In the Club
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In the Club
EP 34: Transforming Youth Sports: AJ and Yusif's Impact with Tots United
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What if your child's sports experience could be transformed into something truly engaging and impactful?
Join us for an inspiring conversation with AJ and Yusuf from Tots United, a flourishing football academy in Scotland. Sparked by AJ's personal experience as a frustrated parent, this duo combined their unique skills—AJ's background in physical education and Yusuf's legal expertise—to revolutionize youth sports in their community. Their story is one of passion turned into a thriving reality, making Tots United a beacon for quality coaching and child-centered sports programs.
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Welcome to another episode of In the Club. This time round, unfortunately for you guys, you've only got me at the intro-outro because Rebecca's decided to take a little holiday. Isn't that nice of her. But don't worry, you won't miss out on Rebecca's dulcet tones, because she's the one that conducts the interview in this podcast. Who have we got this week? We have AJ and Yusuf from Totch United, who are long-time friends and customers of Class for Kids. A few months ago we went out to see the guys to do a film shoot at their football academy, which is premium, as they'll tell you in the interview and you know what. Without further ado, let's just go straight into it. Here is Youssef and AJ from Tots United.
Speaker 2:So welcome back to a brand new episode of In the Club. Today I have AJ and Youssef from Tots United. Welcome to the podcast guys. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, very well, thank you very much. Great thanks, rebecca. Great to be here.
Speaker 2:Good to have you on our podcast. I was just asking you before we started recording is this your first podcast? Unfortunately it's not, but you are on In the Club for the first time. How does it feel to be sat in the Class for Kids podcasting seats?
Speaker 4:Brilliant, fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are you thinking of the studio set up?
Speaker 3:Fantastic studio. Yeah, great to be here. It's always such fun when we come along to the Class for Kids headquarters and, yeah, really happy to be here.
Speaker 2:So, as I said, it's the first time on the podcast with Class for Kids. Tell me a little bit about Tots United and how did it come to be. How did you get the idea of starting to work together collaboratively and now running a very successful football academy in the west of Scotland?
Speaker 4:yeah, so Tots United.
Speaker 4:So we came about, so I took my youngest um, amr, who's now five. So I took him to a couple of football um clubs, um, kind of quite big fish, to be honest, and and when he went there it's just quite flat um, and I think, especially because I'm from the kind of children's sports sector I'm a PE teacher, I've coached all my days, etc. And I found it quite difficult because he wasn't really engaging in it. And I came back and I said to Yusuf, like who I've known all my life is my best friend, and look, we can do better than this. You know, because I ended up taking the class, more or less because I was just running the room with the kids, he was disengaged, he didn't want to go and I just had this thing. I said, look, I think we could set something up and do a much better job. And then basically we sat around my dining table with a pizza and we just then planned it out to have a class in Renfrew where we were, and it just evolved massively from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so your backgrounds in PE, teaching and coaching Yusuf, I think I remember your background is slightly different. What's your kind of background? What did you do before?
Speaker 3:and Tots United yeah, so I'm a lawyer by profession and I'm still a lawyer. I'm still, you know, very much involved on in that side of things. So that's my professional background. And then obviously Tox United has come along and the way things have grown and developed a lot of both our times. It's pretty intense and it's full on in Tox United.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean a lot of my kind of legal skills. They're very much transferable into the work that I do for Tox United, taking care of all the legal aspects and ensuring that the business runs smoothly and is running optimally.
Speaker 2:So you're at home, on whatever night it is, aj comes along and says to you Yusuf, I've got a great idea we're going to start a football academy. What was the first reaction to that? Because, was it? Yeah, let's do it. Or are you kind of like, have you had a bad day? Like, did you just need a pizza?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I was genuinely curious, you know, when he came to me with the proposition and I had, incidentally, just come back from Dubai at the time. So I was based out there for several years and ran my own legal practice there.
Speaker 2:A lot of football academies out there as well a lot of our customer base is out there, so kind of a nice tie-in Sport is huge over there.
Speaker 3:yeah, and given our background, predates our professional working side of things, we're football people, people, that's what we grew up playing, that was our. You know, that's what we love doing. So you know that that was a very kind of natural pull for us to do something involved in sport and in football. Um, so when he came up with the proposition, we kind of of discussed it, looked into it and I think we identified a need for high quality football classes in our local community. There was just nothing available and, as Eiji mentioned, he struggled to find anything for his kids. Certainly that was the case initially and then when he did, it was quite a distance away, so it involved a long commute. And then when he eventually did enroll his child into the class and started attending, he found it, you know, just lacking in energy and enthusiasm.
