From Burnout as a Teacher to Success as an Edupreneur with Michelle Smit

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On this episode, we're talking about
pursuing your passions and building successful side hustles

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and online businesses in the education space. Check it out. Welcome to the

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Leader of Learning podcast. I'm your
host, doctor Dan Crinis, and this

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is where I help educators grow their
impact as instructional leaders because my research and

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leadership experiences have led me to understand
that someone like you, regardless of your

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role or your title, can have
a tremendous impact on your organization. I

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chat with inspiring guests who are truly
making an impact as instructional leaders. Whether

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this is your first time listening or
you've come back for more, I hope

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you've subscribed to this show on your
preferred podcast apps so you don't miss any

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of the great episodes, topics,
or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad

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you've tuned in. Now let's get
started. Hello Leader of Learning, and

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welcome into episode one sixty one.
If you're just joining us, thank you

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very much and don't forget to hit
subscribe or follow this podcast on your favorite

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podcast app. If you're back for
more and you've joined us in the past,

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thank you so much for returning.
I have a great episode in store

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for you. I just want to
let you know that if you're listening to

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this podcast around the time of its
release, you may already know that in

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the education space, one of the
biggest conferences that takes place each year,

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the ISTY Conference, is going on, and unfortunately, even though I thought

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I was going to be there and
I was ready to present a couple of

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sessions and really soak in a lot
of information and have a great time at

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the conference, I unfortunately had to
withdraw from attending this year. It's not

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because I don't want to, and
I certainly will miss all of you and

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meeting you in person if you're going
to that conference, but I have a

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lot of other obligations going on this
summer and I just couldn't take that kind

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of time away and that time off, so I won't be attending ISTY.

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But we will continue to produce podcast
episodes throughout the summer, so obviously look

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for those every other week as we
go through the rest of June, July,

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and August. As for this episode, I have a really exciting guest.

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Her name is Michelle Smit and she
is affiliated with an organization known as

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Digi Teach, and we're going to
talk about pursuing your passions and building successful

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side hustles and online businesses in the
education space. And I know that might

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be a little bit unusual or uncomfortable
for people to listen to and a bit

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different from the topics that we usually
delve into here on this podcast, but

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I think it's a really important one
and I think it's a timely one because

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Michelle's going to share her personal journey
from being a burnt out ESL teacher to

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a successful course creator and business owner
and offers advice on how to overcome fear

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and lean into discomfort and follow your
intuition. And so I know that you're

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going to get a lot of value
out of it. And I know that

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even though you might not have a
business or a side hustle, you can

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still gain so much valuable information and
knowledge from what Michelle is going to share.

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So I'm going to stop talking and
right after these messages, we're going

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to hear from Michelle. Coming up
is my interview with Michelle smit Welcome back,

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Leader of Learning. I'm excited to
have on a guest who I think

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I have a lot in common with. I don't know, we'll see,

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but once I became aware of her
and her work, I really knew that

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I had to get her on here. Michelle Smitt is a teacher business coach,

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helping educators in business make more money
while working less through launching scalable courses

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and group programs, and all of
this through her company called Digi Teach.

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So, Michelle, welcome to the
show. I'm glad to finally see you

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and get you on here. I've
listened to your podcast quite a bit and

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I love it. So thanks for
joining us here. And before we move

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on any further, if you could
do a little bit more of telling us

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who you are, where you are, and what you do. Thank you

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so much for having me. I'm
super stoked to be here. Yeah.

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So, I am a business coach
and I help teaching business owners, but

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also just educators in the classroom,
online teachers, freelance teachers, kind of

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any educator. I help them move
away from trading their time for money and

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I help them move towards trading value
for money, which is the way that

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I do it is through digital courses, digital products, group programs and things

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like that. And yeah, that's
that's what I do. I've been doing

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it for a couple of years now, and it's my passion. I would

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say, it's my passion to really
help educators sort of up level and make

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their own money online, like all
types of educators. That's really I want

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to help educators, whatever they want
to do, bring their impact online through

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online business specifically. Yeah, I've
gotten that about you by listening to your

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show and following what you do,
and I've become sort of familiar a little

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bit with your story. But I
don't think my listeners know how did you

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get into this space? Because I
think it's an interesting story, and I

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also think that it will help lead
us into what could be still a difficult

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conversation or a difficult concept for my
audience, because I think my audience still

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is largely K twelve and even higher
education educators and people in the field who

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frankly at this point haven't necessarily considered
side hustles or online businesses or like you

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said, making money, you know, on monetizing their their talents. And

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I think sharing your story may may
help us a little bit. How did

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you get into doing this? So
I'll give the shortened version of the story,

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But I was an ear cell teacher
in Vietnam, and that's where I

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started my teaching, and I ended
up falling in love with a duchy and

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moving over to this little place in
the Netherlands, and I moved online.

