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Episode 237: What’s Working and What’s Not in the Education Space with Laylee Emadi

November 5, 2024

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The Education Space and What to do Next

Hi friend! Before I dive into the Education Space with Laylee, I want to give you a heads up on the audio quality. When we recorded this interview, I was not in my home office but there was no indication that my internet was not reliable. However, after the fact, it’s clear that that was the case.

Normally, I would scrap the interview and not put it out on the podcast, but today’s guest is SUCH a wealth of knowledge, and she shared so much amazing information that I wanted to try to salvage as much as possible.

So, you may find that this episode feels more choppy than normal, and that’s because my editor has done their best to salvage as much as possible. Trust me, it’s still worth the listen because Laylee Emadi is THE creative educator and if you’re in the education space, you’ll want to hear what she has to say.

Laylee is an educator, speaker, and conference host with a heart for serving clients and fellow entrepreneurs through her coaching membership The Educators Lounge, as the host of the So, Here’s the Thing Podcast, and as the founder of The Creative Educator Conference. She believes in leading with heartfelt encouragement and honest guidance. As a longtime entrepreneur, she’s not afraid to dig into tough topics or transparently share her own experiences—the good and the bad. Laylee is passionate about her goal to equip you in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love.

And today she’s sharing the current state of the education space, what’s working, and what she thinks is to come.


Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:


Laylee is an educator, speaker, and conference host with a heart for serving clients and fellow entrepreneurs through her coaching membership The Educators Lounge, as the host of the So, Here’s the Thing Podcast, and as the founder of The Creative Educator Conference. She believes in leading with heartfelt encouragement and honest guidance. As a longtime entrepreneur, she’s not afraid to dig into tough topics or transparently share her own experiences—the good and the bad. Laylee is passionate about her goal to equip you in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love.

Social Links:

https://layleeemadi.com/educatorslounge

Instagram


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Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!

*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate

Amanda: Hey friend, before I dive into what today’s content is about, I want to give you a heads up on the audio quality. When we recorded this interview, I was not in my home office, but there wasn’t an indication that my internet wasn’t reliable. However, after the fact, it has become very clear that that was the case.

Normally, I would just Scrap the interview and not put it out on the podcast. But today’s guest is such a wealth of knowledge that I just, I couldn’t, I wanted to try to salvage as much as possible of this interview. So, you may find that this episode feels more choppy than normal and that’s because my editor has done their best to save as much of her knowledge as possible.

Trust me, it’s still worth the listen because Leili Amati is the creative educator and if you’re in the education space, you’ll want to hear what she has to say today. Lily is an educator, speaker, and conference host with a heart for serving clients and fellow entrepreneurs through her coaching membership, The Educator’s Lounge, as the host of the So Here’s the Thing podcast, and as the founder of the Creative Educator Conference.

She believes in leading with heartfelt encouragement and honest guidance. As a longtime entrepreneur, she’s not afraid to dig into tough topics or transparently share her own experiences, the good and the bad. Lily is passionate about her goal to help equip you. Lily is passionate about her goal to equip you in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and build a life doing what you love.

And today she’s sharing the current state of the education space, what’s working and what she thinks is to come. You’re listening to episode 237 of the Chasing Symbol podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by the Chasing Symbol content planner, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield.

com slash planner. 

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways, and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head. When you think of marketing welcome friend, this is chasing simple or practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content, marketing and launch strategist, speaker, educator, and author of chasing simple marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business, so that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one on one clients, such as The Contract Shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell, reading in our hammock, watching Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing isn’t is the thing that they started their business to do.

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So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips, and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? 

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Amanda: Okay, Perfect. 

Alright. 

Hi Laylee, I am so excited to have you here today. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and, um, yeah, who you serve and how you serve them. 

Laylee: Okay. Well, first of all, I am so excited to be here with you. I love you so much. Thanks. Amanda is the queen. I’m so excited. Uh, I’m Laily Emadi and I have known Amanda for a long time.

And now I am, what, who I serve. Let’s see. I serve creative entrepreneurs who want to become industry educators and leaders and or those who are currently serving. Their own communities as a leader or as an educator. So whether that’s as a speaker who goes and speaks at conferences or public events, or maybe you’re a course creator, a YouTuber, a podcaster, some anybody who takes what they know and they help other people grow and they monetize their knowledge.

