Overcoming Doubt & Imposter Syndrome About Getting Paid Online As A Teacher or Coach with Cayla Brooke & Bree Noble

In this episode, we’re talking about the mindset about getting paid for your knowledge and experience — about teaching and coaching and earning money with it. Know that there is a place for all of us. You can teach some basic things, if you are very niched down.

Cayla started teaching piano when she was 16 years old. She only started playing piano at 14 years old so she has gained skills but only been taking lessons for 2 years. She had an older student and she could play fairly well and she wanted to do a solo for the Christmas recital. Cayla was scared and felt the need to teach that kid. It stretched her out of her comfort zone. The student ended up a really unique solo and the teachers were impressed. Cayla realized those kinds of situations stretch you. Those kinds of students help develop you as a coach or a teacher.

Sometimes you really have to do a lot of digging in yourself. Also, you don’t really need a certification of any kind or a degree in what you’re teaching. You don’t have to learn from some well-known person. You can create a niche that never really existed before. You don’t need to feel less than or like a hack just because you don’t have a certification or label. This may even intimidate beginners and someone’s got to work with them.

It’s really good to niche down and specialize in something. Your audience will see you and know that is just what they need. There’s so many niches that you can get into. You can just give the student what they need and they can move on to something else.

Especially when it comes to online teaching, we tend to soften our marketing because we’re afraid to talk up ourselves too much. We don’t want to promise too much. It’s important to not water down your marketing. Do not say anything like “Some benefits you will get in this program…”. You have the experience to prove it so you need to live in the reality that if everybody did what you said and did it in the way you said it, it can definitely be done. Do not be afraid to sound overpromising. The system works two ways. The students have to do the work. Otherwise, they may not get the result they’re expecting.

You can start offering your course at a reasonable price and offer it at a higher amount as you keep getting testimonials and having more people in your offer. Millionaires have an average of 7 streams of income. Online courses or programs can contribute to add a steady stream of income. You can have passive incomes too. It’s great to have different ways of earning. Do not offer your services for free because that will burn you out.

Bree recommends increasing your rates over time. If you have problems with increasing your rate at some point due to increased competition in the field, you can choose to modify your offer. For example, you can offer it at a discount for a group of students instead of charging the same rate for one-on-ones. This will result in an increased income per hour for you.

If you have a diverse set of offerings that are not-related to each other, you may be more specific about the results people can get so you can present to them your offerings.

Another challenge artists may get is that after years and years of experience, one may still feel inadequate to teach and coach others. Imposter syndrome happens to everyone no matter what level you are in. Even famous celebrities still experience it. Teachers should learn to show how to be confident so they can also transfer confidence to their student and help them believe in themselves and become successful.

Links mentioned in this episode:

39 Streams of Income

Female Musician Community