Teacher Turned Entrepreneur

What do you do when you realize that fifteen years of your prosperous and inspiring career as a doctor doesn’t seem to rid you of your itch for fulfillment? You go on a purpose hunt and discover what your life was designed to create! A decade and a half into medical practice, Dr. Alexandra Stockwell thought she’d feel content in life, since she’d now paid off her student loans and was in a financially sound place. But it wasn’t until her career exploration over the years led her to become an intimate marriage expert that she finally found her forte!

Ever felt the desire to drop everything else and make a living off helping people? That was where Alexandra was mentally when she’d finally figured out what to do with her career. She was motivated in the way a teacher would be and wanted to use her talents to grow and become more skillful in serving others. The result is the coaching practice that she established in 2013 and grew gradually into a business in 2017! Offering everything from audios and short courses to 5-figure exclusive private one-on-one sessions, Alexandra has resources for anyone struggling with their marriage! But her journey, like anyone else's, wasn't easy. You know when you feel like someone else has the solutions to your problems, and you can’t seem to know anything at all? She was there too. She fought the feeling and realized that all others had was information and inspiration. That your journey is always yours. It isn’t anyone else’s to dictate!

You’ll learn to trust yourself for your business decisions as much as your life decisions and remove shame out of the equation from the journey to your dream career. Alexandra also has tips for tuning your time and mindset toward your business goals while managing your home and children!

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

Who knew that “a total lovely mistake” would wind up leading Lindsay Rando to co-found what is today a thriving boutique franchise? How did she find her way to co-founding Bobbles & Lace? By connecting the dots between things she has loved forever: People, fashion, unique expressions of personality and fun! All those ingredients together equal a marriage of affordability, high fashion and a truly unique shopping experience. It only made sense to take this “recipe for success,” which includes eight locations and counting in hot-spots around the Northeast, and offer it more broadly as a franchising opportunity. It’s a great model for entrepreneurs like Lindsay, a busy mom with her eye on multiple balls, to scale a successful business with minimal up-front costs and a strong local anchor to manage new locations.

The best part of Lindsay’s franchise vision is the way it embraces individuality – the hallmark of any memorable retail experience. Owners are encouraged to bring their own personalities and let their individual fashion sensibilities fly, but they’ve also got the benefit of support: A step-by-step playbook to help get a thriving boutique up and running. Lindsay has made the mistakes, so you don’t have to! And when you do have to navigate the inevitable missteps or when one of those balls drop? Forget being perfect, advises this 25-year veteran business dynamo. “You have to learn to be very forgiving of yourself,” says Lindsay, “and be okay with being okay.”

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

• Sometimes finding your passion project – the business of your dreams – means connecting the dots (and they may be dots that go all the way back to childhood)!

• Franchising offers a great model for relatively low-cost, low-stress scalability.

• Customer experience is everything when it comes to attracting and retaining patrons.

• If you’ve got a solid, enthusiastic team in your home office, you’re putting your best foot forward when it comes to introducing franchise opportunities.

• Feel like you’re dropping balls? You might try being okay with not being okay in all ways for all things at all times!

• Getting no’s and making mistakes? Guess what? Be forgiving of yourself and then just keep on going!

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

Big, wild dreams are the stuff of entrepreneurial home runs but – as our guest on this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur explains – dreams alone are not enough. Heather Smith, an interactive storytelling pioneer, could never have gotten her transformational video platform off the ground without a clear focus on exactly the need she was filling and the tenacity to make her idea a reality. Based on her experience curating immersive storytelling exhibits, Heather deeply understood the power of multidimensional interviews to capture the historic experience of Holocaust survivors. Convinced that in fact everyone has a worthwhile story to tell and share, she got to work on StoryFile, a cutting-edge technology that enables us to record our personal histories via custom formats in a cloud-based environment that makes memories accessible to friends, family and colleagues now and in perpetuity.

Heather walks Host Dori Stewart through her evolution into the role of tech entrepreneur, a journey she is not sugar-coating. Purpose, passion, financial resources and lots of emotional support were essential when it came to taking this long, iterative odyssey. Says Heather: Innovation take times, patience, stamina – and a team to keep you motivated and moving forward even on the toughest days. StoryFile’s technology wasn’t an obvious slam-dunk out of the gate, but Heather never lost sight of the mission. As a result, we now have a platform that removes the boundaries of time and space, leveraging video as a gateway to all kinds of conversations with all kinds of individuals, whenever and wherever we want. Heather has literally brought a vision to life!

If you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur, click here to hear past shows and leave comments!

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

• From “wild idea” to thriving business: People sometimes need time to catch up with your creative vision. Build that expectation into your timeline!

