Candice Potgieter — The Unlimited Child: Driving Change through Play-Based Early Childhood Programs

what's your dream what's your goal what's your motivation what's important to you what's your passion what can you do to change the world this is what's involved conversations with thought leaders and change makers from around the world hear stories of hope and inspiration to help motivate people like you to live your life find your passion passion and live your dream together we could all bring positive change to our world now here's your host David Watts and once again it is what's involved and a special guest and almost almost an accidental guest but I'm so glad that we managed to get to chat to her and we were just chatting before we started and I said to you know what I actually cannot believe that we managed to get this far because and it's all been my fault not not my guest fault I mean between being sick and power problems and this and that and the next thing I don't think we're gonna get there but we are who are we talking to and what are we talking about well we're talking to the CEO of an organization called the unlimited child and Candice kotkitter is the CEO hello Candice hi David thanks so much for having me on it's an absolute pleasure now we chatted to in a little while ago in back and who is the founder of a company called the unlimited and found out all about what what the guys do there and then as part of the conversation I came across this the unlimited child and I was like hang on a second it sounds like something that I want to talk about and find out more about but before we get into that let's just have a little chat about Candice who is Candice so give me a bit of background it's a bit of background David well Candice is an exceptionally passionate individual I love working in the nonprofit space and making a massive difference in children's lives and the system of our country and how we change that and I actually started off in the corporate world it's a little bit different we have a background in science and math and I was brought into the unlimited child about seven years ago to scale up the organization so it's been a exceptionally exciting time for me and at the heart of what I do I think is the child and obviously having a better future for our country as well oh yeah I'm a big fan of that but you glossed over something so so Candice as a young person where did you grow up and did you always want to want to work in the nonprofit space or did you have other plans so Candice had definitely other plans you know growing up I grew up in a small town called Hilton in near Peter Marisburg I had a mom and dad who were incredible in making sure my sister and I wanted to achieve something and it was you know for the betterment of other people as well so not necessarily in the nonprofit space because obviously and you know if you look at one has an idea of my background is that I actually was part of the astrophysics and space science program as well my background is very science orientated I always had a love for science and you know I had initially thought I would go into that field and then just obviously by chance I worked for an organization that supported a nonprofit organization and I started leading that nonprofit to actually have a change management process and that's how I fell into the world of nonprofits and just to also add you know my dad and my mom were very much about community development and making a difference so during my university holidays I would spend time on other outreach programs and working with nonprofits actually developing my skills but more so volunteering my time my dad was a very strong believer in us you know providing those services and becoming volunteers because obviously if we want to see a change we have to also be a change so that's a little bit of yeah how I was raised and why I'm also really excited about what I get to do on a daily basis actually. I'm amazed that you that you were so you know you just skimmed over the sort of maths and science background I mean you've got a Bachelor of Science degree in applied physics and applied mathematics and that's from the University of KZN you also have a postgraduate in applied physics then you mentioned that you were a part of the National Astrophysics and Space Science program at UCT and then you also just because that wasn't enough chosen out of 50,000 applicants in Africa as a Mandela Washington fellow and the whole idea was there was to expand on your tertiary qualification this time it was in what you're doing our non-profits executive management and social entrepreneurship and that was at the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame in the United States so man okay maths and science so you know I can I can I can math you know but when it comes to physics and stuff like that I'm quite scary in fact we we're busy doing something for an organization now called Doxentia and they do I think it's grade 10 to 12 maths and science textbooks and now we're doing some videos as well for them so I'm doing the voices and you know how many times I have to stop and say what does this mean and that's that's in grade 10 and 12 I mean you can imagine that's when I was there chemistry the biggest thing we ever did with with anything like physics or chemistry is can we blow stuff up and if so how anyway enough of that I think you've done an amazing amount and and what struck me right from up our very first conversation is how your passion does shine through you and I've been doing for the last good few years a show called The Education Show with a company called Zabooza and I've always said education in this country is horrible I haven't been popular for saying that I said it's broken and part of what I believe that that part of our problem is that children are not nurtured they're not shown things they're not given the experiences and opportunities that they should and also they largely go well what kind of future do we