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I started teaching ear cell online and
I loved it. I thought it was

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wonderful. It was really flexible and
stuff like that. But when I moved

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over to the Netherlands, I in
order to survive in this country with the

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cost of living it was drastically higher
than Vietnam, I had to teach back

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to back classes. I had to
teach a lot of classes right, and

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I I had the highest rate per
hour. I'd reached sort of my income

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ceiling in the company that I was
working with, and I was just teaching

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many, many back to back hours
and it wasn't it was barely even minimum

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wage when I was in the Netherlands, and so I was working full on

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and I was actively teaching K twelve
children in China on camera. Was wonderful.

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But then it got to a point
where I was like burning out very

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fast. I sort of lost my
love for the work that I was doing.

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I sort of became quite robotic in
my teaching, like I wasn't being

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like challenged. I think it was
just becoming too simple for me the work,

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and I sort of lost meaning and
passion and I felt kind of,

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yeah, burnt out would be the
word that I felt. And while I

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was going through this time, I
actually stumbled upon my first mentor through a

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Facebook ad and I went down his
whole journey and I basically invested with him

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to help me. And he was
someone who was teaching like courses like how

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to sell an online course kind of
something like that, and I at that

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point did not know about online business. I did not know about digital courses.

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But I really needed to do something
else and I didn't really know what

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I was doing. I was just
kind of like, cool, I'm gonna

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my intuition is telling me to do
this thing. Let me just do this

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thing, and yeah, invested with
him and it was like the craziest journey.

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Four months later, I had launched
my first course online and I made

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a whopping like seven sales and it
was like the greatest achievement ever. I

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had learned so much in that time, and I kind of became addicted to

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online business, like I just I
started absorbing it all the time. It

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was what I spent all my time, on, all my money on and

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I was just like really energized by
it. And then I just kept on

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launching my course and it just kept
getting better and better, and you know,

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by my fourth launch, you know, I had a forty thousand dollar

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course launch, and that was like
a pivotal moment in the journey. That

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was like one of those moments where
I was like, Okay, this is

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what I want to do with my
life. This is like I feel the

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passion, I feel the energy for
it. I'm so inspired by it.

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And I actually started my business originally
helping educators become online ear cel teachers.

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So that's what my first course was
on. I wasn't passionate about it,

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and then I moved into helping teachers
start online businesses. I love that story

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for a lot of reasons. But
and by the way, you know,

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I think by now my audience probably
could tell that this is a bit of

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a different episode and topic then we
usually talk about. But I think it

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is timely as many of us have
just finished or are about to finish our

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school years heading into the summer.
Let's face it, a lot of educators

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right now are probably thinking what is
it that I really want to keep doing

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with my life, and I'm wondering
if helping my audience and people in still

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in that K twelve education space take
what they know and whether it's a hobby,

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a legit side hustle, or maybe
they feel like, you know what,

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it's time that I start my you
know, my own business and get

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out of K twelve altogether. That's
why I really wanted to pursue this episode

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and pursue this conversation with you,
and I'll be honest, I'm going to

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kind of break the third wall here
a little bit with my audience. Like

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I've been podcasting now for over five
and a half years. It'll be six

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years in I don't know, September, I guess, so it's been a

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while, and you know, not
right away, but actually pretty early on

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in my podcasting venture is when I
started thinking about what I'm doing as a

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little bit of a business or a
side hustle formed an LLC. I've been

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getting a little bit of money here
and there from advertisements that I run on

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the show, sponsorships, and so
I have not always but almost always,

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since i've been doing this, thought
about how can I monetize and I know

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that's not easy. It's still not
easy for me. It may still not

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be easy for you, but at
least you more so, but at least

