TL;DR:
- To start a teacher side hustle, identify your audience, build trust, and create valuable content to succeed.
- Build an email list and community that trusts you.
- Identify your target audience and their pain points.
- Create and nurture content that addresses these pain points to build your future teacher side hustle.
I was reflecting on a conversation I had with one of the members of our EDUcreator Club+ Community after they asked the community about positioning themselves to potentially start a teacher side hustle in a few years. Currently, they have an educational podcast but do not monetize it, produce any products, or offer any services. While they have not moved into the EDUpreneur space just yet, they think they may want to do some work with schools in the future.
So they asked, “What would be some of the first steps or recommendations I need to consider before starting down this road?”
Maybe you’re in this same space, thinking you’d like to launch a side hustle in the future. If so, here is what I would suggest: Build an email list and a community that knows, likes, and trusts you. This way, when you’re ready to launch something, you’ll have people to launch it to who are likely to want what you end up launching.
So, how do we do this?
Here are 5 simplified steps to get started positioning yourself for a future teacher side hustle.
1. Identify your target audience.
Who do you think you’ll eventually launch a product or service for? Don’t stop at “teachers” but rather narrow it down to something like, “6th grade math teachers” or “high school science teachers struggling with student behavior in the classroom.” The more specific you can get, the better.
Right now, just focus on providing value. Build that trust. Establish yourself as a resource for them - someone they can count on to always deliver valuable content. Click To Tweet2. Identify the pain points your audience has.
Once you know your audience, identify their pain points.
- What do they struggle with?
- What are their challenges?
- What are the things you can help them with?
3. Create a lead magnet.
What’s a lead magnet? In its simplest form, a lead magnet is something people are willing to give you their name and email in return for downloading/accessing it. This could be an ebook, an infographic, a cheat sheet, or even a free online course.
This LinkedIn article has a few of the many ways we’ve grown our email list over the past 8 years. It includes a few ideas for lead magnets.
Your lead magnet should help them deal with the pain points you’ve identified above.
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4. Create content around that lead magnet & their pain points.
Create content (such as blog posts, LinkedIn articles, a podcast, and/or social media posts) that supports the focus of the lead magnet. Your content should be aimed at helping your target audience work through the pain points you have identified. The goal here is that your target audience consumes the content, finds value in the content, and then gives you their name and email for the lead magnet because they see you as a source of valuable information that helps them.
Now you’re building your email list!
5. Nurture your email list.
Email that list 2-4 times per month, delivering valuable content aimed at helping them solve the problem(s) you identified. You don’t need a “funnel” or “automations” or “sequences” or any of those words you may hear when looking into email marketing. Right now, just focus on providing value. Build that trust. Establish yourself as a resource for them—someone they can count on to always deliver valuable content.
Like I said, this is a fairly simplified list for getting started positioning yourself to launch a teacher side hustle in the future. If you want to dig further into any of this, feel free to reach out and let me know.
(or consider joining the EDUcreator Club+ Community)
About Jeff Gargas
Jeff is the COO/Co-founder of the Teach Better Team and co-author of “Teach Better.” He works with educators to increase student engagement and improve student success. Jeff previously owned an online marketing firm, where he worked with entrepreneurs and small businesses. He is also a former adjunctive professor at Kent State University and spent 10+ years in the music industry.
