June 15, 2023 • 33 mins
Episode 161 of the Leader of Learning Podcast features an interview with Michelle Smit (@digiteach), a passionate business coach who helps educators move away from trading time for money and towards trading value for money through digital courses, group programs, and digital products. Her mission is to help educators bring their impact online through online business. In the episode, we discuss pursuing your passions and building successful side hustles and online businesses in the education space. Michelle shares her personal journey from burnt-out ESL teacher to successful course creator, and offers advice on how to overcome fear, lean into discomfort, and follow intuition. We also discuss why educators may hesitate to monetize their skills and hobbies, and offer strategies for breaking through those internal barriers. We also delve into the importance of finding your niche, getting specific on your target audience, and conducting market research to create offers that truly resonate with customers.
Full show notes and more information about this episode can be found at https://leaderoflearning.com/episode161.
Grab Michelle's Niche Discovery Guide at https://digiteachersbizacademy.com/niche-discovery-guide
Download my free guide “The Teacher’s Guide to Becoming a School Leader” at https://leaderoflearning.com/guide
Purchase “The Transformational Leader’s Reflection Guide” at https://leaderoflearning.com/journal
Download my FREE eBook “Lead to Inspire Growth” at https://leaderoflearning.com/ebook
Enroll in my free course “Unlock Your Leadership Potential” at https://leaderoflearning.com/freecourse
Sign up for my email newsletter at https://leaderoflearning.com/news
SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE at https://youtube.com/drdankreiness to watch inspirational and educational videos about leadership and digital learning
Consider Becoming an Official Sponsor - https://leaderoflearning.com/press-kit
Melon is my recording platform of choice for video, audio, and even live streaming. For more information about Melon and to receive 20% off your first billing cycle on ANY paid plan you sign up for, visit https://leaderoflearning.com/melon
Gear that I use and love to recommend:
Mirrorless camera (Sony zv-1) - https://amzn.to/3zdxKlR
Main microphone (Shure SM7b) - https://amzn.to/3Mi5SzE
Backup microphone (Shure MV7) - https://amzn.to/38M9Vqv
Budget microphone (Samson Q2u) - https://amzn.to/38MeukB
Audio Interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) - https://amzn.to/3xdocWq
Wireless lavalier microphone (AnkerWork M650) - https://amzn.to/3TUlsXN
Key lights 2pk (Sokani P25) - https://amzn.to/3mcNq0X
Ring light (Neewer 18”) - https://amzn.to/3tfnB46
Budget studio lights (Neewer Dimmable LED 2pk) - https://amzn.to/392g16i
To leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leader-of-learning/id1243021772
Android user? Leave a rating and review on Podchaser -
Full show notes and more information about this episode can be found at https://leaderoflearning.com/episode161.
Grab Michelle's Niche Discovery Guide at https://digiteachersbizacademy.com/niche-discovery-guide
Download my free guide “The Teacher’s Guide to Becoming a School Leader” at https://leaderoflearning.com/guide
Purchase “The Transformational Leader’s Reflection Guide” at https://leaderoflearning.com/journal
Download my FREE eBook “Lead to Inspire Growth” at https://leaderoflearning.com/ebook
Enroll in my free course “Unlock Your Leadership Potential” at https://leaderoflearning.com/freecourse
Sign up for my email newsletter at https://leaderoflearning.com/news
SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE at https://youtube.com/drdankreiness to watch inspirational and educational videos about leadership and digital learning
Consider Becoming an Official Sponsor - https://leaderoflearning.com/press-kit
Melon is my recording platform of choice for video, audio, and even live streaming. For more information about Melon and to receive 20% off your first billing cycle on ANY paid plan you sign up for, visit https://leaderoflearning.com/melon
Gear that I use and love to recommend:
Mirrorless camera (Sony zv-1) - https://amzn.to/3zdxKlR
Main microphone (Shure SM7b) - https://amzn.to/3Mi5SzE
Backup microphone (Shure MV7) - https://amzn.to/38M9Vqv
Budget microphone (Samson Q2u) - https://amzn.to/38MeukB
Audio Interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) - https://amzn.to/3xdocWq
Wireless lavalier microphone (AnkerWork M650) - https://amzn.to/3TUlsXN
Key lights 2pk (Sokani P25) - https://amzn.to/3mcNq0X
Ring light (Neewer 18”) - https://amzn.to/3tfnB46
Budget studio lights (Neewer Dimmable LED 2pk) - https://amzn.to/392g16i
To leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leader-of-learning/id1243021772
Android user? Leave a rating and review on Podchaser -
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
On this episode, we're talking aboutpursuing your passions and building successful side hustles
and online businesses in the education space. Check it out. Welcome to the
Leader of Learning podcast. I'm yourhost, doctor Dan Crinis, and this
is where I help educators grow theirimpact as instructional leaders because my research and
(00:21):
leadership experiences have led me to understandthat someone like you, regardless of your
role or your title, can havea tremendous impact on your organization. I
chat with inspiring guests who are trulymaking an impact as instructional leaders. Whether
this is your first time listening oryou've come back for more, I hope
you've subscribed to this show on yourpreferred podcast apps so you don't miss any
(00:45):
of the great episodes, topics,or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad
you've tuned in. Now let's getstarted. Hello Leader of Learning, and
welcome into episode one sixty one.If you're just joining us, thank you
(01:06):
very much and don't forget to hitsubscribe or follow this podcast on your favorite
podcast app. If you're back formore and you've joined us in the past,
thank you so much for returning.I have a great episode in store
for you. I just want tolet you know that if you're listening to
this podcast around the time of itsrelease, you may already know that in
(01:27):
the education space, one of thebiggest conferences that takes place each year,
the ISTY Conference, is going on, and unfortunately, even though I thought
I was going to be there andI was ready to present a couple of
sessions and really soak in a lotof information and have a great time at
the conference, I unfortunately had towithdraw from attending this year. It's not
(01:53):
because I don't want to, andI certainly will miss all of you and
meeting you in person if you're goingto that conference, but I have a
lot of other obligations going on thissummer and I just couldn't take that kind
of time away and that time off, so I won't be attending ISTY.
But we will continue to produce podcastepisodes throughout the summer, so obviously look
(02:16):
for those every other week as wego through the rest of June, July,
and August. As for this episode, I have a really exciting guest.
Her name is Michelle Smit and sheis affiliated with an organization known as
Digi Teach, and we're going totalk about pursuing your passions and building successful
side hustles and online businesses in theeducation space. And I know that might
(02:39):
be a little bit unusual or uncomfortablefor people to listen to and a bit
different from the topics that we usuallydelve into here on this podcast, but
I think it's a really important oneand I think it's a timely one because
Michelle's going to share her personal journeyfrom being a burnt out ESL teacher to
(03:00):
a successful course creator and business ownerand offers advice on how to overcome fear
and lean into discomfort and follow yourintuition. And so I know that you're
going to get a lot of valueout of it. And I know that
even though you might not have abusiness or a side hustle, you can
still gain so much valuable information andknowledge from what Michelle is going to share.
