147: Mini Series: Teach What You Know Part 1 - Overcoming the Naysayers

Well, hello there. Welcome to this episode of the Professional Creative Podcast. Today I have a topic that I want to talk about that's been really on my mind and on my heart recently, and it's one that I think might be somewhat controversial. I'm not sure I don't like talking about controversial things, but this one I think is really, really important. And so I'm going to be talking about why I believe we are, as creators, called to also be educators. I want to talk about why I think it's so important that we teach what we know.

I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. When I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

This episode is really complimentary to one that I did a long time ago. It's episode number six, called Creator or Educator. So we'll link that in the show notes if you want to go back and listen to that one. That episode really covers what I live by as an artist and an educator. My path to becoming an educator, even though I really never set out to teach in the first place, and then how you can really perfect your craft and increase your purpose through educating as well. So I think you'll love that one if you've ever considered teaching or being an educator in your industry Now. I am so incredibly grateful for the people who have gone before me and then also decided to kind of open up and share about how they got to where they are. I can point to someone in almost every area. The only area that I can't point to someone in is surface pattern design, which is the hardest thing I've ever, ever learned. And I had to learn it on my own. And that was really what called me into teaching in that arena because I had such a heart for helping other people kind of accomplish what took me so long to accomplish. But I'm so Incredibly grateful for the people who decided to teach what they knew. And I think that you'll find the same thing when you think about the people who have taught you or shown you the way or made it more easy as well. The thing that I think is difficult is that, you know, I am in a couple of different masterminds. I have a coaching program, and oftentimes when someone is considering beginning to teach what they know, there's this hesitation, there's a concern about what other people will think or what other people will say. And I think that criticism is what I'd really love to kind of change our thinking about here. They only hesitate to teach because of what they've heard or what they've seen other people say. And so, if you're not aware, I think in the creative industry in particular, there's this kind of underlying, like, feeling that if you turn to education or begin to teach what you know, that your work is somehow not as pure as it was before. And so sometimes we hear the term like selling out. But my friends, teaching is not selling out. It's not abandoning your craft. It's a way to go deeper with it. It's a way to expand it. It's a way to share your passion and help others and inspire others. And it's a really powerful way to deepen your own practice. There's another kind of underlying criticism that monetizing what you know devalues your art or your craft. But in reality, why. Why would we ever be upset about someone having financial stability from teaching? Right. Teaching allows artists and creatives to make. To take more creative risks and investors back into their craft, back into their industry. Sometimes it allows them to provide employment opportunities for people in their industry. And overall, it just increases the success of what we're all trying to do here. And so I thought it might be fun to just talk about some historical figures that also had education as a part of their practice. And we can go way far back. Like, we can talk about Leonardo da Vinci, who took students and apprentices. He taught them the techniques that he was developing and refining.

Bach.

He was a musician, right? Was not only a prolific composer, but also an educator. He taught young musicians, instructing students in music and leading the music for churches in his city. Albert Einstein taught at various universities, including Princeton. His teachings and theoretical work influenced not only science, but also the philosophy of science. He paved the way and increased knowledge and understanding for generations and generations. Georgia o', Keeffe, before she became a major figure in American modernism. O' Keeffe worked as an art teacher in Virginia, Texas and South Carolina. Her teaching experiences completely shaped her views on art and her approach to it, and that continued to evolve throughout her entire career. Maya Angelou in addition to her prolific career as a poet and an author, Maya was a lifetime Reynolds professor at American Studies at Wake Forest University. And she taught a variety of subjects that spanned her interests like philosophy and ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing. There are so many examples of how creators for many, many, many, many hundreds and hundreds of years have always felt a calling to teach what they know. And so I want you to feel that as well. I feel that it's our responsibility to teach what we know, not hold on to our secrets. And so this is a broad topic that I would love to talk more and more about. But today I want to give you 10 reasons why I think you should teach what you know. The first one is, can be seen a little selfish. It's about really deepening your own personal mastery. Teaching is such an excellent way to just deepen your own understanding and the mastery of the subject that you're you're working on. Because while we teach, we also learn in a completely different way. In fact, I think teaching is the best way to really, really lear learn and hone your craft. This process of teaching just forces you to organize your knowledge and think about it more critically and explain complex concepts in simpler terms. And all of that just enhances your own understanding and your own skills. Number two is really about giving back and empowering others. Teaching allows you to give back to your community and your industry by sharing what you know and the skills that you have that can really help others. Whether it's helping someone start a new career or pursue a passion or solve a problem, or maybe even embark on an entirely new career, it can be profound for someone else to learn from you. Number three is how amazing it is at building a professional network. Educators or as an educator, you'll kind of just naturally attract a community of like minded people and that can just wildly enhance your professional network. This community is incredible. It can provide support for you, encouragement, resources, collaborations. It can open up new career opportunities. Teaching puts you in a position of leadership and visibility within your field. And so I don't think I realized this going into it, but now that I look back on it, I think being an educator has really been the thing that has led to the most opportunities for me in my field and with other professionals as well. Number four is related, but it enhances your credibility and really your authority. Teaching establishes you as the expert, or as an expert and leader in your field. And so by sharing your knowledge and making it, you know, available to the public, you gain credibility and you gain authority. This recognition will often enhance your professional reputation, which will only lead to more success and thereby more credibility and more authority. So you'll get opportunities and invitations and and different ways to share what you know and present it to people and get your work in different places in the world. But because you have positioned yourself as a leader in your industry,

