineering. I really wish someone had told me how great this was sooner. So I started thinking about the fact that we need to get kids excited about engineering, excited about STEM subjects, at an earlier age. There is a gap, unfortunately, in the career space and in really all STEM fields, but specifically engineering women are very underrepresented. And so this really was something that I could do as a single mom, involve my own kids in the business, but also inspire kids at a much younger age to get excited about STEM fields.
(04:41):
So I started Engineering with Kids and at first I was just a volunteer mom at my kid's school doing afterschool programs. And through at the program I had teachers and the principal and parents ask me, you know, do you have any summer programs? Do you do birthday parties? What else do you do? They really wanted more. So I thought, okay, this could be a business. And I started engineering for kids and started adding more programs, adding more curriculum. It took off. So I did, I took the, I took the leap. I, I quit my teaching job. I started running Engineering for Kids full time and adding more programs, adding more curriculum, going into schools, doing afterschool programs. We had summer camps going on and we started doing birthday parties. I expanded my age range. So initially I was just working with elementary school kids.
(05:37):
I added preschool programs. I added middle school programs. I wanted to make sure I had enough of a variety of programs and an age range so that I can make a good living off of it and support my kids. So it took off after a couple of years into it, I started getting people, contacting asking me, can I buy your curriculum? Or do you have an Engineering for Kids in Chicago? Or where can I find a program like this you know, in Australia, I started getting a ton of communications asking for my curriculum. So I started doing the research and looked at different business models. And I found that franchising really was the best way to grow Engineering for Kids. It's one of those businesses where you really need an owner operator that knows their own community best.
(06:31):
And so started franchising at the end of 2011. And we are currently in 26 countries and we have a little over 150 locations worldwide. So it's been very exciting and my kids are still involved in the business from day one, a little bit different. Cause they're older, they're now actually teachers for me. It's really fun for me to see them teaching. So yeah, it's been, it's been a wild ride.
Laura (07:06):
Yeah, I bet. So let's go back. Lots of things I want to ask you that I know our audience is going to love, but let's go back to that moment where you quit your job. Was there anybody in your life that was like, what kind of crazy pill did you take or was everyone pretty supportive?
Dori (07:22):
It was, it was hard because it was 2009. We were in the middle of a pretty big recession and I had people tell me, you are crazy, this is the worst time to start a business. What are you doing? And I had enough interest at that point. Cause I did the first year I was doing this part time while I was still teaching. So, you know, going from part time to full time, I had to make sure I did a lot of work to make sure that I did have enough programs so that I could make a living. But you know, when I very first started, I had someone tell me, you know you're crazy. You're not gonna get any kids signed up. And so my very first summer camp, I said, no way, I'll be happy if I get 15 kids sign up. And I got 50 in my first. And so I think that even though we were in the middle of a bad recession, I think that parents were careful to spend their money wisely. And I had heard from other camp providers that their programs had really low numbers, like sports camps and things like that. And I think parents had a limit limited budget and they wanted something that would be very meaningful. And you know, Engineering for Kids is a program that can help their kids long-term. I think that's why it works. I think parents understand the importance of STEM education.
Laura (08:55):
Awesome. That's awesome. And it was probably pretty like a pretty new conversation too at that point. Right. Not as common as it is today.
Dori (09:03):
Yeah. So STEM really wasn't a buzzword back then. And so the idea of Engineering for Kids was very new. I had zero competition back then and yeah, so it was something that I had, some people say seriously, you're going to teach engineering to kids. And I start at age four. So I had parents say seriously? A four-year-old? Engineering? You know, and it's amazing what four-year old’s can do. They're very, very smart. I think that some people at first were kind of confused by the business idea. I'm thrilled beyond words that has turned out the way that it has.
Laura (09:42):
So awesome. So that's a great answer in terms of like people thought you were crazy. What I also want to share with people is that you had a safety net. It wasn't like you had an idea and then you were like, I'm quitting my job. I had this great idea or I took this course from so and so, and they're going to teach me how to quit my job. You waited until you had enough momentum, enough customers, enough that you could conservatively say, you know, if I had this many, I would be okay before you made that jump, which I think is so wise.
