We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful KIRTI VYAS. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with KIRTI below.
KIRTI, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?
“I couldn’t get the kind of job I wanted, so I created it,” I tell everyone who asks. That is mostly true. But it took a long way to finally get there – from being an aspiring writer, a copywriter, an entrepreneur teacher, and now, finally a published writer.
We moved to the USA in the early 90’s from India, where I’d been a free-lance writer and copywriter. However, I soon realized that the local lingo and the value-systems were too “alien” for me to be able to write here, no matter how westernized I had considered myself to be. Now, when one is a new immigrant, one takes the opportunities one finds, and that’s how I ended up working as a medical biller for several years. Hopeful and ready to work harder, I enrolled for some technical writing courses, took small writing gigs on the side, and all the while, kept searching for a way out… even going back to school to get a master’s degree in education, but it was a no-go.
When I couldn’t land a job as a writer anywhere or a teacher within a 20-mile radius in a school district I felt comfortable working in, I launched an after-school enrichment program on creative problem-solving. I offered hands-on challenges – building with straws, designing Rube Goldberg machines, etc. at community centers, which was fun, but a very hard sell to parents. Afterall, creativity can’t be measured or “graded”.
A couple of years into the program, I finally saw a niche! As a volunteer at my son’s school, I had noticed that parents were hungry to give their children opportunities “to think outside-the-box,” so I decided to create my own curriculum, combining critical-thinking skills and writing. Essentially, I began to offer the same type of challenges a gifted curriculum offered in terms of writing to any proficient reader and motivated thinker, and my classes took off! Writing creative lesson plans and teaching has been wonderful, especially when I see young writers soar, but it was time to pursue my own writing dreams.
In 2020, I rewrote some Indian myths for my students, which also taught them the Parts of Speech, and published it in a workbook format. Then I followed it up with another workbook on punctuation in 2023, which includes many illustrations by friends and parents of my students! Both the books, titled S.P.A.R.K. and Not Your Average Punctuation Practice, are available on my website. In addition, I have recently published a book of my poems – “Between Us, There is Verse,” which is available both on Amazon and on my website. Yes, I had to do it all myself, but I am a published writer now, and I am not done with the written word yet!
Overall, it has been quite a journey, and I know now that if my intentions are clear to the universe through my work, it does listen! As Paul Coelho has said, “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Sure, but it’ll take longer than a minute, I’m afraid.
My online tag on all my sites is “Author, Teacher, Entrepreneur,” though perhaps, it should be in reverse order. And, to quote a few lines from “About the Author” in my books, I am an extreme mom, much to the embarrassment of my two adult sons, a distracted wife to a very indulgent husband, and a writing teacher to motivated learners aged 8 onwards. Certified to teach K-6, and also English literature in Grades 7 – 12, I love reading, illustrating, designing, making collages and jewelry, with paper being my favorite medium. Writing, however, has always been both my beacon and my harbor, above all.
Born to parents of avid readers, and surrounded by books through my childhood in India, my three sisters and I could not have imagined a life without books and nor can we imagine one now. Mind you, television had not entered our homes or those of our friends then, so books were our go-to!
As far as my interest in writing goes, if I were to pinpoint a time, it would probably be in Grade 9. Encouraged by my English teacher’s comments on my assignments, I remember thinking that nothing could be better than being a writer or a published poet someday. And, even though I was talked into choosing Economics as my undergrad degree by my father, I then went on to take courses in Advertising and Marketing, sat for some writing tests, and landed a job in Advertising, writing mostly press advertisements. I also wrote children’s stories, which were published in the Children’s Section of a major newspaper “Indian Express,” though there was a lot I didn’t know about the craft at the time. Living in Mumbai at the time, I worked as a free-lancer, writing printed ads, brochures, flyers, billboard and even greeting card messages!
The Indian Advertising Industry was coming into its own in the late 1980’s and it was an exciting time to be part of it all. I also met the love of my life, married him, and had my first son before we immigrated to the USA…where, as you know from my response to your earlier question, life took its own turns.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
A 100% of my clients have found me through word-of-mouth. Even when students have been asked to leave the program, their parents have referred me to their friends and extended families.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Along with lesson plans that include questions that challenge children to think of reasons and choices, I always provided one-on-one guidance, tracking individual strengths and weaknesses even though instruction is given in small groups of 6-7 students. I line-edit and give very detailed feedback – the good, the bad, the ugly – the kind that school teachers simply don’t have time for.
Knowing that writing improves only by writing, my homework is non-negotiable, and students who can’t complete given tasks for more than 2 weeks in a 12-week session are asked to leave. That is also something that sets learning with me apart and on a different path than other classes or a public school.
Fortunately, the effect of thinking and writing thoughtfully spills over in other subject areas, too, and most students or their parents see its value, and they keep returning year after year.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kirtivyas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mybrainyalley/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kirti-vyas-82471070
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk53NMgakh1c4AvErhpk8yA