Speaker 2:um, and what do you think caused that lack of enthusiasm? Do you think it was something to do with, maybe, the ethos of the, the academies that you were sending them to? Was that the quality and caliber of the coaches, what would you say, ultimately led to?
Speaker 4:I'm not sure, I mean, I think, because I'm just naturally super energetic, all like just 24, 7 and and I just felt it was just flat, you know. I thought you want to be role models. You know, engaging children, getting them active. This is the perfect age and stage. You know, if you get them young, get them active, moving, and, who knows, they can really prosper and things. And it just'm not sure it could have been philosophy of values. I'm not too sure, to be honest.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge believer that people buy into people.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think for your industry in particular, parents need to be bought into the coaches that they're sending to their kids with classes too, because if there's somebody that's not engaging their child, somebody that's not making it fun and high energy, it's a little bit kind of where's the value, like what am I paying for? So what would you say? Your usp is at tox united. You know what's your unique selling point. What do you make that makes you stand out from a crowd and in your area? I mean, it sounds like there's maybe not a lot and that's kind of a gap in the market there. But if there was another academy kind of what would you say? Is your usp no?
Speaker 3:it's a great question and I think we have quite a few USBs. Actually, fundamentally right at the top is that all our classes are underpinned by our ethos and philosophy of care and love. Now, these are actually acronyms for the values that our classes inspire in children Confidence, achievement, respect, enjoyment, learning, optimism, vitality, empowerment. All of these things come through in every touch united class, and children are inspired by that. We've not seen this anywhere else.
Speaker 2:Children are going to experience that, be inspired by that at touch united I absolutely love an acronym, first of all, and I love that you've got these great acronyms that you have in your values and actually that's what represents you and that's your identity. So, thinking about your USP and thinking back to when Tots United first started, what would you say was the biggest challenge for both of you as friends coming together to start a business? Something relatively new. You already had the background and the knowledge maybe of coaching and the passion for football, but starting a business is no easy task. What were the kind of biggest challenges you faced?
Speaker 3:that's an easy one. The biggest challenge was um getting to grips and managing our perfectionism. So we are perfectionists and we set very high standards for ourselves in everything that we do, and we knew that when we set up tots united, it needs to be brilliant yeah um every aspect of it.
Speaker 3:It needs to exude um excellence, quality, and we position ourselves not just as another provider of football classes. No, we are a premier provider of fun and engaging football classes specially designed for children. So with that, we have put a lot of thought into how to make Tots United stand out, be brilliant. And coming back to your question, the the biggest challenge for us was look, we're going to be very pernickety about a lot of things, put in a lot of thought. It's going to take a lot of time. We're perfectionists. Everything needs to be right. Just take the logo, for example. The colors need to be right. The gold around our um logo, the shield, that's a nod to gold excellence. The stars five star service, the trail of stars next to the football that's the magic of Tots United, you know. And that's just in the logo and that took us a few days to to to finalize.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a great logo, so for a few days to finalize something like that, that's not bad going, and I guess I'm thinking of listeners who are maybe out there. So whether it's you know a football academy that's tuning into this podcast, it could be a dance teacher. The thing about in the club is that it's meant to be. No matter what your activity type, there's something that you should be able to take away, because people do things very differently across our industry. But actually there's a lot of learning. So you know you're talking about perfectionism. I guess that comes into your brand and the quality of coaches, the quality of classes. But what do you think are the biggest challenges that people face when it comes to starting a business? Who are brand new to it, maybe. Maybe they've never had any input into the business industry. Do you think it's actually the whole process of setting up or is there things around like financial fundraising aspects that you think people find challenging?
Speaker 3:I think that's a great question for AJ, because that's exactly the situation that he was in when we started Tox United.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so very quickly it just grew really fast. You know, for me I was coming in as a full-time PE teacher and just a kind of Saturday morning kind of coaching, you know, but then it just kind of evolved and grown and it's now turned into a fantastic kind of business, which which I love, but in terms of the kind of the systems and things I suppose, where this is where your self-class for kids have come in, because at the start it was like school teachers, like taking registers, paperwork, oh, that's a bad word.
