Waswa Kempadoo-Millar: Tuition, Dance and Building a Life Around What You Love

In the round table of our first episode, Waswa Kempadoo-Millar came to the bench torn between two paths. In this one-to-one with our host and business guest Lewis Windle, he went deeper into both, and into how to build a working life around the things that give him the most satisfaction.

Tuition or dance?

Waswa has around eight years in education. He now works as a tutor, teaching across core subjects, some up to A-level, and English as a second language. His research background is in sport and exercise science, he competed as a martial artist, and he has since moved into dance as the sport he is pursuing.

His route forward runs along two lines. One is a niche tuition business built on his languages. "There's very few people who are able to teach English specifically for Japanese and Korean people," he explained, describing learners who study English for years but struggle to reach business-level fluency. He sees demand in the UK, where many students from those countries live, and internationally, perhaps with fast-track business English courses for corporate workers. The other line is dance as a professional career, which he called "really exciting to me".

Freelance first, and protect what you love

Our host pointed out that both paths are freelance by nature, which gives Waswa the freedom to do both at once. He recommended Upwork, which he described as the biggest corporate freelancing platform he knows and where he has worked his way up himself, along with LinkedIn for networking with people who might need his services.

Lewis advised Waswa not to treat it purely as a business with monthly targets, but as a lifestyle built around three things: teaching, dance and sport, with room to travel. He also gave an honest warning from his own experience. "When I first started, I didn't think, oh, I'm going to be up at 3:00 in the morning in my office, but I was," he said. He gave up the gym and his own passions for his business, so his advice was to set personal goals aside first, and to outsource the tech or use existing platforms rather than build everything himself.

When Waswa asked about selling his own courses, the hosts suggested a simple personal website with a members' area, a strong personal brand on LinkedIn and social media, and making use of AI tools so he would not need a web designer to get started.

The takeaway

• Freelancing lets you pursue more than one passion at once.

• A business can swallow your life, so build it around your goals, not the other way round.

• Use existing platforms before building your own.

• Surround yourself with business-minded people doing what you love.

Watch Waswa's one-to-one, and see the full round table in Episode 1 of The Legacy Bench.