That’s who I serve. 

Amanda: And for those that are just finding this on YouTube and haven’t met me yet, I’m Amanda Warfield. I’m a simplicity focused content marketing strategist and copywriter, and I am on a mission to help course creators and educators make a bigger impact in less time. So, we go live here every single Monday night at 7 p.

m. Eastern time, 4 p. m. Pacific time, and we’re so glad you’re here. Because today we’re going to talk all about the state of online education, uh, what’s working, what’s not, and just some common myths. So, Laylee, what got you into this? How did you even end up in this space? Because I know it’s, I know it’s quite a journey 

um, I, Laylee started a mastermind years ago and I was like, here’s my money, take it. Uh, it was an incredible experience and I feel like we could talk about this, but all too often in the education space, that’s not the case. You hand over your money and then you go, that was a mistake. Um, and that was not the case with Laylee and I have been like, take my money, uh, very often since then.

So how did you get here though? Because I know that that was quite a journey for you. So tell us a little bit about that. 

Laylee: Yeah, I mean, I’m so excited to have the conversation about like the state of the education space and, um, to continue that and even just like jump, like dive deeper into what you said about, you know, normally when you hand somebody your money, you’re like, what did I just do?

And it didn’t, it doesn’t pan out. And so like talking about, that’s going to be super fun for us. Um, but for me, I got into this. Field within our creative industry really organically. Like my journey was very much, um, I feel like it was a little bit different than most of the other people that I know who do what I do, where I was actually a high school teacher and curriculum designer for my school district.

And then at the same time, I was a photographer on the side, like it was just my creative side hustle, loved it. Um, and then as it started to grow. I went full time into photography and then that led to my former students asking me for help with a camera, which led to former students and their parents starting their speaking and seeing there was this huge gap between the other

industry educators and the knowledge that they were trying to impart on their students. And they just didn’t know how to teach what they did well, and they didn’t know how to do it in a really ethical way where there was like actual transformation happening because they never learned how to create curriculums that would then.

You know, turn around and create these actual great transformations for their students. And so seeing that gap, I just really tried to bridge it. And then a course coach and it was just a conference founder. And so now I have the creative educator conference and I have the educators lounge, which is a membership that also helps, um, creatives, you know, scale and learn how to, how to teach and how to do all the things that you need to do to monetize.

Amanda: Man, your conference is truly, it is a conference that I, like, for as long as you’re doing it, you’re going to see me there, and it’s funny because working at a church now, um, the busiest time of year is Christmas, and then in the lead up to Easter, and your conference is in March this coming year, and to my boss, I was like, I’m going to need to be gone.

 I know that Easter is the worst possible time for me to leave, um, but this is not an option, I’m going to this conference. So, it’s so worth it, it’s so great, and you do such, I mean, I told you this last year at the conference, but you’re amazing.

You’re so good at hosting, like, you’re truly made for hosting conferences. 

and it’s that classroom experience that you’re bringing to the conference, and you did it with the mastermind, and you do it in the educator’s lab. It’s. It’s truly a gift that you. have. And I honestly, I think this is such a large part of what so many educators are missing. And why so many of us feel that education fatigue. Where when online courses were first, really big. And 2022 and 19 20 18, and everyone wanted to do one. Uh, you said, they, they miss the curriculum piece. 

And so we end up with a bunch of bad courses, and now we’re like, well, I don’t really want to learn from courses anymore. So. How do 

we overcome that as educators that are trying to sell courses? How do we let people know that it’s not. It’s not just information. And that we’re actually educating. We’re actually teaching a transformation.

Laylee: Yeah, I mean, I think there’s so many ways to combat that. I think the first one and the one that like you can’t skip over is having Results that were tested before you actually take somebody’s money and this is like, I will die on and I, I just, there’s and of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but I think the majority of people who teach on.

Momentizing education, they are really big about pushing this, this message that you can test things on paying clients. And I think that there again, there are. Exceptions. There are times where that’s appropriate. Maybe if you’re an established educator who’s already taught a bunch of stuff, but if it’s your first time ever doing anything and you’re like, let me create a course idea, sell it in three days, pre sell it, and then teach it like the risks that are involved with that.