Speaker 2:Paperwork's a bad word.
Speaker 4:So it's just so. In terms of the systems that you guys have been able to bring in, it's been fantastic and we go like over and beyond in terms of using your system to birthdays, for example. I make sure that every coach in our program is aware of children's birthdays when all the classes that are coming in and we celebrate that within our classes and even in terms of the children all coming in, I've made sure that every single parent I've spoken to within all the classes that come in.
Speaker 2:Okay. So it's day one. You've launched, you've got this idea that you're happy with. You've got a really good brand. How did you get your first students through the door? What was your kind of marketing tactics behind that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we knew that there was not much provision, if anything, in our local community. So we identified that gap in the market and, after you know, setting up the Tots United and we're at day one. We just put the feelers out there, you know, did a bit of marketing, got the word out and there was a lot of interest.
Speaker 2:And was that through sort of parent networks? Was it through organic socials? Did you run paid ads? What was your kind of first sort of strategies you implemented?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was actually organic socials, but very basic. And then we made flyers. So we put flyers up in certain places and all of that kind of generated quite a bit of interest.
Speaker 3:But we wanted to get it right, so we we kind of capped our initial classes around 15 or 20 okay and that's what we started off with, because we wanted those 15-20 children coming at the start to have a great experience and then build on that. So it started off with about 15 20 children attending a saturday morning and and it just kind of spiraled from there and what about now?
Speaker 2:we're fast forward a couple years into your journey. What do you do now to attract customers? I'm going to guess word of mouth probably a pretty big one for driving new customers through the business. But you know what would you say?
Speaker 4:kind of alongside, yeah, but I think also we are like we're people of the community, so it's like we're at every class, every site, every day, like I'm there, my children are in the program as well and I suppose, with with kind of my background in terms of the pe teaching, like I've been labeled by a lot of my students as the world's best pe teacher um, and I'm always about getting kids active, moving. I go over and beyond, beyond, and I think when people kind of see us and Tox United, our brand, our name, they know what they get in terms of the enthusiasm, the passion and we've got a real pathway now when children come in to us, from as young as 18 months. It goes right up to the ages of eight years old.
Speaker 4:We've got links with football clubs. We've been able to put a football team within our programme as well, and we're also a programme that's fully inclusive. We have boys, girls. We've also got children from the ASN that they come up to us and say, look, xyz hasn't been able to go to a club. Look, come to us. It's all about having fun, and that's the biggest thing for us is children have fun and they're active and they're happy children, and we get a lot of parents and adults involved as well. I'm a big advocate of that. I'm like off your phones, let's go 45-minute sessions also for you guys as well, to engage the children and take away all these things at home as well in terms of the kind of planning and the drills that we do. We play like a clean-up, tidy-up game as well, and I went. These are things you can all do at home.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you all do it on off-site or at schools community is to the success of tots united.
Speaker 3:And I guess maybe how important will it be as you look to grow the business. It's fundamental. I mean we are, as you just mentioned, we're like, actively involved in the community. We attend the classes, we take the time to um speak to all the parents that are there, get to know them um check in with how their child is getting on and see the kind of progress that they're making firsthand.
Speaker 3:So we have a very kind of great relationship with the parents attending and all of that is kind of fostering very strong links with the community. And you know the the demand for Talks, united classes, is high and I think a lot of that comes from word of mouth. So that, you know, is super important and yeah, I think that's.
Speaker 4:And I think also in the back what you said. We're very approachable. Like I bump into people at the shops, I've done an essay going to a school going oh, that's a guy from Talks United and things. It's no, like I'm not hiding that. This is what I'm doing and for me, I just want to get kids active, moving and have a really, really positive experience and I think within the local community and now beyond, we've been able to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's great and I think you know I was looking at how you're using so obviously our customers have classed for kids and how you're played obviously quite a big role in terms of asking people how did you hear about tots united and you'll be able to use that and sort of I guess, figure out right. Okay, we're maybe looking to. If this is what you were going to do, look into expanding into new locations, maybe venturing into a new market, because I know we've got tots united gymnastics. I'm assuming you use that parts of the system to kind of dig into right. This is what proportion of our budget, if you have one, to spend word of mouth advertising. This is what we could do to incentivize parents. Likewise, you'll be using that OK, who heard about us through social media to kind of direct your marketing strategy. Am I right in that assumption?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We do check the answers to those questions, we collect that information and that data and that gets discussed at our executive board meetings. So me and AJ will be looking at that. And you're absolutely right, it also drives the direction of our marketing. So we hear a lot of feedback in terms of word of mouth. The answer to that question like where did you hear about Tots United Word of mouth. That's why we know that's effective. That's why both myself and AJ, we make the effort to go to all our different classes because we know that word of mouth is so effective. We want to build that kind of good rapport with everybody and and yeah, and do you do any sort of marketing with your parents?