Dori (10:10):
It's risky. I’ve got kids and had to make sure that, you know, I can, can support them. And I did have to make some lifestyle changes, you know, to make it work and you know, a few sacrifices, but you know, in the end, my kids didn't really notice the difference and I included them in everything, you know? So back then they were helping me stuff envelopes and put signs out in the yard and they were, they were my Guinea pig for all of my curriculum. I, you know, I tested everything out on them. So they were excited to be a part of it.
Laura (10:52):
And how did they continue to be involved as you grew the company?
Dori (10:56):
So they continue to be my Guinea pig so they would join the classes. And it's funny because my kids are very different. And so I would put them in, you know, anytime I had any curriculum, things like that, I would put them in the classes and I would sometimes not be there as to not make my helper super nervous my kids in there. And they come home and I'd ask how it went. And my son, Matthew, he's the younger one, would say we liked this activity, but the teacher talked too much. And so he would give me that kind of critique and my daughter would come home and she would give me a very analytical critique of everything. She would say things like, well, the teacher needs to spend more time on giving instruction on the project and, you know, she would be very analytical and just completely analyzing, but my son would come home and be like yeah, it was really fun.
Laura (11:50):
So they were your secret shoppers. Which saves you a lot of money because if anybody has hired secret shoppers, you know that that's actually a pretty expensive service.
Dori (11:59):
Yes. And kids are very honest, so they would tell me everything.
Laura (12:01):
So good. As I was looking at some of your info. And so for everyone to know Dori and I have been friends for a while, we were in similar mastermind together when I was a franchise or, and so I was still seeing, well, what do I not know about Dori? And I didn't realize that you have a lot of locations and countries where traditionally women have not served any kind of leadership role. Has that been difficult to expand into like middle Eastern countries where, you know, traditionally, you know, for the most part, women don't run companies? They don't, they're not inventors and entrepreneurs. I mean, I know that's changing, but traditionally that's been the case. So it has been interesting.
Dori (12:42):
So we have had a lot of interest in Asian countries, specifically, that's where most of our international locations are. So there's a very high interest in education and there's a very high interest in bringing education from the US to that part of the world. I did have in our discovery day process. I had one gentleman I'm not so nice to me. He just could not wrap his head around the fact that a woman was the CEO of Engineering for Kids. And he ended up not purchasing, which is, you know, just wasn't the right fit for Engineering for Kids for that country. But yeah, it is, it is interesting. The culture is very different. And so we have one of our countries where we're in, women are not allowed to teach. So we have all male teachers.
(13:35):
So, you know, there's, there's different kind of nuances with, with different countries, but we also have some female leaders, which is, which is awesome. So I would say system-wide more than 70% of all of our franchisees are women, which is really cool. Ups and downs, but overall it's been positive.
Laura (14:00):
Has there been any other challenges that you've run into just as a woman who has, you know, been leading up something that is traditionally a male dominated field?
Dori (14:10):
I would say, not necessarily other challenges, but I think that it has been maybe in the opposite direction where it had maybe has been inspiring. So I think that I have found that there are franchisees who are happy that there's a woman CEO and these are other women. They're happy to see it because I think that my franchisees, my female franchisees, they are also interested in inspiring girls to get interested in engineering. And so we share that common interest of wanting to inspire girls to enter STEM fields. So it's worked in my advantage in that direction.
Laura (14:57):
What would you say to somebody who has maybe a daughter who's very interested in engineering? What would you say to that person to help their daughter, you know, become encouraged and excited about being in the sciences like what's can they do to foster that excitement?
