Get to Know Matilda Urcuyo CEO of Miami Tutoring and KB Help!
Welcome to another show of Key Biscayne Stories where neighbors meet neighbors. Today, we have Matilda Ocuio. She's been a Kiwi Scam resident for seventeen years. She's the CEO of Miami Tutoring and KB Help. She also does CCD teaching at Saint Agnes on Tuesdays.
Speaker 1:Before we get started, quick word from our sponsors. Matilda, welcome on the show. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Hi. I'm doing good. It's crazy being in the other side.
Speaker 1:I know. It's pretty exciting because you you have been co hosting with me now for what, like a year?
Speaker 2:A year and a half, something like that. Yeah. It was crazy how it all started. He sent it out in the newsletter. My mom was like, hey, do you want to do it?
Speaker 2:And I was like, I would love to do it. I remember I was with him in church. I would always see him, say hi to him. And then now we're doing co host for a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Great. It's pretty exciting when your mom said, hey, I think my daughter wants to do this. I'm like, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Yeah. It was such a fun experience. It's like something you never think about actually doing. And then you come here the first time I remember and it was like, oh, like, how are we gonna do this?
Speaker 2:And then like, you just start it and it's just super fun to just talk to other people that you never like actually talk to. Or like, for example, the one that everyone usually says is the running guy. Yeah. When I saw like Mark Hemmers and I remember I was like, wow. Like, would always see him running in the beach or running along a village green.
Speaker 2:I'll be like, yeah, who is this guy? And then I actually got to like meet him and introduce like myself. And it's great to just see him and just wave hi to him and see like how he's doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know? Yeah. Know. Exactly.
Speaker 1:So we get to meet all sorts of cool people in the key and and dive a little deeper from the regular conversation that you might find at the Golden Hog or out there. It's like, hey. Hey. And you don't really know, but you see that guy every day. But with the podcast, get to sit down with them and get to know them a little deeper for, you know, fifteen, twenty minutes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, pretty cool. Really fun. So thank you for co hosting with me. But let's dive into KB Help and Miami Tutoring. Which one would you like to start with?
Speaker 2:So So I think I'm gonna start with Miami tutoring. Miami tutoring was based with my brother, so he founded it and he's been doing it since he was a junior in high school and this was in 2017 that he started this. So 2017, and he run this and he started it because he thought that in the key, we should all have some free tutoring because a bunch of other places would have free tutoring just like once a week for people. And so it's just more of a community. Everybody would get along here.
Speaker 2:So we started doing it in on every Sunday at 10:30 to 11:30. And it would be the same times every single Sunday. And we would do it for the whole entire school year from September until May. So end of the school year, and we would just teach a bunch of math, science, language arts, all of the sorts. And the people who would teach here are people from high school.
Speaker 2:So they would get the community service, and then the kids would also get some free tutoring. So both of the people would come in handy. And thanks to the police station, we actually got a room there. So my brother would have went there and he was like, hey, we would love to do like free tutoring, but we need a room. And they said, yeah, of course, like, here's this room.
Speaker 2:You can have it every Sunday. We reserved it. And ever since, since 2016, we've been having it since 2025. So it was great that like, they're still consistent with us. We always have the room, never a problem.
Speaker 2:They're amazing. And mostly what Miami Tutoring does consist of is just people who are willing to come and help based on like their mathematical or like reading abilities. So for example, if you want a tutor who is really good at math, so somebody, the girl would be like, hey, I would love to do it or like, no, I think I'm better with reading. And then those types of sorts would come into play. For example, I'm more of a math person, so I'd always help the people who are in math or like algebra two is my favorite.
Speaker 2:So every time anybody would cuffed, I would be like, oh, I want algebra two, and I would help them. It's amazing. Especially if you're gonna take SAT, like a high school students get to like re like, re see all of these math questions and be like, oh, that's how you do it. And then that also helps you in the future. So we're also both benefiting in that sort.
Speaker 2:A, my brother used to do pen and paper. And then now because of COVID, they did Zoom, so we also didn't stop when it was in COVID. We kept on doing it. And then after COVID ended, we started doing my brother graduated 2019, and then my older brother, Toby, came into play, and then he was CEO. So it was it's now it's passed along.
Speaker 2:So then Toby's doing it. He's been doing it for four years, and then I came in, and then I was the marketing officer. So I would call him. I would just do some Instagram posts. If you can see it, it's myami.tutoring, and I would just show what we're doing and all those sorts.
