Cultivating Thought Leaders and Side Hustlers

It's very much how are you creating a network of people who want to think about these topics and navigate these topics. I can't stress enough how grateful I am and how clear it is that this is the kind of transition that if you have listened to this podcast before, which I believe you probably have, I talk about in terms of bringing people together who are the most motivated, the most engaged, the most highest contributors, and the people that want to bring new members in. Hey, I'm Gina Bianchini. This is People Magic, where we talk about creating $1 million communities. And you know what? It's easier than you think.

Hi, Gina. I've recently left my career in education after 10 years. I want to start a coaching practice helping teachers build a side hustle, tutoring students on how to use AI.

I.

How could I go about doing this?

Oh, such an important topic. So first of all, I am super grateful that you spent 10 years as a teacher and that you are sounds like trying to be the bridge between what is fundamentally a industrial society way of educating people, which is fantastic and has worked for a lot of people in a lot of different ways for a very long time, and what is three year old, very fundamentally different ways of learning, interacting with software, having knowledge and how you, you get knowledge and use it. So first and foremost, I can't stress how cool this is and how glad I am that you're doing what you're doing. I also think what you're doing is as much about people navigating change. Some really fundamental and interesting questions that are about what does it mean to be an educated person when we have got tools that have just never been available before? And three, kind of relating one and two, what is the world that as educators we want to create utilizing these new tools? And what's nice about creating a community around this is that you are creating the space for teachers outside of district in person learning days. It's very much how are you creating a network of people who want to think about these topics and navigate these topics. I can't stress enough how grateful I am and how clear it is that this is the kind of transition that if you have listened to this podcast before, which I believe you probably have, I talk about in terms of bringing people together who are the most motivated, the most engaged, the highest contributors and the people that want to bring new members in, I could see this being a very, very successful community. And so important given the fact that this is probably one of the most radical changes of certainly my lifetime hits all of the Reasons to create a community. I am assuming because you have such a great transition, you have your ideal member you can define very clearly the best year ever. Like, the best year ever would be that we have created a movement of teachers who are thinking about how to augment traditional education with ways that students can appropriately use these new tools to balance getting the fundamentals while still taking advantage of really superhuman intelligence. That's phenomenal. I look at and is like your best year ever. So again, your pitch for any community is your ideal member plus your best year ever. Their best year ever equals your big purpose. I bring together teachers who want to coach students on appropriate uses of AI so that we can define together the future of education in a world that is very dynamic and has new tools and new platforms that we want to use effectively. I tried very hard there to not use the word humanity. And I was pretty proud of myself that I succeeded in not using the word humanity, even though, let's be honest, it's relevant. So then you will want to, you know, what you put in the community is your monthly themes to introduce novelty, a weekly calendar to create a habit, and daily polls and questions or daily actions that really just get your members talking and building relationships with each other. Then you want to talk about your offer pricing and your launch, followed by your magical first experience. So I want to spend a little bit of time on the offer because I think that's typically the hardest part. And in your case, you're like, okay, I want to charge because people pay attention to what they pay for. One of the things that I would consider is how this becomes not just a revenue stream for you, but becomes a revenue stream for the teachers who are in your community because they can actually charge for tutoring if they want. Now, obviously the same skills could be used for not for profit activities and organizations as well. But for you, I think that people pay attention to what they pay for. They're going to be highly motivated, and you can really quantify the three Rs of how you charge. So what are the results that this community or this group coaching is going to get somebody? And in this case, it could turn into a revenue stream of tutoring that essentially augments their salary as a teacher. Number two is replacement. What are people doing today? How are parents, districts, and even students themselves? How are they thinking about navigating these new tools? Number three, respect. What would be a price that somebody who is engaging and joining your network, joining your group coaching program and you as the leader of it. And again, you don't have to be the expert because no one's the expert on things that are this new. Rather it's you are creating value by bringing the group together on its own. And so this is also. It's not about like, oh, you'll get one on one time with me. It's no. My job is to bring together the most interesting teachers who are engaged in how are we going to balance core skills that every human being should really have with these new tools that make irrelevant. So you want to bring people together. That is the value. Not that you need the expertise to be able to do this. We find when somebody can make more money doing something like this. And this is why I think it's such a powerful group coaching idea. You can charge typically $48 a month for a membership, roughly $997 for a high ticket course. I wouldn't recommend that necessarily here, but that's certainly a price point that we see often for that kind of more deeper mastermind high ticket course. I would do this as group coaching. I would also consider this being a ongoing membership being because things are going to change so rapidly here. And so this idea that, you know, you're going to coach somebody and they're going to be off to the races, actually what they're going to want is, wait a second, I want to be in an ongoing live always on membership with other teachers who are starting these kinds of AI tutoring businesses that, that allow us to work together and apply principles that are surfacing for each and every one of us in terms of where and how we want to educate the next generation. So that would be how I would start to think about what to do next. The other thing that I would just say in terms of numbers, I would absolutely aim for 30 people. That's kind of our magic number that we see across mighty networks. Do not not charge for this for your first cohort. I know that was a double negative, but. But seriously, you do not need to offer this for free because you're doing it for the first time. If you are uncomfortable charging because you haven't done it before, here's a reframing of why to charge. Because again, you are going to help people get results. This is a quantifiable value because they can take what everybody in the community is investing their time, energy and resources to do and charge other people for it. Charge parents for it, Charge not for profit organizations for it. Start not for profit organizations for it. Then you have the replacement. Well, there is no replacement. People are doing things kind of on their own. This is straight structured, this is really thoughtful. And communities are the single most effective way to navigate rapid change. And this could not be more rapid or more change so that replacement almost doesn't apply. And then finally, respect. Again, people pay attention to what they pay for. And whatever you charge for, charge a premium beyond what you are comfortable charging because you will find that the most motivated people will be a part of it. And especially for your first cohort, that works really well. Now again, if you're like Gina, don't buy it. Here's another way of looking at it. Have people contribute money and use the money for something else. Meaning, fine, it's not to pay you, it's to ensure that you guys can all go rent a house somewhere at the beach and have an off site or have a workshop in person that you're able to do more together. So the most important thing is the practice of people pay attention to what they pay for so that you practice charging and they practice paying even if you're using the money for something that you are essentially investing back into the community. So it's just another way of thinking about how to charge and why it's so important to elevate what you're doing so people pay attention to it and that you're gonna make progress and you're gonna do things that you know, again, you're just not able to do when it's all free because it's just really not very effective. There are so many different free things that are just low quality. And this is a moment to really peg your group coaching program and the business you're building to a mid or even premium priced opportunity and you have everything in place to be able to do it. I'm really excited for you and I think that it's an absolutely critical and phenomenal use case for a modern community that is taking advantage of sophisticated software to connect those people to each other. For you to really think about how you create group projects and, you know, people being able to meet up where they are at or go on off sites or mastermind retreats that you create. All in service of answering what will be one of the most important questions for anybody who is a human being right now, no matter what age you're at, and certainly as somebody who has dedicated your life to education and the people that you're going to be bringing together who are hungry to understand these new tools in the context of educating the next generation. Woof. This is really important work and I'm super glad you're doing it well with that. This is People Magic. I'm Gina Bianchini. Please go create more of these amazing communities and I will see you in the next episode. Thank you for being a part of People Magic. If you want more of a deep dive in any of these topics, but certainly having the framework of People Magic profit, head on over to the website. The link is in the show notes. Have your own burning question about creating People Magic? Well, I want to answer it. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to just drop your question in the review section, wherever you're listening to this podcast and keep tuning in.