Bēhere celebrates one year (and 1 month)!
Reflecting on decade worth of life lessons in one year.
Sometimes a year can zoom by but also feel like an eternity at the same time. Time is just weird. As I look at the calendar, it’s already November 8th, 2023, and I just cannot believe it!
It was just October 2022 when we launched our first sessions, but it feels like a lifetime ago. It’s been an eventful year full of so much change and growth. I feel wiser and more mature for going through this journey.
Just about a month after our launch, we hosted around 70 people at a friend’s private outdoor venue in Westlake Village, with School of Lunch catering the most nutritious dinner fare. Plates were literally licked clean, and the entire vibe was so nourishing. We had good friends perform heart-felt music (custom renditions of “Teach your Children Well”) and we shared about our vision for Bēhere to bring families home, to provide a community to support those feeling the call to homeschool, while also honoring the parent’s desire to remain whole and purpose driven in their own work. I told my story from how I started in corporate advertising and slowly weaned off the hustle to embrace the home-life, yet somehow I still found myself running and launching a business or two. God led me to this place of entrepreneurship with a family-focused purpose and I do feel immensely fulfilled.
In the beginning, we were in that intoxicating startup phase, the one where you feel invincible and the ideas keep flooding in. We wanted land, chapters all over California (and beyond) and a community on the move to build a revolution. When not working to finish our little Tiny home and find a place to live, Bēhere consumed all our emotional and mental energy. Did I mention we were basically homeless: living in an airstream, cooking in the outdoors, hiking 200 yards to use a porta-potty. We launched Bēhere in spite of these living conditions.
What we had not fully experienced the hardships of fundraising, staffing, attrition, and the overall constant reflection, evaluation, and change loop required to find a model that just works.
By January 2023, we found ourselves blessed with the opportunity to launch season 2 of Bēhere on private land. It was an answer to prayer, and it was also a lot of work and more costs than we we were prepared for. After about a month into the set up of our new location I realized all of that time I spent lamenting the shuttling of gear to public parks didn’t look so bad. In this case, “the grass is not always greener on the other side,” became the most true statement in a literal sense, as we left tax-paid maintained green grasses and landscaped parks in exchanged for raw, off-grid land weed-whacked by the Lawler’s.
I learned the absolute hard way that simple is better in the beginning. We took on a little too much, too fast. Through great surrender, we decided the private land route required more work than we were prepared for at this stage in our startup journey. We can try that again later if the right place and land partner presents itself. We got back to the heart of the matter, enriching homeschool children and families without the distractions of a picture-perfect, instagram-worthy place or property. With the return to the park, I’ve never been so thankful for public restrooms and running water.
And now, when a guy comes by in the middle of our class with a noisy lawn mower or leaf-blower, I tip my hat to him in gratitude rather than being annoyed by the noise interference. It’s been a joyous return to the parks and we’re are finding an excellent groove in our rhythm with the children. The exploration and grass, and perhaps calmer energy by the staff has positively effected them all.
So here we are, into our 3rd season/session and recalibrating. We’ve seen some amazing staff come and go, and we have scaled back the operation to just 2 classes we’re immensely proud of back at our home-base park. It’s a fantastic location with botanical gardens, trails, green grassy fields, a creek and ample parking that allows parents to safely drop off and linger around the park, (away from the class, but still close) should their child have some separation anxiety. This was something we could not offer at the private location due to respect to the landowners and neighbor’s privacy. Something didn’t feel right about parents having to bum-rush their child out of the car at drop off. Isn’t that what public schools have to do?
After a year+ since the launch of Bēhere’s first operating classes, here are some of the things I have learned:
The people who got you here may not be who will get you there. I had some amazing friends and teachers join us in the journey to get started, knowing full well they may not stick around due to other obligations or it just not being a fit. Your friends aren’t always your customers and your customers aren’t always your friends, (but the ones that are both are certainly keepers). For every person who has come and gone, it seems we always add 1-2 more to the tribe. We continue to grow our customer base despite our fumbles along the way. People are gracious and God is good.
