Lessons

Lesson Info

Teaching Your Craft

So teaching your craft is probably the most accessible method to start with because a lot of the things that we've been talking about you have to have an established brand for maybe not for selling your where's that craft fairs, but when you're starting, you know, an online shop are selling to stores like you need to work a little bit on your on your branding for teaching, although that is always ideal anytime that you can have a strong brand, people are going to hire you, you could really start wherever and whenever you want and it's also a really great way to help you refine what your product or project or design is going to be because you have kind of I mean, live guinea pigs essentially I mean, you've got these wonderful resource is you've got people that are actually enthusiasts about whatever it is that you d'oh and you can see what works and doesn't work so there's there's a lot of benefits to it this images from my friend tracy bautista she does designs are collage only she's r...

eally, really amazing tracy designs she does a lot of stamping and mixed media and collage um all right, so teaching live these air the different ways that you can teach live you could teach private lessons, which, you know, just just pretty self explanatory if you feel if you wantto teach somebody how toe you know paint with watercolors or whatever you can have one on ones you could go to a mainstream or a specialty shop so mainstream I mean whatever your craft is, look if it's like a you know aaron brothers or michael zahra, joanne or any seymour whatever those air the mainstream stores you can walk in and ask how do you become an instructor there or specialty shops? Specialty shops are really great because you can do more niche classes and we'll talk about that in a second and it's also a really great way to really refine your skill or your product because those airworthy enthusiasts were going to go so they're both good. I would recommend doing both especially if you're really trying to build up your business that way because you can actually make a living teaching you have to hustle so much but you can you know you'd have to teach every single day multiple classes but it's a really great skill toe have you can teach at conferences and festivals so whatever most hobbies or arts have some form of conference or festival around them on dso you can look up the web site and ask they usually have liken instructors and instructors applications you consider doing that or it retreats or special events retreats are a really big thing right now, especially art retreats and so you know there you probably heard of craft cruises or you can like go on a cruise with your favorite crafters and the whole weekend is just you making this stuff or you can go to vermont with three famous you know spinners and you're going to spin and but there's also activities built around it there's about to be one in austin near where I am and there's going to be a whole huge like dinner in this hotel in a boat and it's a bunch of course is in that kind of thing so there's a really fun right because you've got all these you've got real enthusiast because they're spending money to travel someplace so they're your fans already even if they haven't met you yet like they want what you have to get so that's a really lovely experience and then special events you know it's kind of like what kathy kind of maria was saying earlier if you see something that you think would be a good fit for you an event like let's say there's a kid's event it's a kid's book event does that directly speak to you? Maybe not, but they're going to a ton of kids there so maybe setting up a water color paint stand maybe that that would actually benefit them and it gives you an audience because there's nobody else doing that they're so just think about that okay um the benefits of teaching live I like I like teaching live I just feel like there's not as much reach but there's there absolutely a ton of benefits to them. First of all, you're going to have the gratification of seeing those students live I spend most of my time teaching on camera and so I don't necessarily get the feedback s o there's something really just like when I was what we were talking about earlier products and shops and if you get rejected by the buyers and you use you listen to their their feedback it's the same thing with students they'll give you the feedback of what doesn't make sense to them or what they find difficult with them and you'll be able to sort of figure out what works and how you can make that class better. You can also and that's sort of like, you know, there were finding your skills speaks to what I just said and then if you're into it there's potentially a lot of travel I have a friends patty lions who I grabbed a quote from and I'll show you a bit she I think she traveled like two hundred sixty days last year travel like teaching every conference I mean she isn't it works for her life space, but every conference every crews every like yarn store ever she's hitting that she's promoting her book she's she's all over the place and that works for her but there's also some challenges to teaching life and ah, those could be inconsistent class size. Unfortunately, you have to, well, you should always do your own marketing as well, but you have to depend a lot on the shops, individual marketing plans and just because somebody owns an awesome pottery shop doesn't mean they know anything about marketing, so if they're not advertising for it really like if they think that just the flyer next to the cash registers going to sell your class, you're probably not going to get students no matter how awesome are famous