Ever wondered how to transform your passion for teaching into a thriving online business? Katie Gettys joins us to share her incredible journey from a solo educator to the helm of a bustling music studio on Outschool. She unveils the secrets to diversifying teaching content, managing a team, and leveraging Outschool’s platform to reach a broad age range of students. Whether it's music, academics, or life skills, Katie's experience is a goldmine for those looking to scale their teaching endeavors into a successful enterprise.
This conversation isn't just about success stories; it's a practical guide for educators navigating the evolving online landscape. We tackle the trepidation surrounding self-paced teaching and reveal how to strategically manage class preparation, ensuring your courses stand out in a crowded marketplace. With updates to Outschool enhancing teacher-student interactions, we dissect the strategies that will help you establish a solid teaching presence and grow your reputation from the get-go.
The clock is ticking down to the Teacher Seller Summit, starting June 27th, and this episode is your backstage pass to the action, providing invaluable insights on amplifying your business across multiple platforms, from Teachers Pay Teachers to your personal website. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your teaching business to the next level. Join us, learn, and let's transform your educational prowess into entrepreneurial success together.
Ever wondered how to transform your passion for teaching into a thriving online business? Katie Gettys joins us to share her incredible journey from a solo educator to the helm of a bustling music studio on Outschool. She unveils the secrets to diversifying teaching content, managing a team, and leveraging Outschool’s platform to reach a broad age range of students. Whether it's music, academics, or life skills, Katie's experience is a goldmine for those looking to scale their teaching endeavors into a successful enterprise.
This conversation isn't just about success stories; it's a practical guide for educators navigating the evolving online landscape. We tackle the trepidation surrounding self-paced teaching and reveal how to strategically manage class preparation, ensuring your courses stand out in a crowded marketplace. With updates to Outschool enhancing teacher-student interactions, we dissect the strategies that will help you establish a solid teaching presence and grow your reputation from the get-go.
The clock is ticking down to the Teacher Seller Summit, starting June 27th, and this episode is your backstage pass to the action, providing invaluable insights on amplifying your business across multiple platforms, from Teachers Pay Teachers to your personal website. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your teaching business to the next level. Join us, learn, and let's transform your educational prowess into entrepreneurial success together.
Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teachers, pay Teachers, and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
Speaker 1:
This week we have a very special guest, katie Geddes. She is here for the second time. We had such a great conversation the first time that we had to bring her back to talk about being a teacher on outschool, creating a business on outschool. Katie has seen so much success building her teacher business and expanding and growing it, not only on the OutSchool platform but beyond on Teachers, pay Teachers and in building her own tutoring classes that she teaches on her own website. The last time she was here, we briefly talked about OutSchool and I had listeners reach out to me and say we want you to have her back to talk about teaching on OutSchool and how we can do it too. So I'm so excited. I want you guys to meet Katie. Hey, katie, how are you?
Speaker 2:
I'm great, Lauren. How are you?
Speaker 1:
I'm wonderful. I'm so happy to have you back, because the last time that you were here, we chatted about virtual assistants and how it's impacted your business, and you kind of talked about the fact that you have an outschool business. I was so curious about that that I had to learn more. You're finally back and I can't wait to talk about OutSchool today. Before we get started for anyone who hasn't listened to your podcast episode before isn't familiar with you can you just tell everyone a little bit about you and what you do For?
Speaker 2:
sure, okay, well, hello, my name is Katie. I am primarily an online teacher and an online guitar and ukulele music teacher, but also a music studio owner. So I've been teaching on Outschool for three, four years now, I can't remember which and after about a year of teaching on there by myself, I expanded and became a studio, which basically means I also hired on other teachers, so we kind of teach as one collective brand or unit on the platform, and then I'm also an online teacher coach, so I help other teachers get started teaching online as well which I love, and I think that that was the thing about out school.
Speaker 1:
When you were on the podcast last time, that shocked me was that you were like oh yeah, like I hire other people and they work underneath me, and I was like Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Like this isn't, because, when I think teaching online, I think you have so many hours in a day and your income is going to be capped at however many hours you can fit into that day. But when you said that, I was like, oh my gosh, like this is like a little empire you know that you can build, which I think is amazing. Can you start by just telling everybody, like, what is Outschool?