(03:25):
So I'm going to stop talking andright after these messages, we're going
to hear from Michelle. Coming upis my interview with Michelle smit Welcome back,
Leader of Learning. I'm excited tohave on a guest who I think
I have a lot in common with. I don't know, we'll see,
but once I became aware of herand her work, I really knew that
(03:47):
I had to get her on here. Michelle Smitt is a teacher business coach,
helping educators in business make more moneywhile working less through launching scalable courses
and group programs, and all ofthis through her company called Digi Teach.
So, Michelle, welcome to theshow. I'm glad to finally see you
(04:09):
and get you on here. I'velistened to your podcast quite a bit and
I love it. So thanks forjoining us here. And before we move
on any further, if you coulddo a little bit more of telling us
who you are, where you are, and what you do. Thank you
so much for having me. I'msuper stoked to be here. Yeah.
So, I am a business coachand I help teaching business owners, but
(04:30):
also just educators in the classroom,online teachers, freelance teachers, kind of
any educator. I help them moveaway from trading their time for money and
I help them move towards trading valuefor money, which is the way that
I do it is through digital courses, digital products, group programs and things
like that. And yeah, that'sthat's what I do. I've been doing
(04:55):
it for a couple of years now, and it's my passion. I would
say, it's my passion to reallyhelp educators sort of up level and make
their own money online, like alltypes of educators. That's really I want
to help educators, whatever they wantto do, bring their impact online through
(05:16):
online business specifically. Yeah, I'vegotten that about you by listening to your
show and following what you do,and I've become sort of familiar a little
bit with your story. But Idon't think my listeners know how did you
get into this space? Because Ithink it's an interesting story, and I
also think that it will help leadus into what could be still a difficult
(05:42):
conversation or a difficult concept for myaudience, because I think my audience still
is largely K twelve and even highereducation educators and people in the field who
frankly at this point haven't necessarily consideredside hustles or online businesses or like you
said, making money, you know, on monetizing their their talents. And
(06:09):
I think sharing your story may mayhelp us a little bit. How did
you get into doing this? SoI'll give the shortened version of the story,
But I was an ear cell teacherin Vietnam, and that's where I
started my teaching, and I endedup falling in love with a duchy and
moving over to this little place inthe Netherlands, and I moved online.
(06:32):
I started teaching ear cell online andI loved it. I thought it was
wonderful. It was really flexible andstuff like that. But when I moved
over to the Netherlands, I inorder to survive in this country with the
cost of living it was drastically higherthan Vietnam, I had to teach back
(06:54):
to back classes. I had toteach a lot of classes right, and
I I had the highest rate perhour. I'd reached sort of my income
ceiling in the company that I wasworking with, and I was just teaching
many, many back to back hoursand it wasn't it was barely even minimum
wage when I was in the Netherlands, and so I was working full on
(07:15):
and I was actively teaching K twelvechildren in China on camera. Was wonderful.
But then it got to a pointwhere I was like burning out very
fast. I sort of lost mylove for the work that I was doing.
I sort of became quite robotic inmy teaching, like I wasn't being
(07:35):
like challenged. I think it wasjust becoming too simple for me the work,
and I sort of lost meaning andpassion and I felt kind of,
yeah, burnt out would be theword that I felt. And while I
was going through this time, Iactually stumbled upon my first mentor through a
Facebook ad and I went down hiswhole journey and I basically invested with him
(08:01):
to help me. And he wassomeone who was teaching like courses like how
to sell an online course kind ofsomething like that, and I at that
point did not know about online business. I did not know about digital courses.
But I really needed to do somethingelse and I didn't really know what
I was doing. I was justkind of like, cool, I'm gonna
(08:22):
my intuition is telling me to dothis thing. Let me just do this
thing, and yeah, invested withhim and it was like the craziest journey.
Four months later, I had launchedmy first course online and I made
a whopping like seven sales and itwas like the greatest achievement ever. I
(08:43):
had learned so much in that time, and I kind of became addicted to
online business, like I just Istarted absorbing it all the time. It
was what I spent all my time, on, all my money on and
I was just like really energized byit. And then I just kept on
launching my course and it just keptgetting better and better, and you know,
(09:05):
by my fourth launch, you know, I had a forty thousand dollar
course launch, and that was likea pivotal moment in the journey. That
was like one of those moments whereI was like, Okay, this is
what I want to do with mylife. This is like I feel the
passion, I feel the energy forit. I'm so inspired by it.
And I actually started my business originallyhelping educators become online ear cel teachers.
(09:31):
So that's what my first course wason. I wasn't passionate about it,
and then I moved into helping teachersstart online businesses. I love that story
for a lot of reasons. Butand by the way, you know,
I think by now my audience probablycould tell that this is a bit of
a different episode and topic then weusually talk about. But I think it
(09:54):
is timely as many of us havejust finished or are about to finish our
school years heading into the summer.Let's face it, a lot of educators
right now are probably thinking what isit that I really want to keep doing
with my life, and I'm wonderingif helping my audience and people in still
(10:18):
in that K twelve education space takewhat they know and whether it's a hobby,
a legit side hustle, or maybethey feel like, you know what,
it's time that I start my youknow, my own business and get
out of K twelve altogether. That'swhy I really wanted to pursue this episode
and pursue this conversation with you,and I'll be honest, I'm going to
(10:41):
kind of break the third wall herea little bit with my audience. Like
I've been podcasting now for over fiveand a half years. It'll be six
years in I don't know, September, I guess, so it's been a
while, and you know, notright away, but actually pretty early on
in my podcasting venture is when Istarted thinking about what I'm doing as a
(11:03):
little bit of a business or aside hustle formed an LLC. I've been
getting a little bit of money hereand there from advertisements that I run on
the show, sponsorships, and soI have not always but almost always,
since i've been doing this, thoughtabout how can I monetize and I know
(11:28):
that's not easy. It's still noteasy for me. It may still not
be easy for you, but atleast you more so, but at least
we've taken steps in that right direction. I feel like I'd be remiss if
I didn't ask you why you thinkit's still so hard for people to in
education, especially to really wrap theirheads around monetizing and placing that value on
(11:54):
their knowledge, their experiences, theirpassions, their interests, and what can
they do about it if they stillhave that kind of wall that's built up,
that barrier that they need to breakthrough in order to really understand,
No, you can do this,you should do this. I think there's
you know, there's lots of differentreasons why. I think one of the
(12:15):
biggest things that I see is afear of the failure. That's one of
the things that and they're the securityblanket of being in a job. So
I often tell, you know,people who come into my world, you
don't have to quit your teaching job, right you can start this on the
side. This can just be aside hustle, which you know, gives
you that safety nature, not likecutting your you know, livelihood off.