have and unless you can give a child a compelling future they're not going to want to play a game at all they're not going to want to play ball with you so you were then selected you said 2016 that you started with the unlimited child so let's talk about the unlimited child what is that so to your point David you know we have to actually create a better pipeline in our country so we need to make sure that when children go into school they absolutely ready for school so that limited child is all about early childhood development and education so what do we do as an organization is we have a wonderful blueprint of early childhood development where we have a curriculum and we and I love things we actually unlock a really existing ECD centers or child-minding facilities where we train practitioners in skills development so these are women that actually own these ECD centers but they're just child-minding but we know that if we unlock their potential and we train them and we provide them with every single toy and equipment that they will need the ECD center actually becomes a much better place for the children that attend and then obviously the children attending can go into school being absolutely ready for school the one thing is it is a child and tested model we had a wonderful research study that was taken place in about 2018 where we were shown to actually have the best or the greatest impact in taking children from being not school ready so at risk of not being school ready to being absolutely school ready and I think why this is important for us as an organization and for me personally is that we're actually supporting children the best chance possible but we're also creating these wonderful female-led micro enterprises because as soon as the ECD center gets the training as soon as they get a bit of skills and the toys they also can in some cases access the government subsidy and parents actually want to pay a little bit more for their children to attend these well-established ECD centers or crashes so it creates a localized economy as well so I think that with all of these consequences or intended consequences be able to achieve a vision for our country because we know that the system in our country is completely fraught with with many challenges and I think for that limited child we want to be part of a solution we solutions based company we were founded by a solutions based company as well and for us it's about making sure that we are part of that solution so that's in a nutshell what we do it's very exciting we've talked about 1.3 million children in our country and we've just gone beyond our borders to Lesotho and to them as well and yeah we have the fortunate opportunity to make this difference I think it is absolutely phenomenal I want to dive a little deeper though into exactly what the unlimited child does you talk about early childhood development I want to find out a bit more about that so when we come back we're gonna dive right into that my special guest is Candice Portgitter the CEO of the unlimited child this is what's involved back in just a bit you're listening to what's involved with David Watts have you been to our website check it out www.what'sinvolved.com and while you're there click on the coffee mug icon and buy David a cup of coffee they'll love it and we're back what's involved that is my special guest is Candice Portgitter the CEO of the unlimited child now Candice just before the break we were talking about these early childhood development centers now if I think back when when I was when I was a little one and that's a very long way I have to think back but we used to go to nursery school and at nursery school we got to do all sorts of fun and thank you things I'm not sure if it prepared me for school I was always one of those those sort of rebels that was like I had many many many many different challenges amongst amongst them OCD and ADHD so you know everything had to be number one in alphabetical order number two lined up perfectly and from a young age from my mom was consistently told does David doesn't play well in the sandpit with other children but what is it like these days because so much has changed yeah so I think that you know the interesting and incredible thing about early child development is that there's all of these synapses that are actually connecting in a child's brain so in a normal society where I say the nuclear family as such we have parents and you spoke about your mom you know they encourage their children they develop language in their children and they are able to provide a stable environment now in South Africa we know that we don't have nuclear families at all especially in peri-urban and rural communities so what often happens is we often have parents that are going to work or they're going out to another city and children are being looked after by perhaps extended family as such so these children get put into ECD census so that's the technical term it's actually almost a child mining facility or creche because they need to be looked after somewhere and what we need to do is we actually need to create the foundation of literacy numeracy and and those sort of aspects of school readiness but school readiness is not just about the core educational function it's also about things like classroom practice so how a child learns to communicate with their teacher how they learn to be in a team so for the unlimited child what we're doing is recreating the school readiness within that child mining facility so they become a proper ECD center and this is also a core function so we have skills development like I said we trained the ECD practitioner or the child minder has such to be able to deliver a curriculum linked program and the curriculum is not just like I said reading and writing obviously at that age it's slightly different we then provide every field toy and resources child needs because we understand that at that age group is actually learning through play it's not a road