Are You Ready to Become an Educator?

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Often entrepreneurs reach a point in their business where they decide they want to start sharing their knowledge and expertise with the world around them. In this episode of the podcast, guest educator Laylee Emadi leads us through which questions you should ask yourself before offering any new educational services or offerings to your audience.

Laylee Emadi is an educator, podcast host, and photographer with a heart for serving clients and fellow creatives. She believes in serving the creative industry with heartfelt encouragement, honest advice, and a shared pursuit of the ever-elusive “balance.” As the founder of The Creative Educator Academy, Laylee is passionate about her goal to help you feel confident in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love.

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The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hi everyone. It is Katrina and today I'm here with Laylee Emadi. I am so excited to have her on the podcast. She came to the group coaching program in May and presented on preventing burnout for entrepreneurs, and I know that it was some of our member's favorites. Today we're going to talk about something a little bit different, but first I wanted to quickly introduce Laylee! We met each other through the Rising Tide Society, which if you've listened to the podcast, you've maybe heard me mention a couple of times -- it is a creative community for entrepreneurs -- and then we also have just a couple of friends in common. So I am so excited to have you here today, Laylee!

Laylee Emadi: Thank you so much, I'm so excited to be here.

Katrina Widener: So I know today we're going to be digging in and talking about some really implementable questions that you can ask yourself before offering any educational services or adding any new offerings. But really quickly, do you want to explain to anyone listening who you are, who you normally help, and why this is such a perfect topic for us to focus on today?

Laylee Emadi: Yeah, absolutely. I'm so excited to be here. So for me, education and becoming a coach or becoming any kind of creative entrepreneurial educator is a topic that is so near and dear to my heart.

It's one of those things where I started out as just a creative entrepreneur, and then started adding in education, but my background is actually in formal education. I was a high school teacher in my “previous life”. And so I wrote curriculum for my school district and spent a lot of time growing my craft as an educator, and then was able to kind of implement that within my creative job in my creative career.

And so over the years I started training fellow creative entrepreneurs on how to become educators which then led into my online course, the Creative Educator Academy, where I do just that. And so it's started as a passion project. And now it's become something that I spend almost every day doing with creatives and I kind of see the same pitfalls over and over again and I see the same, you know, successes, but I also see roadblocks happening for a lot of people. And so now I'm, I'm excited to talk with you about kind of ways to navigate that transition, and to successfully add in education as an offering.

Katrina Widener: I love that you picked this topic, because I know oftentimes we reach a point in our businesses where even if we are a photographer, which I know that you also did and still do, or a videographer, or maybe a designer, or an Instagram strategist, we often get to a point where we're like, "I've learned so much in how to do this, I want to educate others on how to do it for themselves, or educate them on how to feel confident when they're doing it." And so really that shift is so natural for so many entrepreneurs, and yet it feels like a completely different thing like this "I have to be an expert."

So I know that one of the things that we really want to talk about is questions that you should be asking yourself when you're thinking about making this shift. So what are some of the things that come up often for the people who you work with?

Laylee Emadi: Yeah, oh my gosh. I think there are so many great questions that you should be, and could be asking yourself before making any kind of shift in this arena. The first of which is of course, the age old question of why. So kind of diving into a deep understanding of why it is that you're wanting to make this kind of move into teaching what you know.

Is it because you are just full of knowledge that you really want to give back and share with your creative community? Is it because you really want to add a revenue stream into your business, and you want to kind of diversify where your income is coming from, and you see this as a potential opportunity to branch out and add a new offering to your business? Or is it because maybe you've grown tired of what it is that you're doing now and you're trying to explore ways to kind of keep things fresh and exciting in your business?

And some of these things that I'm listing, a lot of people would be really hesitant to admit to themselves or to kind of be aware of. And I think that that in itself is a really good prompt to take you through, is kind of like delving into your why, but doing it without self-judgment and without allowing the judgments of others to kind of like sway you away from recognizing the reasoning behind your motivation.

