"No one is going to come and hand over the magic wand, it's in your hands and thoughts."
Gayathri Guntha Tweet
Gayathri is an MBA graduate turned creative educationist out of passion. Starting with Gurukul, Telugu Bharati, Telugu Badi, and Jeeyar Education Trust in the United States, and now with minipreneurs, Buzzing Bees, and Acharyas, Gayathri’s focus has always been creative learning and holistic development of kids.
Over the past 6 years, she gained experience in designing multiple curriculums and teaching creatively to 2000 plus kids and families.
Gayathri evangelized creativity & innovation through minipreneurs to unleash the latent potential of kids and make them future-ready. Her efforts in education and in raising funds for a blind school got her US Presidential Award.
A social butterfly who always brings people along stays connected and provides a platform for parents, educationists in Bangalore.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Gayathri Guntha: Women juggle multiple roles and responsibilities and it is extremely important to find the inner passion, the inner fire that takes us beyond the regular life. I juggle between being a loving wife, a responsible mom, and someone with a strong desire to get a sense of accomplishment in anything beyond my regular activities. Gayathri Vamsi, founder, and CEO of BuzzingBees has carved a niche in this venture by bringing together her passion for teaching, working with children, and leading a healthy lifestyle.
Am an MBA graduate, Gayathri first discovered my love and flair for teaching as I homeschooled my sons—now well-adjusted and caring teenagers—while living in the United States. I developed effective methods of teaching and designing a curriculum that uses creative worksheets and fun activities.
Am one of the recipients of the US presidential award, recognizing my exemplary contribution in the field of education as a volunteer. Upon my return to India, I co-founded ‘Acharyas for better community’ and Minipreneurs. The former is an NGO that works towards improving the quality of education in government schools in Karnataka and the latter, is an educational venture to motivate young minds to become innovators and entrepreneurs using design thinking.
Keen to see more and more kids benefit from my teaching methodology, I founded BuzzingBees in the year 2018 with a vision of providing holistic education to kids in a creative and fun environment. We started with 4 kids and grew to have 150 children within 2 years.
During the pandemic and our online, we catered to 500 plus families and went stronger each day.
Within a short span, BuzzingBees grew in size and popularity. Fellow parents extended their genuine appreciation and support due to the well-thought-out curriculum that includes phonics, reading, story-based learning, social skills-and-life skill-building activities as well as workshops on parenting and emotional intelligence.
Inculcating healthy food habits at an early age is a significant component of parenting and I try to weave in my culinary skills as a tool to inspire and educate young kids.
Our main objective at BuzzingBees is to make learning fun and encourage children to be lifelong learners and focus on life skills and fill in the gaps that the education system leaves.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curveballs into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple of years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Gayathri Guntha: 2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curveballs. There is no one on this earth who is not impacted by the pandemic either directly or indirectly. Again, if we see pain as pain it is going to hurt you. You start feeling the obstacles or pains or challenges, understand it and you make it your companion, it teaches you a lesson rather than continue to hurt you. Then you grow and evolve.
At times, inconvenience is necessary to overcome and evolve. The lesson the pandemic had taught me is that I will grow when I come out of my comfort zone. The right mindset is all is required to face the challenges and uncertainty and move forward.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Gayathri Guntha: Businesses should focus on transforming themselves. The world is changing fast and we must be ready to adapt to the new changes quickly. Having the right attitude and right mindset to innovate quickly so we can adapt to the new changes by adding new services or modifying the current ones in order to meet the demands of the market is very essential.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Gayathri Guntha: Pandemic has changed every industry. I don’t think there is any aspect or areas that are directly or indirectly been impacted by the pandemic. The education industry is majorly been hit during the pandemic with millions of schools closed.
The majority of the schools quickly adapted to the online system but not every child has the privileges’ or required infrastructure to attend the online schools. Children faced many problems because of online setup, lack of self-motivation, distractions, lack of social interactions, etc. And at the same time, teachers also faced challenges to adapt to the new ways of life, technical challenges.
At BuzzingBees we took more than the industry standards to adapt to the Zoom way of teaching as I didn’t believe in distance learning. Slowly things changed and we started Online sessions, workshops, and classes which opened up the horizons that’s beyond my dreams and imaginations.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Gayathri Guntha: The best advice that I wished I received when the pandemic just started was that stop waiting for someone to come and change my life and create new opportunities. No one is going to come and hand over the magic wand, it’s in your hands and thoughts. I came out of my comfort zone of physical classes and workshops and started on Zoom and am Unstoppable.
in 2022, I would be more focused and committed and not leave any opportunity that I come along with. Acknowledging and realizing my fears and working on those because fears limit your growth. Practice gratitude to unfold the magical path ahead of me and my growth. Letting go of negative people and working on building the right attitude and mindset.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Gayathri Guntha: Every challenge opens to new opportunities. Pandemic has changed the world and surged online businesses and opened a world of opportunities for some businesses. Digitalization thrived across the globe and made our lives easier too. My expectations for 2022 are to grow in my work by working with Corporates and Schools. I would like to enroll myself in a few Internationally certified courses and grow. Success comes to those who embrace challenges and we have experienced this during the last 2 years I am looking for more challenges and be successful in 2022.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Gayathri Guntha: I spend about 6 to 8 hours in front of the screen on a typical working day.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Gayathri Guntha: Storytelling is a powerful tool to communicate. I predominantly work with Parents and Children. I use storytelling, stories, and books to create interest, keep distraction at bay among children through stories.
We use role-plays and stories mainly during Parent Coaching to convey Power, Persuasion, and Purpose. Stories influence my clients, parents who come for coaching related to their children.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Gayathri Guntha: Life is all about how we face each curveball, each challenge thrown at us. The real challenge for us now currently is marketing. We have thought through and come up with some strategies, now we need to get started with implementations.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Gayathri Guntha: 2022, for me is a year of learning, Am looking forward to adding a few Internationally recognized certifications and Learning about digital marketing, Social media marketing, learning about SEOs, and working on my website.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job in 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Gayathri Guntha: Yes, most of the time self-evaluations are missed and we don’t see our own blind spots, It is good to look inward and realize what we are doing to our employees and change accordingly.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Gayathri Guntha: If I had the ability to pick any business superpower that would be to be an amazing Story Teller with a lot of conviction and imagination.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Gayathri Guntha: Success in 2022 is Learn Evolve and Grow both personally and professionally.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Gayathri Guntha for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Gayathri Guntha or her company, you can do it through her – Facebook Page
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