Speaker 2:
Definitely so. Outschool is a platform so I know a lot of your listeners are teachers, pay teachers, sellers, so it is what TPT is to people who sell, like digital products to teachers. But it is a platform for online teachers to create classes, put up class listings and basically families learners between the ages of I think it's three to 18. These students can sign up for your classes and they can sign up for one-on-one classes, so tutoring, or private lessons, or they also have group classes, so anywhere up to 18 students at a time can take a group class with you and they have all subject matters. It can be academic, like math and social studies and science and all the things, but there's also a lot of extracurricular options. Like I teach music, there's also arts and you know, theater related things, but also just random, like life things, people there's like hair braiding classes and, like you know, coding classes and just like social event class type settings. So there's a lot of options for kids who want to learn online basically.
Speaker 1:
I love this, and so parents pay per session, and or I guess an adult could pay for the session as well. Like you know, just anybody who's wanting to learn, like hair braiding, like somebody pays for the session, whether for themselves or for their child, and they would continue then, like with any tutoring type of service, to hopefully come back and continue to get help over time. What did that look like for you in the beginning versus what it looks like for you now, when we're talking about time commitment? What classes look like? Can you kind of give us an idea of that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, sure, and just to clarify to the oldest learners on the platform, so people who can actually sign up for the classes, it's just kids, so it's up to 18.
Speaker 2:
Okay, yeah. So it is just kind of kid focused, which is fun because I mean, I know for me I really enjoy specifically working with kids. The range is kind of all over. I have heard most that people are in the like seven years old to like 13 year old range. I think that's most popular, but they definitely have like all sides of the spectrum of that. And the way it kind of works class wise is there's a few different class types and you know I won't go too in depth because out school is actually like making some changes on what they're called. But basically you can have like a class that just happens one time, where you know it's kind of just a one off masterclass type setting. Or you can have a class that's, you know, week to week and it kind of just goes on and on for there's no set end date. So that could be like more of a social club type setting. Or in my case I do like guitar semi private lessons where kids just come and we learn like a new song each week and that kind of a thing. Or they have more like structured and polished kind of course settings where like maybe you have 40 minute sessions once a week for eight weeks and that could be a more like kind of, I guess formal setting that the students can come and learn. Oh, and they're kind of expanding what used to be called their flex classes. Now they're doing more of this like self-paced courses as well, which I think the out school is going to start to lean into more. They're definitely starting to market it more at the time that we're recording this. So I think more of the what's it called Like pre-recorded rather than live they're also growing kind of that side of the platform too.
Speaker 2:
You know, when I first got started, I did a lot of one-on-ones, kind of private lesson settings. I actually got started right off the bat with group classes, and that was honestly. I hit the platform at a really, really good time where they were really growing. It was 2020. People were staying home. They didn't have a lot of options for things to go out and do, so my group classes took off right away and now I teach. You know something similar I teach groups most of the time and then I actually teach one-on-one on my own. Not that I could take the students from the platform off the platform, because they don't allow you to do that, but I was able to start marketing myself and finding my own off platform one-on-ones and so I think that's worth it for one-on-one, specifically because the 30% hurts for those, but for group classes it's like a win for it. Like I know, a lot of tutors that teach independently will join out school just to have that group class aspect too.
Speaker 1:
So yeah, a mix of, I would say, group and one-on-one, and the self-paced again is growing as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, that's so neat. So when we're talking about this, what I'm hearing you say is like classful is really great, because one of the benefits to having classful versus like trying to source your own students would be that you can teach those group lessons and you're not having to try to like group everyone together to get them all in. But nowadays you're teaching one-on-ones on your own and you're kind of marketing that independently. Yeah, so one of the other things that you said mentioned about it, with this new sort of on-demand self-paced pre-recorded, this sounds very feasible for the teacher that's still in the classroom who doesn't want to come home and spend nights and weekends doing all this tutoring on the side, but would have the ability to maybe pre-record, to put up some lessons and for them to sell at their own pace. Obviously, as you said, it's brand new. Do you foresee there being a benefit in getting in on the ground floor for those self-paced classes, versus like waiting to just kind of see how it?
