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(Classroom to CEO) Teacher Side Hustles – with Erica Terry

    In addition to starting a preschool, as an educator you can bring in even more money to your family budget by adding in additional revenue streams. Join us today as we share our favorite teacher side hustles with you!

    My guest today is Erica Terry, the founder of the Educators Empowering Educators community, as well as the host of the Classroom to CEO podcast. Erica is a pro at figuring out side hustles for educators, and in this episode, she shares some of her favorite ways to get an additional revenue stream.

    The thing is, we don’t even know that all the skills we have as educators are highly sought after in the market. Tune in to find out how to leverage the knowledge you already have!

    How Erica Decided It Was Time to Explore Side Hustles 

    So, how did this whole journey get started? Erica has been an educator for the past 18 years. She started off as a high school biology teacher, went on to become a counselor, and then got into administration as a Chief Academic Officer. Meanwhile, she and her husband were struggling with infertility. When they were blessed with a daughter, Erica decided to rethink the lifestyle and legacy she wanted to build for her daughter.

    Erica started researching how to make money online and get multiple streams of income. She wanted to spend more time at home with her daughter and have a job that doesn’t require too much commuting. 

    She made the decision, but it wasn’t without fear – after all, she was walking away from a steady paycheck. She still had her mortgage and loans. Still, she was determined to make her new lifestyle work for her family. She was impressed when she found the world of online marketing – she saw real opportunities in blogs, affiliate marketing, courses. When she saw that other people were making money in this world, she was blown away and she knew she had to give it a chance.

    Why You Should Start Investing In Yourself 

    If there’s one lesson Erica learned in that transition, it’s that you need to invest in your education. She’s a curious, smart, hard-working woman, but when she realized she didn’t have to do it all by herself, that’s when her business really took off. 

    You don’t need to figure out everything on your own – there are so many people and resources out there that could save you time and even money. Erica invested in courses, she invested in people who could teach her or do stuff for her, and what she saw, as a result, was a great growth in her business. 

    Her best advice for anyone looking to get a side hustle is to understand that you don’t have to do everything in yourself. Instead, invest in yourself and your education!

    You Already Have so Many Marketable Skills… This Is What They Are

    What Erica realized when she got into the online marketing world was that we as educators take many of our skills for granted. There are people out there getting paid thousands of dollars, doing exactly what we already know how to do. 

    One of Erica’s favorite side hustles is online courses and masterclasses. And when you think about it, we as teachers already know and understand instructional design! We plan units, we plan out the course program for the whole year, we write curricula. We understand these principles to a T, and that’s a skill that’s highly sought after in the online world.

    You can either make your own courses and masterclasses or help other people lay out their course programs. 

    Erica again advises you to really take a look at your skills. Are you great at engaging students? Was there an issue you had to overcome and now you’re just killing it in that area? If so, these are skills and experiences that you can teach online! The gift of teaching others is so valuable – there’s so much you can do with that. From creating and selling online courses to doing live masterclasses on the weekend, the sky’s the limit. 

    And if you don’t feel like getting in front of the camera and teaching courses, you can always help other people create their online programs. In my experience, a week doesn’t go by when someone doesn’t ask me to help them design their course. There is a demand for people who can design a course and make it a simple step-by-step process, and who does that better than teachers?

    There’s a world of opportunities waiting for you – all you need to do is recognize your skills and put your knowledge out there!

    The Best Ways to Set Yourself up for Great Passive Income

    Erica also loves passive income. No better feeling than waking up in the morning to an email that says you made money while sleeping. But, how does she do that?

    Affiliate marketing is the answer! If you’re not familiar, huge sellers like Amazon, Target, Walmart all have affiliate programs. When you join, you can share links to specific products and get paid for every purchase you inspired.

    How does that tie into being an educator, you might wonder? If you look at the way teachers communicate, we are always recommending something. Whether it’s classroom supplies, books, or bulletin board decorations, we love to share our best finds. You don’t even need to have a website to do affiliate marketing – you can share links on your social media. Why not make a profit while helping fellow teachers? The answer is clear – affiliate marketing can be a fun and useful side hustle for any teacher.

    Erica also points out that affiliate marketing isn’t just about selling whatever it is you want to sell – it’s about saving people time. People enjoy the convenience that comes with recommendations. Imagine if someone asked you where you got your wall decorations. You can just say on Amazon, but then they’d have to look it up and go to the trouble of finding everything themselves. People love just getting the link from a trusted source and buying what they need in a second!

    Answer This Question and You’ll Figure Out Your Side Hustle

    And when it comes to saving people time, that’s precisely the point of any side hustle. We are out there overcomplicating things and thinking we need to solve the world’s problems to get paid. In reality, a simple solution to a common problem often does the trick. If you can save people time and resolve an issue for them, that’s your side hustle right there. 

    But, how do you know what problems need solving? Erica advises listening in to your community, whether in person or on Facebook groups and similar. If you listen, people will always speak of their pain. And if you have a solution, fellow teachers will jump at an opportunity that saves them time and effort. 

    The Mindset Shift That Needs to Happen so You Can Change Your Life

    To be successful in your side hustle, you need to step out of the education mindset and step a bit into the entrepreneur mindset. As educators, we didn’t get into this career to make millions. We are passionate about helping people learn, develop, and grow. We want to see everyone succeed. 

    That’s also a great attitude for entrepreneurs, but what Erica’s seen with educators who become entrepreneurs is that at the start, they enjoy doing things for free. You want to see people get better, they don’t have the funds, you decide to help them anyway. 

    Erica is definitely not saying you should never do anything for free – there’s a time and place for that too. But as you transition into your side hustle, keep that aspect of your attitude in mind. 

    Understand that you’re not doing this as a hobby or because you have nothing better to do – you’re doing this to get that additional income flowing. We teachers are so used to going above and beyond, never getting paid for all the extra stuff we do. This is a mindset that needs to be changed as you transition into your side hustle. You deserve to be paid. Your time is most definitely worth it. And the best part? There are a lot of people out there who WILL pay you to help them solve their problems!

    There are a lot of side hustles that can greatly benefit you and give you the freedom and flexibility you and your family deserve. It’s all about empowering people to overcome their problems and embracing those unique skills and talents that you have – don’t take these gifts for granted because what you know and do IS special. 

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