Speaker 2:so, for example, if we know words of mouth is a great thing for for your business, if it was me looking at that I'd be saying, right, is there anything I can do to actively push this to my customers? So maybe I don't know I bring a friend discount or something like that to try and encourage more. Or do you find that it actually just happens more organically, you're just having those conversations with your parents and they're just doing it naturally. Or do you kind of work with your customers to try and push, push those referrals coming through?
Speaker 3:yeah, I think generally it happens pretty organically. But one thing I will say is that this man here, aj, he has spoken to every parent on our program, which is which is quite unique um, so he takes the time out to get in touch with every single parent to see how they're getting on. Everything's going all right, and that's quite amazing, for you know somebody a managing director of Tox United to be doing that.
Speaker 2:And how many customers do you have on the books at the moment? We have about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have got about 350 kids attending Tox United every week.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of parents to chat to, I can tell you the parents' names, the grandparents.
Speaker 4:That's a lot of parents to chat to. I can tell you. I can tell you the parents' names, the grandparents' names, what team they follow Siblings, what schools they go to Primary school, and I suppose it's because I'm so child-centred.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's come from my education background. For me it's very important that I value every single one of them and sometimes these conversations Are 20-25 minutes and my two boys are running about. Yeah, but think is so important because I want them to know look, we really really care about your children and there's a real pathway for them and to have fun and a fantastic program.
Speaker 2:I'm a big believer that you know your customers are your brand. It's what your customers think about your brand. Ultimately, that matters, and I think the more that you nurture those relationships with your customers, the more likely they are to do things for you organically. Because you're like, do you know what I love this business? Because they're invested in my child, they're invested in getting to know me, and I think it just sounds like that's what you guys are all about is about nurturing and investing in those customer relationships, and I think you would do it, regardless of whether that pushes you know, your word of mouth referrals. I think it's just something that comes quite naturally to you both, I think. Would you, would you agree with that?
Speaker 3:absolutely. Yeah, I think that's. It ties in with the, with the kind of approach that we have in general. That's, our nature is to be friendly, approachable, to reach out, to take an interest in others and that's why we have that approach. So you're right, it just comes naturally.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, moving on a little bit then, to think about, you know you've got this brand, you've got it established. Customers are referring for you. What would you say are some of the key revenue streams for tots united? So you know we were chatting earlier, before we came on the podcast, that you aren't running camps necessarily, because you just run your sessions right throughout the term. Um, there's tots united gymnastics, which I'm kind of interested in, because football and gymnastics don't necessarily go together. So can you tell me a little bit about the ways I guess you either upsell at tots united or the way that you've diversified or cross-selling into different markets?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So we've set up now Tots United Gymnastics and I also came in the back of where all the parents are saying to us look, what else can you guys do? And I said A to Z, give me anything A to Z I can do and I'm not trying to be big head and whatnot, but I'm extremely confident in delivering programmes because I've done it and I've got a track record of it. So now they came to us and then gymnastics also came in the back of when I was younger I loved gymnastics like I did. I was one of those.
Speaker 2:It's the foundation for many sports. That's what people don't always realise. With gymnastics, there's a lot that you can carry forward.
Speaker 4:Gymnastics has got its core stability, strength and it's something that you could put into football as well. So we've got now kind of boys and girls that are in both programmes, and what we're noticing with some of the older children is it's kind of developing their strength when they're kind of playing, and we notice that in teams as well, which we're very pleased about, and for us it's like there's football, there's gymnastics, but, as the name says, tox United.