• It’s okay to iterate! You don’t have to wait for perfection to launch your platform.

• Never underestimate the importance of having a supportive team in it with you for the long haul!

• Excitement and a “wow” idea will take you only so far. Does what you have to offer fill an actual need?

• Launching a big thing: It’s stressful and tiring – but so exhilarating! Prepare yourself for a crazy, but deeply gratifying, ride!

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

Stuck in sales avoidance? Here’s your ticket out! On this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur we’re hearing from someone who knows how to turn the least sales-y of people into pitching powerhouses! Annie Ruggles, Founder & Dean of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, shares with Host Dori Roberts, the stumbling blocks that all too frequently stall our businesses:

o Underpricing.

o Over-babbling.

o Never asking.

o Assuming marketing will get you over the finish line.

If you’re someone for whom marketing is the comfort zone (or a safe place to hide!), this is your invitation to look at sales in an entirely new way. It’s about customer service and, above all, just being YOU. Annie shares valuable tips to make what you’re selling more accessible to whomever is buying – whether through pricing transparency or just learning to be quiet and give them the space they need to consider what you’ve got to offer! At the end of the day, says Annie, we can buff up our images and tinker with our websites all we want. But if we don’t find a way to connect authentically with would-be clients, it’s hard to get out of first gear. “Marketing is a pathway to more,” she says, “but if you don’t ask you don’t get! So ask!”

Loving what Annie has to say? Head on over to her podcast, Too Legitimate to Quit, or check out her fabulous Master Class!

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

• Is your solo venture thriving because of a superpower that you’ve figured out? You may be well-positioned to coach and teach others how to deploy savvy skill!

• Sales is an ethics and values game. If you’re bringing on people who don’t share that, your brand is going to start to evolve past you – and not necessarily in the right way.

• You can care for people and charge for that service simultaneously. It’s to be expected!

• Think sales is all about being pushy? Shift that mindset. It’s about customer service!

• If you don’t feel comfortable with sales, look for a different guru, tactic or school of thought. There are all kinds of approaches to suit every style.

• Marketing may seem comparably shiny and fun, but sales has to be a major leg of your business’s stool.

• Your job on a sales call is to listen – not to talk! How else can you know what the customer really needs?

• Your venture is about who you are – so bring that authentic self into the sales process!

• Stop trying to be affordable and focus instead on being accessible.

• Are you dodging discomfort by waiting on customers? That’s sales avoidance!

• Put your prices out there! If you leave it to your customers’ imagination, they very likely will just click through to someone else’s website offering.

• Anyone who is teaching you to sell from their own vantage point is not teaching you how to sell successfully by leveraging your true self.

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

Amber Gray, Founder & CEO of Trusty Oak, has positioned herself brilliantly at the intersection of all things Virtual Assistant. This episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur highlights how the right pairing can be a game-changer for entrepreneur and VA alike! These collaborations offer a win-win, giving both parties the flexibility to optimize and shine. If you’ve got organizational, marketing or development skills to showcase, then you may be perfectly situated to work with Amber, whose agency trains VAs to industry standard, facilitates placement with clients and provides a community of support while navigating the job. And if, on the other side, you’re a small business owner longing for help, Trusty Oak is the perfect route to securing an assistant who will be accountable, reliable and up-to-speed on best practices.

You’ll learn in this conversation with Host Dori Stewart about how Amber came to carve out this niche seven years ago, what lies ahead for VAs in the face of a rocky economy (a relatively sunny forecast!) and what you can do as an entrepreneur to maximize your VA experience. “It’s all about all of us getting more efficient with our work,” she says. If you’ve got practical tools that you’ve picked up as a teacher, office worker, store manager or in some other life capacity, you may be perfectly suited to lighten the load for a busy independent business. And if you’re busily growing a new enterprise, then Amber knows exactly how to identify the best resource to lighten your load and move your dream into overdrive!

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

• Feeling stymied or like you’re in a dead-end at work? That may be your invitation to explore something bigger or entirely new!

• A huge Trusty Oak value-add is the pre-vetting it does to ensure contractors are up to industry standards.

• Do you have the skill set to be a VA? You’d be surprised at the range of jobs that prepare you well for exactly this kind of project management-oriented work!

• Freelancing requires an investment of time out of the gate, so remove whatever stressors you can (such as personal debt) to give yourself a good runway.

• Virtual Assistants are somewhat recession-proof as a cost-effective substitute when entrepreneurs need to downsize full-time staff.

• If you’re pretty sure you could use help from a VA, try time tracking for a week or two to really identify the specific tasks you’d like to offload.

• Nimble entrepreneurs are able to adapt to changing economic times, so don’t be afraid to assess and evolve as your business requirements change!