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we've taken steps in that right direction. I feel like I'd be remiss if

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I didn't ask you why you think
it's still so hard for people to in

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education, especially to really wrap their
heads around monetizing and placing that value on

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their knowledge, their experiences, their
passions, their interests, and what can

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they do about it if they still
have that kind of wall that's built up,

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that barrier that they need to break
through in order to really understand,

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No, you can do this,
you should do this. I think there's

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you know, there's lots of different
reasons why. I think one of the

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biggest things that I see is a
fear of the failure. That's one of

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the things that and they're the security
blanket of being in a job. So

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I often tell, you know,
people who come into my world, you

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don't have to quit your teaching job, right you can start this on the

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side. This can just be a
side hustle, which you know, gives

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you that safety nature, not like
cutting your you know, livelihood off.

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But what I see a lot of
the time is just this fear of getting

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out of their comfort zone and the
vulnerability of taking something that is their own

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that might even be different to what
they've trained in or what they're teaching in,

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which is even more scary for them
putting package it into a product and

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selling it online, like, you
have to overcome a lot of inner resistance

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and fear to do it. Um
and and I see that a lot.

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I see that a lot with educators
in particular. They're very used to being,

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you know, working for an hourly
rate or a monthly salary. They

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are very used to trading their time
for money. It's just the way that

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we have been socialized and conditioned to
to work. Um And. I think

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a lot of them don't know that
there are other ways that you can A

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lot of them don't even know that
there are things that they can do online,

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that there are digital courses that they
can sell. Um. Those they

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are those people who don't know.
And then there's the people who do know

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and are just too Generally it's a
fear of failure, Um, I'm not

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good enough, Like I mean,
it's all internal stuff at that point.

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And also just strategy wise, like
how to actually do it. I mean,

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of course, like and that's that's
how I help people, well specifically

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teachers, as I give them strategy, I tell them how too, and

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I help them overcome the internal stuff
to help them step into their power,

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to help them see their value,
to help them see what they can do

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can be monetized. Like I mean, one of my teachers, who was

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straight up classroom teacher, had never
really heard of online business. She was

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just trading. She was just doing
like a side like hobby, which was

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training stock dogs. So she was
just training literal stock dogs to her sheep.

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That was her thing, that was
her hobby. We saw that and

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she took that and she made it
her business. And now she's leaving.

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She's chosen to leave the classroom.
Not everyone has to. I mean,

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it can just be a side hustle, but it just I think there's so

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many educators who just can't see maybe
what they can do or what they can

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offer online and how it could be
so so massive. Like Jennifer, this

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teacher, she's literally her life has
changed. Her business is incredible, which

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is amazing. I want to just
share a quick story with you that happened

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just this past weekend I have a
we have a nephew who is just a

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week or so away or two a
couple weeks away from graduating high school and

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not really sure exactly what he wants
to do with himself in terms of pursuing

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his education, but also, you
know, starting to really look into studying

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for a career. And I know
that there are a lot of things that

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he thinks he might be passionate about, but he hasn't necessarily explored a ton

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yet, except there's one thing that
he's been doing for a long time since

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he was a kid, which is
martial arts. And I was speaking to

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my brother in law and you know, his parents over the weekend and I

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and I said, I kind of
harnessed my inner Michelle though this is the

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first time we're talking here, because
I felt like I was kind of trying

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to not sway him in this direction, but just to ask if maybe he

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would think about, like while he
goes to school, if he wants to

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make some extra money. I asked
them, like, are there such a

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thing as online courses for kids to
learn taekwondo? And they were like,

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I don't know, I've never really
heard of that. Now I'm not you

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know, I don't. I have
no idea either. I haven't really looked

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into this. Maybe there are,
but if there aren't, that could be

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a good, uh, you know, a good little side hustle to earn

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some money while in college or potentially
a career afterwards as well. So I

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guess all of that to say that
I'm starting to think a little bit like

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what you were saying in terms of
helping people overcome whatever barriers to entry that

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they have. I think one of
the things that you touched upon but didn't

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mention my name is imposter since Rome, which I've certainly dealt with a lot

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over the years, and I've addressed
it here on the podcast as well.