Speaker 2:We could go and expand into other sports as well yeah, I mean, that's the thing with your brand name as well is that you've not, you know, necessarily sort of isolated yourself to one industry. You could be doing dance, you could be doing gymnastics, you should be doing so much, and I guess, um, one of the things I was thinking about when it comes to the the gymnastic side of things is how you have diversified into that market, because that's not necessarily a natural progression for somebody just to start an academy in football and then move into gymnastics. So was it the parents kind of driving that request that made you think about diversifying that way, or was there something else? Did you always kind of had that idea that maybe there was something more you could do with the academy?
Speaker 3:yeah, it was a combination of things. Uh, I think, and it's not something that we rushed into. We didn't just um the next day, decide right, we're going to do a touch nice. No, the program we had to ensure that it's going to be a fantastic, good, high quality program. Um, and with aj being one of the best p teachers in the world that you know, responsibility fell on him to devise that curriculum. It took him quite a bit of time to come up with it, so there was a lot of planning that went into it. But in terms of like the idea in general and all of that side of things, aj touched on, you know, the transferable skills that gymnastic teaches that he had done it when he was younger.
Speaker 3:Now, I also attended a specialist sports school called the Glasgow School of Sport when I was younger and that's a specialist sports school that's set up to nurture and develop athletes to compete regionally, nationally and internationally. So, like some of my classmates went on to compete at the Olympics. Anyway, I was at the School of Sport for badminton, but at the time I was playing professional youth football with clubs and my dad kind of pushed me towards that because the idea was that the badminton would help supplement the football. So I had that personal experience that, yeah, that is very, very beneficial and so we discussed that and that was also one of the contributing factors for, you know, introducing gymnastics yeah, this can actually be a good thing supplement the football program because of all the skills that it brings to the table and develops and nurtures in children.
Speaker 2:So I think it's kind of twofold. For me it's that it's about building on some of the core skills that will actually then support the kids with their football. But I think it's also very clever because it's more expensive and it costs you more to acquire new customers than it does to cross, sell and diversify and retain existing customers but move them into a different programme. So with the split between the football and the gymnastics, do you find that most of the customers in the gymnastics space already go to the football side of things, or are you actually getting interest for the gymnastics classes, kind of standalone, and actually seeing new customers coming into your business through that way?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a bit of both. So a lot of the customers for gymnastics they have a link with the football as well because they want to be part of that programme and then, as AJ kind of touched on, they also want to see what else is available and we want it through Tots United and so then they then join the gymnastics programme as well. So there is that, and then there are some who just want to focus on one sport so whether that's football, whether that's gymnastics, and that's the one that they want to focus and stick with.
Speaker 3:Would you say that, yeah, and it's all about fun.
Speaker 4:So even for gymnastics especially with gymnastics that can get from kind of my experience from a young age and a lot of the kind of coaches that we've got and I've spoken to and just naturally even in secondary school it becomes quite serious and intense and competitive for young children yeah and that's something I didn't want you know I said so.
Speaker 4:I have a father of two and things that's like. No, it's my kids to have fun. They're still learning engaging, so with the gymnastics program they learn a lot of floor stuff, apparatus work, but it's all fun you know, it's not competitive, it's not super, super strict. You know, it's all about a fun program that the kids really enjoy and they love being part of.
Speaker 2:And then we're seeing that, with the numbers coming through, they go to both yeah, and I guess that feeds into part of like your usp and your values there's there's a space absolutely for competitive gymnastics in that space. But for those kids who are just wanting to try it out and have a bit of fun, and maybe that's the beginning of their journey into something that's more of a committed discipline, but that's ultimately you know, they'll remember that early experience of I had fun and that's actually what drove my passion and, who knows, you could be setting up the next generation of Olympic gymnasts.
Speaker 4:They always say there's a quote they may forget what you say, but you'll never forget how you. We always make sure the kids are feeling ecstatic, super happy. You know, at the end of the session that's a big kind of philosophy for us for to Tox United football and gymnastics yeah, well, it's clever because you're going to get the kids oh, no, I'm not going to Tox United anymore.
Speaker 2:And then you know what the parents are like no, no, we're still going to go. And it's that kind of thing that you're creating where, if you're creating that fun environment, your customers become sticky. You know they don't want to leave because their kids are happy and ultimately, I'm guessing that's what parents want for their kids yeah, I mean just last week.
Speaker 3:We had a new start in one of the gymnastics classes and we received a message from the parent the next day saying is the class on today? My daughter says she wants to come along again today, and um so it's just weekly classes.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming you're gonna have to start running daily classes. And it's quite funny because it's just weekly classes.