you are, people don't know about it. So if it's, if you're getting paid based on how many students that could be a little rough some some places have models where it's not that way you get a flat fee, but it just something to think about and be aware of, um, you have to rely on them after also rely on those shop owners for your actual events space and to make sure that they basically have their stuff together, you know that there's going to be stuff for your students to drink, you know, there's going to be water available and there's going to be there's a, you know, clean bathroom and all these little things because it's not your house you're hosting and somebody else's house essentially you have to depend on them, so just make sure that you have a good feel about it before or go in a little bit early in and kind of do a little recon first on dh then again, what I also said was a benefit the challenge potentially a lot of travel I have three kids I try not to travel a lot because they're only gonna be kids for so long, you know, on dso this live teaching doesn't isn't really a great fit for me where I am right now, so it just really depends on what your life spaces all right? So the ways that you can teach him virtually all right so there's online education is huge right now, obviously you're all here now and it's really wonderful it's opened up educational worlds that really were attainable before you can learn anything that you want to learn now you can learn online, which is which is another gift, so they're integrated teaching community and community platforms. And so what that means is that you can take a class and then within that within that class on that same website, if you will there's also, you know, boards to talk to people a lot of times you can also sell stuff after you made him it's also they're they're really big on community, so there's creative live um here, obviously, craftsy create a bug skill share is one that you actually upload your own classes they give you the platform on and you can actually integrated into your own side, I think, but that's one where you can just shoot it yourself at home, they kind of empower you to just share your own skill. So that's kind of what I'm actually really interested to see how how people like that one I just took a really great course on pinterest from there and then craft daily it's just it's, another online education source, so video platforms so then you can also just teach on your own at any time on youtube or video. Um, I highly recommend having a youtube channel, even if you don't use it like branded as a youtube channel if you are especially if you're selling something that somebody is going to make or a product that someone may not know how to wear or use, you want to have that video to back up, so if you can have that youtube link to embed and posts or share in social media, it's a really helpful but this is also this is that this is a place where you don't have to pitch to anyone you know have to sell to anyone you know have to produce it anyway, except in your own way. But you can teach us many people as you share this video with, so I do a lot a ton of little videos like quick techniques I sort of think of my youtube page is kind of a glossary for people and then these courses that I teach is more of the textbooks andan there e learning platforms these air platforms I'm a little less familiar with what they are potentially platforms that you can integrate into your own site so that on your own website you would create a a class and that is really interesting and something that you can talk to your master if you're into into but that will require a different level of marketing because there's not the infrastructure like there is for creative life where they're going to do they're going to help you with publicity so it gives you more control which could be good, but again, you better be ready to market. S o is a coup academy in mining and craft course are all are all different different platforms for that and I've included those in the bonus materials all right, so the benefits of teaching virtually all right so the big one for me is worldwide reach I just I cannot even tell you how happy and makes my whole heart that when I that I have people from iraq from australia from sweden, from finland, from norway from spain telling me when I'm doing videos, life facebook videos there, watching from those countries, I just can't even tell you how wonderful it feels to have a community that is global and that's, something that only teaching online I could give. You are working on video also won and done so you can teach it and they do not teach again because you just tell him to hit play. I got like that. I like to be able to move on to the next thing on bears the possibility of continued earnings. So this is that passive stream of income I was talking about earlier, if you depending on who you're doing the videos for there's, probably there might be some kind of affiliate program or royalty or that sort of thing. So it's. Another thing to consider that way, and then the most important one more jammy time because you can stay at home a lot more if you're not out hustling and, you know, teaching classes, stay in your pajamas, just chill on dh for me, you know, as a mom. This works for me great, because I don't have to go anywhere I can shoot these I mean, I'm here now, but a lot of mine just regular videos for youtube or whatever my husband actually produces, and we just do that at home, so I'm with my kids, you know, as much as I can be and so for me that's what that works best. So it just gives you aa lot more flexibility so the challenges our if you maybe have some on camera anxiety and everybody's