So I always say, and this is something that is probably an unpopular opinion, but that's kind of what you get whenever you work with me. I think that there's no such thing as like a bad reason to do something unless that reason is, you know, purely ill intentioned, which I doubt most people are.

It's okay to want to diversify your revenue. It's okay to want to, you know, find passion again in what it is that you're doing by doing something new, but that's still related to your industry. There's a lot of things that people might kind of shame other people about when it comes to education. But I think as long as you're doing things ethically and, you know, with the correct expertise and knowledge under your belt, there's no reason to feel bad about a motivator.

So that would be question one is why? Why am I doing this? And continue to ask yourself that until you can really get honest with yourself, I think it's really easy to lie to ourselves. And so I think that should be the number one question.

Katrina Widener: I have like two big things that I want to talk about based off of what you're just saying.

The first one is, no one can see me, but I'm just sitting here like nodding along, and nodding along because I'm like, yes, 100% agree with all of the points. Like for me, unless it's something that you feel like you should be doing as opposed to something that you actually genuinely want to do, it does not matter.

And the other thing I wanted to bring up is this idea of getting curious about yourself. Like we talk about this on the podcast and in my group coaching program all the time of, "Okay, I am getting stuck here, or I'm finding this challenging, or I wanted to move in this new direction" or whatever the case might be, but really looking at it from a place of curiosity. And why is this something I'm like leaning toward? Why is this something that seems so attractive to me? Why is this something that I think is going to make a great shift in my business? And letting ourselves view ourselves with curiosity instead of judgment is I'm like, yes, 100%.

Laylee Emadi: Yeah. I love that. I think once you're able to kind of identify all of those things, like you said, getting curious without being judgmental and really finding out what it is that's motivating you, that's pushing you forward. I'd say the next question to ask yourself is, okay, so I know I want to do this, do I know what kind of education I want to offer and who I want to offer it for?

I think these are things that, like you said, sometimes it's a natural progression where let's say you are an artist or a photographer or a baker. And you're like, okay, I have this craft. Well, I want to teach the craft to people who want to do it, you know, either as a hobby or as a career. Well, that's really broad. It might sound like something that is specific, but it's actually not as specific as you think it is. So just being really clear about "okay, let's say I have this craft I want to teach. Do I want to teach something specific within that? Do I want to teach it to beginners or to intermediate or more advanced people? Do I want to teach the back end business side of things to entrepreneurs, or do I want to teach the actual craft itself?"

So just being really clear about what you want to teach, and how you want to teach it, and who you want to teach it to. So those are kind of a three in one question situation.

So, you know, I would say that would be something that's really important to think about, because I think what I've noticed as a common roadblock is people get really excited, they get so hyped to offer something really cool. And then they're like, "Oh, but who is this for? And exactly how am I going to do it?"

I mean, is it going to be a workshop? Is it going to be one-on-one? Is it going to be a podcast? Is it going to be an online course? Is it going to be an in-person conference? There are so many ways you could take something. So just kind of thinking about what's best for you, and what aligns best with your motivators.

Katrina Widener: That's really interesting, because it's not something that you maybe would naturally think of right off the bat. And it makes so much sense that people kind of find a roadblock there.

Laylee Emadi: Yes, absolutely. I think most of my students that come into the academy, they're like," oh do I need to know that?" and I'm like, "well, yeah, I mean it's good to have it as an idea." And of course that's something that always evolves, and it ebbs and flows. I think I've offered every single thing I just listed. I've offered some kind of education in one of those formats. But through that practice, I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had done some deep work and like really reflected on where I was best suited to teach. I mean, I wouldn't give up that experience, but it would have probably saved me a little bit of time, you know, and a little bit of hardship. But there's pros and cons to all.

Katrina Widener: No, that makes so much sense. So just out of curiosity, do you find that most of your students end up teaching the background of other people in their profession, or teaching how to do the thing, or is there something that comes up more often? I'm just curious.