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But you know, just helping people
understand that there are things that you do

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and that you know that other people
are dying to do and to know as

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well, and just to have that
as a starting point a launching point,

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I think is really important. Totally. I think that martial arts thing would

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be so good, Like now they're
like, that would definitely be Yeah,

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all those little there's so many Like
often people come to me and they like

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think very like, Okay, I'm
an English teacher, I'm a maths teacher.

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Therefore I have to create, you
know, an English teaching course or

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a maths course. And I'm like, okay, cool, is that what

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you're passionate in? Is that?
Like, do you have the energy to

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build a business in that? Like
can you really show up fully with passion

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behind that? And sometimes they can't. And sometimes it's like, oh no,

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I'm really passionate about baking and I
really love knitting, or I love

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like swimming, helping triathlon this is
one of my students as well, helping

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triathlon athletes improve their swimming. Like, I mean, there's so many different

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things. And then I'm like,
well, if you've got the energy behind

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that, you just obviously need to
do a little bit of market research and

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see if there's demand. But if
there is, it could really be that's

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the key. You want to find
something that you're passionate about, you've got

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energy behind that, there is also
demand for that people are wanting to buy.

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I think that's a great piece of
advice for anyone at this stage of

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the game, not even people looking
to monetize their talents or start online businesses,

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but anyone. I think it's just
follow your passions, right, I

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think over the years. My wife
and I have done that pretty well.

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There have been a lot of things
that we've been interested in doing or learning

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and it's just like, hey,
I want to go for that. You

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know. My wife studied theater in
college and even upon graduating with her four

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year degree, wasn't really sure that
that was what she wanted to do long

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term. And since then she's she
went back to school for well, first

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she took some floral designing courses,
then she went back to school to culinary

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school for for pastry arts, and
technically she's a trained pastry chef, although

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that's not what she does full time. So um, we've been very fortunate

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to be able to do those things. But I guess my point is we've

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we've found those opportunities to pursue what
we're passionate about and at times even explore

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monetizing them as well. My wife
is now a pretty new independent travel agent

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and helping people plan their dream vacations. So I am I'm all about it.

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Um. For me, I am
passionate about you know, this educational

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stuff and just like it says up
above me, helping educators grow their impact

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as instructional leaders. Hopefully that I
don't lose that passion anytime soon. I

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don't think I will, because that's
that's what I love to do, so

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that's what my content and courses are
all about. But but I appreciate that.

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And I guess so thinking about you
said that the key or the first

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step is to kind of figure out
what you're passionate about and pursue that.

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What's the next step, I guess
is what I wanted to ask you.

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So I would definitely just find your
niche and get a bit of clarity on

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your niche and just get specific on
not only like what topic and thing you're

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passionate about, but who you want
to help. So the who is really

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important, not just I want to
teach this thing or I'm passionate about knitting

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or whatever. It's like, who
do you want to help with this thing?

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And getting really specific about the who
is going to help you inform you

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on all your next steps once you
have that sort of niche and getting specific

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around it. So not just being
like, and this is something that happens

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all the time, is I just
want to help everyone, like I can

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help everyone, and like that's not
going to work, Like, find out

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who it is you want to help, get specific on it. And then

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the next step I would say is
start finding out what they want. Start

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finding out what your ideal target customer, like, your dream client or your

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dream student, the one that you
really want to work with, the person

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you really want to help with this
problem or get to this result. Get

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into conversation with them and literally start
asking questions, even if it surveys,

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even if you have to get on
calls, whatever it looks like, even

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if it's part of your friendship circle. Just ask questions and find out what

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is it that they want, what
are their main struggles, what are their

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main things like, learn about them, it's really important. And then once

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you've got that information and you understand, Okay, this is my target customer,

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this is the person that I'm going
to help with this program. Once

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you know that, you can then
map out an offer that really really speaks

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to them, that is desirable,
that is something that they actually want to

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purchase. Can you, for the
benefit of anybody who will listen, go

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a little bit more into it,
because I know the jargon, the terminology

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you mentioned, the word niche or
niche depending on how you pronounce it.

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If you could just dive into that
a little bit more, just because you

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know that what you just mentioned obviously
is very important, right, knowing who

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you're serving and the why behind what
it is that you want to offer them.

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But if you could dive a little
bit further into that, just for

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people who are really kind of hearing
some of this for the first time.