(12:41):
But what I see a lot ofthe time is just this fear of getting
out of their comfort zone and thevulnerability of taking something that is their own
that might even be different to whatthey've trained in or what they're teaching in,
which is even more scary for themputting package it into a product and
selling it online, like, youhave to overcome a lot of inner resistance
(13:07):
and fear to do it. Umand and I see that a lot.
I see that a lot with educatorsin particular. They're very used to being,
you know, working for an hourlyrate or a monthly salary. They
are very used to trading their timefor money. It's just the way that
we have been socialized and conditioned toto work. Um And. I think
(13:31):
a lot of them don't know thatthere are other ways that you can A
lot of them don't even know thatthere are things that they can do online,
that there are digital courses that theycan sell. Um. Those they
are those people who don't know.And then there's the people who do know
and are just too Generally it's afear of failure, Um, I'm not
(13:52):
good enough, Like I mean,it's all internal stuff at that point.
And also just strategy wise, likehow to actually do it. I mean,
of course, like and that's that'show I help people, well specifically
teachers, as I give them strategy, I tell them how too, and
I help them overcome the internal stuffto help them step into their power,
(14:16):
to help them see their value,to help them see what they can do
can be monetized. Like I mean, one of my teachers, who was
straight up classroom teacher, had neverreally heard of online business. She was
just trading. She was just doinglike a side like hobby, which was
(14:37):
training stock dogs. So she wasjust training literal stock dogs to her sheep.
That was her thing, that washer hobby. We saw that and
she took that and she made ither business. And now she's leaving.
She's chosen to leave the classroom.Not everyone has to. I mean,
it can just be a side hustle, but it just I think there's so
(15:00):
many educators who just can't see maybewhat they can do or what they can
offer online and how it could beso so massive. Like Jennifer, this
teacher, she's literally her life haschanged. Her business is incredible, which
is amazing. I want to justshare a quick story with you that happened
just this past weekend I have awe have a nephew who is just a
(15:24):
week or so away or two acouple weeks away from graduating high school and
not really sure exactly what he wantsto do with himself in terms of pursuing
his education, but also, youknow, starting to really look into studying
for a career. And I knowthat there are a lot of things that
(15:45):
he thinks he might be passionate about, but he hasn't necessarily explored a ton
yet, except there's one thing thathe's been doing for a long time since
he was a kid, which ismartial arts. And I was speaking to
my brother in law and you know, his parents over the weekend and I
and I said, I kind ofharnessed my inner Michelle though this is the
first time we're talking here, becauseI felt like I was kind of trying
(16:08):
to not sway him in this direction, but just to ask if maybe he
would think about, like while hegoes to school, if he wants to
make some extra money. I askedthem, like, are there such a
thing as online courses for kids tolearn taekwondo? And they were like,
I don't know, I've never reallyheard of that. Now I'm not you
(16:30):
know, I don't. I haveno idea either. I haven't really looked
into this. Maybe there are,but if there aren't, that could be
a good, uh, you know, a good little side hustle to earn
some money while in college or potentiallya career afterwards as well. So I
guess all of that to say thatI'm starting to think a little bit like
what you were saying in terms ofhelping people overcome whatever barriers to entry that
(16:53):
they have. I think one ofthe things that you touched upon but didn't
mention my name is imposter since Rome, which I've certainly dealt with a lot
over the years, and I've addressedit here on the podcast as well.
But you know, just helping peopleunderstand that there are things that you do
and that you know that other peopleare dying to do and to know as
(17:17):
well, and just to have thatas a starting point a launching point,
I think is really important. Totally. I think that martial arts thing would
be so good, Like now they'relike, that would definitely be Yeah,
all those little there's so many Likeoften people come to me and they like
think very like, Okay, I'man English teacher, I'm a maths teacher.
(17:41):
Therefore I have to create, youknow, an English teaching course or
a maths course. And I'm like, okay, cool, is that what
you're passionate in? Is that?Like, do you have the energy to
build a business in that? Likecan you really show up fully with passion
behind that? And sometimes they can't. And sometimes it's like, oh no,
I'm really passionate about baking and Ireally love knitting, or I love
(18:03):
like swimming, helping triathlon this isone of my students as well, helping
triathlon athletes improve their swimming. Like, I mean, there's so many different
things. And then I'm like,well, if you've got the energy behind
that, you just obviously need todo a little bit of market research and
see if there's demand. But ifthere is, it could really be that's
(18:23):
the key. You want to findsomething that you're passionate about, you've got
energy behind that, there is alsodemand for that people are wanting to buy.
I think that's a great piece ofadvice for anyone at this stage of
the game, not even people lookingto monetize their talents or start online businesses,
but anyone. I think it's justfollow your passions, right, I
(18:48):
think over the years. My wifeand I have done that pretty well.
There have been a lot of thingsthat we've been interested in doing or learning
and it's just like, hey,I want to go for that. You
know. My wife studied theater incollege and even upon graduating with her four
year degree, wasn't really sure thatthat was what she wanted to do long
(19:10):
term. And since then she's shewent back to school for well, first
she took some floral designing courses,then she went back to school to culinary
school for for pastry arts, andtechnically she's a trained pastry chef, although
that's not what she does full time. So um, we've been very fortunate
to be able to do those things. But I guess my point is we've
(19:34):
we've found those opportunities to pursue whatwe're passionate about and at times even explore
monetizing them as well. My wifeis now a pretty new independent travel agent
and helping people plan their dream vacations. So I am I'm all about it.
Um. For me, I ampassionate about you know, this educational
(19:57):
stuff and just like it says upabove me, helping educators grow their impact
as instructional leaders. Hopefully that Idon't lose that passion anytime soon. I
don't think I will, because that'sthat's what I love to do, so
that's what my content and courses areall about. But but I appreciate that.
And I guess so thinking about yousaid that the key or the first
(20:18):
step is to kind of figure outwhat you're passionate about and pursue that.
What's the next step, I guessis what I wanted to ask you.
So I would definitely just find yourniche and get a bit of clarity on
your niche and just get specific onnot only like what topic and thing you're
passionate about, but who you wantto help. So the who is really
(20:42):
important, not just I want toteach this thing or I'm passionate about knitting
or whatever. It's like, whodo you want to help with this thing?
And getting really specific about the whois going to help you inform you
on all your next steps once youhave that sort of niche and getting specific
around it. So not just beinglike, and this is something that happens
(21:03):
all the time, is I justwant to help everyone, like I can
help everyone, and like that's notgoing to work, Like, find out
who it is you want to help, get specific on it. And then
the next step I would say isstart finding out what they want. Start
finding out what your ideal target customer, like, your dream client or your
(21:26):
dream student, the one that youreally want to work with, the person
you really want to help with thisproblem or get to this result. Get
into conversation with them and literally startasking questions, even if it surveys,
even if you have to get oncalls, whatever it looks like, even
if it's part of your friendship circle. Just ask questions and find out what
is it that they want, whatare their main struggles, what are their
(21:48):
main things like, learn about them, it's really important. And then once
you've got that information and you understand, Okay, this is my target customer,
this is the person that I'm goingto help with this program. Once
you know that, you can thenmap out an offer that really really speaks
to them, that is desirable,that is something that they actually want to
(22:11):
purchase. Can you, for thebenefit of anybody who will listen, go
a little bit more into it,because I know the jargon, the terminology
you mentioned, the word niche orniche depending on how you pronounce it.