Speaker 4:I'm assuming you're going to have to start running daily classes with this one child and it's quite funny because it's I'll show my age here. Some of the kids that are now coming on our programme are my ex-pupils from school which I didn't know. Obviously they come through the bookings. I've seen so many kids and it's just been amazing.
Speaker 4:They're like, oh, mr Singh, I'm like, yeah, so it's just been so nice, a full circle kind of moment and I'm even, I'm seeing and they're like so this is just you, because I've always been like this, like just super sporty energy and the coaches are very much the same. So it's been really really nice to see and, you know, quite humbling. You know that we are, the kids are just having fun and you know and they feel safe in there.
Speaker 2:No, I'm getting. That is all about the kids and making sure that they have fun. So are you in any other sort of markets then? So, for example, are you in schools and nurseries, or are you just solely committed to focusing on your community and your club?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, so we're community clubs so we are kind of working actively. A number of nurses as well. So some nurses have got us in for a couple of sports football and gymnastics. Very much just kind of depends on their needs and kind of demands. So, like I said before, we're now operating 7 days, which is great. As well as the community facilities and sports centres we are in nurseries and in some primary schools, we're getting a lot of demand coming in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do you see that? Maybe that you're in those nurseries, are you seeing those kids coming from nursery to any of the classes as well? Is it clever? Wait again?
Speaker 4:Yeah, they do come in and they're like, oh, that's a good idea if we touch United again, so we're seeing them in both and again they don't need to be doing that.
Speaker 4:They could just go. Well, they come to a class on at the weekend, but they're coming into both them, which is really really good. And again it brings that kind of community link and the parental link as well, because all those parents I know, because I've spoken to him and when I'm at the nurseries and during the week in the coaching team, it's we see those kids throughout the weekend as well because I think what you've got is actually a relatively simple business model, in that you're very clear on what your values are.
Speaker 2:You've got a clear usp and that's about making sure it's fun, that people feel that they're they're getting enriched at your classes and that parents are bought into it. But what you've done in a really clever way is you've not over complicated and added all these complex things about this kind of class for this age range and this kind of thing. What you've done instead is taking that simple business model and what you're doing is kind of replicating that across different disciplines, whether that's into the gymnastics market, or you're actually saying right now, now we'll take this to schools and nurseries, because I guess what I'm saying is you're seeing the bigger picture that there's an opportunity to sell in that space. Make a customer come to you and you make them sticky and then they buy into the gymnastics side, or you know vice versa going into the football space, so it's simplicity is almost key to your business model, even in terms of the program that we devised like.
Speaker 4:I've devised a programme like for different age groups and niches and markets and the government's structured and clear, Like so if somebody's going to Tox United in Renfrew or Tox United in Erskine, there's a clear programme that the kid experiences the same kind of core components. So it's not just the turn up and play.
Speaker 2:There play. Yeah, there's about a thousand things that's happened in terms of the planning, the processes, the lesson plans, the communication that I've had with the coaches. There's a lot, so you must have used a lot of your pe background then um, aj, I'm assuming to build the curriculum?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, and how did you go about that? You know, for somebody listening today who's maybe either thinking, right, I need to just restructure what I'm doing or I'm just starting out, how did you go about building your curriculum and what kind of advice would you give to somebody?
Speaker 4:yeah, I mean because obviously I've been a PE teacher and I'm like I'm still qualified to teach in a number of schools and I've coached a lot, so I've coached every sport you know that there is. So I think within that is really kind of do your research and think what would you like?
Speaker 1:as a person.
Speaker 4:What would you like, as a coach, to be going on in the session? If you could put yourself 10, 15 years younger, what would you? What do you want out of the session?
Speaker 4:yeah ultimately fun. But how are you going to get to that stage? I've been really clear in terms of the objectives, what the kids are going to learn by the end, and there's a whole program and and I've said that to within the parents as well that come in the parents and guardians. So this is where they're going to be at, this is where they'll be in three months time. This is where we'll be at six months time. So there's a natural kind of progression right through and touch united football and gymnastics. But there's a lot of time you have to spend and going through it, tweaking things and a lot of stuff I do with my own kids like I'm in the garden with them showing, doing certain things.