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Reason number five is because teaching helps you stay relevant and always continuously learn in your field. The world of education, especially in fields that are creative, it's important to stay up to date on the latest developments, the latest trends, what is up and coming, what is new, what are the new kind of technologies around it, what are the new ways to do it? That necessity for you to always be at the front end of, you know, everything that's new in your field pushes you to continuously learn and adapt. And it keeps your skills and your knowledge so incredibly fresh and relevant. And what it does is propel you further and further along the way than for me, I know that I would ever be without the push to do it because I'm an educator. Number six is really about making a difference. Teaching allows you to influence the next generation in your field. And sharing your philosophy and your approach and the way that you do things, it can perhaps change how things in entire industries are seen or taught or perceived. You make possible for other people incredible things through your willingness to just open up and teach what you know. That also brings just a really deep kind of satisfaction to yourself, which is my next one. Number seven, personal fulfillment. Teaching can just be incredibly fulfilling. Seeing someone else achieve understanding or success because of your guidance or I always think if I was even a small part of your journey and I've been able to see how far you've come, it is really what lights me up. It's what gets me out of bed in the morning. It's deeply satisfying. That satisfaction of just making an impact in the lives of someone else and shaping the direction of your industry is really incredibly rewarding. And what it does is creates a ripple effect that you will really never understand the, you know, the full breadth of reason. Number eight is developing skills beyond your field. The other thing that teaching does is it helps you develop really, really valuable soft skills such as public speaking, communication, leadership, empathy. These skills are transferable to so many different things to any career and they really enrich your and professional life as well. I would say that this is one of the things that I just never saw coming. I couldn't. I'm not saying I can now either. But when I started especially I didn't feel like I could speak well. I didn't feel like I could Be in front of people. I didn't feel like I could be on camera. I hated the way my voice sounded and how I looked. And I would do things over and over and over and over and over again. And it's really been through teaching that it forced me to kind of step outside of my comfort zone and grow these other skills that have been transferable into so many different areas of my life. Reason number nine is that it's a beautiful revenue stream to add to your business. Teaching allows you to just diversify your income and add multiple streams of revenue and that can bring significant financial stability for creatives. This means less dependence on selling your actual work alone and more freedom to pursue projects that might be driven by passion rather than necessity. You know, for me, when I, when I very first started, I was sewing and I was making handmade aprons and tea towels and pillowcases and I loved it. I mean, I loved it, but I also got really, really tired of it. Like I was a machine just like making just as many as I possibly could. And I knew that long term it wasn't sustainable. And so I changed my focus to open up opportunities that had residual income. And that is where art licensing came into play and then eventually education as well. As a creative, I think you should have as many streams of revenue, as diversified as you can just to build in so many options to pivot and ways to go in your business. Because you never know what's going to happen. You never know. The last five years have taught us that you just never know what's going to happen. And so the more kind of faucets that you can turn on and off or play with these different levers, your business will be better safeguarded because of it. Finally, number 10 is about leaving a legacy. Your teaching will go on much, much longer and further than you will. It leaves a lasting impact that just extends beyond your immediate professional work. The knowledge and the inspiration you impart can influence countless individuals and it can contribute to success and by extension the wider community and the world. Truly that goes back to the ripple effect, right? So you never know if you teach someone something that they pass on to their children and maybe that one mindset shift or that one thing that made was made possible, you'll never even know that it was because of a seed that you planted. But it has gone on to impact generations, for generations. So I just want to invite you to really think about our thinking on this one. I think that teaching what you know is such a beautiful thing for so many reasons. It goes beyond you. It goes beyond the person you're teaching. It goes on forever and ever. And there's so many different ways to teach what you know as well. It could be a course, but it could be so many other things as well, like workshops and guides and books and ebooks and all kinds of things in person or online. It's been so long, for so many years. If you wanted to be an educator, you had to go into a school, you had to be at university. And now we have so many opportunities to open up our knowledge to anyone in the world. And it really levels the playing field, right?

Like, anyone in the world can get

access to the knowledge that you have. And that is such a beautiful thing. If you know someone who has been thinking about being an educator, or who has been maybe thinking poorly of someone else for adding education to their revenue stream, or if you just know someone who's hesitant because they're afraid, send them this episode. Let them hear what my perspective is. And I hope that it has expanded the way that we think about this. And I would love to see you teach what you know, my friends. Thanks for tuning in. Create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world, and remember, there's room for you.