If you could just dive into thata little bit more, just because you
(22:33):
know that what you just mentioned obviouslyis very important, right, knowing who
you're serving and the why behind whatit is that you want to offer them.
But if you could dive a littlebit further into that, just for
people who are really kind of hearingsome of this for the first time.
Sure, So a niche is basicallylike a sub market in a greater market.
(22:56):
So what you want to look atwhen you aren't choosing a niches,
you want to get it. Yousort of want to niche down and you
want to try to get quite specificwithin the greater market. So, for
example, you've got English teaching,and that's a massive, you know,
industry, it's huge, it's quiteit's massive. Right, If you were
to just create a program, youknow, an English teaching program helping people
(23:18):
learn English, it's just it's justtoo vague, and we need to niche
down, we need to get morespecific. So then you can go down
even deeper into like a segment ofthe market and you can say aisles English
or business English or yeah, whatever, some particular type of English, and
(23:40):
then that's the topic. Right,You've niche down into like the little market
and then now you want to lookat Okay, who's this four? You
want to even niche down on thecustomers. So who are you trying to
help? Is it going to belike expats that need to learn English?
Is it stud students like young adultsthat need to learn English? Is it
(24:04):
people who want to immigrate to learnEnglish? Like, try get clarity on
who it is and get specific aroundthat. And by doing that, the
reason we do that is because itjust is so saturated. There's just so
many people selling things. And whenyou're when you don't have like a very
(24:26):
specific niche specialization and target customer andyou're very vague, that sort of just
affects your ability to market, andit affects your messaging and it sort of
dilutes everything down and then you cannotreally stand out very easily people. You
(24:47):
want people to see your stuff andsay, oh wow, like that's for
me, Like that resonates online andniching down is really important for that,
I would think, in my opinion, the logical next step after that would
be to make sure that you're collectingtheir emails and and contact information so that
(25:07):
believe it or not, if you'relistening and you haven't ever or have rarely
given thought to some of this stuff. Um, you know, those potential
as we call them leads, right, those those could be your your clients
one day. And if you areserious about monetizing or or starting to start
(25:29):
starting a side hustle say that fivetimes fast um or or an online business
of some kind. Uh, that'sthat's where the gold is, um you
know. So yeah, and I'veeven I've been right, and I've even
been trying to tell my wife thatas she starts this side hustle as an
independent travel agent. And I think, as we record this right now,
(25:52):
I hope I'm not outing her toomuch, but I think she's got an
email list of like twenty and I'mlike, well, that's that's perfect.
You know, has got to startsomewhere. My email us had twenty people
on it at one point. Michelle'sdid too. So now this is this
has been great. I think,like I said, it's a timely conversation.
I know that it's not for everyone. So I know that, Um,
(26:14):
there are people, you know,people who tune into my podcast for
education and instructional leadership. But you'regetting a little little something different today.
And I hope that it gets youto think think about maybe yourself and in
your situation, and whether or notthis is something that you want to do.
I think it is, and I'msure Michelle would agree. Um,
but even if it's not, Ithink it is important to consider the people
(26:40):
who are doing this and who arecreating side hustles and online businesses in the
field of education or not. AndI say, I actually say that with
a little bit of a thought inthe back of my mind, which is
that, uh, like I saidearlier in the in the interview, I've
been podcasting now for going on sixyears and the only I think two negative
(27:03):
reviews I've ever gotten on the podcastare from I think it's the same person,
if I'm not mistaken, but let'scall it two different people because they're
two different reviews that both say thatthere's a little too much self promotion and
promoting going on in the podcast.And I want to tell them, like,
do you listen to other podcasts,because I know I'm not the only
one doing it, but you know, at the end of the day,
(27:25):
I think it's important to understand thatthere are people out there, educators even
who are doing this as a livingyou know, it's for a living,
whether it's on the speaking circuit oran online business where they have courses and
programs, or people like me whoare who are still doing it as a
side hustle. I work in aschool in a public school district. I
(27:48):
come every day and uh, youknow, from September through June that that's
my deal. And all the podcastingand business ventures and things for me are
on the side. But um,anyway, enough of enough of me on
my soapbox. Um, Michelle,As we wrap up, if there's anything
else that you have in the inthe way of advice for people who are
(28:11):
thinking about this, people like mewho were dabbling in it, that would
that would be great. And alsoof course sharing your contact information social media
if you want, and how wecan maybe learn a little bit more about
what you're doing, what you aredoing, and all about did you teach?
(28:33):
Yeah, there's so much advice thatI could give. But one of
the things that I if I putmyself back into the time when I was
sort of working in my teaching joband like not feeling one hundred percent fulfilled
and just not knowing what to do, I had this like into I had
this like niggle inside. It waslike a niggle. That's all I can
(28:53):
explain it as there's a niggle insideof you. And this is how you'll
know if this could be something thatcould really be for you, is when
you have this nickel inside of youthat you are you want more, like
you just desire more. You desiremore flexibility, you desire more. You
desire to create your own legacy.You want to impact more. People.
(29:17):
You want to you want to uplevel, you want to challenge yourself because
I also was not being challenged inmy work. If you feel like that
and you have this desire to reallyimpact people on a bigger scale and make
money with that, so both incomeand impact. If you have that niggle
inside and you're sort of just shuttingit down out of fear, all I
(29:40):
can say to you is the bestthing that you can do is just to
listen to that niggle and just takethe next step. Like whatever that next
step is, like, just takethe first step. It doesn't have to
be you know, you don't haveto do something crazy immediately, but just
start just explore what that is.Explore that niggle inside, because if you're
feeling like a lack of meaning andburnt out or something's not right. There's
(30:04):
something inside of you that's guiding you. And I'm very big on like intuition
and just following it. And Ijust followed it like I didn't know anything.
I just kept listening. Okay,let me just keep following where my
energy is going. Let me justpursue that. And that's what I can
really say. Like your mind isgoing to say all these things like don't
do this, like you need tostay safe, like this is very risky.
