Building an online business from the ground up may be daunting for all the aspiring online educators out there. But it certainly doesn’t have to be. There are many simple steps you can take to get yourself on track and make your business a success. 

Welcome to The Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives while having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode of The Anomalous Educator, we are joined by Annemarie Fowler, the founder of Speak Confident English.

Annemarie is an online fluency and confidence coach for shy non-native English speakers who want to be successful in English. For over 20 years, she has strived to fulfill her commitment to helping international women live life in English with confidence.

In 2014, she launched Speak Confident English, which has helped hundreds of students from 73 countries develop the skills they need, so they can be confident English speakers. Each Wednesday, she shares free ‘Confident English’ lessons with more than 275,000 followers in her community.

Annemarie’s deep love of traveling has seen her move 14 times in her busy lifetime. She has lived in five different countries, including the U.S., Pakistan, Czech Republic, Germany, and France.

In this episode, Ray and Annemarie discuss how teaching English around the world has shaped who she is today. They also dive into why in-depth reviews of her favorite students helped her whittle out her niche and why following your passion may not be the best idea.

Also in this episode:

• How Annemarie runs an online business alongside her passion for travel
• How Annemarie transitioned from teaching in a classroom to teaching online
• What Annemarie loves about teaching remotely
• Why teachers are so creative and highly adaptable 
• Annemarie’s biggest business failure and how she overcame it
• Why you need to be vigilant about your surroundings and seek out good Wi-Fi
• Understanding Annemarie’s business 
• How Annemarie defined her niche and how you can too
• The realistic timeline for creating a successful business
• Why you need to be creating free content while staying consistent
• Why you shouldn’t follow your passion

Links:

Speak Confident English: Website

Annemarie Fowler: Email

Speak Confident English: YouTube

Speak Confident English: Instagram

Speak Confident English: Facebook

Speak Confident English: LinkedIn

If you’re currently a teacher, you most likely have years and years of lesson plans, classes, and course materials in your archives. Why not turn all your knowledge into a best selling book?

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives while having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

Laura Petersen is an expert on writing and self-publishing books quickly, and making them a success. Her first book Copywriting for Podcasters, became a #1 Bestseller in the U.S. and Canada almost instantly. 

In 2016 Laura, who’s known as “Laptop Laura” on social media, used what she learned in the book writing process to create CopyThatPops. This literary hub helps other like-minded teachers and creatives use books as a way to build credibility for their brand, and spread their message to a broader audience.

In this episode, Ray and Laura discuss the process of turning your already existing body of work into a successful book. Laura lays out her easy to follow book-writing process. Even if you’re not an experienced writer, or have never considered becoming an author before, you may rethink your game plan after hearing her story.

Also within this episode:

• How Laura fell in love with traveling as a teenager
• How her teaching career began
• What it was like living in Germany as an American when 9/11 happened
• The book that changed Laura’s life
• How her first tutoring business began
• How she wrote and published a best selling book in 30 days
• Laura’s PSD writing method and how to implement it for yourself
• Why she gives herself tight deadlines

Links:

Laura Petersen: Website

Laura Petersen: Facebook

Laura Petersen: Twitter

Laura Petersen: LinkedIn

Buy Laura’s Book- Copywriting for Podcasters

Buy the Book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, recommended by Laura

Rev.com

Trint.com

Kindle Self Publishing

The internet is an amazing tool for any teacher. With multiple channels to utilize, and different media channels to choose from, the business-boosting possibilities are endless.

Welcome to The  Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur, or someone who wants to improve people’s lives while having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode of The Anomalous Educator, Ray is joined by Jim Fricker and May Larios García. This linguistically-inclined couple founded Spanish and Go, the online hub that teaches students real-world Spanish. 

By teaching through their online courses, retreats, podcast and YouTube channel, they strive to inspire Spanish learners to travel to Spanish-speaking countries with confidence. By introducing real-life Spanish vocabulary, students can experience the culture, taste the flavors, meet the locals, and appreciate the beauty of each country that much more.

May Larios is a Mexican English and Spanish teacher from the state of Colima, Mexico. After graduating from the School of Foreign Languages in Colima in 2010, May followed her dream of teaching languages. 

Jim Fricker is a musician from Minnesota. In 2010, Jim was on a mission to learn Spanish. After some time learning the very basics online, he headed off to Mexico, where he met his lovely wife, May. Over the years, Jim has owned a recording studio and considers himself a technology enthusiast– which plays a crucial role in his new career, creating online content.