Speaker 2:And then after we did the Zoom, we started doing in person again after COVID, and after COVID, we started doing more in computers. So no more paper and pencil, so we just started doing computer, and then it was like a whole shift. So it was really funny, like, how we would always be writing in paper and then we would write in, we would just type in computer, do like iReady or iExcel, if like people know that out there. But it, yeah, it was like really fun, and then after my brother graduated, I became CEO. So it's now it's three generations of my brother, my older brother Matti, my middle one Toby, and then me Matilda, ending it with the cycle no more no more cuyos in the family.
Speaker 2:So, now I've I've been CEO for the past two years, and it's gonna be my third year. It's been great having it. I've seen a bunch of people been, like, going from laugh from reading level one until reading level five, which there's this kid named Jose. I remember he couldn't read. He was really bad at it, and every single day, every single Sunday, he would come, and we always videotape Jose,
Speaker 1:if you're watching, you know, we love you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We love you, Desi. We always call him that. He's always in all of our Instagrams. He's great.
Speaker 2:And he didn't know how to read. And it was crazy because we would be like, no, this is how you say it. And like, were thinking like, maybe he needs like a little more help. He came every single Sunday. And now, the last Sunday I saw him in like May.
Speaker 2:Great. He said we're reading books from fifth grade and he's in second grade. I was like, wow, this is insane. Like, it's consistency. And like, you can you can see like, wow, like Miami Tutor is helping you come consistently.
Speaker 2:We will help you, and he will become, like, better than how he is. Now he loves coming. He never cries. He thinks it's, a fun activity. So we always try to make it also fun for the kids.
Speaker 2:It's just not just like, oh, I'm going to Miami Tutoring again. No. It's like the kids come and they're like, yeah, we start playing. Like, one of the kids forgot his name, but he was he's a blonde one. He always starts dancing in the middle and just like he just cheers us all on.
Speaker 2:It's it's great to be there.
Speaker 1:So so you how many kids are you guys this is the because I've I've seen this, right? This is a room in the police station in in in Village Hall, and you have the kids sitting down all around, and you have multiple tutors at the same time. Right? This so how many kids do you guys normally see? How many tutors?
Speaker 1:Or is is one tutor per kid or is it multiple kids per tutor? How does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So our tutors are first come, first served. So for example, all the tutors right now are office hours for Miami Tutoring will be from ten to 11:30, so we did an hour and a half. So we did increase it by half an hour because we believe that it was better because
Speaker 1:No, ma'am. No. You're You're good. It was more
Speaker 2:it was better because, like, the kids tended tend to, like, learn a little more and they completed all their homework. But after we saw that case, we a we also saw the decrease in the attention span of them. So we actually decreased it back to an hour. So it's also we I love to see, like, it's trial and error. So we changed it for the first time.
Speaker 2:It was great for the parents, of course, but for the kids, decreased. They started having like tantrums, so we were like, yeah, that's it. So now it's ten to eleven. But how it is is they come, the kids come, whatever. They mostly come at ten at Sharp, and we open the door and the tutors come in, but there's mostly around 15 kids and 20 tutors.
Speaker 2:So there's always a tutor to be there. So it's either a tutor is just there or they start sometimes I just say, hey, let's switch. So each tutor can get to like tutor the be a tutoring for them. It's never an issue, it's great. I've never had any complaints whatsoever and yeah I think it's it's a great experience for the high school students to even be able to teach some younger kids.
Speaker 2:And also it's great to see them in Mass Academy, so sometimes they're like sixth graders and we're going to senior year or like going to eleventh grade, and you see them and they start waving at you and you're like, oh hi, and it's so fun because like all their friends are like, my god, you know her? And she's like, yeah, that's my tutor. So it's so fun like having that interactions with those kids.
Speaker 1:So Miami tutoring, that was amazing. I think we know it is Tuesdays it's Sundays. Sundays. Yeah. Miami Tuesdays.
Speaker 1:It is Sundays from ten to eleven at Village Hall right in the police station area, and it's free. It's first come, first served. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah. If you guys wanna contact me, you can also DM me in Miami dot tutoring, and I will respond as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1:So KB Help is the other project that I didn't know a lot about actually until you mentioned it, but I did I was shocked. You said you had a 100 volunteers around the key doing all sorts of stuff. Right? So Help, what is that?
