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Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.
Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.
Ian: And today, we have with us a very special guest, we have Dynamic English’s co-founder, Andrew Lakin. Good morning, Andrew. How are you?
Andrew: Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Ian: We're glad to have you, boss. Thanks for being here. So, a lot of things going on here in Chile, especially, Dynamic’s really made a lot of strides in the last few years. So, Andrew, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself for our listeners and what you're doing here in Chile.
Andrew: Sure. Well, I was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri—in the heart of the United States. Same place that Ian here is from. So, I was born and raised there, and went to school at the University of Missouri. Go Tigers.
Ian: Go Tigers.
Andrew: M-I-Z-Z-O-U. I studied Business Administration in the University of Missouri, my emphasis in finance, economics and real estate. I finished in December of ‘07 and didn't want to go straight to the office. The degree sort of dictates bank, office, climb the corporate ladder, those sorts of things and life is too short for that. So, I decided I wanted to avoid the office for a few years. I moved from Missouri to the state of Colorado, where I worked at a ski resort in rentals, teching skis and snowboards, and not using my business degree at all. And I loved it. And there I met lots of Spanish speakers, lots of South Americans—Chileans, Peruvians, Argentinians—and that kind of sparked my interest to travel abroad, learn another language because I spoke zero Spanish at that point in time, and do something different. And so that kind of brought me to Chile, with my initial plan to go snowboarding in July, and to teach English, of course, and to learn some Spanish. And ten years later, here I am. So, that's my story in a few words, or a lot of words—I don't know.
Paige: It's quite a story. I guess everyone always asks this, especially my students—why Chile? Obviously, you said you wanted to learn Spanish, but why in Latin America did you come to Chile?
Andrew: Well, working in Winter Park, like I said, I met lots of South Americans. And I actually dated a girl from Lima. But that being said, all of my best friends in Winter Park that were South Americans were Chileans. And they all said, “Oh, come to Chile. We’ll drink a piscolita, we'll have some fun. Just come down, you're gonna love it.” And so, honestly, like I mentioned, my first idea was, they have mountains, they have ski resorts in Chile. So, I finished the ski season in Colorado and I said, “I'm gonna go snowboarding in July.” So that was my original idea, it was to just chase that endless winter, originally. So, that's what brought me down.
Paige: So, you probably didn't plan to stay for ten years?
Andrew: By no means. The plan was a year to try teaching because it's always something that, in the back of my mind, I thought that I would be decent at or something that I would enjoy doing. And the plan was to come for a year and then go get that corporate job and climb that ladder. But, of course, as happens to the best of us, I got stuck down here, but in a good way, of course.
Ian: So, it sounds like instead of making that decision to after a year, leave and go climb the corporate ladder that maybe you started your own ladder. And by doing that, by starting Dynamic English, and so could you tell us a little bit more about what was the impetus for starting that and what made you make that decision?
Andrew: Sure. Well, I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. My father was a business owner—he was an entrepreneur. He owned and ran a construction company for twenty-some years before he sold it and retired at fifty-two. So that's the dream, of course. So, I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit, but I've never known exactly, or I didn't know at that time, exactly what I wanted to do. But I've always had my eyes peeled, I've always had my eyes open for opportunities. Whether I was in Colorado looking for ideas and opportunities and then I came down here, all the while thinking, what's my next big step? You know, so after living here and teaching English for two and a half years, it was time to make a change. And that was either to get a job in finance or economics or, you know, a traditional type job, or start a company. Which, after a couple of years down here, well I learned some good things about the big, traditional schools, and also some things that we didn't really like about that. And, so I saw an opportunity, I saw a demand and I saw an opportunity to do it better than the competition was doing it. So, I got together with my business partner, Ted, and said “Hey Ted, let's start a company.” So, we kind of jumped right in, without much of a business plan or model, and just went for it. Gone well. It’s gone well.
Paige: Obviously, I can imagine, you're starting a new business for the first time, it's in a different language, it's in a different country, different regulations, rules. What were some hiccups along the way?