Speaker 2:
does. You know that was a bit of a debate because when this first came out, teachers were a little nervous about the terms of use and some of the stuff that they required of us to in order to be a part of the self-paced. They have adjusted a lot of the policies and so people are feeling much more comfortable about the idea now. But I know some people are kind of taking a backseat and waiting to see how it goes, because it is such a new opportunity, I guess a new program, and so people aren't sure how it will go.
Speaker 2:
I am definitely one of the people that's jumping on it, just because I could definitely see what you were asking. I could definitely see how getting in in the beginning could be really beneficial, especially just with things like reviews, because with being like a new thing for the platform, they're like investing a lot into marketing these new class formats of the self-paced format. They're investing a lot of marketing and so it's definitely getting like the most eyes on the platform. It's getting. A lot of new families are coming to the platform, probably for this specifically, and those kind of first classes that get out there are going to be the ones that you know start to have that base of reviews and how many learners have taken the class and, like that, social proof in the future is probably going to make a huge difference. You know, as years go on of, you know which students that are sorry, which classes students sign up for, so I can definitely see that it would be, you know, exponentially beneficial to like jump in as soon as possible into the yeah opportunity.
Speaker 1:
So Because with that I mean it kind of opens up a whole new market of teachers who are going to be able to participate and, on the platform, who wouldn't have been able to participate before, which means that potentially, the market's going to be saturated much more quickly than for a live event where you obviously, like you have to be available and so that kind of limits the pool in and of itself. So, yeah, I could see, I could definitely see that. So if you're listening and you're interested in that, you might want to just go ahead and jump on that. So what are some things when we're talking about teaching on out school?
Speaker 1:
My concern would be, if I was walking into this and I'm looking to make more passive income would be I'm going to do all of this work to create these different classes or to create these different sessions, like, for example, like maybe I'm wanting to do make sure I'm covering all the big topics, like okay, students need help with solving equations. So I'm going to create a class for just practicing solving equations or practicing factoring, or practicing basic algebra one or pre-algebra skills. I have to be prepped, or prepared, to do all of those different classes if somebody signs up, and so I'd be worried about all of the prep work that goes into it just so that I have enough classes, class options of it. Like. What does that look like? Am I overthinking it? Is it not as complex as it sounds? Or is there a really great way to a strategy to approach this?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, definitely there are. I could totally see how that would be really overwhelming and there are definitely some kind of workarounds. I guess that you could, you know, do your best to set yourself up for a student not coming in with like random topics or levels all over the place, that kind of thing. So, first of all, you know, as the platform has grown it's become more saturated, right Like there's a lot of teachers on the platform now, and so something that I've seen, that has started to work with a lot of the teachers that I've helped grow on this platform, is when they create one-on-one listings that are really specific, so not even necessarily like one-on-one guitar lessons with Miss G, instead it's like one-on-one finger picking lessons or like in your case.
Speaker 2:
For example, I work with a couple of math teachers and on their listings they might do like specifically a class about regrouping or a class working with like two-digit numbers, and then they do a whole separate listing that's specifically for three-digit numbers, and so the students that come in first of all they're searching those keywords in the search bar when they're looking for classes.
Speaker 2:
So that actually helps their classes show up more and I guess that helps them get more views and more students potentially. But also they're better prepared because they know more specifically what that student is looking to learn. So they don't have to over-prepare and bring in like the kitchen sink I guess of things to teach. So that's definitely a way to go about it as far as one-on-one goes and just getting really specific with the level that you teach in a one-on-one setting and then with group classes you can be really specific about what you're teaching week to week. So you pretty much will they have a new syllabus feature where you will say you know, day one, we will learn this, day two, we will learn this.