Speaker 2:Okay. So KB Help, it originated when I was a sophomore in high school, so around two years now. So happy two years for my for my company. So I I was the CEO and founder of it. So what it basically is is I remember that I used to always be like, I want more jobs.
Speaker 2:I wanna work because I loved having my own money. I I love that concept. I love working for it. I love, like, getting the success of then after just being like, oh, I got my money. I can spend it on this or this because it's, mine.
Speaker 2:So I was like, I would love if other high school students had that same opportunity because I've been doing it since middle school. So I'd always babysit dogs, hit tutor when, like, I was super small. I loved, like, that opportunity to just go around and just be like, hey. Do you want help? I can help you.
Speaker 2:So any of that, I I loved it. So I was like, what if there's a an like an app or just like a website that I can talk to the people in the key? So the people in the key are are great. So we can we're all community. Like, we can talk to each other.
Speaker 2:Like, for example, I knew you because I went to church with you and, we trust each other. So it was just it was such a small community that I love about it. So I was like, we can make this like a website. And so so I decided what is like the thing that everybody likes? Everybody likes tutoring.
Speaker 2:So for example, Miami tutoring, since I'm CEO, people message me, they go, hey, I would love private tutoring with this so and so. And I'll be like, hey, yeah, of course. I would text them like, hey, do you want tutoring? And she's like, yeah, I would tutor her for 25, $20. Perfect.
Speaker 2:And also, high school students, they're cheaper than like other tutors that are cost like 50 an hour, because they're like professionals and all that. So we decided, I decided, let's add everything together. I love dog sitting. I love babysitting. I love all that sort.
Speaker 2:So why not add everything? So we added tutoring, babysitting, dog sitting, dog walking, and errands, and we also added a DJ party, guys. So it was like everything at once. So you need someone, you would go to my app or you would just text me privately, and I would say, hey, of course. Boom, I'll send you out to somebody.
Speaker 2:You just tell me the day, the time, or the hourly rate that you want, and you also choose the hourly rate. So it's not like, oh, they're too expensive. No, you can tell me $15 for a babysitter and somebody will want it. So it's not even like, oh, no, they're too expensive. No.
Speaker 2:We're really communicative about like, hey, this is how much we charge. This is the range. You want that? I can give you it. There's always gonna be someone there for you.
Speaker 2:So I know all my helpers personally, they all have 3.5 g pay and above, all live in the key, and that's what I also made. I tried to make the key, like, the the whole company key based, just so that more people in the key are reliable and are more like comfortable with people that live in the key because they all know each other as I was saying before. You have the you have the tutoring, you have the errands, you have the babysitting, you have dog sitting, you have DJ sets and all those. And the DJ set, I just added actually really recently.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned you mentioned that people reach out to you. Personally. Yeah. How so how so if I need a service, right, babysitting right now. So how do I reach you right now?
Speaker 2:If you ever want a service in that sense, you can message me, which messaging is easier for me because I would just get the message in WhatsApp or in messages, and you would tell me, hey, I need dog sitting. Perfect. Tell me the date, tell me the time you want, tell me your hourly rate, and I tell you ten minutes, I will get you somebody, max. I always do it in a second. You'd message me, I see it, I send it to the group chat in my WhatsApp with a 100 helpers.
Speaker 2:Boom, in an instant. People start fighting each other because they want it so bad. Like it's super, it's great because they get the jobs that they want, they get their money, and then the other people, they get a service like as soon as possible. What I do recommend is if you tell me a day in advance. So not texting me like, hey, I need somebody right now.
Speaker 2:Because right now, people are in vacation for right now, for example, in summer. So summer we are a little slower, but in the school year we're super like on top of it.
Speaker 1:So hypothetically, could say for example, I was thinking I needed some help moving some stuff in my my building. There's a storage unit downstairs and I was like I could really use some help, you know, helping somebody bring all that out and then putting it back in organized. So I could theoretically say, hey Matilda, I'm looking for maybe one or two people that can help me and I can pay, you know, $15 the hour.
Speaker 2:I will get you it. Let me tell you. It's always like that. So that's why I also put errands. So before I was like, I want something that like, it's also, for example, like moving, like, I'm not gonna just say moving in a section, because in my website, you can just click it, you put your email, and that's it.
Speaker 2:Super easy. No no messaging, no nothing required. You just press the thing, and then it
Speaker 1:That baby picture just came out there, the oh no, but you can't see it.