Andrew: Of course, the language barrier is always an issue. For my first couple of years down here, I was relatively lazy with my language learning. As a lot of gringos who come down here, it's easy to fall into those gringo circles and make friends with people that you have things in common with, that you have similar backgrounds. And it's easy enough to, sort of, not have to speak a lot of Spanish. So, in the beginning, the language barrier was difficult. But, you know, through the company, my Spanish has gotten a lot better, of course. Hiccups starting Dynamic English...I mean, everything when you start a new business is a hurdle. When you don't have a boss telling you what to do, you have to do everything, and you have to be self-motivated and you have to keep going. And if you don't do it, nobody's gonna do it. So, keeping yourself motivated and know that if you do a good job, good things are gonna happen.
Ian: And just a quick reminder, if you are interested in taking private classes with Dynamic English, go ahead and check out our website at dynamicenglish.cl and there you can sign up for private classes in your apartment, in your house, in your office. You can even now take classes online. Sitting on your couch, you can log on and practice English. It's very easy. So, if you're interested, check us out also, on social media through Facebook or Instagram.
Paige: We had Ted on the show, many months ago, and he said, I think when you started you had one teacher?
Andrew: Right, if that. If I remember when we first started the company, our marketing strategy was to walk around to offices, me and Ted, knocking on doors saying, “Hey, we're Ted and Andrew and we have an English language institute.” And, I remember telling people that we had a team of five teachers, and that was a stretch because we didn't want to say we were about to hire our first teacher. That doesn't sound very professional. But we didn't want to lie either. So, you know, we have a team of about five teachers and that was true. Zero to five is about five. So yeah, we started very small, just Ted, myself and a handful of teachers. And we have just been growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. And one amazing thing about Dynamic English is we've never been in the red. We've never taken out a big bank loan to invest in a big, beautiful office or to buy assets or anything like that. As we have been able to invest more in the company, we have invested more, and we've grown organically through the years and in a comfortable way without having to go into a lot of debt and be scared about paying the bills and all that.
Paige: Smart.
Andrew: Thanks.
Paige: I have to ask, I mean, as you know, you said you worked for a lot of different language companies—you saw gaps. What is, I guess, the recipe that you want for Dynamic?
Andrew: Sure, well not to talk bad about other places, but when we first started, when I first started teaching here, I worked in what is the traditional schools—one of the ones that everybody knows. And we realized that the traditional classroom with a teacher at the front of the class being “Mr. Teacher Man” which was great for me because I like to talk and entertain. So, standing at the front of the class and talking for an hour and entertaining the students was great for me, but I realized that they weren't getting the most out of it. We'd follow a book cover to cover and I'd say, “Okay, now fill out the next quadritos del libro. Let's fill out the next boxes in the book.” And I would sit there and twiddle my thumbs for fifteen minutes while the students did the work. And then I’d say, “Okay, talk to your partner.” And then the students would chit-chat among each other, and not even with the native speaking teacher. Those classes are great for learning a base if you're starting from nothing, but they're missing the practice, they're missing the oral production. And so, we realized that and that's mainly what we focus on in Dynamic English is structured, organized conversation where people have the opportunity to really practice, use the language, make mistakes, be corrected, and build their confidence within themselves in using the language. Because the most important thing is to communicate, of course. That's a good sales pitch.
Ian: Yeah, no. But to your point, that's really great. It's a great way to separate from the other institutes and, even just as a teacher for Dynamic, it's nice that I can really talk about the philosophy of, hey you know it's important, these grammatical, structural type things. But really most people are learning a language so that they can really talk to people in the real world, right? So, in the real world you're not gonna be filling out these little boxes in a book, you're not gonna be placing a vocabulary word in the right sentence, you're gonna be needing to have a legitimate, natural conversation with someone. And so, not only is it to the students’ it's more beneficial and more effective, but it's also more fun. Nobody wants to come to a class, especially when you're busy with a family, busy with a job, nobody wants to come to a class where you feel like you're sitting in a classroom, right? You want it to be a fun, engaging conversation. And so, I honestly feel like, with my students, they really get that out of the classes. We get good feedback on both ends through that philosophy. So, I think it was just a niche that needed to be filled and you guys saw that, so it's a good idea.