Speaker 1:
You know exactly what you're going to be teaching right, so the way you're going to be teaching, right, so you can avoid that, and that's such a reason too. So your suggestion would be to have how many lessons prepared, meaning like each listing would have its own separate lesson. So how many lessons slash listings should I have for those specific topics in the beginning? Also, maybe I'm not understanding exactly what that looks like on your end, is it? I have all of these time slots available and if somebody picks one of these classes at this time, I mean I have to be ready with that one specific lesson, or they could pick a different lesson at the same time. Like, does that make sense? I don't know.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it totally makes sense. So as far as like the scheduling component goes, if it's a one on one setting specifically, then they have a new. This is new as well. They're making lots of updates at Altschool. But the way that the scheduling works is kind of new for one-on-ones, where it's kind of like Calendly, if you know what Calendly works like. So basically you open up a set availability and then the students can sign up within that availability for any time. And so you know when they first register they can sign up for 30 different lessons if they want to, or they can just sign up to work with you for two lessons. You know, it just depends on their needs, I guess. And then once they sign up it kind of takes that slot away from your availability.
Speaker 2:
But as far as like what to teach them, usually what I have found that works the best. It doesn't always work because you can get kind of more last minute learners. That works the best. It doesn't always work because you can get kind of more last minute learners. But I always send a message they allow you to do like a pre-written automated first message that will send to students when they first enroll. So I usually send a message along the lines of you know, I'm so excited to work with you.
Speaker 2:
Give me an idea of the level that you're at or exactly what it is that you're wanting to work on in this lesson, and so I have a more specific idea, I guess, of exactly what it is that you're wanting to work on in this lesson, and so I have a more specific idea, I guess, of exactly what it is that they want to do. So in my case, for example, I might say you know, what guitar chords have you learned so far? Have you ever done any sort of tab before? Have you, you know, learned an entire song? Do you like to sing and play at the same time? You know that kind of thing. And so I have a better idea of where to start.
Speaker 2:
And then I kind of just have a set curriculum that I have created over time that I will kind of take them through, and then if they have some sort of custom thing that they want to learn, or a song that they want to learn, or you know a specific activity that they want to try, then I'll kind of create that outside of that and I'll use that as an opportunity to like grow the curriculum as we go. But I mean also as a teacher, I feel like we all most of us at this point kind of have things that we can grab and teach kind of in our wheelhouse. I guess the tricky part about it is like having it on your computer. If you are teaching online it's a little harder to just kind of, you know, have like a doc cam necessarily, or you know, I'm not sure what people are using these days, but like just having activities prepared, I guess within the general realm of what they're asking to be learning.
Speaker 1:
Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely so. Like if, for example, I have solving systems of equations, right, then I could have by substitution, so real specific, Then I could have something with very, very basic substitution. I could have a worksheet or something available that's a little bit mid-level and then something that's a little higher up and so just depending on where that student is at, you can kind of grab that resource real quick and use that.
Speaker 1:
I think as a teacher, the hardest part for me was always switching gears. It was always going from I'm teaching this class, now I'm teaching the very next class, which I would imagine is even more so as a music teacher because you're teaching so many students all at the same time and multiple different instruments. But for me it was switching gears a lot and it would be a little bit overwhelming for me to think like, okay, I have this time slot open and I have no idea in the next five minutes if somebody's going to pick it, and if they do, what are they going to choose? Is that something that someone needs to be concerned with or is that kind of like rare for someone to pick a class like five minutes before it starts?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's a great question. So it is more common with group classes, like enrolling within a few minutes before class or even a couple minutes into class. That can actually happen. But in the group setting it's a little different because, like I said, you're kind of teaching a set something and so usually you have pre-prepared and you know what's going on. With the one-on-one you can enable, like not allowing people to enroll within 24 hours basically. So you have to have at least 24 hours notice, which for most people you know, when they're trying to build this they're kind of willing to pull something together within that amount of time. So that's kind of nice.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, absolutely Okay. So that sounds way more feasible. That sounds way more feasible than what I'm imagining sitting on my computer Like is somebody going to enroll in the next five minutes? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:
It's a recent development, so it's definitely nice.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that is. That's really nice. If someone wants to get started with outschool, what would you say would be a good first?