(30:27):
Just tune back into your body andyour heart and if you're feeling like
the pull, lean into it,lean into the discomfort, lean into the
fear, because really it's it's sorewarding when you do that, and it's
so amazing what doors can open upfor you. It might look very different
to what you thought, but itis just so amazing what can happen when
(30:51):
you do start this journey. It'svery empowering to be able to make your
own money or just to build skills, just to build skills that allow you
to do to increase your impact andwhatever. It is. So yeah,
that's what I would say on that. And if anyone wants to find me,
they can find me on Instagram atDigi Teach. I do have my
(31:11):
own podcast. I haven't been podcastingfor as long as you, which is
very awesome. It's still new,it's not even a year old, but
it's called The Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast.And if you do want help, and
I can share the link with youmaybe in your show notes if you guys
want to help with sort of theroadmap of creating and selling a course,
(31:34):
I do have an awesome freebee whichI can give to you in your show
notes that someone can can grab.That would be great. I'll definitely put
that in the show notes and upon the website. I've used it before,
by the way, it's it's reallygreat going back to what Michelle was
talking about before in terms of notonly understanding what you're passionate about, it's
(31:55):
kind of that next step of Okay, who am I looking to target with
it? Right, So it's allabout really finding and honing in on your
niche and who your target audience willbe. So definitely I'll link that in
the show notes. Michelle, Ireally appreciate your time. Again, very
important topic for me. I've saidthis before kind of jokingly, but I'm
like a little serious about it too. I'm always my number one fan,
(32:19):
so I bring on guests and Ishare topics here that I really want to
learn about. But I know thatthis is going to resonate with a lot
of my audience as well, soI really appreciate your time. Thank you
so much. I've absolutely loved it. Well that's it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.If you haven't done so yet, don't
(32:42):
forget to subscribe to this show onyour favorite podcast app. If you enjoy
the content covered on this show,I want to ask you to do this
one thing for me. Please shareit. The biggest favor you could ever
do for me is to please letothers know about what I'm doing and how
I'm helping educators grow their impact asinstructional leaders. I hope you can share
(33:04):
this podcast with other educators, leaders, friends, or anyone you think would
love listening and learning. If you'reinterested in leaving a positive rating and review
of this show, links to doso or always in the show notes for
every episode. For more information aboutme or this show, and to access
the great content that I share,please visit my website at Leader of Learning
(33:25):
dot com that's where you can findmy online courses, YouTube channel, blog,
how to connect with me on socialmedia, and even ways that you
can support the show like donating orpurchasing Leader of Learning merchandise. Thanks again,
and remember, no matter who youare or where you are, you
are a Leader of Learning.
On this episode, we're talking aboutpursuing your passions and building successful side hustles
and online businesses in the education space. Check it out. Welcome to the
Leader of Learning podcast. I'm yourhost, doctor Dan Crinis, and this
is where I help educators grow theirimpact as instructional leaders because my research and
(00:21):
leadership experiences have led me to understandthat someone like you, regardless of your
role or your title, can havea tremendous impact on your organization. I
chat with inspiring guests who are trulymaking an impact as instructional leaders. Whether
this is your first time listening oryou've come back for more, I hope
you've subscribed to this show on yourpreferred podcast apps so you don't miss any
(00:45):
of the great episodes, topics,or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad
you've tuned in. Now let's getstarted. Hello Leader of Learning, and
welcome into episode one sixty one.If you're just joining us, thank you
(01:06):
very much and don't forget to hitsubscribe or follow this podcast on your favorite
podcast app. If you're back formore and you've joined us in the past,
thank you so much for returning.I have a great episode in store
for you. I just want tolet you know that if you're listening to
this podcast around the time of itsrelease, you may already know that in
(01:27):
the education space, one of thebiggest conferences that takes place each year,
the ISTY Conference, is going on, and unfortunately, even though I thought
I was going to be there andI was ready to present a couple of
sessions and really soak in a lotof information and have a great time at
the conference, I unfortunately had towithdraw from attending this year. It's not
(01:53):
because I don't want to, andI certainly will miss all of you and
meeting you in person if you're goingto that conference, but I have a
lot of other obligations going on thissummer and I just couldn't take that kind
of time away and that time off, so I won't be attending ISTY.
But we will continue to produce podcastepisodes throughout the summer, so obviously look
(02:16):
for those every other week as wego through the rest of June, July,
and August. As for this episode, I have a really exciting guest.
Her name is Michelle Smit and sheis affiliated with an organization known as
Digi Teach, and we're going totalk about pursuing your passions and building successful
side hustles and online businesses in theeducation space. And I know that might
(02:39):
be a little bit unusual or uncomfortablefor people to listen to and a bit
different from the topics that we usuallydelve into here on this podcast, but
I think it's a really important oneand I think it's a timely one because
Michelle's going to share her personal journeyfrom being a burnt out ESL teacher to
(03:00):
a successful course creator and business ownerand offers advice on how to overcome fear
and lean into discomfort and follow yourintuition. And so I know that you're
going to get a lot of valueout of it. And I know that
even though you might not have abusiness or a side hustle, you can
still gain so much valuable information andknowledge from what Michelle is going to share.
(03:25):
So I'm going to stop talking andright after these messages, we're going
to hear from Michelle. Coming upis my interview with Michelle smit Welcome back,
Leader of Learning. I'm excited tohave on a guest who I think
I have a lot in common with. I don't know, we'll see,
but once I became aware of herand her work, I really knew that
(03:47):
I had to get her on here. Michelle Smitt is a teacher business coach,
helping educators in business make more moneywhile working less through launching scalable courses
and group programs, and all ofthis through her company called Digi Teach.
So, Michelle, welcome to theshow. I'm glad to finally see you
(04:09):
and get you on here. I'velistened to your podcast quite a bit and
I love it. So thanks forjoining us here. And before we move
on any further, if you coulddo a little bit more of telling us
who you are, where you are, and what you do. Thank you
so much for having me. I'msuper stoked to be here. Yeah.
So, I am a business coachand I help teaching business owners, but
(04:30):
also just educators in the classroom,online teachers, freelance teachers, kind of
any educator. I help them moveaway from trading their time for money and
I help them move towards trading valuefor money, which is the way that
I do it is through digital courses, digital products, group programs and things
like that. And yeah, that'sthat's what I do. I've been doing
(04:55):
it for a couple of years now, and it's my passion. I would
say, it's my passion to reallyhelp educators sort of up level and make
their own money online, like alltypes of educators. That's really I want
to help educators, whatever they wantto do, bring their impact online through
(05:16):
online business specifically. Yeah, I'vegotten that about you by listening to your
show and following what you do,and I've become sort of familiar a little
bit with your story. But Idon't think my listeners know how did you
get into this space? Because Ithink it's an interesting story, and I
also think that it will help leadus into what could be still a difficult
(05:42):
conversation or a difficult concept for myaudience, because I think my audience still
is largely K twelve and even highereducation educators and people in the field who
frankly at this point haven't necessarily consideredside hustles or online businesses or like you
said, making money, you know, on monetizing their their talents. And
(06:09):
I think sharing your story may mayhelp us a little bit. How did
you get into doing this? SoI'll give the shortened version of the story,
But I was an ear cell teacherin Vietnam, and that's where I
started my teaching, and I endedup falling in love with a duchy and
moving over to this little place inthe Netherlands, and I moved online.