Paige: So, everyone there's a word for what Ian’s doing. It's called “kiss ass.”
Ian: I really need a bonus.
Paige: Okay, so enough business. I think people want to know, obviously, who is Andrew, co-founder of Dynamic? Tell us a little bit about yourself, like hobbies. What do you like to do? Who are you, Andrew?
Andrew: Who am I? What a good question. I've been waiting for somebody that ask me that my whole life. So, no I'm a simple kind of man. So, I have a girlfriend—a wife, essentially—we've been together for almost ten years now. Her name is Xena, she's from Germany. And currently, she is sixteen weeks pregnant.
Paige & Ian: Wow!
Andrew: I’m not sure you guys knew that or not.
Ian: Congrats! That's awesome.
Andrew: Thank you very much. So, I'm going to be a father in August. So that's kind of fresh on my mind right now. You know, that's kind of at the tip of my mind and everything that I think about kind of revolves around that right now. Other than that, I love to be active. I love the outdoors. I'm a snowboarder. That's one of my biggest passions. I grew up playing golf, as well. I love to spend my time on the mountain, or on the golf course or hiking or camping—those sorts of things. I also started playing the guitar, about a year and a half ago, which I really enjoy. I picked up ukulele, as well, a few months ago, which I'm enjoying. And currently, I'm getting into FPV drones, believe it or not, as, as one does, right? FPV which is first person view. So, instead of flying a line of sight, where you're looking at the aircraft, you're looking through a set of goggles, with a camera mounted to the aircraft or the drone in this case. So, it's essentially like you're sitting in the cockpit of the drone and flying from a first-person perspective. I'm just getting into it, but it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.
Paige: And a beautiful place to do it in.
Andrew: Absolutely, I mean there's lots of views and that's the cool thing about it is you can do it in parks or in, well—you should probably shouldn't do it in cities—but you can near buildings and proximity flying and freestyle and all that. So, like I said, I'm just starting, I'm building my first drone right now, practicing on a simulator. I'm really excited about it, I'm ready to take that first flight and crash and rebuild. So, yeah.
Ian: Yeah, so what's the process of building a drone like?
Andrew: It's complicated because you can go out and buy a drone that's ready-made, but you're gonna crash it, and then you're not gonna know how to rebuild it. So, the best thing to do is to buy the frame, to buy all of the electronic, electrical parts that go into it and then solder it together—putting all the electrical parts together, the flight controller and the power board and the video receiver and all that goes into building the drone. And so, then when you do crash it, you can say, “Oh, one of my speed controls is broken and I just need to fix that.” So, yeah, it's a learning curve, that's for sure. And luckily, I have a good friend here in town who has some experience with that so I'm leaning on Victor. Anytime that I need advice or help, I say “Hey Vic, what's going on here? What's wrong with my drone? Why can't I get it to work?” So, yeah.
Paige: I feel like I need to pick up more hobbies. You do a lot.
Andrew: New hobby, the hobby of the hour, let's say. But I think I'm gonna really get into it.
Paige: Well, now that we know who Andrew is—snowboarding, co-founder, drone builder.
Ian: Soon to be “drone master”.
Andrew: That's right. Soon to be professional drone pilot.
Paige: But again, thanks so much for being on the podcast, it was really great to hear your story, learn more about you and everyone sign up for classes, if you haven't already.
So, thanks again, Andrew.
Andrew: Thank you, guys. It's been an absolute pleasure; I've really enjoyed it and I look forward to meeting all of you in the oral evaluation because that's a big part of my job as I meet 85% of everybody at this point in time. So, look forward to seeing you, meet you, and talking about fun hobbies and life.
Paige: Again, everyone if you get lost, check out that audio transcript and guide. Thanks for listening.
