Lorinda McGhee — Inspireware, Entrepreneur, Passionate Educator

Once more it is what's involved and we love having special guests on this show and we all talk in entrepreneurship and business and things like that. I've got a great guest for you this evening and her name is Lorenda McGee and she is from a little company or not so little company called Inspireware. Hello Lorenda. - Morning, morning David and morning to your listeners. - It's great having you along with us. So Inspireware we're gonna get to but I like to find out a little bit more about my guests before we dive into what they do. Give me a bit of your story because for you to sort of, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs are like, oh yes it started out then I did this, then I did that and then suddenly there was a business and we tend to skip over the challenges and the hard times. So let's start right at the very beginning with you. Did you always want to be an entrepreneur and a business owner? - No, no, definitely not. I had visions at school of completely the opposite, being an actress, loved singing, dancing and acting, loved law, actually studied Latin at school thinking I wanted to be a lawyer. So no, never for once did I ever think I'd be doing what I'm doing today. But it, yeah, I suppose where did it start?

I mean, when I was at school thinking I wanted to be either one of these two things, my mom actually sent me to one of these career guidance counselors and actually through doing that, I realized I'm more into entrepreneurial and sales and marketing. So I didn't go to Varsity and a lot of people when I go and speak at my bridging programs for motivation I go, wow, you didn't go to Varsity but then how come you've got two companies? And I'll be like, well, you don't always have to have a degree for things that you've got a skill in or a passion in. It depends if it's a profession. So you can be a success actually and you can put food on the table and you can be a contributor without having a degree. So I think it also motivates a lot of the youth realizing actually I don't always have to go to university to be a success in life, just do what you're passionate about. So having gone to that, I then went to Durban Tech and I did marketing, I did an IMM there. And at the time I went overseas after two and a half years of doing it. So I didn't quite complete the IMM. I actually had one subject left but there were certain things that happened and I needed to go overseas at the time with my boyfriend who's now my husband when I was younger.

And yeah, I think having got experience in Natal doing my IMM, I ended up working because I had to pay a student loan as a lot of us do have to do. My parents didn't have the money at the time to send me to Varsity in any case. So I went and got a student loan to study the IMM. And when I went and studied, I somehow found myself working in the holidays for an IT company at a show. And that's actually where the love for technology started because I didn't even know how to use a computer. I didn't know what RAM was, what gigs was. And now I'm sitting at a retail store seven days a week till like late at night, no lunch breaks really because people are constantly coming up to your desk asking for computers. And that was when I was 19. And then I studied in the evening. So I gave up full-time studying because I like to be independent and make my own money and have that freedom. And so I worked full-time and then studied in the evening and learned about computers. And I wanted experience in marketing. So that's where the love for children and technology actually started was I went to the owner of the company. I said, listen, I'm studying marketing. I would like to get experience in it. You don't have anybody in that role.

Would it be possible that I could start a kid's computer connection sort of club for the retail store? And that's what I did. I started this whole kid's computer connection store like newsletter, we called it the Atomic Kids 'cause it was a company called Atomic in those days. And I brought kids to come in the weekends and we showed them laptops and to show them how to use it. And we use certain software in those days which was quite a while ago, probably 20 plus years. And yeah, we showed kids how to use technology to learn and do perception skills. And I remember when I went overseas, I worked for an IT company there as well, looking after large corporates. And I said to my boyfriend or husband at the time, when I come back to South Africa 'cause it was a three year stint, I want to start a kid's computer store and teach kids how to use technology to improve so many different areas of education which I felt could really help. As I know, I would like to have done that. And yeah, I came back and at that time, there was computer labs and schools three years later already. So it didn't make sense to open up this kid's computer connection store. And then I carried on and I worked for a company called Photonote, which sold laptops and IT and all of that and photocopiers.