(06:32):
I started teaching ear cell online andI loved it. I thought it was
wonderful. It was really flexible andstuff like that. But when I moved
over to the Netherlands, I inorder to survive in this country with the
cost of living it was drastically higherthan Vietnam, I had to teach back
(06:54):
to back classes. I had toteach a lot of classes right, and
I I had the highest rate perhour. I'd reached sort of my income
ceiling in the company that I wasworking with, and I was just teaching
many, many back to back hoursand it wasn't it was barely even minimum
wage when I was in the Netherlands, and so I was working full on
(07:15):
and I was actively teaching K twelvechildren in China on camera. Was wonderful.
But then it got to a pointwhere I was like burning out very
fast. I sort of lost mylove for the work that I was doing.
I sort of became quite robotic inmy teaching, like I wasn't being
(07:35):
like challenged. I think it wasjust becoming too simple for me the work,
and I sort of lost meaning andpassion and I felt kind of,
yeah, burnt out would be theword that I felt. And while I
was going through this time, Iactually stumbled upon my first mentor through a
Facebook ad and I went down hiswhole journey and I basically invested with him
(08:01):
to help me. And he wassomeone who was teaching like courses like how
to sell an online course kind ofsomething like that, and I at that
point did not know about online business. I did not know about digital courses.
But I really needed to do somethingelse and I didn't really know what
I was doing. I was justkind of like, cool, I'm gonna
(08:22):
my intuition is telling me to dothis thing. Let me just do this
thing, and yeah, invested withhim and it was like the craziest journey.
Four months later, I had launchedmy first course online and I made
a whopping like seven sales and itwas like the greatest achievement ever. I
(08:43):
had learned so much in that time, and I kind of became addicted to
online business, like I just Istarted absorbing it all the time. It
was what I spent all my time, on, all my money on and
I was just like really energized byit. And then I just kept on
launching my course and it just keptgetting better and better, and you know,
(09:05):
by my fourth launch, you know, I had a forty thousand dollar
course launch, and that was likea pivotal moment in the journey. That
was like one of those moments whereI was like, Okay, this is
what I want to do with mylife. This is like I feel the
passion, I feel the energy forit. I'm so inspired by it.
And I actually started my business originallyhelping educators become online ear cel teachers.
(09:31):
So that's what my first course wason. I wasn't passionate about it,
and then I moved into helping teachersstart online businesses. I love that story
for a lot of reasons. Butand by the way, you know,
I think by now my audience probablycould tell that this is a bit of
a different episode and topic then weusually talk about. But I think it
(09:54):
is timely as many of us havejust finished or are about to finish our
school years heading into the summer.Let's face it, a lot of educators
right now are probably thinking what isit that I really want to keep doing
with my life, and I'm wonderingif helping my audience and people in still
(10:18):
in that K twelve education space takewhat they know and whether it's a hobby,
a legit side hustle, or maybethey feel like, you know what,
it's time that I start my youknow, my own business and get
out of K twelve altogether. That'swhy I really wanted to pursue this episode
and pursue this conversation with you,and I'll be honest, I'm going to
(10:41):
kind of break the third wall herea little bit with my audience. Like
I've been podcasting now for over fiveand a half years. It'll be six
years in I don't know, September, I guess, so it's been a
while, and you know, notright away, but actually pretty early on
in my podcasting venture is when Istarted thinking about what I'm doing as a
(11:03):
little bit of a business or aside hustle formed an LLC. I've been
getting a little bit of money hereand there from advertisements that I run on
the show, sponsorships, and soI have not always but almost always,
since i've been doing this, thoughtabout how can I monetize and I know
(11:28):
that's not easy. It's still noteasy for me. It may still not
be easy for you, but atleast you more so, but at least
we've taken steps in that right direction. I feel like I'd be remiss if
I didn't ask you why you thinkit's still so hard for people to in
education, especially to really wrap theirheads around monetizing and placing that value on
(11:54):
their knowledge, their experiences, theirpassions, their interests, and what can
they do about it if they stillhave that kind of wall that's built up,
that barrier that they need to breakthrough in order to really understand,
No, you can do this,you should do this. I think there's
you know, there's lots of differentreasons why. I think one of the
(12:15):
biggest things that I see is afear of the failure. That's one of
the things that and they're the securityblanket of being in a job. So
I often tell, you know,people who come into my world, you
don't have to quit your teaching job, right you can start this on the
side. This can just be aside hustle, which you know, gives
you that safety nature, not likecutting your you know, livelihood off.
(12:41):
But what I see a lot ofthe time is just this fear of getting
out of their comfort zone and thevulnerability of taking something that is their own
that might even be different to whatthey've trained in or what they're teaching in,
which is even more scary for themputting package it into a product and
selling it online, like, youhave to overcome a lot of inner resistance
(13:07):
and fear to do it. Umand and I see that a lot.
I see that a lot with educatorsin particular. They're very used to being,
you know, working for an hourlyrate or a monthly salary. They
are very used to trading their timefor money. It's just the way that
we have been socialized and conditioned toto work. Um And. I think
(13:31):
a lot of them don't know thatthere are other ways that you can A
lot of them don't even know thatthere are things that they can do online,
that there are digital courses that theycan sell. Um. Those they
are those people who don't know.And then there's the people who do know
and are just too Generally it's afear of failure, Um, I'm not
(13:52):
good enough, Like I mean,it's all internal stuff at that point.
And also just strategy wise, likehow to actually do it. I mean,
of course, like and that's that'show I help people, well specifically
teachers, as I give them strategy, I tell them how too, and
I help them overcome the internal stuffto help them step into their power,
(14:16):
to help them see their value,to help them see what they can do
can be monetized. Like I mean, one of my teachers, who was
straight up classroom teacher, had neverreally heard of online business. She was
just trading. She was just doinglike a side like hobby, which was
(14:37):
training stock dogs. So she wasjust training literal stock dogs to her sheep.
That was her thing, that washer hobby. We saw that and
she took that and she made ither business. And now she's leaving.