Jim and May have now pooled their skills together to create an unforgettable Spanish immersion program. It allows people to experience and explore one of the most beautiful and charming cities in Latin America, all while practicing their Spanish.

In this episode, Ray, May and Jim talk about their mutual love of language learning, and how it brought them together. They also dive into the dynamics of what it means to own a business as a couple, and how to grow a successful YouTube channel.

In this episode, you can learn:

• The unexpected way Jim and May met
• The fear of something new and how to overcome it
• Why Jim and May created a ‘non-standard’ lifestyle
• Why every couple should have a formal business meeting with their partner
• How to incorporate different media channels into your business
• How to make the best content possible
• Why you need to just dive in!
• How to Listen To The Valid Feedback

Links:

Spanish and Go: Website

Spanish and Go: YouTube

ITalki: Website

Notes In Spanish: Podcast 

Online courses are an amazing way for educators to increase their income. But, how do educators keep students on track with their courses? And how do they encourage a strong sense of community?  

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode of The Anomalous Educator, Ray is getting all the insider tactics surrounding online courses from the CEO of WP Elevation, Troy Dean. 

After realizing the shocking fact that he was highly unemployable, Troy knew he was meant for greater entrepreneurial things.  As he dipped his feet into different career waters, he found himself consulting and doing IT training. He also dabbled in commercial voiceovers, website building and design before finally finding his niche- WordPress widgets. 

As his business became more popular, people began flooding him with questions. The questions were more about the daily running of his business than the products he was selling. From how he employed people to how he wrote proposals, he knew that the next path of his career was to help. That’s when his online course company WP Elevation was born.

At WP Elevation, Tony and his team help agencies and freelancers grow their recurring revenue so they can build a business they love. They’ve created step-by-step courses and built a nurturing community, for anyone who enrolls and beyond. 

In this enlightening conversation, Troy gives us the secret keys to building your online community while keeping your community members engaged. Ray also discovers how Troy became the voice of Cadbury Eggs.

Also Within this Episode:

• How Troy became an online entrepreneur and speaker
• Why we should all consider breaking out of the system
• The satisfaction of teaching
• Why you need to analyze your engagement rate
• How you can build touchpoints into your courses
• How to identify the milestones your students should hit
• Using multimedia to keep students engaged
• How you can build a stronger community
• The value of social proof and case studies

Links:

WP Elevation: Website

Troy Dean: Website

WP Elevation: Facebook Group

Troy Dean: LinkedIn

Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies book

A project manager’s key role is to head the planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing phases of projects. Teachers online don’t usually have these kinds of resources, but do have projects that they want to get out there. 

Most struggle to get projects out on-time, on-budget, and on-brief. So, where do we even start to make a project launch a success?

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode, Ray has an insightful chat with Ben Aston. Ben is a digital project manager and founder of The Digital Project Manager, one of the fastest growing online resources for digital project managers. 

At the tender age of 14, Ben launched his first website and quickly became hooked on the world of digital. Upon graduating from University with a Computer science degree, he worked for over a decade at some of London’s top digital agencies, including Dare, Wunderman, DLKW Lowe, and DDB. 

While he moved back and forth between multiple career avenues, it suddenly became clear that his technical know-how and project construction skills created the perfect conditions for his digital project management to come to light. Ben’s also a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner.

This episode goes straight to the heart of project management and breaks down how anyone can make a project a success with the right kind of brief. Ray and Ben look at each step of the ‘The Project Lifecycle,” and what KPI’s are. 

Also featured within this episode:

• How Ben became an online project manager
• What are KPI’s?
• What is project management?
• How to implement the Project Lifecycle
• Why project portfolio management might be right for you
• How to design a well-defined brief
• How Ben’s team massively changed the outcome of a project 
• Why you should be scheduling and planning your time

Links:

The Digital Project Manager: Website

The Digital Project Manager: Training

Ben Aston: Linked In

Black and White Zebra: Website

Online courses are perfect for generating extra income for online educators. Having a marketing strategy for your online course is essential for your success. But when it comes to the crunch, creating one can seem just a bit too overwhelming.

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

Tom Libelt is the guy to turn if you need help with marketing your online course. 

Tom is the founder of We Market Online Courses, where he creates marketing strategies that work. He assists course creators with a range of business tools to increase profits, as well as lectures on a full range of online course topics.

Born into the challenging life of Communist Poland, Tom learned the art of the hustle. In the early ’90s, when he’d just turned 11, Tom and his family escaped to the US, where a new life began. 