And then moved up to Johannesburg because my husband got a job up here being an engineer after two years of being in Durban back there. And they asked me to run the branch, which I then did for them. And then of course, I fell pregnant 14 years ago, had my son, my first child. And when I was pregnant, I started to think, I think I'd like my own company. So I've got the freedom for my kids because that was very important for me. I wanted to be able to go to the sports days and all these things that they have. And I didn't want to ask somebody, can I? So I wanted to be able to plan my own time and my own day. And I loved the challenge. I loved the thought of growing something and specifically in education with technology. I still had that longing for children and for using technology to help education. So I did, I bought the company while I was pregnant and had my maternity leave. But whilst maternity leaving, I was actually setting up the company, finding premises. And I then kept the name of Photonote, Johannesburg. I thought I needed that big brother in Durban to guide me, to mentor me while I start this. As I was, I was nervous. I don't think any entrepreneur can say they're not nervous 'cause you don't know what's gonna happen.

I was nervous, but I was also very excited. I felt like a fire had been lit inside me and had all these ideas and all these things that I wanted to do that I've always wanted to do. So I felt I had a lot of freedom as well in that. And I could make decisions on things that I felt were things I wanted to try. So yeah, so then I took over the Johannesburg office, I bought it and I went completely in the opposite direction to what we were doing. I went and got the distribution on these interactive whiteboards. I started selling them initially to private schools. Actually, St. John's College was my first one that I sold to and that was exciting. And I started teaching teachers how to use the technology in the classroom to better teach difficult subjects, to help kids understand things. And when I was standing there, I think after the first three months of doing that, I thought, wow, this is actually a solution that needs to be in the rural schools and in the public sector, because that's where the need is. And so I found this love for uplifting and empowering 'cause I do enjoy empowering people and bringing out the best in them and wanting them to see that they are capable of anything, really.

I've always had the motto that you only regret what you don't do in life. You don't regret what you do do in life. Because if you don't try, how will you ever know? And I never wanna have that question mark of could I, should I, and I'm not scared of failure. Never have been, you know, school wasn't easy for me either. I went through a very rough period in high school at one stage with an illness and that's another story for another day. But I realized that life isn't just a bed of roses and you have to really work and try and push yourself. And I don't give up, I never have. And that's something I can be quite stubborn, I think, in a lot of ways. And I had a lot of friends wondering, well, why are you doing this? Why are you going to rural areas and doing these projects? At one stage, my husband called me philanthropic with no money. And some people didn't quite understand why I did what I did. And at one stage, I didn't even understand what the business was because I thought, well, I'm not really all about profit, so what am I? And I think having gone to one of these conferences, I actually learned I'm called a social enterprise. I'm a social entrepreneur. And I suppose having been given that name and that identity, it made me realize, okay, I'm not alone in this.

There are many of people like me who it's more about the impact, the sustainability of what you're doing, the making the difference. Yes, you have to make money, but at the end of the day, doing something that you are really believing is your purpose and life and your passion. And I think, yeah, loving what you do every day, getting up every morning, knowing that you're going out there and helping people that don't have a voice. And you're trying to make things better in a very tough situation. I know initially when I went to these rural schools, because that's what I did after three months at private schools, I just completely went to all the rural schools. I went to all the departments of education at the time that was run by Mbeki at that stage. And then they changed to Zuma. I did so many pilots in these schools to prove the concept. I got distribution on this software that was interactive software for maths and science. It was full of 3D animation, simulations, games, making subjects that are normally hard more fun and more, yeah, making more sense to you in a visual way. So I've got that. I became CETA credited and SACE endorsed as a company because I knew training was the biggest component of all of this.

You can have the best technology in the world, but if you do not train and handheld these teachers hands through the process at their pace and give them the confidence to use this technology, it really is going to sit like a white elephant. And they embraced me going into all these areas throughout the country. It was a wonderful experience. I got to see schools and areas that I never knew existed. Yes, there were long drops still. There were goats walking in and out, no doors and windows, kids of 100 kids in a class. But I was meeting teachers that were so passionate about what they do and they were neglected. I remember at the time a lot of them were saying, "Oh, that area is not ready for all of this yet." And I found it to be completely the opposite. I had these teachers that might've lived in Shacks, but they all had laptops somehow and they brought them and they were so eager to get going with this technology. So yes, I found my purpose in this whole journey. It's been a long journey, David, by no means has it been easy. - I can only imagine. - I was passing the salary for 10 years. I must admit my husband was the biggest rock behind me. And yeah, and God, I suppose, because I kept praying.