To me, the risk reward is so low because the risk is so high, the reward is so low and your reputation is. Just so at stake. It’s like, you’re a baby in this new, like niche of education and your first foray should never be one that leaves a bad taste in someone’s mouth because you only get one reputation.

Um, so that’s like the biggest thing that I would say. And also, sorry to backtrack. I just want to say thank you for the kind words. That was so like, I was literally like, Hold it together. Don’t cry. But that was really nice, though. Thanks. Oh, welcome. 

Amanda: No thanks necessary. It’s just true. Just facts. Um, so that, I guess my question, what I should have asked first is, how do you do that?

How do you, what tips do you have? And obviously, like, we’re not going to go deep into, like, how do you create a full curriculum? But, like, how do you make sure that you’re teaching something that isn’t just, Thoughts, it is an actual transformation because

we want that transformation. And so how do you make sure you’re giving a transformation?

Laylee: Yeah, I think the biggest thing there, I mean, there’s, What is it that you want to teach that you want somebody to walk away having achieved or having learned or understood?

So there’s like a couple of different, I guess, outcomes that you could want for your student. . So it could be an achievement, something that you want them to have learned to walk away, like actually having done the other outcome would be wanting someone to understand something better and be able to apply that like understanding something, learning something like maybe it’s not achievement based, but maybe it’s, um, it’s like an understanding, a deep knowledge base. 

So I think one understanding what is the type of outcome you want your student to have to, I think is then creating a plan around. What does that person need broken down, not by what you would need because you, the expert, you’re not going to need a lot to walk away with that transformation. But what is somebody who has no idea what you’re talking about?

Um, and maybe they do. So you really have to know your student too, but where is your student? And then understanding, but talking like, um, you know, the, what’s it called? The two circles that overlap in the middle. Oh my gosh. Ben diagram. Yes. If you’re like, call the teacher, the teacher in me is like always thinking of a diagram, but like, if you can see what is the outcome and then on the other side is like, where’s your student.

And in the middle is the type of education, how much, like how much be in the middle and what’s going to actually create that transformation. And that’s probably like the fastest I, and like most. High level summary I could probably give to give people like a good understanding of where to at least start.

Amanda: You always have to work backwards. What, what is the end result that you want for everything that you’re showing us live? Do you have any questions about curriculum or anything else that we’re covering? Make sure you drop them in the live chat. But If someone wanted to dive deeper into curriculum with you, what would be the best place for them to go?

Do you still have your course or what’s the best place for them to learn more about creating a curriculum for a course? 

Laylee: Yeah, so we have the Creative Educator Academy, which is currently because another thing I really believe in for education is that you don’t just create a course and then leave it there for years.

So the first iteration of the Creative Educator Academy was in 2019. So every couple of years, I basically go in. Audit it myself and then change any changes that need to be made. Um, so it’s not open at the time of this recording, but, um, yeah, if you head to Laylee Emadi. com, you can find a bunch of resources in my shop.

And then I do offer for those who are really serious about creating their courses or creating a talk as a speaker, I do offer one on one coaching as well. 

Amanda: Amazing. I will link to the course itself and all of Laylee’s links in the show notes and in the description here, guys, so that you can check that out, because truly, her education is the best.

So many details about curriculum, but so many things to cover. So, I want to make sure that if that’s something that you know, okay, I want to make sure my curriculum’s top notch, so you guys can go check that course out. So, I’m curious. What you’re seeing in the online as an educator is probably a lot different from what you’re seeing as someone who worked with educators versus, well, and also different scene.

So what are you seeing behind the scenes of the education space right now?

Laylee: I’m seeing a lot of new trends of people and I’m, I’m excited and wary of all these things. And I just want to put that out there. Like before I say my two cents on all of this from the beginning, I’ve always been excited about seeing people. Try new things and also very wary and for amazing things and a lot of potential for not so amazing things.

So that’s like my caveat to all of this, but one thing I’m seeing a lot of is the return for larger companies. But what I’m seeing a ton of is smaller creators, educators, creating things like conferences, retreats, masterminds that meet ticket offers coming back, and then on the flip side, I’m seeing a lot of low ticket, low touch.