Speaker 2:
step. Well, first of all, you have to apply to be on the OutSchool platform, so you do have to go through an application process. There are like some written questions and answers that you have to answer about kind of your own experience as a teacher and you know your education and why do you like teaching, what are your specialties. That kind of thing you have to do, also, like a video demo that you submit. It's usually five minutes or less of a video clip of you teaching a lesson that you put together and, I believe, a sample lesson. You have to submit those just to apply to be a teacher on OutSchool. So it's kind of a pre-step for sure, and I help people through that process all the time. So if you need help, please let me know and we can get you started.
Speaker 2:
But as far as once you're an actual teacher on the platform, the biggest focus for sure is just creating classes. So similar to TPT of where people say you should get some products going and put out your kind of first few products. It's very similar on OutSchool as well. It's putting some classes out there. There, of course, is like a teacher profile aspect of it too, where you can create a profile video and put some information about yourself. But the way that families find you is through your classes. So when they go type something in the search bar of what they want to learn, they scroll through a bunch of classes right to find one that they want to sign up for. And so you have to find, you know, create one that is in demand, that's going to show up, that's going to stand out, and then, once they click on it, of course you have to kind of make that listing that will convert them into students. So, basically, creating in-demand classes and optimizing that listing, as well as you can to get viewers to convert into learners.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so that's, I say, simple enough. But it goes back to what we talked about before with putting the prep work into each class and making sure that you have resources ready to go for each one so that you're not scrambling once somebody signs up. Or would you say, like, if you have the 24 hours enabled, then you could just you know, you could put several classes out there and you could say like okay, well, if somebody signs up, then I'll prep for that class and I don't have to have a hundred different preps ready? Exactly.
Speaker 2:
That's actually what I very much recommend. I never recommend a lot of teachers, will you know? We're very prepared people. We want to like do the best job we can, so we will like create the slides and create, you know, the curriculum first and then they'll. Okay, I'm comfortable enough to make the listing, but it's the opposite direction that you should try. So definitely putting a bunch of listings out there. You just have to have basically a clear enough outline of what you think you will teach in a class to put together a listing and kind of a syllabus that could be followed in order to put the listing up there. And I don't create the curriculum unless. So I definitely recommend going about it that way.
Speaker 1:
All right. So last question for you, and then we'll we'll get into some of the some teasers. When we're talking about income on this platform, obviously your earning potential is pretty much unlimited once you can become a studio and you can hire people to work underneath you. But prior to that, like when we're talking about how much are people paying for a class, and I know that that's going to vary widely, but can you give me some idea of what a teacher teaching on Elk School could expect to be able to make like per hour?
Speaker 2:
So it definitely it depends on the class type. But as far as one-on-ones, for example, which is really popular on the platform, I just read yesterday actually that the average that a family spent on one-on-ones this average about $70 per hour OutSchool does take 30% of any dollar that you bring in.
Speaker 1:
So I'm trying to do math, but let's say so, for example, 21, that would be $21 off. So yeah, so whatever 70 minus 21 is, I got that for $49. So about 50 bucks an hour, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, yeah, so around $50 an hour, I would say, is average for one-on-ones and then group. It's kind of all over the place, just because however much you earn depends on how many students enroll. So let's say that you're pricing your class at $10 per student and you get three students that enroll, then that brings in $30. But then out school of course takes their 30%, so that's like nine, right? So then you would get 21. But again, it depends on how many students enroll. But I would say that with group classes they usually recommend anywhere, like my, 30-minute lessons are between $10 to $14 for a 30-minute lesson for one student, and then of course it just rolls based on how many students enroll.
Speaker 1:
Right. So and then, and then, of course, on top of that, you then have the ability to once you've created that course and you've done it, then you've gone through it live. Then you can I mean, I guess you could do it before then too, but like you could go ahead and you could have that prerecorded. Or you could do the opposite way and you could say, okay, I'm going to create this prerecorded course and then, as I have each one of those lessons, then I'm going to put those up. If you're the type of person that wants to really be prepared and you don't want to have 24 hours in advance notice like that might be an option Then you're able to have it. Same amount of work. Bring in two types of income. Is OutSchool taking 30% of these new types of on-demand courses? Is that how it's working too?