Laylee Emadi: Yeah, It's actually been really interesting. So I've had the academy for just about two years, between like the very, very beginnings to now. And it's such a variety. For example, I had a watercolor artist who teaches just how to paint. Recently, she's just kind of delved into teaching the business side of things. So it's kind of evolved for her.

And then I have had people come in thinking that they really wanted to teach business, and going through and realizing like, "Wait, that's actually not where my passion is. Like, my passion is what it is I'm doing. I'm maybe just lost sight of that because my focus was my business". And so it's been kind of cool. I mean, I feel like it's kind of split to answer your question, but also, ebbs and flows, and kind of evolves in different ways for everybody.

Katrina Widener: Evolves is literally the word I was thinking about in my head, because it really allows everyone too, to evolve on their own time to say like, "oh, I tried this thing. Maybe it wasn't what worked out for me, but at least now I know that the other thing is what I really want". And there's not that question anymore, which is still incredibly valuable.

Laylee Emadi: Yeah, absolutely. It's been really cool to see that happen for people and to like take root from what they thought they were going to be doing, to what they end up doing. It's always really interest.

Katrina Widener: I can only imagine. So when we're thinking about the questions to ask yourself, we really have like the reason why we're doing this and then how we want it to happen. What would be the next stage?

Laylee Emadi: The next thing I would ask is, once you've kind of developed this, let's call it like a baseline foundation or plan of you know you want to do it, you know why, and you know how you want to deliver that education. The next question to ask yourself before actually like releasing any type of content, and actually these are kind of two questions, but the first would be, have I seen proven results? Not only for myself, but for somebody else who I've worked with. Is this something that I am actually qualified to be teaching on and taking people's investments? So, whether it's financial investment or time investment you want to be really ethical about the fact that like people every day, this is going to sound so salty, but I'm just going to say it. People every day become amazing successes, and sometimes it's skill, and sometimes it's luck. And if it happens to be you, that happens to be lucky and you can not provide that same result for somebody else, it doesn't mean you can't teach ever, it just means maybe you need to take a step back and figure out why it is that you found success, but somebody else didn't. And like, how can you actually, you know, dilute that and distill that down into something that you can hand to somebody else, and then they can find success in it.

So, yeah. The main question is, has it worked for me and somebody other than myself that I've taught? And that teaching doesn't have to be formal. It doesn't have to be like, "oh, did a mentoring client give me a lot of money? And then I found them success." Maybe it's somebody that you've had coffee dates with or small conversations with, and you've seen your knowledge take root in them and they were able to find success with it. So that's the first kind of question. And then the second probably final question is, am I continually investing in my own education? And continually investing in my own growth? Or am I only trying to provide growth for others? Because at a certain point you will find yourself becoming really stagnant and not growing yourself, and then it makes it really hard to provide, like I said, that transformation and that success for somebody else. That was a lot, sorry.

Katrina Widener: No, those two questions are biggies and some of the things that I'm like, yes, like so, so important. Because especially coming from a coaching world, I have a background myself in marketing, social media strategy, SEO, I used to be a marketing specialist.

There's like a ton of things in my background that gave me a lot of insight on how to implement them as a coach. But entering the coaching realm, I also saw so many coaches who come out and say, "Hey, I did this one thing myself on my business. I'm going to create a course on it. And now you can try to do it in your business". And then all of a sudden it doesn't work out for somebody else. And it's really being able to say like, is this knowledge and information that is going to genuinely benefit other people, or is this something that I got to work for me? I don't one hundred percent know how to replicate the results, is the other thing. And then turning that and being like, but I'm going to use it as a way to make more money for myself. Becuase the word you used, ethical, it's so important to make sure that we're coming from a place where we are having a good energy exchange between what we're giving someone, the value we're giving someone, and then what they're giving us in return. And so that's huge.

And then always, always as a coach, I'm going to advocate for continual learning always. And I'm sure with you as an educator yourself, it's just like, yes.