Is this what I mean to be doing? Who works for free? And I remember people at my church and stuff would say, "No, gotta keep going. There's a bigger picture. Can't give up. What do you mean to do?" - Wonderful stuff. Lorenda, we can talk about this, I know, for hours, but we've only got a limited amount of time. So when we come back, let's dive a little bit more into Inspireware and what it does. And then, you know, because one company is not enough, we'll talk about the other one as well. I did laugh a little earlier on when you said, you know, being an entrepreneur, for you, it wasn't about making money. I could see all of these died in the wool, hard-nosed bottom line people, just shuddering as you said that. But I tend to agree with you. We'll be back. This is what's involved. Back in just a bit, turning to my special guest Lorenda McGee from Inspireware. And we're back. What's involved it is. It's so good to have you along with us. My special guest, Lorenda McGee, founder, CEO, MD, chief cook and bottle washer. All of those titles fit into what Lorenda does of Inspireware. So as I understand it then Lorenda, that initial franchise you bought, you then changed it because of this vision of yours.

And you decided to give it a new name and et cetera, et cetera. Talk to me a little bit about Inspireware. What do you do then with Inspireware? - Okay. So how it started initially was actually with the hardware, the interactive whiteboards that we had the distribution rights at the time. And now we actually own the RP and the brand, the Inspire range. So it started with the hardware and obviously was always in technology since 19. So it was a long walk with using technology and hardware and then delivering using the tool in the classroom because it doesn't replace the teacher. It's actually a teaching aid, a teaching tool. So we were going and providing these, and this was 14 years ago into schools. It was a mind shift. A lot of people weren't ready for this. They thought it was a nice to have and not necessarily a necessity. And I think now we've seen how using technology, especially with COVID, it's a necessity. This is how the children speak. This is how they learn. This is how they collaborate with one another. So I think sometimes I saw things before they actually were about to start taking off. So it was also changing mindsets of teachers that were fearful of using technology and then using interactive content, specifically in subject areas to bring the lessons alive for the teachers to use.

So we had curriculum content. We also became, like I said, CETA, MRCT, CETA credited, where we started with a basic computer literacy training course. And then we also trained teachers and we SACE endorsed. So it was initially about the interactive classroom solution. That's how it started. And then, like I said, I started dealing with private schools, but very quickly after about three or four months, started going towards the departments of education and pilots and proving the concept. That was a long road and getting the stuff approved by various departments at the time that you had to do. So that was long and hard. And yes, I didn't make any money. It was actually paying to work at the time, but I really believed that I needed to show that this can actually make a difference and help teachers and learners. And then I suppose having done so many case studies, I realized, hang on, I really need this to be a business. I can't be a charity anymore. I need this to be a business. And I know that this can work. And I was, I was hitting my head against a brick wall with the departments, unfortunately, because I think a lot of them weren't ready for this and it was new. There were other reasons, of course.

So I decided I didn't want to give up on my dream. I was saying to my husband, what do I do? I can't carry on like this. And then I thought about it and I thought, you know what? All these companies out there, they are all looking for partners to partner with for CSI to implement solutions because I didn't want to go the easy route and go back to private schools and corporates for their training rooms. I mean, that would probably be, yes, the easier route. And I'd probably make a lot of money doing it, but I wanted to still fulfill my purpose and what I was passionate about. So I decided to go to companies and that was probably about eight years ago, which was fantastic. I mean, I had some companies saying, where have you been? And I'd be like, oh, I should have come here a long time ago. But actually, I think having gone through all of this, I had credibility now. I had experience in rural areas. I understood what the teachers needed and what the difficulties were within the schools. I wasn't this white girl that was now having gone to a private school in Durban that didn't know what she was talking about. So I think I needed to go through that. I needed to pay those school fees. I needed to get that experience.