learning as such but obviously in South Africa because we have so many challenges in a grassroots intervention we have a strong focus on mentoring and coaching so we have teams that go out and have on-site visits with the community and the ECD Center to almost mentor and coach to say this is what we're doing right this is what how we need to change this and this is how we actually work together because ultimately we are providing something called further education and training for the child minder as well and we need to make sure that they feel very confident in their delivery but the child is getting exactly what they need so the foundation if I can say of the early childhood development links to the fact that the obviously three hours reading writing and arithmetic are not formed usually if we don't have these programs and we know that this leads to a lifetime of struggle so we are forming all of these natural sort of interventions that need to happen within the child's brain so that by the time they go to school they're confident their understanding of a school system and more importantly they also reach all of their milestones so whether that is learning how to write for example or the gross motor skills or spatial skills we providing that opportunity of learning to them but obviously in a play-based environment I kind of laughed there because that was one of the things as soon as I figured out this writing thing and alphabets I was like no excuse me I was like you've been lying to me it's not three hours it's not be called three hours and I was most indignant about that because reading yep you're right there but writing is a double and arithmetic there's no such thing it's called arithmetic and I was quite pedantic about that and so it just it just suddenly brought this flashback to me so I remember that and it kind of made me it made me laugh but Candice from what age because I'm thinking and I'm thinking specifically now in terms of of our sort of more rural areas and as you said peri-urban areas what age to do our children able to attend these ECDs this the centers and and in terms of paying for it because that's the thing that I despair about so much in our country is that we just there's so much poverty we just don't have the money so so how does it work for you guys so the child we do this obviously going to ECD centers at no cost to the ECD centers or the community and it's one of our sort of ways in which we do something it's very important to us and that's where we have so many partners and I'll speak a little bit later about it but the age groups that we have is we have a baby's program we have a toddler's program and we have a pre-grade R program as well so that's just the age of 3 to 5 and like you said David it is so difficult in communities in terms of the poverty levels that we are in in fact we go into most ECD centers that are between what we call a quintile 1 quintile 2 or quintile 3 so they obviously have the lowest levels of poverty for us though what's important is we want these ECD centers not just be child mining facilities so what actually happens in that community is because that ladies ECD center becomes a proper working center they can access something we call a government subsidy so you can get registered has an ECD center it obviously is not a lot of money but it does help in terms of paying the practitioner and those sort of things the unlimited child will give all of the toys and equipment and transform that ECD center with their own funding has a nonprofit organization the mentoring and coaching is also completely free the training is completely free because obviously we need to create these opportunities and we can't have a chicken and egg or egg and chicken sort of system where we want everyone to be better but we're not providing anything so for us that is exceptionally important and then what starts to happen is we actually have this almost catalyst for change because once the educational program is provided we can also support other funding mechanisms that go into the ECD center from other corporate social investment or philanthropic spin and then not only that it's quite an interesting element is that because the ECD center becomes better and better we then also have families that are obviously they've left home they're not living in these areas anymore parents so they start sending money home to pay a certain amount to the ECD center the amounts though and I think this is a very interesting perspective in Kuntar 123 from a fee paying system practitioners or owners of ECD centers will never turn a child away and this is such a spirit of Ubuntu in the community and that's what we need to support but the levels of which they earn is probably about a hundred and per child per term so it almost works out to 25 in a month but it is something and parents start supporting those ECD centers as well you know what I think that is that is amazing because that is one of the questions I was going to go to come to you with and say how how do they they pay I mean I know that you guys have not given all of the the the tools and equipment and the training etc etc but you know there's this there's such levels of poverty and and I've had been in places where I've literally seen that these poor little children have there's nothing there's nothing for them there's nothing for them to do they lucky if they get a meal a day kind of thing and then you know we sit and go well everybody needs an education and they should go off and get an education and you know but unless you've been there and you've seen it you you don't understand so if I was a parent and not employed or doing piece work and domestic work whatever the case may be 25 rand what did you say 100 was 25 random almost a hundred 25 minute sorry a month so it's almost a hundred and a term some of these communities say 25 rand is doable I mean that that I can I can see people wanting to be involved and and sort of stretching the budget and saying okay 