And I’m not seeing as much, I feel like I’ve noticed a lot of like product membership, low ticket, and a lot of in person high 10 off course. Yep. 

Amanda: A hundred percent. I’m seeing a lot of that, although I will say that’s something I’ve noticed within my courses, which for a long time, I was leaning more like I want high touch or I want low touch.

I don’t want in the middle. And so I found that interesting just noticing like my own patterns lately is I want more of that middle ground, but intention that I can take an implant, take an implement. So instead of like hiring someone to do something for me, I can just take and do it myself with the help of a course.

And so I’m, I’m seeing more of that middle ground. That’s It’s not, I touch a lot, just like here’s a template, especially on, I feel like 

Laylee: I am seeing some people like pick up the reins. I feel like it’s slowed down, but you know, just recently Sarah Erickson, who we both know Sarah and design, she is a pension with you.

And after years and years of being like, you need to get your genius of Pinteresting into a course so that people can learn it and do it. Like I, I mean, I probably will have one of my team members do it, but I need them to understand it. And I don’t understand it. So, um, You know, she’s finally coming out with a, with a mini course.

And I’m, I am seeing like an uptick in like the mood. Um, the thing, again, the thing that just, I’m also seeing with the uptick of these things is that a lot of them are falling flat and a lot of, um, events, as you know, as you know, firsthand are so difficult and they are not, um, I think they’re not quite as glamorous as they seem on the, you know, and I think a lot of people are unprepared for that.

And so they deliver not really. What they want to deliver and people aren’t getting what they want out of them. And then, like I said, you only have one reputation and it’s, it’s hard to bounce back from that. 

You have to have something at the end of the day that people want to learn about, um, and that people need help with, and then you have to deliver on that. 

And audience size does not matter when it comes to actually selling. I know people with massive audiences that cannot move a course to save their lives. And when they come to me and I audit it, I’m like, well, it’s big outcome that you want, you know, we find the problem, but the problem is not. Audience size, you know, 

Amanda: well, and just going back to what you said about reputation, I mean, even if you have a small audience and it’s, you know, you sell the course a few times, if it’s a great course, they’re going to share about it.

And they’re going to tell other people about it, which is, you know, there’s a ripple effect if you’re actually putting out a quality course. 

Laylee: Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent 

Amanda: with myths about it, actually, before you go into that. What if someone is like, I’m kind of interested in online education, I’m kind of interested in creating a course, if creation’s right for them, um, slash, who, who would make a good online educator?

Laylee: This is such a tricky question, um, because I think one of the biggest, one of the biggest, most important features of any, Or characteristics of any successful educator, no matter what type of education is always going to be self awareness. So I think understanding the best format in which you are able to convey your knowledge is super important.

Um, now there are within course creation, there are multiple ways that you can communicate your knowledge. Like it doesn’t have to be. Front camera facing with your face. It doesn’t have to be, you know, over professionalized or recorded in a studio. It could, it could very well be delivered in a very different way.

But I think the awareness of where do my strengths lie and how do I enjoy interacting with my students again, let’s say. You are just like, you are really invested in people. And that’s like, that’s me. Right. So I have had the courses where they have no interaction and I have products that there’s not interaction with me, um, really like built into it.

But for courses, for education, for things that I really want to see a transformation, I want to be able to like communicate with my people. And so I was able for my courses to create like a community that then has a little bit of access, a little bit more access to me. But understanding if you’re like, I want to teach the masses or teach to the one.

Um, I think understanding where your strengths lie in, like I said, in the formats, um, but also understanding that there’s no hard and fast rules. So I know that’s like bring yourself and knowing what you want out of it and then taking the noise out because I think we hear course creator and we see a copy paste of the big names, like I said, at the beginning of this episode, those same big names telling you, like, Copy paste.

This is the format. This is how you do it go. And then it doesn’t work. And people think, well, I can’t be a course creator. When really like they just stifle the creativity in you and they like take anything that’s unique to you and get rid of it and tell you to for the. Possibilities. I think one and then two is always just like, try it out.