And then I started working with companies with like-minded people. And I always say that, that when you start working with like-minded people with the same heart and the same vision as you, so much can be done. And that's, I think one of the hardest lessons I learned. I thought I could change people's agendas. I thought I could just go out there so passionate and enthusiastic about what I've found and what I can do and how I can help. And actually, yeah, I often did hit my head with different people's agendas and different things and different visions. So I learned quite a few many years later that yeah, start working with people that have the same alignment as you. And that's when things started working for me and the company. - Wonderful. - And that's when we started growing. - Wonderful, I think that's good news. Lorenda, I wanna get into what the company does and how if anybody is listening, they can get in touch with you as well. And then I also wanna touch on your other project that you got going, 'cause I found that very fascinating. We'll do that all when we come back. It is what's involved. My special guest, Lorenda McGee from Inspireware. We'll be back in a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Lorenda McGee from Inspireware.

So Lorenda, you've done all of this, but now on the Inspireware website, you've got a couple of other things that you got going there as well. And the one, I think if somebody is listening and if they are a parent or a teacher and they're wondering about what to do, where to go next, you've got this whole assessment thing there as well. - Yes, well, that happened quite a few years later. So obviously when I was going through, like I said to all these companies, I also realized when doing projects that there's a lot of learners in high school that aren't getting the necessary information to know what subjects they need to study to actually do that career. So in grade nine, it's a critical year and grade 11 because in grade nine, you have to choose your subjects and then in grade 11, you need to now decide what varsity and career path you're going to be following and what is the APS scores and all of that that's needed to get into that faculty and how long is the studies for. So what we did is we were actually developing a bridging program, that's how it all started. We developed a bridging program for a mining entity because they came to us and said, look, Lorenda, love your passion.

We don't have a need for the schools right now, but what we have a need for is we are giving bursaries to top learners in the rural areas and they're not passing first semester at university. We need to create a year-long program so that we can bridge that gap and then they are able to fulfill that degree and are better informed and have all the tools that they need. So whilst developing that program, and that was seven years ago, when we developed that program, one of the key components I felt was definitely the career gardens because a lot of these kids, life orientation was a free lesson or an extra maths lesson or extra science lesson. And having sat next to a boy in Limpopo telling me he wanted to be an engineer, but yet he studied maths literacy, it was heartbreaking. He was in grade 12 and to tell him you actually need pure maths in order to be an engineer was something he definitely didn't wanna hear because nobody guarded him. So I felt that career guidance and an assessment tool like I did at school, which actually helped me on my path, I felt was really needed. They don't have thousands of brands to go to an educational psychologist to go and pay for somebody to tell them what is their personality type, what are the things that they should be studying that is linked to their personality.

So we created this package in our bridging program incorporating this online career assessment tool, which is a fantastic career guidance tool for learners to be able to go on, do the assessment online. They have got a login and a password and they can actually use the tool for the rest of their lives. It's got scarce skills. How do I study for the MBTs? It teaches them about themselves and what careers align with those personalities. So it's a very comprehensive guide and tool that they can use ongoing. And it also got links to universities. What is the APS scores that they are now required? How long? What are the ups and the downs of the job? What sort of companies have those jobs that I can apply for? So there's a lot of information in there. And yeah, we found that it's really doing well and following that we actually started the platform Job Shadow, which was the other company, the sister company, which complements that because learners need to be able to get a practical experience. As I romanticized about law watching LA Law, many kids do. They don't understand the reality of that job on a day-to-day basis and what's required of them. And is that gonna suit them? So we have a portal as well called Job Shadow, which we also developed.

That was two years ago, which complements our online career guidance tool. And then of course I mentioned to you our bespoke solutions that we develop on a need for a corporate. A corporate might say this is my area of difficulty like the man did with bursaries. Can we create that? And we did. So we created a bridging year long program. So we're all about developing and creating and constantly improving and finding solutions to make things easier and to support teachers and to support learners so that they can actually be more informed and be the best version of themselves they can be. So yeah, we're constantly finding innovative ways and I'm loving it. My day's never boring. Love what I do every day. And I love finding new ways of doing things and constantly improving on what we've already got. - That's incredible. Well, to my mind, one of the things that I would say, and I have absolutely no expertise in this realm, but if there was a bridging program for young people to go, okay, now you've finished metric. Let's prepare you for what varsity is really going to be like. Because I know that part I know from firsthand experiences, the jump from being a big fish in a very small pond when you're in metric and then you go into varsity and suddenly you're a teeny, teeny, tiny little fish in an ocean is a big challenge.