25 bucks we can do and we're making our children better humans just by giving them this place where they can go and they can start to learn and become school-ready because that's a challenge that you know this whole concept of school really with the way education is going even though I don't think we're at the top of our game in South Africa if you don't know the basics before you get there you're going to be set up for failure I'd like to tell a little bit more about this and you did mention some supplemental funding from from other institutions so let's talk about that when we get back it is what's involved my guest is Candice Portgitter she is the CEO of the unlimited child we'll be back in just a bit hey like what you're hearing share the podcast with your family and friends and spread the word this is what's involved and we're back with my special guest Candice Portgitter of the unlimited child so Candice we've now got these places set up and the children are attending the the caregivers are trained up where does this supplemental funding come in and who's kind of involved in that so David there's such a great question and just to come back to something we've already spoke about but the one thing is we strongly believe and I think this should be a universal belief system if a child is not fed a child cannot learn it's the same as us as adults if we're not fed we probably won't be very productive and anything that we're doing so because of this partnership with unlimited child it actually opens up a network so all of our ECD centers actually belong to our network of ECD centers so yes they are independently owned they are independently run and we are the primary supporter of them they are beneficiary we never let go of them and the reason being is that we are then also able to form better partnerships for the ECD centers so for example during COVID and in case at any now I call it the three plagues we had COVID we had civil unrest and flooding as all we were then able to support these ECD centers to get back on their feet in fact we were able to have 90 over 98 percent of our network intact and how we did that is through that partnership so we catalyzed on funding opportunities and you know I spoke about the fact that if a child is not fed they cannot learn so before we go anywhere and you know we have a number of ECD centers joining our network and I'll talk a little bit about what we plan to do in the next few years we find something called a nutritional partner so there may be other nonprofit organizations you know a big partnership that we have is with gift of the givers and we are able to provide nutrition and a whole lot of supplementary sort of funding and activities to the ECD centers so this comes in the form of things such as water solutions because in rural areas there's no water solution it comes in the form of during COVID we were able to provide a whole lot of groceries and PPE to actually the parents of the children attending or the caregivers of the children attending the ECD centers and the ECD centers became a hub or network so that parents realize hey wait a minute we're not going to stop sending our children or we're not going to think these things don't matter we actually going to understand that they serve our entire community so that's one thing that we do we also have another process where we want ECD centers to be registered in our country so this is a formal registration is called partial care and program and conditional it's very you know the jargon obviously is quite a quite a bit and by doing so and crossing the line so getting these ECD centers to become proper well-functioning ECD centers they can access a government grant and this government grant is based on a child number so for example and cross provincially there are different subsidies I must just state that but in case then for example it's between 15 to 17 and per child per month so that also allows the ECD centers to be able to pay for their staff that's there to perhaps pay for a little bit more nutrition but because we provide an educational program when we find finding them other partners it also makes their lives a little bit more manageable there is a strong advocacy that is happening though because obviously Torin and you probably heard it before can't strike on the streets so the budget is obviously not growing it's not getting bigger and bigger we understand in South Africa there are budgetary constraints but I think that ECD and and thanks to people like you needs to have a place at the table we need more funding to be delivered to these enterprises and these ECD centers has such because without it we can only do so much and you make a valid point and for example there's the Education Show that I was doing with Cebuza they had to and I was literally giving them my services at below cost actually and and they couldn't get extra funding for us to continue producing the podcasts and hosting and talking to various teachers and role players people like yourself and bringing them all together and we just couldn't we couldn't get the funding for it and I sat there and we did it for almost a year I think with with like no money then we'd been running it for three years I think and now it's it's basically ground to a halt while they try and get some more funding and etc etc together and I agree yeah I mean you definitely need a seat at the table we keep on talking about the future of our country and that our children are the future and yet those grants just don't get any bigger it is the most frustrating thing and I know that we we can be circumspect and say that there are other changes but you know there's a couple of places that I think many needs to go to and one thing that does make me happy though is our corporates and how involved and invested they are in these kind of projects I mean MTS Suleiman of gift of the givers is just him and his organization just the most incredible thing and I look at myself and look at him and go well