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

What are you waiting for to start building your purpose-driven life? The best time to start is now. You cannot afford not to start; when you know you’re being guided, every minute you wait you’re delaying a breakthrough.

Staci Wallace is a business strategist, 8x author, online growth& optimization specialist, keynote speaker, and the CEO and Co-Founder of the Fueled by Fire Mastery Program and Elite Masterminds. She helps CEOs, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs build purpose-driven, highly profitable lives and businesses they love.

Staci narrates her entrepreneurial journey that she started at age 16 and how her family and a childhood disease influenced her. She talks about her failures, successes, and learnings, and how she now helps women connect with their purposes and build purpose-driven lives.

Listen in to learn how to build a value and principle-driven life that’s unshakable by storms and failures.

Here are the top takeaways from the conversation:

• How Staci turned her pain and trauma into a purpose-driven life.

• How to achieve abundance by allowing yourself to make a monumental shift in your life.

• The power of shifting and starting now to achieve a breakthrough even at the risk of failure.

• How she allowed God to work on her ego and started helping women connect with their purpose.

• How to have a principle-driven life/business that is unshakable by storms and failures.

• Learn how to conquer the negative voices inside your head and achieve your best life.

• Tap into an otherworldly abundance experience by giving space to pause and listen.

Connect with Staci:

Instagram |LinkedIn | Facebook I Website

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

What a shame that the power of relationship building isn't taught in business school. It's a learn-as-you-go type of thing that keeps many entrepreneurs up a night trying to figure out the million-dollar question, "How do I get more clients and more sales."

Laura Meyer has been in the business world for over 20 years, and she's seen it all. From franchising her portrait studio concept to owning dozens of studios in her area, her marketing expertise expands far beyond the reach of a textbook. She has lived and breathed marketing for more than two decades.

So what is the secret to Laura's success? If you guessed relationship marketing, then you are correct.

"I have experienced so much struggle in my entrepreneurship experience, the highest highs and lowest of lows. If I can make [another entrepreneur's] path easier or flatten the learning curve, I find that very rewarding" -Laura Meyer

Laura is now a business coach and consultant, and she's on a mission to help others build the relationships they need to succeed in business. Laura also certifies sales and marketing professionals and provides them with the tools they need to turn their expertise into a high-ticket consulting offer.

Laura opens up her vault of business knowledge to Dori Stewart in this episode of the Teacher Turned Entrepreneur Podcast and discusses how building relationships is the key to success in business. Some of the treasures you will take away from this discussion are how Laura pivoted her entrepreneurship journey into thriving coaching and consulting firm, the importance of relationship marketing, and how you can apply what Laura has learned in your own business.

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

● Professionals with sales and marketing backgrounds, such as teachers, can pivot their knowledge into a high-ticket consulting offer.

● Entrepreneurs set sail into their ventures, thinking the trip would be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, this is not the case; Laura explains how her methodology takes the entrepreneurship journey and breaks it down into a step-by-step process to success.

● Have you ever considered a career as a consultant? Laura provides an overview of her methodology and certification program for sales and marketing professionals.

● Are you tossing and turning at night, wondering how to get more clients or how to turn a conversation into a sale? Laura Meyer has the answer for you, relationship marketing.

● The heart and soul of your marketing strategy shouldn't focus on increasing your bottom line but on providing value.

● Do you think relationship-building can't be done successfully online? Tune in as Laura dispels this myth with a real-world example that you could implement into your business today.

Here's a quick look into the episode:

● Through 20 years of entrepreneurship, Laura Meyer turned her expertise in sales and marketing into a high-ticket consulting business. Now she teaches others how to do the same.

● An explanation of the four types of marketing available to entrepreneurs and small business owners and the pros and cons of each.

● How Relationship Marketing is different from other types of marketing and the importance of social capital in your business.

● Entrepreneurship is anything but linear. How do you manage the ups and downs? Laura Meyer has some advice she wants to share with you.

● What makes Laura's social media marketing strategy so irresistible that potential clients reach out to her! Laura gives us an inside look at how she can get in front of her ideal clients using relationship marketing.

● Have you underestimated the power of Relationship Marketing? Tune in to discover why so many entrepreneurs don't realize the importance of this lost art.

● What is the difference between paid media and earned media?

1. Paid media is advertising through various platforms, such as TV, radio, or print. Earned media is when you get free publicity for your business from outlets such as news stories, blog posts, social media, and referrals through relationships.

2. Paid media is a great way to get in front of your target audience, but it can be expensive. Earned media is a more cost-effective way to reach your target audience, but it can be more difficult to obtain.