Speaker 2:You press the, it's like a checkbox, for example, want all of them. You put the checkbox, you put your email, and then you put your phone number, and then I will message you personally and say, hey, how may I help you? And then I'll get you that person.
Speaker 1:So you have a website?
Speaker 2:Yes. I do have a website.
Speaker 1:Okay. What's the name on the website?
Speaker 2:It's KB Help. So for example, this is the website. So it's super easy, front page. So how can we help? High school students wanting to help the community in Cubase game with anything you need.
Speaker 2:You want dog sitting, you want want pet sitting, dog sitting, tutoring, errands, babysitting, we got it. You put your name, your phone number, your email, you hit submit. That's it. I will message you personally. I'll tell you how do need help, and then it's super easy.
Speaker 2:Here is why us, our services, and then if you wanna get in touch with me personally, you can just send me there. And then if you go about the team, here is a little bit about me, picture of me, and then some of our helpers. So you can also see all of them. Yeah. So that's just a little bit of the website.
Speaker 1:So how much how much money are your tutor I mean, your helpers or your KB helpers making?
Speaker 2:So right now, we are actually not gaining any profit. But what I wanna do in the future is, for example, just do a dollar per service. So I know that in for my helpers, the total, since we've been doing this for two years, we've had a, for example, $10,000 that the company has made and has produced from the helpers.
Speaker 1:So your tutors, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that mean the helpers have made a total of
Speaker 2:A total of, like, 10,000 above. 10,000 above. Yeah. So and I think that's great. And that kinda just has to do with what I wanna do in the future.
Speaker 2:So what I wanna do in the future is finance business in that sense. So I right now, I'm a senior and I'm hoping to get into one of the top universities for finance. So we will see where that is. I would love to become a CEO in the future of a company and hopefully maybe do investment banking consulting. So yeah, I think I know what I wanna do, but we'll see how God plans it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that's kinda why I did CEO of Miami Tutoring now and for Katie Help. And now I'm doing Catechist. I don't know. Catechist, I just think it's such a good thing to do, just to help the community a little more.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. Mean, CCD teaching, I mean, I've I've done that myself as well, and Tanakhna is pretty cool. I've done I've done I've done a couple of things there, but the latest that I've done is I've done the high school kids. High school kids who for whatever reason in life didn't do CCD in that eighth grade window, right?
Speaker 1:Because if you don't go to a Catholic school, you don't you have to do CCD. Exactly. So normally there's an age range. So those kids that for whatever reason didn't make it because of their move, the parents, whatever, they gave them to me. So I had an age between, you know, 15 and and 17.
Speaker 1:And but it was I only did it for two, three years, but it was it was fun.
Speaker 2:High school's rough. Wait. I do middle no, I do elementary, and the elementary was just so funny. I see the people that go to Miami tutoring. So they would come and say hi to me and so it's always like that's us to the community like I was talking to you about.
Speaker 2:It's it's great. I see the moms and they're like, hi, and I'm like, how are you? And like they for example know me and they're like, you're the KB helper, you're the American Tutoring. I'm like, yes, I am. Or the KB podcast.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh, that's the one. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Matilda, you you know how we do it here in Cube's Cave and Stories. The last question before we close, we'd like to ask our guests. What is your perfect weekend here in the key?
Speaker 2:I haven't had that one in a long time, but I think my perfect weekend will consist of no school on Friday and just do nothing. And then after on Saturday, wake up, maybe go to a little exercise. Oh, go on a walk. I love going on walks. I don't know, maybe you guys have seen me, but I love going on walks at seven in the morning, not in the peak hour of the sun.
Speaker 2:Go home, take a shower, go to the farmer's market, and then come home, and maybe go to my, the vet. I love going to the veterinarian, the local veterinarian, and just seeing the pets there. So Sage, I don't know if they know them there. Sage is the dog there, and I just love talking to Doctor. Eastman and those sorts.
Speaker 2:And then just going home, hanging with the family, and going to sleep early, and watching a show. Nice. And then going to church on Sunday. Sundays are my my homework days. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice. Nice. Awesome, Matilda. Thank you so much for jumping in the show and for cohosting with me for a year and a half. It's been amazing to have you, and I know we still have you for a little bit more until, you your senior year is over.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we're continue to have a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Squeeze it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For sure. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