if they can do it what the heck is stopping the rest of us but you do have a lot of other corporates that help you out don't you yes we are incredibly fortunate has an organization David so I know that you've obviously spoken to our wonderful founder Ian Bakken and so that limited child was actually founded by Ian and his for-profit company called unlimited it's an exceptional company in South Africa with a strong belief system of business should do better and I'm sure you you talk to him about it as well and you can hear me smiling when I speak about it because Ian has put his life in the soul into making sure that children are educated in a country he made this decision long ago you know they say that early childhood development is a 20-year investment so you only reap the rewards in 20 years and it takes a very brave person to say that I'm not gonna follow the trends I don't need the assurance in the marketplace this is not a marketing opportunity it's actually that we want to do better and even if we see these results in 20 years time we will do this so for that limited childhood is an organization and I can speak so confidently about it is that then limited is what we call an operational under so we are a registered nonprofit organization completely but obviously any nonprofit needs things such as salaries paid and you know the lights there to keep the lights on your rental and all of that then limited has a company actually supports us over 98 percent of those costs and I say 98 percent it used to be 100 percent but we're obviously growing so quickly that there is an affordability I mean 1.3 million children is is exceptional so the unlimited has a company pays for all of our operational costs so that everything actually then starts going into the child and the ECD Center and the practitioner so when we raise funding and we have some other funders and I'll speak to that as well it is going directly to the community and that's where we can scale so quickly we've just recently had the wonderful opportunity of working with Alma Foundation as well and they are also going to support some of our operations so it means that we can establish almost having half a million children going into school already currently so our 1.3 million number is obviously from the time we started but we want to say a half a million children every single year till we get to a million children as well so those are operational funders and then we have the wonderful opportunity to work with some amazing corporates in South Africa we have a special has a company they've really put or stuck their neck out there saying they wanted to work with us we also have a really wonderful opportunity to work with FNB has one of the largest banks in South Africa and you know they see also has his heart and his head completely aligned that we also support another intervention where we have employees and similar to the unlimited who actually on their own steam adopt ECD centers so even though we do education is our primary needs and we get funded for that we then have this adopted ECD center program where we have employees work with ECD centers completely and upskill these practitioners and make a difference from a community level we also work with Ackermann's foundation I mean I think it's name dropping a little bit here but we have a stunning array of corporates that really have dropped names by all means no because I think it's important because and that was one of the things that blew me away with with with Ian is when I picked up on his passion and what he was doing and we just touched on the unlimited child I could just hear in his voice and and and you're absolutely right he's the kind of guy that will go yep happy to do this for the next 20 years and more if necessary and he was just so quiet about it I mean you don't it's not as you said it's not done as a PR exercise because that kind of always leaves me feeling a little uneasy when when you know people feel the need to to broadcast to the entire world how well they doing and how good they are so the guys that are involved with you so far these are people that you know they just get on and do the job and I'm happy with the name dropping thanks thanks David but you know like I said that's limited has been truly a part of us I mean we we are so fortunate to have a founder that obviously still fits board family members that's also done on board as well because the brand belief is it's so deeply entrenched in creating a better future and opportunities for you know our children a hundred years from now so I just also want to add that by the limited backing us completely and having this operational funding given to the limited child it also allows us to work in such a unique way so that we can develop this blueprint we do what's best for the beneficiary we not hamstrung in any way to change our vision or change what we're doing because it's on train to do something else and by providing that funding to us operational funding we are also able to approach other corporates and other funders and assure them that their funding is actually going directly to the beneficiary and like I said that's how we've been able to grow so quickly we've almost had exponential growth over the last seven years and I think that you know in 20 years time the massive impact of children being school ready is is definitely going to change our country as such so yeah completely happy with with our partners and I hope I haven't I know I've missed out quite a few so I'm sure they'll be on the phone to me but you know like I said we were we've had some really really amazing like I said it can be Cecil Ackerman's Anglo-American and you know it's really been wonderful and you know just also add it's not just about the corporate funders we've also had civil society partner with us so we've had many philanthropies the Alma Foundation Lego Foundation come on board as well we have Catherine Dean in a personal capacity as well and apart from that and