She's chosen to leave the classroom.Not everyone has to. I mean,
it can just be a side hustle, but it just I think there's so
(15:00):
many educators who just can't see maybewhat they can do or what they can
offer online and how it could beso so massive. Like Jennifer, this
teacher, she's literally her life haschanged. Her business is incredible, which
is amazing. I want to justshare a quick story with you that happened
just this past weekend I have awe have a nephew who is just a
(15:24):
week or so away or two acouple weeks away from graduating high school and
not really sure exactly what he wantsto do with himself in terms of pursuing
his education, but also, youknow, starting to really look into studying
for a career. And I knowthat there are a lot of things that
(15:45):
he thinks he might be passionate about, but he hasn't necessarily explored a ton
yet, except there's one thing thathe's been doing for a long time since
he was a kid, which ismartial arts. And I was speaking to
my brother in law and you know, his parents over the weekend and I
and I said, I kind ofharnessed my inner Michelle though this is the
first time we're talking here, becauseI felt like I was kind of trying
(16:08):
to not sway him in this direction, but just to ask if maybe he
would think about, like while hegoes to school, if he wants to
make some extra money. I askedthem, like, are there such a
thing as online courses for kids tolearn taekwondo? And they were like,
I don't know, I've never reallyheard of that. Now I'm not you
(16:30):
know, I don't. I haveno idea either. I haven't really looked
into this. Maybe there are,but if there aren't, that could be
a good, uh, you know, a good little side hustle to earn
some money while in college or potentiallya career afterwards as well. So I
guess all of that to say thatI'm starting to think a little bit like
what you were saying in terms ofhelping people overcome whatever barriers to entry that
(16:53):
they have. I think one ofthe things that you touched upon but didn't
mention my name is imposter since Rome, which I've certainly dealt with a lot
over the years, and I've addressedit here on the podcast as well.
But you know, just helping peopleunderstand that there are things that you do
and that you know that other peopleare dying to do and to know as
(17:17):
well, and just to have thatas a starting point a launching point,
I think is really important. Totally. I think that martial arts thing would
be so good, Like now they'relike, that would definitely be Yeah,
all those little there's so many Likeoften people come to me and they like
think very like, Okay, I'man English teacher, I'm a maths teacher.
(17:41):
Therefore I have to create, youknow, an English teaching course or
a maths course. And I'm like, okay, cool, is that what
you're passionate in? Is that?Like, do you have the energy to
build a business in that? Likecan you really show up fully with passion
behind that? And sometimes they can't. And sometimes it's like, oh no,
I'm really passionate about baking and Ireally love knitting, or I love
(18:03):
like swimming, helping triathlon this isone of my students as well, helping
triathlon athletes improve their swimming. Like, I mean, there's so many different
things. And then I'm like,well, if you've got the energy behind
that, you just obviously need todo a little bit of market research and
see if there's demand. But ifthere is, it could really be that's
(18:23):
the key. You want to findsomething that you're passionate about, you've got
energy behind that, there is alsodemand for that people are wanting to buy.
I think that's a great piece ofadvice for anyone at this stage of
the game, not even people lookingto monetize their talents or start online businesses,
but anyone. I think it's justfollow your passions, right, I
(18:48):
think over the years. My wifeand I have done that pretty well.
There have been a lot of thingsthat we've been interested in doing or learning
and it's just like, hey,I want to go for that. You
know. My wife studied theater incollege and even upon graduating with her four
year degree, wasn't really sure thatthat was what she wanted to do long
(19:10):
term. And since then she's shewent back to school for well, first
she took some floral designing courses,then she went back to school to culinary
school for for pastry arts, andtechnically she's a trained pastry chef, although
that's not what she does full time. So um, we've been very fortunate
to be able to do those things. But I guess my point is we've
(19:34):
we've found those opportunities to pursue whatwe're passionate about and at times even explore
monetizing them as well. My wifeis now a pretty new independent travel agent
and helping people plan their dream vacations. So I am I'm all about it.
Um. For me, I ampassionate about you know, this educational
(19:57):
stuff and just like it says upabove me, helping educators grow their impact
as instructional leaders. Hopefully that Idon't lose that passion anytime soon. I
don't think I will, because that'sthat's what I love to do, so
that's what my content and courses areall about. But but I appreciate that.
And I guess so thinking about yousaid that the key or the first
(20:18):
step is to kind of figure outwhat you're passionate about and pursue that.
What's the next step, I guessis what I wanted to ask you.
So I would definitely just find yourniche and get a bit of clarity on
your niche and just get specific onnot only like what topic and thing you're
passionate about, but who you wantto help. So the who is really
(20:42):
important, not just I want toteach this thing or I'm passionate about knitting
or whatever. It's like, whodo you want to help with this thing?
And getting really specific about the whois going to help you inform you
on all your next steps once youhave that sort of niche and getting specific
around it. So not just beinglike, and this is something that happens
(21:03):
all the time, is I justwant to help everyone, like I can
help everyone, and like that's notgoing to work, Like, find out
who it is you want to help, get specific on it. And then
the next step I would say isstart finding out what they want. Start
finding out what your ideal target customer, like, your dream client or your
(21:26):
dream student, the one that youreally want to work with, the person
you really want to help with thisproblem or get to this result. Get
into conversation with them and literally startasking questions, even if it surveys,
even if you have to get oncalls, whatever it looks like, even
if it's part of your friendship circle. Just ask questions and find out what
is it that they want, whatare their main struggles, what are their
(21:48):
main things like, learn about them, it's really important. And then once
you've got that information and you understand, Okay, this is my target customer,
this is the person that I'm goingto help with this program. Once
you know that, you can thenmap out an offer that really really speaks
to them, that is desirable,that is something that they actually want to
(22:11):
purchase. Can you, for thebenefit of anybody who will listen, go
a little bit more into it,because I know the jargon, the terminology
you mentioned, the word niche orniche depending on how you pronounce it.
If you could just dive into thata little bit more, just because you
(22:33):
know that what you just mentioned obviouslyis very important, right, knowing who
you're serving and the why behind whatit is that you want to offer them.
But if you could dive a littlebit further into that, just for
people who are really kind of hearingsome of this for the first time.
Sure, So a niche is basicallylike a sub market in a greater market.
(22:56):
So what you want to look atwhen you aren't choosing a niches,
you want to get it. Yousort of want to niche down and you
want to try to get quite specificwithin the greater market. So, for
example, you've got English teaching,and that's a massive, you know,
industry, it's huge, it's quiteit's massive. Right, If you were
to just create a program, youknow, an English teaching program helping people
(23:18):
learn English, it's just it's justtoo vague, and we need to niche
down, we need to get morespecific. So then you can go down
even deeper into like a segment ofthe market and you can say aisles English
or business English or yeah, whatever, some particular type of English, and
(23:40):
then that's the topic. Right,You've niche down into like the little market
and then now you want to lookat Okay, who's this four? You
want to even niche down on thecustomers. So who are you trying to
help? Is it going to belike expats that need to learn English?
