This post is by my friend, colleague and mastermind buddy Jennifer Louden. She and Michele Lisenbury-Christensen are doing amazing work with TeachNow!, and since so many in the Heart of Business community make their living, or a portion of their living, by teaching, I thought you would really enjoy this. I highly recommend TeachNow if you are hankering for that kind of support at all.
Jen is offering a free sample class so you can get a taste of who she is and her teachings on April 3 at 4:00 pm pacific. Click to register*.
Did I catch your attention? Good. Of course, the title of this article is tongue-in-cheek (and so not Heart of Business-style) but I use it to illustrate a vital point: the world is growing more complex and interconnected every day, and more and more people have to (not need to: have to) keep learning.
And that means the world needs teachers.
Teaching is omnipresent and omni-necessary
Think about it: We need so much help simply managing technology. Then you add in diet, exercise, hormonal health, communicating with different generations at work, diversity training… we’re faced with an unprecedented, ever-growing, and ever-changing slate of demands.
The amount of learning we need to do to just stay current is a big reason education is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Whether you’re an accountant, a yoga teacher, a nutritionist, a lifestyle design coach… you are a teacher. If I sat next to you at the juice bar or on the bus, and we started talking about what you do, I would not be able to stop the flow of information and insight that would come tumbling out.
Your natural wellspring of knowledge and enthusiasm is what can enable teaching to become a sustainable, fun way to grow – and market – your business.
On board with the idea?
Then here are my five favorite ways to use teaching to help grow your business.
1) Think Small
That enthusiasm I talked about a minute ago? It is a great thing and it can also be a tidal wave that carries people right out of your business. TOO MUCH information can be more damaging than NOT ENOUGH.
Repeat after me: It is not unethical to withhold some information when I teach my audience about say, optimal thyroid function or creating goals that work.
In fact, it’s a disservice to them if you to try to give them EVERYTHING all at once.
In TeachNow, my partner Fortune 100 trainer and coach Michele Christensen, and I talk about appropriate dosing.
Humans can only learn about 8 minutes of new information at a time.
After that, we need to apply or or share it in some way. Small bits of teaching – with lots of ways to digest – allows for real learning, real healing, and leave people hungry for more.
So instead of offering a class on “100 ways to Change Your Diet Forever” (too daunting, students are already running the other way), offer a class on “Making Gluten a Friend rather than Foe.” It’s smaller, it’s friendly (“Oh, maybe she can teach me ways to be able to eat gluten sometimes.”), it’s accessible.
And it naturally leads to lots of ways to offer extras (at an in-class discount of course) like books, individual sessions and follow-up classes on how to deal with dairy and soy – you get the picture.
2) Cultivate Beginner’s Mind
All that wonderful knowledge you have about your field? So beautiful.
Yet 90% of your clients are not there.
They are struggling with stuff that can feel so basic to you, that you easily overlook offering a class where they are. After all, you are positively 110% certain they already know what you would teach them. It’s “too easy.”
Take a quick gander at the non-fiction best-seller list in USA Today or Amazon.
Are the majority of books basic beginner titles? Umm, yes.
I read the New York Times list every Sunday and wonder, “Really? People didn’t know the stuff in those books?”
Do I sound snobby? I don’t mean to. It’s just that people with unbridled passion (like you and me) are far more savvy and educated about many issues that the majority of people – particularly in the area that sets our hearts racing.
That’s not depressing: It’s good news because millions of people need what you know.
Ask yourself: What was the first issue or struggle that brought me to my work? That might be a great topic for your first class. Then chunk down what you would teach by 3/4 – yes drop 3/4 of what you just thought of – and that’s actually your first class.
A note on beginner burnout: Teaching beginners can get tedious as you move farther along in your field.
That’s not necessarily an invitation to stop working with beginners, unless you have more business than you can handle, in which case, it’s time to train people to teach for you.
But if you need for business reasons to continue to work with beginners, then work on your own beginner’s mind.
Revisit the material you teach to see what it can teach you right now.
Connect with your students as their light bulbs go on and see the material through their eyes.
Stagger how often you teach beginner’s and work with more advance students in-between.
3) Steal Like a Teacher
One of the most frequent challenges TeachNow participants have is winnowing their material into a clear focus. It can feel daunting to develop material of your own. Where do your teachers and influences end and your own insights begin?
First, know this: Absolutely everyone stands on the shoulders of others.
Nobody’s work springs fully-formed into the world like Athena from Zeus’s head.
To steal like a teacher means to gather all the beloved teachers, exercises and quotes and work with them yourself.
Live the information. Then capture what you learn as the various bits become yours. Teach that.
Yes, you can be just one or two steps ahead of your students. Expert or master status is not required to be an inspired, successful teacher. In fact, when you’re transparent about it, you can be the teacher simply by convening the group of learners, though you may be very much the student yourself.
The key to integrity is being honest about your experience and expertise… or lack thereof.
As far as focusing a lot of material: work backwards.
Do what traditional teachers do: declare learning objectives – limit yourself to three – for your students.