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Sure, So a niche is basically
like a sub market in a greater market.

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So what you want to look at
when you aren't choosing a niches,

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you want to get it. You
sort of want to niche down and you

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want to try to get quite specific
within the greater market. So, for

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example, you've got English teaching,
and that's a massive, you know,

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industry, it's huge, it's quite
it's massive. Right, If you were

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to just create a program, you
know, an English teaching program helping people

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learn English, it's just it's just
too vague, and we need to niche

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down, we need to get more
specific. So then you can go down

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even deeper into like a segment of
the market and you can say aisles English

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or business English or yeah, whatever, some particular type of English, and

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then that's the topic. Right,
You've niche down into like the little market

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and then now you want to look
at Okay, who's this four? You

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want to even niche down on the
customers. So who are you trying to

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help? Is it going to be
like expats that need to learn English?

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Is it stud students like young adults
that need to learn English? Is it

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people who want to immigrate to learn
English? Like, try get clarity on

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who it is and get specific around
that. And by doing that, the

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reason we do that is because it
just is so saturated. There's just so

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many people selling things. And when
you're when you don't have like a very

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specific niche specialization and target customer and
you're very vague, that sort of just

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affects your ability to market, and
it affects your messaging and it sort of

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dilutes everything down and then you cannot
really stand out very easily people. You

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want people to see your stuff and
say, oh wow, like that's for

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me, Like that resonates online and
niching down is really important for that,

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I would think, in my opinion, the logical next step after that would

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be to make sure that you're collecting
their emails and and contact information so that

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believe it or not, if you're
listening and you haven't ever or have rarely

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given thought to some of this stuff. Um, you know, those potential

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as we call them leads, right, those those could be your your clients

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one day. And if you are
serious about monetizing or or starting to start

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starting a side hustle say that five
times fast um or or an online business

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of some kind. Uh, that's
that's where the gold is, um you

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know. So yeah, and I've
even I've been right, and I've even

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been trying to tell my wife that
as she starts this side hustle as an

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independent travel agent. And I think, as we record this right now,

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I hope I'm not outing her too
much, but I think she's got an

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email list of like twenty and I'm
like, well, that's that's perfect.

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You know, has got to start
somewhere. My email us had twenty people

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on it at one point. Michelle's
did too. So now this is this

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has been great. I think,
like I said, it's a timely conversation.

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I know that it's not for everyone. So I know that, Um,

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there are people, you know,
people who tune into my podcast for

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education and instructional leadership. But you're
getting a little little something different today.

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And I hope that it gets you
to think think about maybe yourself and in

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your situation, and whether or not
this is something that you want to do.

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I think it is, and I'm
sure Michelle would agree. Um,

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but even if it's not, I
think it is important to consider the people

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who are doing this and who are
creating side hustles and online businesses in the

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field of education or not. And
I say, I actually say that with

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a little bit of a thought in
the back of my mind, which is

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that, uh, like I said
earlier in the in the interview, I've

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been podcasting now for going on six
years and the only I think two negative

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00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:07.519
reviews I've ever gotten on the podcast
are from I think it's the same person,

345
00:27:07.559 --> 00:27:11.279
if I'm not mistaken, but let's
call it two different people because they're

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00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:15.160
two different reviews that both say that
there's a little too much self promotion and

347
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:18.640
promoting going on in the podcast.
And I want to tell them, like,

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do you listen to other podcasts,
because I know I'm not the only

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one doing it, but you know, at the end of the day,

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I think it's important to understand that
there are people out there, educators even

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who are doing this as a living
you know, it's for a living,

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whether it's on the speaking circuit or
an online business where they have courses and

353
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programs, or people like me who
are who are still doing it as a

354
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side hustle. I work in a
school in a public school district. I

355
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come every day and uh, you
know, from September through June that that's

356
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my deal. And all the podcasting
and business ventures and things for me are

357
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on the side. But um,
anyway, enough of enough of me on

358
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my soapbox. Um, Michelle,
As we wrap up, if there's anything

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else that you have in the in
the way of advice for people who are

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thinking about this, people like me
who were dabbling in it, that would

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that would be great. And also
of course sharing your contact information social media

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if you want, and how we
can maybe learn a little bit more about

363
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what you're doing, what you are
doing, and all about did you teach?