And also you don't get people in varsity. The lecturers don't go, please can you get two lectures on time, please have you done your assignments. You either do it or you're out. It's that simple. And I think a lot of people battle with that. But that's just my personal input there. So maybe if you do design something like that, I can have a footnote, inspired by. (laughing) It is what's involved. And my special guest, Lorenda McGee, when we come back, we're going to be wrapping it up with Lorenda. I want to find out a little bit more about that job shadowing portal. And then also find out how, if you're listening, how you could get involved. So we'll be back in just a bit. And we're back with Lorenda McGee. She is chatting to us about several of her businesses. Inspire being the one. And the other one is job shadowing. - It's job shadow. - Job shadow. Okay, so now let's dive straight into that. Job shadow, what is that all about? - Okay, so what that is is it's a platform and it's linking high school scholars with corporates. Or individuals, depending on what the career is, that the person wants to shadow. So at school, learners are actually required to, most schools, they actually give an yellow task, lab orientation task in grade 11.

Some do it earlier in grade nine and 10. But majority of schools create a job shadowing task in lab orientation in grade 11. For learners to go and job shadow a person in a job role that they're interested in studying. And a lot of parents don't know where to go. Unless you've got a brother, uncle, sister, or cousin or auntie, you send them to a place. Otherwise you end up as a parent trying to help your kid or the kid ends up phoning companies to ask them, can I shadow you? And so it's quite a task at hand for a parent and child to actually get involved in. And especially now with COVID, nobody wants children at their premises because they're all working from home. So what we decided was, how can we make it easier for parents and learners to be able to get experience in a job role because we all know it's important. You do need to get an insight. We do romanticise and we don't understand the full thing of these jobs. And in university, there's a 50 to 60% dropout in the first year. And actually a lot of it is to do with people going to varsity, rushing off, thinking they know what they wanna do. And then they go, oh, this is not what I thought it was. So it's also saving people time and money and being more informed by people in the know.

And on the corporate side, we are actually asking all people, please come on board as mentors. We offering currently a one hour WhatsApp interview. If you come on as a mentor, you can tell us your dates that you want, that you're comfortable with. And we put you on our platform and we work with the schools and the LO teachers. And we promote this to parents and scholars out there to actually book a role in our portal. So, yes, corporates are loving it. The corporates that are on board are loving the fact that they don't have to worry about all the logistics of parents phoning them and kids emailing them and asking them. They can now guide them to www.jobshadow.co.za and the kid can go there and book the job role. The corporate also gets, how can I say,

gets exposure because they are now exposing their industry. And they also able to identify talent at an early age through these scholars that are coming on board and actually meeting with them. So it's almost a way of talent scouting and growing the industry and giving kids an insight into different careers that they never knew even existed in that sector, which is great because everybody goes for the same jobs when they're young because that's what they hear. But when they start realizing, oh my word, there is such careers as social media, ethical hacking, all these new things that are coming out. Actually, that's something I might be interested in looking into, what is it? They can go into the portal, read up a little bit about it and they can book a job shadow with that mentor and they can get a true insight of that career. So we finding that it's also creating job creation for the youth because a lot of people are now not going all for the same jobs all the time. They're getting exposed to different things. And I think the wide variety that's out there. So I think it's important, it's important from both sides. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to give them an opportunity to get booked and to expose their industry.