just one thing that I want to add you know NGOs working together and having this network of partnership is amazing we also have Mr. Price Foundation so not Mr. Price but Mr. Price Foundation actually joined forces with us Ackerman Foundation give us foundation and I think that's what we need to create we need to create an environment that is truly about the child that it's not actually about whose name is is bigger on a billboard as such and I think that's what we try to encourage and yeah I would like to say we've been quite successful in doing so because at the end of the day the problems are much bigger than one company or one person we have to have to work together absolutely canister full time flies all the time I always say this but we are running out of time when we come back I want to talk to you very briefly as we wrap up about where you see the unlimited child going over the next couple of years then I also want to talk about a little something that you do each year so we'll talk about that when we come back it is what's involved my special guest Candace Portgitter CEO of the unlimited child back in just a bit we'll be right back with more what's involved David would love to hear from you to leave a voice message visit what's involved calm and click drop me a voice note and we're back with my special guest on what's involved Candace Portgitter the CEO of the unlimited child so as we wrap up Candace you mentioned earlier on in the interview about a three-year claim now I want to find out a bit more about that where is the unlimited child what are you planning so in the next three years we are planning to obviously be in 6000 BCD sentence so 200% you know growth has such because we know that obviously there's about a million children that start in school not ready for school so we want to make a massive dent into that and have half a million children ready but to be completely honest David we have a founder like I said who you know doesn't think small and really imparts that into the organization as well so that's our module to conservative numbers but our whole plan is to expand exponentially to be able to gather more traction we have a blueprint that is tried test and proven it works so you know if the funding is not a big challenge we would be able to even do more than that we also want to now go across our borders because we know this is a blueprint that works like I said we piloted in some and a suit as well because the need is so great and it is play based learning each country does have a curriculum but ultimately the way Torin learn through play is the same so that's our plans for the future and we just really believe that we need to think big because we want to attain something that makes a difference with each and every child we want that opportunity to to be there so I hope I've answered the question one is our module plan but our big plan is exponential growth and tenfold at six thousand number as well you know what I have no doubt with with the amount of passion that lies between the unlimited and yourself the unlimited child I have no doubt you Bob to smash that now people are people are always asking you know how can we get involved what do we do is there a place so if somebody's listening and and and we've now triggered something for them where they're thinking to themselves heck I want to I want to find out more I want to see if I can't become involved is there a place for that are you are you open to that absolutely David so you know the thing is like I said having an operational fundamental backup means that funding goes directly to children so our cost model in South Africa and Lusuitism is one of the lowest cost models so even a little bit if you go into our website and donate on our website or you know have a meeting with us and can see what we're doing goes a really long way in fact our cost basis after the first year because we do obviously continue with mentoring and coaching and all of that is almost sitting at 25 ran a child sort of thing 500 and a child for the year which is absolutely amazing so you know yes I did speak about our big obviously corporates in South Africa working with us with the higher numbers but even as an individual people can make a difference and yeah you know our website is www.unlimitedchild.org there's a wonderful page for donate now you get a tax benefit you know I have to say that answer so you know more than welcome to or just get in touch with us you know we like showing people what we do we are a show not tell business so organization and we love people to see what we're doing so that they can also feel it you know at the end of the day we do things in our lives because we we feel we want to and we don't want it to be a grudge donation as such I have to do this because life is tough in South Africa no it must actually be a donation because you can see the difference it makes so yeah we completely welcome that it's a fantastic website I mean from the time I first saw it just after I was chatted to you know went and had a look and and when you see this this donate now about and let me give you an example okay you can decide to do a donation of a hundred rand a month okay and that can support four children for an entire year think about that hundred rand a month okay supports four children for an entire year maybe you're a company that is like a small medium business one and a half thousand rand a month then you're educating an entire class for a year and if you've got a huge big heart there's also the option to donate five thousand rand per month and that's going to help with those ECD centers it is such a worthwhile cause Canis thank you before I let you go though a little bird told me that each and every year because you like challenges you learn a new skill so what is this year's skill that you're learning this year has been the most difficult so actually if I could say so you know working within then limited child we have you know something called the big hairy