If you see in the process of creating it that you’re not enjoying it, then change the format. Maybe it’s more of a retreat. Maybe it’s more of a mastermind. Maybe it’s more of a talk or a speech that you can then go and teach in person from a stage. 

Amanda: Is there anyone who should not be a course creator?

Laylee: Yeah, , I think there’s definitely people that shouldn’t be course creators. I think, , people who see, , and again, I have to give, I always have to give a caveat, like, there’s nothing wrong with making money. I think it’s really important. My whole livelihood is, is helping people who want to create education make money doing it.

But I think if you see it as a quick buck and go, well, this person did this course on copywriting and I’m a great copywriter, I’m just going to do it. I think if that’s where the thought process stops, then you should not do that because it’s really just going to cheapen your brand at the end of the day, because you’re going to put out a lackluster, product.

Um, I think people who don’t care about other people’s, you know, Outcomes or successes. Uh, I think people who are inherently selfish, like I hate to say, I used to, I feel like I used to be really careful with these words and now I’m just like, you might not know you’re a selfish person, but like do a gut check.

Like if you’re like, I really don’t care. I like, I just don’t care if Amanda takes my course and like, whether she sees results or not, not on me. And I would maybe, I would maybe not do this, you know, but if you’re like, no, I want people to do well with it and it’s important to me and I’m going to take the time to follow up and make sure it’s going well, then yeah, how about it?

I think it’s great. 

Amanda: Which leads me to another one of those common myths, I think is that courses are passive income, right? Like you can make a course, you can throw it up and you’ve mentioned this a few times, like you audit your course, um, having that like interaction with you. It’s not just like buy the course and that’s it, buy forever.

Um, Transcribed Yeah. Anything else you would say to that, like idea of, I’m just going to create a course and make money off of it forever kind of. 

Laylee: Yeah, no, I don’t know. Like I get it. I get where I get where the phrase passive income like started, but I truly think that unless, unless you have a team that does all the work for you and you are just a figurehead, nothing is passive.

But if you have energy in the team. Yeah, if you, no, you’re 100 percent right, like there is, there is nothing, truly nothing passive about passive income other than the fact that it, can it make you money in your sleep if you have it on evergreen? Absolutely it can. But like, you’re still working the hours, you’ve still got to be like, doing things.

All the time to like tweak it, to make it right, to do the selling, like selling and marketing is as you know, cause that’s your job, like that’s its own job, like all of these things that go into it and not to mention quality control and making sure that you’re out there and, um, checking in with your people.

And even if you don’t have a community, you still need to be doing things like doing random spot checks and being like, Hey, how is this product working for you? How is this online guide working for you? Um, And so, yeah, that’s, that’s the biggest lie of all time is that passive income is truly passive.

I can’t think of anything that you could create that’s yours that you have to sell that you could call passive 100%. 

Amanda: So I have two questions off of that. The first is, you mentioned earlier, you go in and add it. What, what kind of things should someone look at when they’re auditing their course? Um, and then the second question being, If someone, what are some examples of interactions that you can set up within your course that aren’t running a community?

What have you seen other course creators do? 

Laylee: Okay, so I’m going to answer the first one first, and if I forget the second one, just remind me. Um, so the first question was, What to look for in an audit when you’re self auditing, right? Okay. So this process, everybody hates it. Everybody hates it because my first recommendation is to like, go through the entire course yourself and watching yourself for a lot of people, um, can be really, really cringy and like uncomfortable and, and you just want to like speed through it.

Um, but the thing is that the, you that created this course or product. Let’s say, and by the way, you don’t have to audit every, every month. Like I would say one to two years when I, I tried to like skim through it every year, make big changes as they’re needed. But if it’s, you know, if it’s like a little tweak here and there, you can always just add stuff in.

But for me, it’s been several years. So like watching videos and I rerecorded my videos. So they’re not the originals from 2019, but I think I rerecorded it in like 2021 or 2022. So we’re still too, like the me two years ago, I don’t, she’s, she’s had her time in the sun. She, I don’t love to watch that, like, but I’m going to make myself watch it and see, is the content still relevant?

Can they still get the outcome I want with the content and the information that I’ve presented. Um, I say all of the things about how uncomfortable it is to watch yourself because I think you have to keep in mind that you’re looking for content and not perfection in delivery. Like my delivery would probably be a lot better if I re recorded it now, but I’m only going to re record it if the content warrants a re record.