The perfect place will never replace purpose & presence. I’ll admit it, I had visions of a charming outdoor location complete with an adult co-working space, coffee lounge, Yurt classrooms, fields and gardens galore, a secret garden of curiosities for children to explore. But what I’ve found is that was all in vain if the purpose and ability to remain completely present for the children suffers.
Think big but start small & keep moving on the plan towards the bigger vision. As mentioned earlier, we took on a little too much too fast. An early mentor told us that most entrepreneurs fail because of too many ideas. I get that! Now that I feel we’re mastering the park model in our second fall season, I feel almost ready to expand! We just need to find the right talent to help lead the movement, and work on improving our weak spots (ahem financial planning and accounting).
You can’t win them all. Don’t take things personal, but learn from all feedback. I remember when I got my first dissatisfied customer (or at least the first to speak up). It was soul crushing. I kept thinking about it and working hard to make it right or salvage their perception. When in fact, I just needed to accept that we didn’t do our best in that situation, and/or they weren’t a culture fit and move on. Sometimes there is something to learn, and sometimes they’re just not your customer. And sometimes it’s both. Either way, being a business owner requires thick skin and putting your people-pleaser syndrome on check.
The children are the curriculum, and not one philosophy or methodology reigns supreme. At first, I fancied forest school ideology, then Waldorf, and a bit of social-emotional & mindfulness. We borrowed a little bit from it all, but in the end, Bēhere remains its own pedagogy that will evolve every season based on the souls that pass through our fields and parks. We study these kids, we pray and meditate on what to teach them. They teach us what to teach them. While we plan out a thematic syllabus based on affirmations and emotional themes we want to teach supported by nature-based team projects, we are always evolving based on what we observe. Presence in the class is our best curriculum guide.
Through it all, persistence wins. My husband and business partner, Matthew, always gets ruffled at my stubborn nature. I say, that same stubborn nature you get frustrated by is also my loyalty, consistency and persistence to see things through that you love. You can’t have one without the other. It’s a virtue in myself I’ve learned to appreciate especially as I balance persistence with the ability to surrender and let go of something when it’s just not working.
To be steadfast in my calling without controlling beyond what is mine to control is always the goal and what just might conjure more success for Bēhere in the future.
So what is Bēhere anyways? It’s a homeschool revolution, one that says you don’t have to be a perfect stay-at-home mom with all the beautiful hand-crafts and lesson plans to succeed on this journey. You just need the desire to connect with your child, a community and perhaps a little drop-off reprieve to make it through.
What’s next for us? We’re seeking more amazing guides (we’re hiring), more Ventura County to SB County offerings, and more support for YOU, the parents. You matter to us. And we know how hard this journey is, especially if both parents work (insert drowning parent emoji).
This past week, my son Kai told me he wished he could go to Bēhere every day. I have had customers say the same thing. But when it comes from your own child you really feel like you’re doing something right. My children have had to sacrifice a lot while we launched this in spite of a really hard personal life getting settled with our home and a lot of moves. I don’t get to be as present of a mother as I want to be sometimes or get my own break because I am with them all the time and at their drop off classes. We are with our children 100% of the day with VERY few breaks, which means I am not always the most pleasant mother. But I am incredibly proud of them for their forgiveness, flexibility and resilience as they continue to inspire me to make a program they will love and learn from every session.
Thank you to all who have come on this journey with us!
We shall see what the future brings, and work to co-create an awesome one.
-Brooke
What an amazing and ever expanding journey you’ve been on! I’m so happy to get to witness your courage, perseverance, creativity and love with which you’ve continued to flow and grow.
The circuitous route to anything bears the greatest fruit and wisdom (I’m uniquely qualified there 😅😂), and you guys are incredible! All of the challenges and adaptations as you navigate your ideas and visions are such a gift to your beautiful children…in addition to the commitment you have in creating a wonderful life of learning and connection for them and others.
The world is becoming a better place with you all in it! 🌎🦋
I hope that other parents get the opportunity sooner than later to take a page out of your book! ❤️🤗