audacious goal very similar to our founding company as well that limited and you know the thing about these goals is that it challenges yourself because we dream big so this year and you can hear me laugh nervously I learned to play the piano it has been quite challenging you know I've done I've done a half marathon and you know I've done quite a few things that have been what physically physically exciting but exhausting but you know there's nothing like learning a musical instrument if you've never played it in your entire life and you know what you know it's amazing Candice is like to make that decision I'm gonna learn to play the piano it sounds easy it doesn't sound too challenging until you sit down in front of that piano and you suddenly realize oh there's a lot more to this than I thought obviously I've been in for people in the in the industry so you know I have a wonderful support system as well I have an amazing husband so each year we decide to get this I do have a teammate you know you need somebody who helps you to be accountable as well and we just obviously we did our grade one you know there's different grades and I'm sure for everyone listening they're probably like great one is so easy so we've done that and you know the thing about it though David and it's you know I wish I could say this to more people and say try it out you know whether it's a new skill every three years or whatever time prevails it's that it actually is it's about goal and decision-making because like you said it's not just it's easy to say it and you know you want to be cool and learn a song and be like oh I could be in the movies like everyone playing a song and singing whereas it's not as glamorous as that you know you have to take the time you have to be dedicated to it you have to find the teacher and it's also teaching that ability that I can accomplish things if I set my mind to it and you know like I said the reason we do it and and I would say to people if if I've ever had an opportunity to be able to do things like this and you know it doesn't have to be the piano it could be running a road race sort of thing and all you need is is the ability to do so I mean when I did my we did our first half marathon my husband I never run in our lives and completed a few and now you know it's exciting but the thing is it's just about making that goal because we want to be better people and I'm not saying that you know we're not good people what I am saying is that if we have to in our lives make a difference to the world make a positive impact in the world we have to learn how to be dedicated in the things that we do determined in the things that we do and then we can actually be you know human beings that actually create environments for other human beings and you know we also get an eternal investment in doing so so yeah so that's the reason I did it I said it very nervously cuz it's not as easy as it sounds listen I've tried okay my my sister can play piano and keyboard like an absolute superstar and she's gotten all the different grades I just can't get my left hand and my right hand to agree on what to do at any specific time and it's just I know exactly where you're going are you able to to have you hit that as an auto in a major have you done that very slowly but yes definitely wonderful wonderful and next year what are we looking at you know I wanted to continue playing the piano but next year we are looking at maybe a more physical challenge so you know it's so good I think that anyone in a also in a relationship it's such a it's such a wonderful thing to do together and a relationship not just your husband or your wife or whatever even if you did it with a friend or mom or something like that it just creates a very different and good dynamic because you know that person's gonna see you at your worst they it's always these challenges that crop up I mean when you know you get right piano exams for example it's like they are challenges and you know it helps you in life because life is not easy for any one of us it's but it's what we make of it and how we actually go past the challenge because yeah that's I think that's the best way to live live you know my favorite movie of all time is you know Paris Buehler's Day Off some people might not know the movie might be too young but you know he says I love that movie you have to do it it's not just you know don't live as a as a bystander live in the movie be the person doing the things yeah you gotta you gotta live juicy I said and if you if you if you have an opportunity to do something and even if it is something creative I think for me personally the creative challenges are the ones that help me personally grow because I get more of a coherence between left and right brain and being very very practical and just being able to let loose a little bit but Candice thank you so much I know you're busy and I thank you for taking the time out and having a chat with us here on what's involved we wish you all the very very best I'm sure we're gonna be chatting again don't forget if you want to find out how you can help just go to the unlimited child that's all one word the unlimited child dot org and see how you can help out it is a wonderful wonderful organization Candice once again thank you so much oh thanks David I have more than yeah I so appreciate the chat and yeah just people being interested in what we need to do in our country it's an absolute pleasure wraps it up for this edition of what's involved my special guest there was Candice Portgitter CEO of the unlimited child go and check it out teaching every one of you look after yourselves take care and thank you for listening thanks for listening to what's involved we hope this episode inspires you to find your passion and live your dream don't forget to rate review and share the podcast and to see what's happening what's going on and what's coming follow what's involved on Facebook and Twitter and what's involved thanks again for listening