Teaching & Business: They CAN go together
It’s no secret that all my life, I’ve wanted to be a teacher. I tortured my younger brother and made him play school with me. I set up my dolls and teddy bears and created worksheets for them. Then, I filled in those worksheets and graded them (yes, I even made some of my teddy bears get answers incorrect so I could give them feedback) and kept a grade book. My walls in my bedroom were lined with shelves of books that I had labeled and inventoried so that I could even take my students to the “library” and they could check out books.
It’s in my blood.
I started my official teaching career in 2000 when I was blessed to get my first real teaching job. High school English was definitely a fit for me. Then, in 2008, I stumbled upon NCVPS – the North Carolina Virtual Public School – and was blessed to get a position building the first Credit Recovery English course and then teaching it.
In both jobs – the “face to face” and the online roles – I have managed to get to the point where I facilitate training or help to coach teachers. Because I love teaching. And I’m learning that I especially love teaching adults. In the teaching world, coaching adults in turn teaches students.
Enter Simply Aroma. Essential oils are more and more welcomed into the mainstream world, but there is much needed education about safety, usage, etc., to be had with them. I am proud that the company with which I affiliate myself says, as part of their mission statement, that they will make the oils easy to use and easy to understand. The leaders of Simply Aroma actually do care about teaching consultants and customers about proper usage, and this is really important to me.
I’m able to take what I’ve learned about teaching and apply it to how I interact with my consultant team and customers. And I love it.
I know that some of my friends and family and maybe even coworkers are wondering why I would try to do both the teaching and the essential oil business at the same time. I get that question, and I often ask myself the same question (because it’s time consuming, yo). It wasn’t until the other night when I was reading from two different books about leadership (one specific to teaching and one specific to network marketing) that I realized how closely related these two jobs I’ve taken on really are. And how lucky I am that they both entered my life.
As a teacher, I work to empower my students (and other teachers if I’m coaching them) about how to use what I’m teaching them to improve their life – thesis statements do matter. As a consultant, I’m empowering others to change the way they look at household cleaners, products, and overall health to improve their lives.
As a teacher, I encourage my students to take ownership of their learning…to find what they are interested in and continue the search. As a consultant leader, I encourage my team to figure out what they need and then show them how they can continue to find more information on that topic. I also help create the content that is shared with the consultants corporate-wide.
As a teacher, I teach by example and modeling. What my students see me doing is what I’d like them to do – in behavior, in writing, in learning. As a consultant, my customers and team see me using the products and sharing my experiences. I don’t fake it to make it here.
As a teacher leader, I lift up my fellow teachers and assist in the understanding of requirements and goals. It helps to have a second explanation, and one of my strengths is clearing the fog for those who may not have understood the first set of directions. As a consultant leader, I do the same. I enjoy creating videos that teach and guide our consultant base so that there are no questions about what is allowed, expected, etc.
My jobs are incredibly similar. Do I plan on leaving the teaching world? Nope. I love it too much to walk away. And seeing as how I’ve been teaching teddy bears since I was around six, there’s just no way that I would ever actually stop. My role just may change here and there.
I use my teaching career and professional development to strengthen my essential oil business and leadership. The books I read to learn how to be a better teacher only provide ideas and tricks for how to be a better consultant who teaches and spreads information rather than just tries to sell something.
Do I hope to sell oils and make money? Well, yeah. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But that’s not my only goal. I truly and honestly want to spread the knowledge (safe knowledge, to be exact) about essential oils and how they’ve helped me, my family, my friends, my coworkers. If it takes me using the skills I have as a teacher and teacher leader, then I feel just that much more passionate about it.
Have you experienced a moment where your career of choice has beautifully coincided with something you’re doing on the side? I’d love to hear about it!