Is it stud students like young adultsthat need to learn English? Is it
(24:04):
people who want to immigrate to learnEnglish? Like, try get clarity on
who it is and get specific aroundthat. And by doing that, the
reason we do that is because itjust is so saturated. There's just so
many people selling things. And whenyou're when you don't have like a very
(24:26):
specific niche specialization and target customer andyou're very vague, that sort of just
affects your ability to market, andit affects your messaging and it sort of
dilutes everything down and then you cannotreally stand out very easily people. You
(24:47):
want people to see your stuff andsay, oh wow, like that's for
me, Like that resonates online andniching down is really important for that,
I would think, in my opinion, the logical next step after that would
be to make sure that you're collectingtheir emails and and contact information so that
(25:07):
believe it or not, if you'relistening and you haven't ever or have rarely
given thought to some of this stuff. Um, you know, those potential
as we call them leads, right, those those could be your your clients
one day. And if you areserious about monetizing or or starting to start
(25:29):
starting a side hustle say that fivetimes fast um or or an online business
of some kind. Uh, that'sthat's where the gold is, um you
know. So yeah, and I'veeven I've been right, and I've even
been trying to tell my wife thatas she starts this side hustle as an
independent travel agent. And I think, as we record this right now,
(25:52):
I hope I'm not outing her toomuch, but I think she's got an
email list of like twenty and I'mlike, well, that's that's perfect.
You know, has got to startsomewhere. My email us had twenty people
on it at one point. Michelle'sdid too. So now this is this
has been great. I think,like I said, it's a timely conversation.
I know that it's not for everyone. So I know that, Um,
(26:14):
there are people, you know,people who tune into my podcast for
education and instructional leadership. But you'regetting a little little something different today.
And I hope that it gets youto think think about maybe yourself and in
your situation, and whether or notthis is something that you want to do.
I think it is, and I'msure Michelle would agree. Um,
but even if it's not, Ithink it is important to consider the people
(26:40):
who are doing this and who arecreating side hustles and online businesses in the
field of education or not. AndI say, I actually say that with
a little bit of a thought inthe back of my mind, which is
that, uh, like I saidearlier in the in the interview, I've
been podcasting now for going on sixyears and the only I think two negative
(27:03):
reviews I've ever gotten on the podcastare from I think it's the same person,
if I'm not mistaken, but let'scall it two different people because they're
two different reviews that both say thatthere's a little too much self promotion and
promoting going on in the podcast.And I want to tell them, like,
do you listen to other podcasts,because I know I'm not the only
one doing it, but you know, at the end of the day,
(27:25):
I think it's important to understand thatthere are people out there, educators even
who are doing this as a livingyou know, it's for a living,
whether it's on the speaking circuit oran online business where they have courses and
programs, or people like me whoare who are still doing it as a
side hustle. I work in aschool in a public school district. I
(27:48):
come every day and uh, youknow, from September through June that that's
my deal. And all the podcastingand business ventures and things for me are
on the side. But um,anyway, enough of enough of me on
my soapbox. Um, Michelle,As we wrap up, if there's anything
else that you have in the inthe way of advice for people who are
(28:11):
thinking about this, people like mewho were dabbling in it, that would
that would be great. And alsoof course sharing your contact information social media
if you want, and how wecan maybe learn a little bit more about
what you're doing, what you aredoing, and all about did you teach?
(28:33):
Yeah, there's so much advice thatI could give. But one of
the things that I if I putmyself back into the time when I was
sort of working in my teaching joband like not feeling one hundred percent fulfilled
and just not knowing what to do, I had this like into I had
this like niggle inside. It waslike a niggle. That's all I can
(28:53):
explain it as there's a niggle insideof you. And this is how you'll
know if this could be something thatcould really be for you, is when
you have this nickel inside of youthat you are you want more, like
you just desire more. You desiremore flexibility, you desire more. You
desire to create your own legacy.You want to impact more. People.
(29:17):
You want to you want to uplevel, you want to challenge yourself because
I also was not being challenged inmy work. If you feel like that
and you have this desire to reallyimpact people on a bigger scale and make
money with that, so both incomeand impact. If you have that niggle
inside and you're sort of just shuttingit down out of fear, all I
(29:40):
can say to you is the bestthing that you can do is just to
listen to that niggle and just takethe next step. Like whatever that next
step is, like, just takethe first step. It doesn't have to
be you know, you don't haveto do something crazy immediately, but just
start just explore what that is.Explore that niggle inside, because if you're
feeling like a lack of meaning andburnt out or something's not right. There's
(30:04):
something inside of you that's guiding you. And I'm very big on like intuition
and just following it. And Ijust followed it like I didn't know anything.
I just kept listening. Okay,let me just keep following where my
energy is going. Let me justpursue that. And that's what I can
really say. Like your mind isgoing to say all these things like don't
do this, like you need tostay safe, like this is very risky.
(30:27):
Just tune back into your body andyour heart and if you're feeling like
the pull, lean into it,lean into the discomfort, lean into the
fear, because really it's it's sorewarding when you do that, and it's
so amazing what doors can open upfor you. It might look very different
to what you thought, but itis just so amazing what can happen when
(30:51):
you do start this journey. It'svery empowering to be able to make your
own money or just to build skills, just to build skills that allow you
to do to increase your impact andwhatever. It is. So yeah,
that's what I would say on that. And if anyone wants to find me,
they can find me on Instagram atDigi Teach. I do have my
(31:11):
own podcast. I haven't been podcastingfor as long as you, which is
very awesome. It's still new,it's not even a year old, but
it's called The Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast.And if you do want help, and
I can share the link with youmaybe in your show notes if you guys
want to help with sort of theroadmap of creating and selling a course,
(31:34):
I do have an awesome freebee whichI can give to you in your show
notes that someone can can grab.That would be great. I'll definitely put
that in the show notes and upon the website. I've used it before,
by the way, it's it's reallygreat going back to what Michelle was
talking about before in terms of notonly understanding what you're passionate about, it's
(31:55):
kind of that next step of Okay, who am I looking to target with
it? Right, So it's allabout really finding and honing in on your
niche and who your target audience willbe. So definitely I'll link that in
the show notes. Michelle, Ireally appreciate your time. Again, very
important topic for me. I've saidthis before kind of jokingly, but I'm
like a little serious about it too. I'm always my number one fan,
(32:19):
so I bring on guests and Ishare topics here that I really want to
learn about. But I know thatthis is going to resonate with a lot
of my audience as well, soI really appreciate your time. Thank you
so much. I've absolutely loved it. Well that's it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.If you haven't done so yet, don't
(32:42):
forget to subscribe to this show onyour favorite podcast app. If you enjoy
the content covered on this show,I want to ask you to do this
one thing for me. Please shareit. The biggest favor you could ever
do for me is to please letothers know about what I'm doing and how
I'm helping educators grow their impact asinstructional leaders. I hope you can share
(33:04):
this podcast with other educators, leaders, friends, or anyone you think would
love listening and learning. If you'reinterested in leaving a positive rating and review
of this show, links to doso or always in the show notes for
every episode. For more information aboutme or this show, and to access
the great content that I share,please visit my website at Leader of Learning
(33:25):
dot com that's where you can findmy online courses, YouTube channel, blog,
how to connect with me on socialmedia, and even ways that you
can support the show like donating orpurchasing Leader of Learning merchandise. Thanks again,
and remember, no matter who youare or where you are, you
are a Leader of Learning.
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