364
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Yeah, there's so much advice that
I could give. But one of

365
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the things that I if I put
myself back into the time when I was

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sort of working in my teaching job
and like not feeling one hundred percent fulfilled

367
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and just not knowing what to do, I had this like into I had

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this like niggle inside. It was
like a niggle. That's all I can

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explain it as there's a niggle inside
of you. And this is how you'll

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know if this could be something that
could really be for you, is when

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you have this nickel inside of you
that you are you want more, like

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you just desire more. You desire
more flexibility, you desire more. You

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desire to create your own legacy.
You want to impact more. People.

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You want to you want to up
level, you want to challenge yourself because

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I also was not being challenged in
my work. If you feel like that

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and you have this desire to really
impact people on a bigger scale and make

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00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:36.400
money with that, so both income
and impact. If you have that niggle

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inside and you're sort of just shutting
it down out of fear, all I

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can say to you is the best
thing that you can do is just to

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listen to that niggle and just take
the next step. Like whatever that next

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00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:51.799
step is, like, just take
the first step. It doesn't have to

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be you know, you don't have
to do something crazy immediately, but just

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start just explore what that is.
Explore that niggle inside, because if you're

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00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:04.839
feeling like a lack of meaning and
burnt out or something's not right. There's

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00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:08.400
something inside of you that's guiding you. And I'm very big on like intuition

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00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:12.200
and just following it. And I
just followed it like I didn't know anything.

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I just kept listening. Okay,
let me just keep following where my

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00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:18.400
energy is going. Let me just
pursue that. And that's what I can

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00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:22.240
really say. Like your mind is
going to say all these things like don't

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00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:27.480
do this, like you need to
stay safe, like this is very risky.

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Just tune back into your body and
your heart and if you're feeling like

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00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.839
the pull, lean into it,
lean into the discomfort, lean into the

393
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:42.440
fear, because really it's it's so
rewarding when you do that, and it's

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00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:47.559
so amazing what doors can open up
for you. It might look very different

395
00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:51.559
to what you thought, but it
is just so amazing what can happen when

396
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:55.160
you do start this journey. It's
very empowering to be able to make your

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00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:59.480
own money or just to build skills, just to build skills that allow you

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00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:03.839
to do to increase your impact and
whatever. It is. So yeah,

399
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that's what I would say on that. And if anyone wants to find me,

400
00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:11.759
they can find me on Instagram at
Digi Teach. I do have my

401
00:31:11.799 --> 00:31:15.319
own podcast. I haven't been podcasting
for as long as you, which is

402
00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:19.039
very awesome. It's still new,
it's not even a year old, but

403
00:31:19.079 --> 00:31:25.839
it's called The Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast.
And if you do want help, and

404
00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:27.440
I can share the link with you
maybe in your show notes if you guys

405
00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:33.960
want to help with sort of the
roadmap of creating and selling a course,

406
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.640
I do have an awesome freebee which
I can give to you in your show

407
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:42.000
notes that someone can can grab.
That would be great. I'll definitely put

408
00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:47.119
that in the show notes and up
on the website. I've used it before,

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by the way, it's it's really
great going back to what Michelle was

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talking about before in terms of not
only understanding what you're passionate about, it's

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kind of that next step of Okay, who am I looking to target with

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00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.440
it? Right, So it's all
about really finding and honing in on your

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00:32:02.759 --> 00:32:07.599
niche and who your target audience will
be. So definitely I'll link that in

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the show notes. Michelle, I
really appreciate your time. Again, very

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00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:15.799
important topic for me. I've said
this before kind of jokingly, but I'm

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like a little serious about it too. I'm always my number one fan,

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so I bring on guests and I
share topics here that I really want to

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00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:25.839
learn about. But I know that
this is going to resonate with a lot

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of my audience as well, so
I really appreciate your time. Thank you

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so much. I've absolutely loved it. Well that's it for this episode.

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Thank you so much for listening.
If you haven't done so yet, don't

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00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:46.240
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00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:50.559
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do for me is to please let
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00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:04.319
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love listening and learning. If you're
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of this show, links to do
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every episode. For more information about
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00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:25.400
the great content that I share,
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are a Leader of Learning.