While he had a gift for selling, his primary interests lay within the world of music. In high school, he would regularly DJ in bars, clubs and raves with one time opening a set for DJ Scribble. 

In university, he centered his education on working in the music industry, focusing predominantly on marketing, business to business and sound engineering. But, like with many artistic industries, the money was hard to come by. At the age of 25, Tom made the decision to close that chapter and head into the world of sales.

After some trial and error, Tom had developed his sales and marketing skills. He has finally honed those same skills into his business today, helping others build online courses and market them like a pro.

In this episode, Tom and Ray talk about the biggest mistakes teachers make when creating and selling online courses. They also dive into how you can test if anyone wants to buy your online course, and to market your offering properly on each social media channel. 

Also featured in this episode:

• Smuggling alcohol in communist Poland
• How Tom got into online marketing and sales
• Why you must target the right audience
• How to tailor your sales pitch for each social media channel
• Why failure is part of selling
• The reason everyone should be tracking their efforts
• What type of online course do you want to create?
• How to get course validation through your audience
• Do Educators with experience need to validate their courses?
• How to stand out from the online course crowd
• How to get over your fear of selling

Links:

Tom Libelt: LinkedIn

Tom Libelt: Twitter

We Market Online Courses: Website

Smart Brand Marketing: Website

Smart Brand Marketing: Podcast
We Create Online Courses: Podcast

Resources:

Secret Hitler Game: Website

The entrepreneurial life can be hard when you’re going it alone. This is why so many businesses the world over are creating solid communities that not only boost their success but also create that much-needed support.

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Jason Moore, the host of the highly successful Zero To Travel podcast, and the co-founder of the online community Location Indie.

When Jason left college, he had the dream of traveling the world after becoming hooked on the idea of exploring Europe. Sadly, there was a massive $20,000 student debt burning a hole in his pocket.

Within two months, he took on the role of roadie for a charity event. This sparked the beginning of a decade long, world exploring career. From band tours to larger corporate events, the traveling bug had firmly set in. 

Now, times have certainly changed. He's living a less nomadic life in Norway with his wife and two kids. Jason's business Location Indie stems from his biggest goal – to build a global community of location independent entrepreneurs and heart-centered digital nomads. This community of like-minded people provides help and support in not only travel but business too. 

The Zero To Travel podcast has been downloaded more than 4.5 million times in 195 countries around the world, so he certainly understands the meaning of community and bringing people together.

Our conversation explores how Jason's career went from "Glorified Carny," to location independent. He breaks down the best ways to create a solid community that can help boost your business, and why finding the right community for you takes time and dedication.

Also in this episode:

• How Jason begin his career in travel
• The Zero Travel Podcast and why it’s such a labor of love
• Jason breaks down the fundamental differences between Location-independent and Digital Nomad
• How to envision your perfect business scenario so you can kick start your business towards success
• Want to make an extra $1000 a month? Jason helps us figure out the right life-work balance
• Defining the idea of community and why it’s best for solo-preneurs
• The contagious nature of providing value for people
• Can’t find the right community? Create one yourself
• How to build better relationships to boost business
• Location Indie – Why you should join the community

Links:

Jason Moore: LinkedIn

Zero to Travel: Website

Zero To Travel: Podcast

Location Indie: Podcast

Location Indie: Website

Camp Indie: Website

Book: International House Sitting: How To Travel The World And Stay Anywhere, For FREE 

The educational landscape is changing rapidly, with e-learning and online courses drastically rising in popularity. For teachers and educators, creating an online course can be a viable source of income. But if you’re not particularly tech-savvy, a marketing pro, or even a Facebook Ads extraordinaire, how can you get the leads you need to make it a success?

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode, I speak with Brice Gump, a digital marketing and lead generation expert and the founder of Major Impacts Media.

Brice has always had a penchant for numbers, problem solving and technology. Since 2008, he’s been putting these skills to work by helping small businesses drive traffic by using SEO and paid advertising.

In 2015, he founded Major Impacts Media as a way to further help businesses within all kinds of industries grow their annual revenue using data-driven direct response marketing. 

Brice’s wealth of knowledge has led him to share his expertise with audiences across the world, and frequently guests on podcasts. He also attends webinars and digital training programs to help other entrepreneurs become successful in the online world. 

When he’s not being a digital marketing pro, you can find Brice hosting his new podcast, Building It Online, a show that brings to light the successes and failures that entrepreneurs experience when building businesses online. 