Does that make sense? So I would look for that. And then I would also, I mean, I always like, as part of my audit process, I would like to like, get on a call with somebody who maybe has recently gone through with it or send out a survey and just check in with the people who have gone through it and say, like, is this still working?

Is this still converting into knowledge for you? Um, and if not, that’s a, that’s a sign that you’d have to redo things, but that’s kind of how I audit. If that makes sense. 

Amanda: Yeah. Absolutely. So you’re looking at the content. 

Laylee: Yeah. I’m looking at the content. Of course. Like I always want to make sure that the systems are there, especially if you’ve done, like, I’ve had to change course platform several times and like I’m in limbo and whatever, but like this, it’s good to double check that everything’s working, of course.

But for me, for the full audit, it’s definitely more about the education

Amanda: Yeah absolutely or even just a little bit ago before we hopped on. My husband was sitting here and. Editing a podcast episode for me, and he had his headphones off, and I was like, oh, come on, I don’t want to hear it, you know, like, it’s so easy to be like, I just don’t hear myself, I don’t want to watch myself. But it is so important.

Okay, so then the second question being, what are some other ways that we can add interaction in with our students that may be on a community, because I know something that I’m seeing a lot. Is nobody wants to be in a Facebook group, no one wants to be in a Facebook group. Um, there are definitely other ways to do community.

I’ve got my membership community in Slack, and that’s actually working really great. But, especially for those that have a small audience that aren’t selling a ton of seats, running in a community can feel really daunting. So what are some other ways that maybe if they work to build up to that, they could add interaction in with themselves and their students?

Laylee: Yeah, I think if you if you are not wanting to run a community at all, that’s totally fine. I think ways that I would Um, build in like touch points would be things like assessment checks. So that would be like in your school thoughts, it would be like quizzes and tests and like pop quiz and things like that.

So building in just like quick questions or whatever it is, however you’re reformatting your education. A big one for me is writing out emails that get sent out at a certain point, whether it’s, so for example, if your course platform allows this, doing something where if they get to the second unit or module or whatever you call it, the second piece of your content and they complete it, then it triggers an email that gets sent to them with like, Some kind of sunshine, some kind of like check in some kind of encouragement and a question.

Maybe there’s a survey involved. Um, things like that, where you’re scheduling out communication that feels personalized to the person, but it’s obviously like, and it is, it’s personal when you create it. But they’re, you know, you’re being intentional about when and where they’re getting it. Um, and then the third thing is, uh, I wouldn’t do this for every single student, but especially when you are, you can pick like two or three people to just do quick, like 20 minute check in calls and see what they’re experiencing.

Are they enjoying it? Is there something else they wish was there, um, that helps them and it helps you. So, uh, those are kind of like ways I would build it in. If you’re not quite ready to be like a community leader just yet. 

Amanda: Those are great ideas. So are there, we’ve talked about a couple myths about like the passive income and the I don’t have a big enough audience.

Are there other myths that you see people talking about or that come to you and have been said to you? about online education, about course creation, that you’re just kind of hearing repeated over and over again.

Laylee: I feel like you listed the big ones. We talked about the big ones for sure. And they were all like spot on and so good. Um, I think I kind of had already mentioned before, like the myth that And I guess it’s not a myth. It’s just kind of like an unpopular opinion that, you know, like live running something for the very first time you’re ever doing it, but also charging for it is.

to me like a little bit unethical and also really high risk. Um, I think this is more of like a speaking myth than it is like a course creation myth, but people who say like, Oh, I don’t want to come across as stuffy. So I’m not going to practice. I’m not going to write out my talk. And it’s like, that sounds like an excuse for procrastination as the queen of procrastination.

Like I get it. That’s something I might have said. early in my life too, but, um, that we haven’t really talked about. 

Laylee: Another myth is just like, that, well, we kind of already talked about this too, that like creating, creating, like hosting anything is like easy or just fun or like, how fun to get like a group of people together in a room and then like magic will just happen.

And it’s like, no, I mean, magic does happen when you get people in a room, but you have to cultivate that. I like it. It doesn’t just happen 

intentional planning. 