Speaker 4:I'm doing a lot of gymnastic stuff with them and then incorporating that into classes what it would look like, and I also get feedback from parents. I'm not afraid to ask, like, what did you think of this? And and you know it's so important to get you know their views and they all love it. Like you said, we want more.
Speaker 2:And how often do you review that curriculum then? Is that like an annual thing, or are you constantly reviewing that All the time?
Speaker 4:I'm reviewing it every single day, daily. I'm going through stuff with coaches as well, looking at the of, and we always make sure that we get lots of feedback from, not only the parents, from the coaches that are leading the sessions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we collect post session summaries from every coach okay after every session so we're we're very much on the ball and we're always looking for how can we improve and do things better, and so we're collecting that information all the time and that's why AJ is then. You know he tweaks and adjusts the lesson plans, the curriculum, according to what works. And you know, based on that feedback that we're collecting all the time, and what would you say has been key to that?
Speaker 2:Because I'm assuming if it was just the two of you running the business and coaching and doing all of that kind of stuff, it would be slightly harder, right, because you've got not enough time in the day to kind of do absolutely everything. So how big is your team now and would you say that they are kind of key in supporting you develop that curriculum and what other factors influence that? So, for example, are you looking at what other businesses are doing? Are you looking at what's happening in the industry, like how does that influence your decisions?
Speaker 3:yeah, we've got a team of about around 20 coaches now, um, and growing um, so, and you know there's plenty of opportunities available with us at torch united, um, so we've put together a really strong team and we're very meticulous in terms of what we expect from them. So he's very hands-on in terms of the communication, the direction and the processes that need to be followed, but ultimately, the the quality of the classes. It needs to be at a certain level, and so we spend a lot of time with the coaches, kind of cultivating that standard of excellence within them. And you know that's a very good thing for them because that's going to stand them in really good stead going forward, um, in terms of all the skills that they're going to develop and the experience that they're going to inquire, which is like second to none, um, so, so, yeah, what was the second part of that?
Speaker 2:it was more around about like what, um, what kind of things do you do to develop that? So obviously your coaches are key because they're gathering the feedback, they're supporting you in that sense. You've I'm assuming you've got a robust kind of onboarding process and who you hire first of all. But then the second part of that question was more about right, you've got all of this feedback from parents and coaches. Is there anything you do to sort of look out with the business then? So, is there anything you say like wait, that's happening in the industry, that's important, these things are coming into play?
Speaker 3:yeah, no, that's a great question. We actually don't like look at what others are doing, because we're so clear on our own vision and how we want it to be and how we think like it kind of would work well, so we don't tend to look at what others are doing in the same kind of areas.
Speaker 4:Um, it's just our vision that we implement yeah, and I think, just because in the back of we're seeing it ourselves and from other classes and the demand we're getting, um, and naturally, yeah, there are this competition everywhere actually there is. But I think we're very clear in terms of how a model looks and how it's working, and and we believe in ourselves ultimately, just a couple of things, if I could just add to that.
Speaker 3:There's a few things that we've kind of pioneered that we actually not seen anybody else doing so. For example, our classes.
Speaker 2:We entered their football classes but we've introduced an integrated song and dance at times I'm the dancer, you're the dancer and you're the singer I well I'm mr sing and dance, I just observe from the side um so tell me a little bit about that, because again I'm like how does that work? I'll come in.
Speaker 4:So certainly for the younger children and things. If you get kids up to 18 months 19 months there's a football that you need to make everything fun and engaging. So we have music that are coming on. All the coaches have been taking through the dance steps how to do things and naturally, a lot of kids do it in nursery. All the coaches have been taking through the dance steps how to do things and naturally, a lot of kids do it in nursery. We also have a mascot within our classes as well, which is a panda, and I used to always have to wear it, but now sometimes other coaches wear it. So we bring the panda out as well and the children love it. But ultimately it's just about putting lots of different angles in the classes. That was going to make the kids fun and engage, and we're a big advocate of getting parents involved.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they know, when they come to the class. Sorry, they know when they come to the classes that, oh God, that's AJ. Aj's going to make us get one about him. So we always make sure that the parents are involved.