- Which I think is a fantastic idea. So far, and I'm gonna ask you another question now though, but so far we've got inspire way. So if somebody's listening and they're at a corporate and they're looking for a CSI project that involves uplifting rural schools, they can come to you for that. Am I correct? - Definitely, that's where we're going. We're going to corporates to ask them to partner with us to implement solutions that are impactful. - And then jobshadow.co.za, a very similar thing. If people are wanting to get involved there, it sounds like an excellent way of scouting talent, all the things you mentioned, and then also, I think it frees up a whole lot of time because if you are in a certain role in a corporate, you don't necessarily want people begging you all the time. But if you can set aside an hour, you can make a difference in somebody's life. - Definitely, and there's a lot of benefits to the corporate as well for time spent and that they can claim back for social enterprise development as well. So there's a lot of points that they can also get by doing this, by mentoring, and actually also fulfilling maybe a need within themselves that they now are helping others. - Well, I think that, yeah, you know, particularly, you know, when we consider what we've been through over the last little while here in South Africa, I think people are getting more inclined to stand together and instead of going, what's in it for me is how can we make this work?

So moving from a me to a we, which is a whole lot better I think. Now, Linda, a question before we wrap up though. You're doing this and you've got jobshadow.co.za and this is for people who want to go into various careers or study, et cetera, et cetera. What about those people that are more technical or wanting to go into the artisan field? Because I spoke to somebody a little while ago and they were saying that we have a shortage in this country of qualified artisans across the various trades. Is that something you're going to be thinking about? - Well, I actually have been approached by a different mining entity to develop, currently now, to develop a technical development program for them as well, similar to our bridging program, but more aimed for the technical learners and technical skills. So that's what we're currently doing for them. And we're going to be starting with that project beginning of next year, but on a smaller scale based on budget allowances that they have. But definitely, we need that. I mean, like I said, I didn't go to university and people need to realize that you don't all have to have a degree to be something, someday. One just needs to do what you're good at and what you're passionate about and the rest will follow.

And we need, we definitely need artisans. I mean, if you look at it, there's a lot of plumbers and all sorts of things that actually make more money than lawyers often and doctors, because they can run their own businesses, they have that freedom, and there's a toilet in every house. So kids need to realize that there's so much more out there for them, it's not all about going and getting a degree, if that's not really what your strengths are. And we need skills in all areas, in all areas. - Absolutely, I mean, I've likened this to, if you go out and you sort of are hell bent, and there's the big three or four, I mean, you've got to be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, maybe a banker, that's where everybody wants to go. But if you spend all of your time doing that, because that's what other people expect you to do, I liken that to, you know, you spend all these years climbing up this ladder, only to find that it's leaning against the wrong wall. So I love, I love the fact that there's now a resource for kids out there as well. So if they want to do the sort of, in my day, I suppose we called it aptitude tests, but if they want to do those assessments, that's at inspirewhere.co.za, am I correct?

- Correct, correct, and there's a career guidance button, and actually when you click on that button, there's even a dropdown to job shadow as well that you can click onto and go from there as well, because it is a sister company, and it's very complimentary to what we already offering. So yes, you can go and either or, but you can do the online assessment through inspirewhere.co.za. - Wonderful stuff. Now, Lorenda, before I let you go, if somebody's been listening and they're thinking either they want their children to get involved on the platform, or more importantly, if there is somebody that says, "Hey, I want to get involved," either by making myself available for mentorship, or to chat to you about CSI and where we can get involved in helping educate our country, what is the single best email address to use? - Well, I think if they could email me at Lorenda, L-O-R-R-N-D-A, @inspirewhere, and that's inspire, and then where, as in W-A-R-E, like software, hardware, inspirewhere.co.za. If they could email me there at the job shadows, just Lorenda@jobshadow.co.za, but either or, they can mail me, and I'd be very happy to chat with them. - Wonderful stuff. Lorenda, thank you so much for taking the time out and having a chat to us.

I think you guys are doing incredible stuff with Inspireware. Your story, your passion is absolutely fantastic, and we do wish you all the very, very best. - Shame, thank you so much, David, and thanks for your time as well. - There we go, wraps it up for this edition of "What's Involved." My special guest there was Lorenda McGee. Lorenda@inspirewhere.co.za is the email address, the single best one. Until next time, it's been great. Take care, look after yourselves, and thank you for listening.