“I want people to learn how to practice enoughness, identify what self-trust looks and feels like, and experience deep relaxation” are objectives I set for my self-care retreats.
Then, use those objectives as banks on the river of your content – does this exercise support that objective? If yes, it can go in. If no, save it for another time.
Note: One terrible trend I see on the interwebs is people neglecting to credit teachers and sources. It’s like people are afraid to say “I learn from others.” You would never do that I know but it’s sometimes easy to forget where an idea came from. Be rigorous. Include links and verbal references. Buy your teachers’ materials and support their offerings. This in no way diminishes your prestige or expertise. The wisest teacher is the perpetual learner.
4) Stand in Your Brilliance
I work with an herbalist I met years ago when he taught at a yoga festival in Seattle. In the midst of class, while we were breathing through kundalini yoga poses, he mentioned that he was a master herbalist. He told a couple of brief stories about the kind of chronic conditions he had helped with, and made a very simple sincere offer, “If you think I can help you, please take my card.” I did, and I’ve been a client for years. How elegant! How unselfconscious! How unusual!
I used to make the bridge to becoming a private coaching client or to attending one of my retreats too complicated. I either over-delivered so people were so full they couldn’t imagine wanting more from me or I hedged about mentioning the other things I offer.
Don’t do that. Look for natural ways in your teaching to confidently share what else you do. I teach about Conditions of Enoughness in a lot of my classes. It’s a core idea that I developed from material I learned in my coaching school, Newfield Network (see me stealing like a teacher?), that is very popular with my students. I teach the basic version and then mention I have a digital kit that can help you go deeper.
When I lead my annual writer’s retreat in Taos, I provide on-the-spot coaching during writing time. I state clearly, “This coaching is for stuff that comes up during your writing.I can’t coach about your life or your whole project as there isn’t time. But you can hire me for that after the retreat.”
When you are planning your content, look for places to talk briefly about what else you do. Stand firmly in your brilliance when you do so. Shrinking from sharing what else you have to offer serves nobody.
5) Offer What Feels True
One way I have gotten myself drained and disheartened, and have reduced my business success, was by teaching what I thought I should teach. Yes, it’s vital, as Mark teaches so beautifully, to know what your tribe needs and wants from you. But it is equally vital, as Mark also teaches us, to know your own heart.
What does your heart most need to teach?
Lean into that truth, let it become articulated to you. Dare to know it and own it.
Then look at your clients and the people you wish to serve and see where you can bring the two together. As you do so, keep checking in with your beautiful heart. Pay attention to any winces or moments of shutting down.
You might be trying to teach something that isn’t fully known to you yet or you might be trying to teach what you think the market wants. Either are opportunities to reevaluate and recommit.
I do hope these ideas are helpful in your teaching journey. I’m a huge believer that teaching can feed our hearts, our souls and our bottom lines. It does mine. I want that for you, too.
Best-selling author Jennifer Louden and Fortune 100 trainer Michele Lisenbury Christensen created their popular course TeachNow to empower people who need more confidence, more income, and more power in their teaching – no matter the subject. Get a taste of the course for free on April 3rd at 4:00pm pacific.
*The links to TeachNow are affiliate links, which means that if you click the links above and sign up for the course, I’ll receive some money as a thank you from Jen. And, I also want you to know that it’s not why I’m sharing it with you. I would happily encourage you to enroll without any money. And, the very little I actually get from referrals like this does help to keep my own business sustainable, which I think is a win/win. And, if for some reason you have a moral objection to this kind of arrangement, I want to offer the non-affiliate link so I won’t get anything in return: http://theteacherspath.com/
5 Responses
Love me some Jen Louden! This is so clear, compassionate, brilliant — AND stuff I’ve heard and been learning/digesting/embodying from many over many years. Simple can be the most difficult thing to get to in our complex minds and lives.
Thanks Jen (and Mark) for once again distilling down to the essence these very real truths. I know the more I simplify and clarify within myself what I offer, the more I feel I’m truly reaching people and connecting in ways that serve them and create great relationships.
Oh Sharon, so happy to be of use to you!!!
There friendship is going to be the key to the soul of others. Let’s read the sentence or the most significant and friendship
Jen – I loved this. Thanks for sharing it with us. It’s hard to pick my favourite bits – but what stood out for me was the reminder that people might actually want the stuff that seems so obvious to me I don’t even think about it anymore; that it’s cool to say where I learned something and teach it from my own perspective; and I love that you countered my critic with the reminder that expert status is not required.
I could have all of those tattooed to my forehead.
But the question about what my heart wants to teach and the challenge to know it and own it … that touched my heart. It’s a scary idea. I have been playing it safe for too long trying to teach stuff that wasn’t really my heart’s longing. It was just stuff that I could do well, stuff that I had learned – but it wasn’t my stuff.
Donna there is a time to do that kind of teaching – the kind you think you should do – sometimes we do that to earn a living or to develop skills. It’s developmentally good, and then we move on. I’m still learning that, too! Glad to be connected, thanks Mark for the space!