● Are you interested in becoming a natural relationship builder? Pre-order Laura's new book Win-Win. In Win-Win, you'll learn how to use relationships to enhance your business. This book is ideal for you if you're an entrepreneur just starting out or more experienced in the field. Win-Win will take you through the process of:

1. Establishing credibility in your industry

2. Strategies for increasing your visibility in the marketplace and then finally

3. Developing a community of collaborators, audience members, and clients who become part of your ecosystem

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

How are you breaking through the noise and getting your message out there? Did you know you can do PR for your business on your own? To get your PR right, you have to first make your business findable with organic content.

Lee Caraher is the founder and CEO of Double Forte, a successful national public relations, content marketing, and social media firm. Double Forte works with beloved consumer, technology, and wine brands. She is a highly sought-after communications expert known for her business acumen and insights.

She narrates how she started her business out of need and how she has sustained it for 20 years through downturns and business model changes. She explains how to improve communication as a leader by being specific and sharing appreciation feedback with employees.

Listen in to learn the best PR practices to take to improve your business visibility both online and offline.

Here are the top takeaways from the conversation:

• The downturns and business model change that Lee has faced in her business of 20 years.

• How to sustain a business for a long time by staying innovative and relevant in the market.

• Strategies to help you master the process of hiring right and keeping people for longer.

• The difference between millennials and GenXers and how it shows up at the workplace.

• How to be more efficient by being specific and appreciative in your communication as a leader.

• The right PR steps to take to improve your business visibility online and offline.

• LinkedIn best practices to keep you engaged and your business visible to your audience.

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

Do you want to scale your side hustle into a full-time business? To become a successful full-time business owner, you have to shift from an employee to a CEO mindset and continue to strengthen that mindset.

Richelle Jessey is a business and mindset coach for coaches. She helps corporate women turn their service-based side hustles into full-time online businesses.

Richelle describes her journey to becoming a certified coach and how she pivoted from a leadership coaching business to helping women start and scale their side hustles. She also explains how she helps her clients identify their why and create their future selves to keep them motivated.

Listen in to learn the importance of getting specific with your marketing messaging to attract the audience you want to serve.

Here are the top takeaways from the conversation:

• How trusting the journey allowed Richelle to pivot into a coaching business.

• How to shift from an employee to a CEO mindset where you’re the strategic leader for your business.

• The inner work to help you build a stronger mindset that can overcome business challenges.

• How to identify your why and create your future self to achieve that why.

• The advantages of going through coaching training and certification to become a coach.

• Find what you’re passionate about to establish your coaching business around.

• The qualities and qualifications to look for in a coach before hiring one.

• How to get specific with your marketing to better target the audience you want to serve.

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)

What do you do when you’re a triple-threat entrepreneur? You develop a three-pronged business model that showcases all your talents, which is exactly what Mandi Graziano has done. As she explains to Host Dori Stewart on this episode of Teacher Turned Entrepreneur, with a little time management it has been possible to juggle a thriving sales coaching practice with a buying role at a major hospitality sourcing platform and speaking engagements to highlight her bestselling book, "Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons from a Life in Sales." It’s a lot, but Mandi was bitten early by the entrepreneurial bug and has never looked back!

On this episode you’ll learn about the biggest challenges Mandi’s coaching clients face and how any sales process can be tweaked to create the optimal Business Bedside Manner™. It’s all about build deeper relationships with your customers, vendors and community. Mandi also reminds us about the importance of scheduling breaks into our busy days in order to refresh and cultivate clarity – something she does on her backyard swing. “There’s so much noise that we let in our brains all the time,” she says. “But if you just give yourself 10 minutes of silence, it’s an explosion of ideas!”

Here are key takeaways from the conversation:

• Time management is an art! If you have difficulty switching between creative and admin. tasks, try using the "time bucket" methodology.

• Scheduling breaks is a critical part of effective time management if you want to make the most of your mind power.

• Need help daydreaming? Consider spending some time on a swing set!

• We experience noise constantly. Give your brain a break. Silence – even for just a few minutes – is a powerful creative tool.

• Books like Mandi’s "Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons from a Life in Sales" have something to teach all of us, since selling of one kind or another is part of life!

• Want to support women’s enterprises? Check out The W Marketplace, a fantastic resource for women-owned products and services!

Are you ready to find your true calling and walk away from your teaching job once and for all?

It is your time to get a solid grasp on the potential opportunities available to you so you can get started on your entrepreneurial journey and change your life!

Download your copy of this free, valuable PDF resource and access 20 different descriptive business ideas that are perfect for a teacher turning entrepreneur.

The Teacher’s Guide to Finding Your Perfect Business Idea (without going back to college)