Dori (15:14):
Well, other than come to an Engineering for Kids program, I would say that teaching girls or showing girls the softer side of engineering. So I think that a lot of girls who aren't yet exposed to what engineers do, don't quite understand that engineers ultimately are solving problems to help people. And I think that the reason why women do get interested in engineering is because it does pull on the heartstrings. So you've got certain fields of engineering. Biomedical engineering, when you are creating a prosthetic or, you know, you're doing things that are saving lives. And I think that women are really drawn to careers that kind of pull on my heart strings and we love helping people. And so I think when you start to show girls that side of engineering, I think they become much more excited about it.
Laura (16:15):
Oh my gosh. That's awesome. So like, if they're like, maybe you just try to introduce them to people who are in those fields or go to a science center that features those types of roles in addition to going to Engineering for Kids, of course.
Dori (16:28):
Yeah, absolutely. If there's a, a local female engineer that can come and talk to a class or anything like that, or there's any kind of program that they can get involved in, a lot of universities will have engineering days. And a lot of universities will have programs specifically for girls, which is an awesome time to go and learn more about the field and what it takes to be an engineer and what all it entails once you become an engineer.
Laura (17:00):
That is so awesome. So what would you say are some of your tougher leadership lessons? We didn't plan this question. So if you need to take a minute and you're more than welcome, or be like some of your toughest leadership lessons as new grown organization, that's in 26 countries and 150 locations, like what are some of the things that you you've had to kind of figure out as you've gone from teacher to CEO?
Dori (17:26):
That's a great question. It has been interesting going from teacher to CEO. It's very different and very much the same, you know, I, I guess it's very similar in that I have, instead of fostering students, you know, I'm fostering franchisees, you know, helping them grow, whereas as teacher I'm helping students grow. So in that it's, it's similar, but yeah, so I don't have a background IN business and many, many entrepreneurs don't. And so there have been a lot of things that I've had to learn along the way, and especially being the founder, you know, in the very beginning I did everything. I created all the curriculum. I did the teaching; I did everything on the backend business side of things. And so when I initially started Engineering for Kids, I thought that I needed a lot of people to grow. And I thought that I needed to delegate all those hats in and have a large staff. And what I've learned is that that's not necessarily the best way to go, that there are a lot of resources out there that can save you a lot of money in employee costs.
(18:41):
And so I've learned to outsource things, so really learning what are the best things to outsource and what are the best things to hire people for. That I think, has been one of the hardest things to figure out. And now I am, my company is lean and mean, and I outsource the things that are much better left to the experts, who you know, whether it's website or marketing, you know, whatever it is that you know is best suited for a company that specializes in that.
Laura (19:17):
Yeah. It's so funny. Cause you do get to a certain point in your business and you're like, wow, there's marketing agencies and pay them monthly and they do the thing and like, they don't have to be on your staff. It's pretty amazing when you come to that, to that point and with other things too. And do you think, how do you think that like doing all the jobs from the beginning, how do you think that has impacted your credibility as a leader?
Dori (19:41):
I think it helped a lot. I think that I know what each of those hats, you know, what it entails to do that job. So I think it's definitely been beneficial to every, I think every business owner should, should know exactly what their staff members are going through. So I think it definitely has helped.
Laura (20:05):
Yeah. It's funny. Cause I was talking to somebody the other day and they were saying like, oh, you know, I'm thinking about starting this company. And then I would just, I would just hire people to do those jobs that I don't know how to do. And I was really challenged that I was like, I know it's painful, but like for you to know how the finance operation runs in your company, before you outsource it to a finance person, it's going to save you a lot of heartache as much as you want to skip that step. If you're not a finance person, you know? Yes. It saves you a lot of heartache. So I just want to thank you so much for being part of this and for sharing your wisdom and sharing your story and inspiring so many. And you're a single mom and you just want somebody to fist bump you, she will do that for you and on your journey. And I just want to thank you again for being here.
Dori (20:54):
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Laura (21:00):
Make sure to visit our website, www.joybrand.com/podcast where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS so that you'll never miss an episode. While you're at it, if you find a value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on iTunes or if you just simply tell a friend about it, that would help us out a lot too. Thanks so much for listening.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.