Today, we discuss some of the basics in how to improve your digital marketing tactics on Facebook, and what you can do as a teacher, to drive more traffic to your online products and website.   

Also in this episode:

• Why you should turn learning digital marketing into a daily habit
• What to do as a newbie to digital marketing
• How to build an online course that sells
• Why you should boost your product’s prices when using paid advertising
• Using online webinars are a great way of marketing your online courses
• The difference between a $7 Course, and a $1,000 course
• How to effectively market your online course
• Why you should be researching 
• The value of ‘do-it-for-you’ course creation platforms

Links:

Brice Gump: Website 

Brice Gump : LinkedIn

Major Impact Media: Website

Major Impact Media: Facebook

Major Impact Media: Instagram

Building It Online Podcast

Mentioned Resource:

Kajabi : Website

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as we in the know call it, may seem intimidating. But the truth is, for your online education business to be successful, learning SEO is completely necessary. But it’s not as hard as you think! In fact, adjusting your perspective on what it is and how it works can be a complete game-changer.

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode, I speak with Dan Shure, an SEO celebrity within the online world. Ok, well he may not consider himself a celebrity by any means, but I sure do.

Dan is the creator of EvolvingSEO.com, a consultancy boutique that provides personalized SEO advice directly to businesses, marketers and website owners.

Surprisingly, Dan’s background is not in marketing. He is a classically trained pianist that started his own music teaching business many years ago. His years of teaching piano to young children unknowingly prepared him to deal with many challenges that come with helping businesses with their online marketing.

Dan has a brilliant way of explaining SEO to beginners, and even I was able to take away a few pointers from his advice. We discuss different ways you can approach SEO that make it much more simple to implement into your online teaching business, as well as some great resources to use while setting up your website.

Also within this episode:

• Dan’s musical background
• How Dan learned about SEO
• The podcast that gave him an ah-ha moment
• How teaching sets you up to be a brilliant business owner
• Why Dan prefers the term “Search Ecosystem Optimization”
• The difference between transactional and informational content
• The truth about keywords
• Where to put your keywords
• Why it’s all about the content

Links:

Evolving SEO.com

Dan on Twitter

Dan on LinkedIn

Wordpress

Google Adwords now called Google Ads

Keywords Everywhere

There’s a common misconception that podcasting is hard. In fact, it’s easier than you think. For educators and entrepreneurs, podcasts are a fantastic marketing tool. But if you want to make it successful, you may need to start smart.

Welcome to Anomalous Educator, where each week award-winning entrepreneur Ray Blakney, sets out to explore the world of education and online business with the help of successful professionals. 

If you’re an educator, entrepreneur or someone who wants to improve people’s lives whilst having your own freedom, then this podcast is for you. 

In this episode, I’m engaging in my first ever couple interview with the podcasting duo Alexia Souza & Foster Hodge. They are the dynamic duo who co-founded two highly popular language podcasts, Inglês Nu e Cru and Carioca Connection. 

Foster initially set out to work within the international business sphere, but quickly realized that the corporate world wasn’t for him. It was then that he moved to Brazil, where he met Alexia in a bar in Rio.

The timing couldn’t have been better as Alexia had just been let go from her production role for one of Brazil’s most famous YouTube channels, Porta dos Fundos, aka Back Door. 

With Foster’s love of audio and Alexia’s production skills, the couple came together to start the podcast Carioca Connection, a Portuguese language learning show for English speakers. Later Inglês Nu e Cru was born, which is aimed at helping Portuguese speakers improve their English with authentic conversations and work materials. 

With a massive 5 million downloads to date, they know the best way to create and launch a podcast. In this episode, I ask about the coveted step-by-step process to successfully get a podcast off the ground, while also diving into the benefits of generating lots of online content.

Also in this episode:

• How Alexia and Foster run their business as a couple
• Why honesty and vulnerability is crucial in podcasting
• Why you should create lots of podcast content
• Why sometimes educators should just hire some help
• How short podcast episodes get more downloads
• The best way to make money from your podcast
• Why every podcaster needs a niche and how you can find yours
• The podcast basics; from audio to release
• How to effectively launch your podcast 

Links:

Inglês Nu e Cru: Website 

Inglês Nu E Cru Rádio: Podcast

Inglês Nu E Cru: Instagram

Inglês Nu E Cru: Facebook

Carioca Connection: Website

Carioca Connection: Podcast

Alexia Souza: LinkedIn