Speaker 2:
It's a little complicated.
Speaker 2:
So the self-paced is what has been released and they are taking 30% of that, and basically how self-paced works is you have, you know, whatever content is in your course and you put it kind of on a schedule of release.
Speaker 2:
They can pay weekly as well so that you can have content dripped, basically, but they do take 30% of those and the students actually have email access with you while they're taking the class. However, outschool is also piloting a subscription model right now as well, and so they Again, it's in pilot, so we'll see if it happens. But they are testing to see if they could do a setup kind of similar to like a Skillshare, where students pay like a monthly rate and then they get access to certain lessons. So that pay structure is going to be a little different. They are very much still figuring out how much teachers will get paid from that, but that would be much more passive because that one doesn't even have email access with the teacher. So as that develops which they said will probably be closer to the end of 2024. So we'll see how it goes, but there's a lot of potential there too for a lot more passive income too on the platform.
Speaker 1:
All right, wow, okay. So lots of options and the ability to obviously make you know as teachers. You know, $50 an hour is really not bad for a lot of us, depending on where you're teaching, but for, like, say me, in Texas, $50 an hour is definitely more than what I was making when I was in the classroom. So it's a great little way to supplement the income. Or if you're full-time, you want to go full-time TPT and you want to step out of the classroom, and I feel like that's also a really great way to kind of try to supplement that. Where you have a little bit more time, you have a little bit more flexibility by stepping out of the classroom to work on your TPT store, but then you kind of have a little bit more security by adding in another income stream, which I love.
Speaker 1:
We want to learn all things out school. Where are we going to find more information about this? What are you? I know for sure, like you have courses, you have all of that. You're also going to be a teacher seller summit. So start by telling us what are we going to learn about a teacher seller summit, and then we're going to get find a way for people to connect with you if they want to learn right away.
Speaker 2:
For sure. So I teach your seller summit, which I'm so excited for. I'm going to be doing a presentation about creating sold out classes. So three steps to sold out classes. So we walk through kind of the three, I guess, key things to consider when putting together a class and a class listing to optimize it in a way that will, you know, get eyes on your class and get people to click on your class and then convert them into a student. So we'll dive into all that. We'll also briefly cover the application process for those of you that have never applied to out school and gotten accepted to teach for out school, cause I know that that is a hurdle as well, so I'm super excited for that. And, of course, if you want to connect with me, I'm on Instagram at my name, which is at Katie Geddes with an underscore, so I would love to chat with you there.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, and you do have course membership. Tell us what all you have for somebody who wants to really master teaching on outschool.
Speaker 2:
So I have a membership called the Online Teacher Academy, which is a monthly membership that you can join. That's mostly outschool teachers, some just independent online teachers as well, to help you start and scale an online teaching business, and I also have a podcast myself called the Teacher Entrepreneur Podcast. So if you want to go listen to some episodes of that, we have a bunch there about outschool and teaching online as well.
Speaker 1:
I love it. Well, thank you so much, katie, for being here, happy to have you back a second time, and I cannot wait to learn more about this at TSS, and I know that there are so many people. There were people who reached out to me the last time that you were on the podcast and they were like, yes, we want you to have her back because we want to learn about out school. So I think that there are going to be a lot of people who you know the wheels will start spinning and thinking about like all the different ways that they could use this to grow or expand their business. So thank you so much for coming and sharing with us. Of course, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely Thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 1:
If you want to learn more about teaching on outschool, make sure you get your ticket for Teacher Seller Summit. You do not want to miss it. We're going to have so many incredible speakers from Farrah Henley, kristen Doyle, erin Waters and so many other incredible presenters with sessions about how to grow your TPT business, how to grow on Instagram, how to sell on your own website, and so much more information that's going to be absolutely invaluable for teacher authors, you don't want to miss it. Teacher Seller Summit starts on June 27th. You can find the link down in the description to grab your ticket right now, and I hope to see you there. But in the meantime I'll see you right back here next week.