We’ve all been in uncomfortable rooms. Like there’s a reason that rooms feel awkward or rooms feel warm. You know, it’s just like, it’s just like a home.

So yeah, 

Amanda: which is why your conference is so incredible because you make it feel so naturally comfortable. For the next one, I believe tickets are still available. 

Laylee: Yeah, we do. 

We have some left. We’re about like, I want to say over three quarters sold out. So we have a, we have a few left, but, um, yeah, I love my people.

I’m obsessive, clearly.

Amanda: It’s so cute. I love it so much. 

When you were like posting the stories, I was like, where’s my name? Let me see. So if you guys want to come join us in March, it’s going to be a great time. You’re going to learn so much. And, um, Lily does a great job of mixing. Education and community, which is my favorite thing.

She started talking about her membership on Instagram and I was like, how do I pay you? I was like, I, you would tell him you could teach me. Like you do such a good job of cultivating that community. So if you’re an educator, honestly, the educators lounge is the place to be because you’re going to meet so many other amazing educators and learn so much from Lili and from all of them.

And all like, just it’s the place to be. If you’re an online educator or creative educator in relations with one for sure. And we will look at that as well. 

Laylee: We love our people. They’re so good. 

Amanda: You’ve done a great job cultivating that. Yeah. It just feels like a good place to be. Um, it’s funny cause the mastermind you mentioned, Sarah was on it with me and man, my, one of my best friends in the business space is Haley.

And you know, we would never would’ve met without you. And it’s just. So great. Um, people, it’s amazing. Okay. This is last call for questions from those of you here with us live. If you want to drop those last call for questions, uh, for lately about online education, speaking course, creating curriculum, all of those things.

And really, if you had, if you had to share just one piece of Advice for someone who is a creative educator. What would it be? Which is so open ended 

Laylee: No one piece. Oh gosh I guess if I was gonna go like one thing I could literally say is be patient. Um That’s that’s been like the theme I think of everybody i’ve been working with lately is like you’ve got to practice patience.

Um Because if you, if you’re going for it and you’re doing things in the right way and you, you’ve got all your pieces lined up, it’s, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when, and so, um, you know, as cliche as it sounds like, just don’t give up because if you give up, you could be giving up like a day before things like really go off, you know, so just, just practice patience as much as you can.

Amanda: Yeah. Oh, it’s so good. And it’s so applicable for every, every business owner, really. I mean, that’s just, we all have big dreams of, I’m going to start a business and it’s going to take off. And it’s like, Nope, they never really take off. It’s just a slow like step by step by step by step. And then you look back and you’re like, Whoa, how did I get here?

Okay. So if you could recommend a book, any book doesn’t have to be business related, what would it be? 

Laylee: Oh my gosh, a book recommendation and just when you ask hard questions, Amanda. Because I, I honestly like right now, all I’m reading are like romance novels, so I don’t even hear it. Um, it’s funny. I, okay.

Actually I, I, I’m gonna, I’m going to be real. If there’s one book I could recommend to anybody, it would be atomic habits. Um, but I would recommend Maybe it’s the ADHD in me. I would recommend listening to it. And I don’t do audiobooks at all because I have ADHD, but I could not read it. I don’t know why, but I’ve listened to it now a couple of times and I swear it’s like, I It is so transformational.

It feels like a course in a book, so. But then if you’re like, I just want a good romance novel, like, we can talk about those all day. 

Amanda: I mean, I’m all for it.

I am for every recommendation. Fiction, nonfiction, all of them. I love it. I read too much, probably. 

Laylee: Same . 

Amanda: All I ever want to do. Okay. Well, I don’t see any questions in the chat. So thank you for being here. I’m so grateful. And I just, I appreciate all the work you’re doing in the business space because I, I, I’m so passionate about education, but there’s so much not great education out there.

And so I’m just so thankful that you’re out there helping lead the way. Um, this is how we do it. And that’s how we do it really well. So 

Laylee: That means so much. 

Amanda: All right, well, with that, everyone, we’ll see you back here next Monday, 7 p. m. Eastern time, 4 p. m. Pacific, 

so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast. And ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

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