Ian: We'll see you next time.
Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.
Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:
1. strides (noun): steps or moves toward improvement and growth.
a. The company has made significant strides in the last few years.
2. M-I-Z-Z-O-U (noun, phrase): the phrase-song for the University of Missouri, also known as “Mizzou.”
a. I hope that Mizzou beats the University of Kansas this weekend in football. M-I-Z-Z-O-U!
3. to dictate (verb): to control, to determine, to prescribe.
a. A degree in biology usually dictates a career in medicine, health or science.
4. to tech (verb): preparing something, usually with technical parts.
a. Andrew spent a few years teching skis in Colorado before moving to Chile.
5. to spark (verb): to provide, start, inspire.
a. My trip to Vietnam sparked my idea to move to a foreign country.
6. piscolita (noun): a widely popular drink in Chile made of pisco liquor and Coca-Cola.
a. I can’t wait to go out and drink a piscolita whenever the quarantine ends.
7. impetus (noun): the cause or force that makes something happen.
a. The impetus for creating a new company was the demand for different English classes.
8. entrepreneurial (adjective): enterprising; taking financial risks to gain a profit.
a. His entrepreneurial spirit gave him the confidence to start his own company.
9. to keep one’s eyes peeled (idiom): to be alert, to pay attention.
a. He always keeps his eye’s peeled for any new business opportunity.
10. hiccup (noun): temporary, minor challenge or problem.
a. There are always hiccups when starting a new business.
11. hurdle (noun): challenge, difficulty.
a. Starting a new business always has its hurdles, but is worth it in the end.
12. stretch (noun): unlikely claim; exaggeration.
a. It is a stretch to say that he is the best football player in the world, even if he is very good.
13. in the red (idiom): to lose money, to be negative in profits.
a. The company has never been in the red and this has led to financial growth.
14. asset (noun): property or goods owned by a company.
a. The company’s assets have never put the company at financial risk.
15. organically (adjective): naturally, gradually.
a. The company has grown organically, allowing it to reduce costs.
16. gap (noun): break or hole in something, area in need of improvement.
a. We saw gaps in the system and decided to start a new method to correct them.
17. to twiddle one’s thumbs (verb): to rotate one’s thumbs around each other. This is something someone does when they are bored and/or have nothing to do.
a. The teacher twiddled her thumbs for fifteen minutes while the students completed their activities.
18. to chit-chat (verb): to casually talk
a. The students like to chit-chat during the classroom activities.
19. oral production (noun): practice of speaking.
a. Oral production is one of the most important factors for learning a new language.
20. sales pitch (noun): selling technique used to describe a product or service that someone is trying to sell in order to persuade others to buy.
a. The manager gave his sales pitch to his boss during the staff meeting.
21. legitimate (adjective): authentic, real, genuine.
a. Conversations are more natural and legitimate than simply doing grammar exercises.
22. feedback (noun): response, reaction to something.
a. The feedback from students has been positive regarding teacher conversations.
23. niche (noun): a specialized segment of the market for a particular product or service.
a. It’s important to find and take advantage of a niche in the market.
24. bonus (noun): Money added to regular wages, usually as a reward for good performance.
a. He decided to ask his boss for a bonus since his sales numbers increased over the quarter.
25. FPV drone (noun): “first-person view” drone: a mechanical, flying machine that is controlled by a person with remote control.
a. He is really excited to practice flying his FPV drone this weekend.
26. simulator (noun): machine used to provide a realistic imitation or practice of operating a vehicle, aircraft, or other technology.
a. He has been using a simulator to practice flying his new drone.
27. solder (verb): to join two metals together; to fuse.
a. We need to solder the metal pieces together in order for the drone to work.
28. learning curve (noun): rate of a person’s progress in gaining experience or skills in something.
a. The learning curve for flying drones can be big, but it sure is fun!
29. to lean on someone (phrasal verb): to depend on someone, use someone’s help.
a. My friend is from Italy so I’m leaning on her to teach me some Italian for my upcoming trip.