gonna have it on camera anxiety when they get started. It's fine. If you're super stressed about it, just start shooting your hands work up to the face you know it's fine there's limited, if any face time with students. So if you really if you do better with with them actual interaction, this may be a struggle for you. The cool thing, though, is that now a lot of these courses or if you do live videos, you can take instant messages from which is great it's not the same as seeing someone's face but it's still there and then the last thing I really have nothing I love teaching online like to me there are no negatives to it. I get to do it, I dio I get to reach people around the world, I get to promote it as much as I want, and I have sort of an arsenal anytime somebody says they need help on a thing, I can say here's this class, all right, so paddy lyons, I had just mentioned you mentioned her before she's the one that's been on the but on the road all the time, and she said, this is really important when you're trying to figure out if you're how to teach how to break into the teaching world. And she said that if you want to break into the national teaching scene, it's really important to have a specific niche or point of view, there are only so many techniques and topics that could be taught it's, your tender, unique point of view and ability to communicate with others that will set you apart. So even though it seems like I'm just going to teach an overview of everything that might be good, but really there's, probably a lot of people that do that, if you can say, well, I'm going to show you how to do this, but I have this new spin on it, or I'm going to show you, I'm going to give you tips and tricks that most only professionals now whatever it is if you can put a unique spin on your pitch it's going to be a lot easier to break into that world all right so before we take our first break I want to give you a little called action I want you to sit down at home with your notebook and I want you to just kind of brain storm three potential course ideas that you are a quit or would be equipped tio teach and then don't be afraid again what patty just said don't be afraid to go niche even though it might seem super obscure especially if you're pitching someplace like a festival or retreat where you're going to have people that probably already have some knowledge come up with something super creative got it do you have any questions d'oh lay it on me all right so somebody west they said I want to sell my raw materials wholesale and retail as well some finished products using my raw materials you know just getting started is this doing too much too soon should I start with selling the raw michelle's first see how that goes and then do the finished products so whenever people asked me is it too much too little to us I I always say it depends what do you what does your gut tell you? I don't know how much time you have to invest are we talking about did she mention if it's online itself is it like selling on yourself if you have the bandwidth to do it well then I think it looks better to have a bunch of stuff I would have different categories that if we're talking about etc you could have there almost like playlist but categories where you have supplies and then whatever your the name of your product is but just as I was saying earlier, you know if you walk into a store and there's three items on a shelf versus walking into a store and there's a big beautiful display of a ton of choices you're probably going to go towards that store so if you can do it well then do it if you can not do it well if you're spread if it will spread you too thin and you're not going to have good customer service and you're not going to go to get your orders out on time, don't do it that way build your business it's more important to take for a big picture to start where you can be successful great and then the other question is from tung s who wants to know how to handle if a publisher wants to publish your patterns what you mean how to handle maybe maybe it was it was follow us to the question before about people copied designs or patterns the question was how should I handle it if a publisher wants to publish my patterns take the gig and that's a win high five you know make sure you're getting paid for it I think that's probably part of the question to yeah ok so fizzle like the administrative this is so this is the other thing I'm it doesn't have as much for prints but it happens a ton for web companies make this assumption that you'll just work for free for exposure it's a bowl it is bull hillary to say but again a lot of it is because it's still the wild west of the web right now right there's not really a protocol for how much do you pay this blogger or what do you pay per project or you know there's not we're still kind of figuring it out is it enough to just do it in trade for product and sometimes it might be like it does it in trade it is and you know trade for a new laptop or I'll do that isn't it is it in trade for the thread that it's going to take this so this project probably not so first of all just figure out your terms figure out why at their terms of makes make sure that you're not working for free unless unless it's a major publication that you want to get your foot in the door and I kind of still hate to say work for free but this is the only way that I that I would say I am willing, tio, give you this piece if we can. If I can also, you know, have another piece and, you know, work out a deal for another piece in a future issue. If you can use it to leverage your way in the door, then consider it. But bottom line, take the job high five. Make sure that you're getting paid.