Speaker 3:This is the second thing that we've pioneered actually getting the parents involved in the class. This happen with others, but the way that AJ has devised this is pretty impressive.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just and I always say oh no, there he is, he's coming with all the phone calls and I'm always saying, look, make sure you bring your trainers. I'm going to make sure you all get involved in the classes because I'm a big advocate, I'm a parent myself and things I went. Look, it's very important that the kids see you guys doing things as well, and you see a lot of the parents that are doing the music or they'll do the shooting drill or the games at the end as well the kids, wee parents game yeah and we do like games within it, where, basically, we have a football game against the coaches and then the children play against their parents or their grandparents, and they absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:It's great to get the community and kind of wider family involved in those kind of things again and again. It's what makes your customers sticky. So, before we come to the end of the podcast, I wanted to touch on how you're using our subscriptions feature. So subscriptions, for those who maybe don't know, are ways to regulate your monthly payments, because you're getting payments ultimately to pay each month. So how are you using subscriptions? Are you doing that right across the year, over the 12 months, to make sure that you've got regular income right throughout the year, where maybe some people don't do that at the moment, where they've maybe got a summer, where they're not sure about what money's going to be coming into the business?
Speaker 2:And how would you say your parents have been receptive to that monthly payment? Because I think sometimes there's a bit of fear. But actually what we try and say is do you pay a monthly Netflix, spotify, amazon Prime? That's essentially what you're. You're comparing yourself to these big boys that are out there in the industry and be like Tox United. Are in your bank account? Monthly payment hopefully the wee logo comes up when it does in the bank accounts, but how would you say parents have responded to that and how has it helped you in business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so in terms of like our business model in general, it is according to our subscription model, so that's right across the board and we implemented that. Shortly after setting up Tox United, getting our class going, we implemented the subscription model and it's been perfectly fine. We are not the cheapest provider and that's fine because we are a premier provider, so there's a lot of time and investment that goes into the quality of our classes, with a curriculum that's devised by one of the best PE teachers in the world, and I think parents recognise that and for that reason they're quite happy to have a membership and a subscription for Tots United for their, their child or their children.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and how would you say it's helped you in business, though? Has that helped you kind of regulate cash flow? Has it helped you allow you know to plan for things? I think so.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think you can see like obviously you can see monthly projections what's coming in, what's going on, allows you to then plan for kind of other programs kind of further down the line as well. So it's been really good okay, guys.
Speaker 2:Last question before we wrap up what is the future of tots united? What is that looking like? Can you give me any sneak peeks of what's to come? Anything new that's maybe on the horizon, new things that are starting?
Speaker 3:it's a great question. Well, just in the last week, in the last seven days, we've announced three new venues. So that's happening. Last month, we announced that we were going to be introducing a market leading franchise opportunity where folk who love sport, are passionate about coaching, working with children, who want to inspire the next generation and who aspire to have their own business with a great work-life balance are able to have the opportunity of you know, having their own talks united franchise we and we announced that and introduced that last month and within the space of four weeks, we've now signed our first franchisee congratulations, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Well done so it's a franchise opportunity where you know a franchisee would be backed and supported by one of the world's best PE teachers and a top business lawyer it's like an ultimate partnership for success and we're receiving a lot of interest for this and we were very particular about who our first franchisee would be and we're super excited for him and, you know, maybe that's the future so if I get you back in the podcast in a year's time, I could potentially be talking to a uk-wide franchise.
Speaker 2:Is that the goal?
Speaker 3:I mean, that's, that's maybe very ambitious. Um, we're very keen to get things done right for our first franchisee and his success is our success. So we're giving him a lot of time and investment to get him up and running and flourishing. That's what we want, and then we just kind of take it from there, I guess.
Speaker 2:Well, I look forward to getting you back in the podcast in a year's time For sure we'll get that date in the diary and hearing all about Hots United, its success and the franchise, but for now, it's been great to have you on the podcast. Yusuf and AJ, Thank you very much for joining us today.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having us. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:What a great interview, rebecca. I could have done it. I mean, I couldn't have done it better myself. Here I am back on my own some little violin playing, but yeah, fantastic catch up with AJ and Yusuf there. What a great story their club has had and they just continue to grow. The fact that they're franchising is amazing. It just shows how confident they are and their brand. They are, as they say, a premium provider, just as we are a premium provider of kids activity software. Do you see that segue there? What do you think? Oh, she's not here. I keep forgetting she's not here. It's a bit awkward. How am I going to do the 1, 2, 3, bye? I suppose I'll just do it sad 1, 2, 3, bye.
