We were lucky to catch up with Sylvia Arotin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sylvia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
I’m based in Sydney Australia and I had a dream to open a Montessori school for children and parents from 0-6 years old because many of my friends and family were requesting one in an area that didn’t have access to one, nor did any exist. The reason I got into education and early childhood/Montessori was because in Jan 2010 I had a major car accident taking myself off the path of hospitality and personal training and finding my new path in life. As soon as I found our about Montessori I knew this was my path to help raise our future generations. After a few years working in the industry I decided to open my own school , so I placed my resignation in and went on a trip to New York with one of the preschool families during the break and my life took a turn. (You can read my story here): https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327155
I was still determined to open my school so I found a house in which I converted the bottom level into the school and started running small numbers until I built up my health to run full time and built my business. It’s been 10 years and we’ve had 100s of families come through, some families are up to their 4th siblings through the school with some children in high school now. We have a mission to help raise independent, mindful, compassionate, capable children who have the ability to problem solve and have life skills to deal with any of the world’s challenges that gets thrown at them.
Guide & Grow came from a mission to help serve and support caregivers and parents in their home and be the gap between school & the home, to help raise children as parents are children’s first and foremost teachers. I started an online community from my parent community on FB and within the first year it grew to 120k members globally and now has 250,000 members worldwide. It’s a free platform that provides resources, events, support and a village to help raise tomorrow’s children!
My mission is to really change the way caregivers and educators are communicating to children and guiding behaviour, it is not something that is ever taught but these skills are so necessary for positive outcomes in children for our future.
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?
I am so passionate about child development and behaviour especially when it comes to the way we communicate with children. It just doesn’t come naturally to most and there is a fine art to communication especially when it comes to dealing with children, you learn a lot about yourself in the process. At My Montessori school we provide parent infant classes (0-18mths), parent toddler classes (18mths-3yrs) and preschool programs from 3-6 years. The first two programs involve the parent with the child as part of a facilitated Montessori playgroup where the adults learn alongside the children, this is key for their development. Once they are 3 they can attend the preschool setting on their own. The thing that sets Montessori apart from many other programs is that a big part of the curriculum is practical life which involves care of self, care of the environment and life skill development fostering independence. It also has a set of curriculum materials that are tactile and sensory that were built upon the observations of Maria Montessori more than 150 years ago (Italy’s first female doctor) to help all children develop and thrive, specifically for those in underprivileged areas. Montessori also has mixed age classrooms so that the older children are able to practice leadership and collaboration and it gives younger children a chance to learn from their peers. It is a child led program and focuses on the individual child, their interests, strengths and making sure the environment is prepared to facilitate that. It has a spiritual aspect as well, both for the child and adult, a lot of deep self work to understand social emotional wellbeing and help the child reach their full potential. It started as an education system and turned into a parenting style which is why we have seen such a rapid growth in Montessori at home. Social media has played a huge role in this as well.
Guide & Grow supports parents, caregivers and educators in the home and practicing Montessori, we use social media specifically our facebook group community Montessori at Home (0-3 years) to host live events every month with different experts, provide resources, help people find information, facilitate discussions, create content and also answer Q’s. Part of Guide & Grow is my speaking and training in which I bring Montessori principles to mainstream, child development and guiding behvaiour is a universal topic in which adults need support, specifically on “How to get kids to listen”.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When I was first diagnose with P.O.T.S. I was in hospital for a few weeks and I could not stand up, walk or sit without fainting. The doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to have a normal life again, work again or function like I used to. I started designing my school’s logo in my hospital bed and was not going to give up on my dream. As I was recovering, I was collecting materials and resources for my school while studying a Masters in Teaching 0-5 years and finding a location in which I could start my school without having to drive anywhere as I wasn’t able to. I never gave up on my dream and I fought for my health and did everything I could to follow my path of starting my school.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327155
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are not capable of doing something, you can do anything you put your mind to doing whether it’s physically, mentally or emotionally. Having a chronic illness does not define you as a person and you shouldn’t let it dictate to you what you can and can’t do. Having faith is what really gave me the strength when I couldn’t function physically at all and I was at my lowest points, but not giving up and following through with my goals is what led me to where I am today.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Guide & Grow started as a small FB group community and some of the reasons why we became so successful or had such a big following so quickly is because we weren’t there to sell anything. Our genuine purpose and mission was to help serve our community and support parents and caregivers. When you start with the intention of helping others it has a ripple effect and you start building relationships with your audience/clients/customers that are based on trust and respect. This is the key to being able to sell to your audience because you have built such a strong bond and report with them it has influence on their decisions. We welcome every new member personally, we have a tight set of rules, admin team that are all onboarded, we have a system of approvals for members and posts and make sure that everything runs as a smooth operation behind the scenes to support such a large community from collapsing ( I have seen other groups where one post gone out of hand has been the reason for groups to be shut down). Kill them with kindness is out motto when dealing with more highly opinionated or strong characters :)
My biggest advice to those building their audience on social media is to make sure you are collecting data to connect with your customers off social media, as amazing as it is we had a moment where Facebook shut our page down and we were about to lose everything. From members signing up to our group they provide emails so we are able to build our leads list on the side and outside of the platform. Groups are amazing, some of our marketing that we do for clients can attract 3,000 – 8000 clicks to a website in 24 hours from one post that goes viral!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.guideandgrow.com, www.mymontessori.com.au, www.sylviaarotin.com
- Instagram: @sylviaarotin
- Facebook: Sylvia Arotin (https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=sylvia%20arotin), Guide & Grow (https://www.facebook.com/guideandgrow), My Montessori (https://www.facebook.com/mymontessorieducation/)
- Linkedin: Sylvia Arotin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/guidegrowtv
- Other: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/241055029780427