Laylee Emadi: Oh my God. Yeah, totally. Every podcast episode, I have every single guest educator I bring into my course or my, into my academy I'm like consistently taking notes, like, okay, this is great. It's an added perk. For sure.

Katrina Widener: Definitely. So any last tips or like number one, walkaway things that you think that people should have before they kind of go out and journal about this and do some work on this on their own.

Laylee Emadi: Yeah. I mean, I think if you can just go through that list of questions I talked about you might be feeling one of two ways. One, you might be like gung ho like, "yeah, this is me. It's totally gonna work. I'm totally prepared." And the other is you might be faced with a little bit of self doubt, and a little bit of imposter syndrome, and a little bit of feeling unprepared, and that's okay. I would just like to encourage anybody who's listening.

Things don't have to happen today. They don't have to happen tomorrow. But we also need to find that balance between getting out of our own way and being really self-aware about when it's time to move forward. And if you feel lost in that, it's okay. Take some time to reflect. And if you can't really get through that hurdle on your own seek help, you know, like there are so many great coaches out there.

Be really, I would say, be really cautious about who you work with. You know, obviously there's somebody like Katrina, who's out there and she's doing all the good things. I also have free resources. You're always welcome to take a look at, that might help guide you as well. But just like, being really conscientious of what kind of voices you allow to take root in your mind when you're thinking through things like this that maybe scare you a little bit more than you'd like.

Katrina Widener: Do you have anything that you would recommend, or any words of wisdom for someone who is sitting in that imposter syndrome place of saying, "I have an idea of who I want to teach. Like I know the information I want to bring to the world, but I'm not fully sitting in my confidence yet. I'm not fully seeing myself as an expert, as opposed to just like a videographer, a photographer an artist, et cetera, et cetera."

Laylee Emadi: Yeah. I'd love to say if you have trouble recognizing the fact that you were an expert in what it is that you do, if you're not an expert, then why are your clients paying you? Then why are people seeking you out? If you're not an expert, then why do people approach you saying, you know, "Hey, can I pick your brain over coffee?" Or, "Hey, can I get your advice on this thing". If this has ever happened to you? That probably means that you're a lot more of an expert than you're willing to kind of allow yourself to feel.

So I think just again, like letting those bits of self-awareness take over any kind of imposter syndrome that you're battling. And just recognizing that even if you don't feel like an established expert, take a listen to what people are saying about you, and to you. And if somebody wants to work with you in any way, shape or form, that's a pretty good indicator that you're doing a good job.

Katrina Widener: I love thinking about it that way too, because it kind of forces people to flip their mind on the way that they're viewing something. It also makes me think of when I was a life coach before I switched to also offering all that marketing in my coaching.

Every single time I started working with someone new, I made them sit down and write down 10 reasons why they're uniquely qualified for the job. Like, why are you uniquely qualified as an entrepreneur to do what you want to do? And having that have to come from yourself and not from someone else's compliments or like me leading them into it.

It's basically, is doing the exact same thing that you're talking about. Like I'm uniquely qualified because people are coming to me for coffee chats and wanting to pick my brain. I'm uniquely qualified because people are already paying me for this service that I'm providing. I love that so much.

So I want to make sure that everybody can find you and follow you after this. Because Laylee is amazing, and I highly recommend following her on Instagram. She has her own podcast that you all should also go and listen to. So do you want to let people know where they can find you?

Laylee Emadi: Yeah, absolutely. You can find me. I'm always on Instagram and always happy to exchange voice DM's. I am at @laylee_emadi and you can also find me on my website. It's just www.layleeemadi.com.

Katrina Widener: And as always her links will be on the page for the podcast. So you can find all of her amazing goodness there. Anyway, thank you Laylee so much for coming on here. I love these questions. I hope people can take the time to go and sit and ponder and work through them. Again, thank you so much.

Laylee Emadi: Thank you.