Being an Educator sounds both scary AND exciting. But you know what they say about things that are equally terrifying and thrilling - these are the ones you should 100% pursue! We promise you WILL be rewarded. Not only with an extra source of income, but also with a supportive community that will shape around your education brand. Ready to start? Today, we’re sharing priceless advice from some of the best educators in the photography industry, so keep on reading!
What I wish I knew before starting an Education Community | 8 creatives answer
Photo by Flora Westbrook from Pexels
Maybe it was 2020’s downtime that pushed you to explore new directions in your career and go into education. Maybe you simply have a fire within you that needs to be shared with others. A passion for helping and uplifting other creatives. Whatever is your story, we strongly encourage you to go for it! And to help you get started, we turned to 8 established educators and asked them to share the lessons THEY learned from years of experience.
We asked them all one simple question:
“What’s one thing you wish you knew, before starting an Education Community?”
Their advice will not only help you avoid the mistakes they made but also enlighten you on what is truly important and what you should focus your efforts on. Enjoy!
Maddie Mae from Adventure Instead | Elopement Photographer
ADVENTUREINSTEAD.COM
“I wish I would've known what a positive impact an education community could have on aspiring photographers. I definitely feel like there's a really deep-rooted comparison problem in the industry today that I feel makes photographers doubt themselves—especially when the easiest way for a photographer to see how they "compare" to others in the industry is through social media, which is not a true reflection of the actual success of a business. I wish I would've known earlier about the impact that this has on creativity because I would've started The Elopement Photographer Course and my online community much sooner. I feel like it's my mission as an educator to help photographers feel like they are good enough, that their ideas are good enough, that their talent is good enough. I want them to know that education to help further their business is a great investment, but also there's not just one way to be successful. Basically, the one thing I wish I would've known before starting an education community is how much of an impact encouragement and support has on these amazing creatives, especially when it comes to themselves believing in their ideas and their businesses—it's more valuable than any course or product that they could buy.”
Phylicia Willis | Wedding Photographer
PHYLICIAWILLIS.COM | Website built with Lyra Design Kit
“I wish I knew that the size of your following doesn't matter. Give consistently what you have to who's in front of you... I would've started sooner had I known.”
Caroline Tran | Wedding and Lifestyle Portrait Photographer
CAROLINETRAN.NET
“I wish I knew I didn’t have to overproduce my course videos. I used to spend so much time and money filming my lecture like it was for network TV, but when I started doing webinars over Zoom, I realized that people loved my material even when it was a Zoom recording. They loved it even more when it was live… and that required zero film crew!”
Dylan M Howell | Wedding & Elopement Photographer
DYLANMHOWELL.COM | FUELYOURPHOTOS.COM
“Don't neglect your mailing list. Use it to keep your audience up to date and provide value. Also, don't spread yourself too thin across multiple channels. Concentrate your efforts on your strengths. For us, those are our Facebook Group and our podcast.”
Brandi Potter | Wedding & Elopement Photographer
FROM-MOONLIGHT.COM
“There are a lot of things I wish I would have known prior to taking the leap into education or creating a community. One of the biggest things is that people can and will take advantage of your kindness, but that does not reflect on the people who appreciate your help. I figured out pretty quickly there would always be someone that wanted everything for nothing. But I have absolutely loved getting to know so many wonderful people within my community and helping them grow as photographers. Making friends with so many wonderful people completely cancels out any of the bad that comes with the territory.”
Tae Kim from The Times We Have | Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer
THETIMESWEHAVE.COM | BEHEREPROJECT.COM
“Before starting my educational platform I wish I had a clearer path and goal. It is natural to want to share with our community and make a positive change. But if you don’t have discipline and persistence you will quickly get unmotivated because it involves not only time but resources and a piece of you. It is very important to do and plan things intentionally. It will take time to find your tribe but know that being an educator is a vocation, and sometimes the monetization will come second. Keep up the work, because your time and energy will be appreciated.”
Oli Sansom | Wedding Photogprapher
BRIARSATLAS.COM
“People want you to use your voice to say the stuff that they kinda feel inside already, but need re-enforced. That’s sort of the job of an educator, to deliver that stuff. Not the tired safe stuff, but the permission-giving, dangerous stuff. All the noise out there is confirming and resharing everything that’s safe. A good educator should be doing the opposite. And also, the people receiving the education want a space to talk about it. So whatever your resistance is to, either being dangerous or building community, I’d consider finding a way to remove that resistance. Really it just means asking the question at all times “what’s best for the community, rather than my own ego.”
As you’ve seen each one of them has a different take on what’s important when being an educator. They all share light on key aspects of starting an educational community, things only experience will teach you. We hope you find them helpful and serve you to avoid mistakes and approach your new role as an educator with confidence as you build your own community. Helping others grow as creatives and business owners benefits the whole industry and we’re here to support you.”
Igor Demba | Destination Wedding Photographer
IGORDEMBA.COM | Learn.igordemba.com
“I wish I knew that it can be so rewarding when you share your knowledge. If I'd known that, I would have started way earlier.
One of my first experiences of this was simply sitting down with a great friend, Serafin Castillo, before shooting a wedding in Spain and we just shared everything we knew about editing. We grew so much from those couple of hours.
Fostering a community that shares everything it knows seems counterintuitive to some, but it means that people grow faster, stronger, creating space for innovation and ultimately advance our industry.”
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Want to keep the conversation going? Join our Facebook Group and let’s talk! If you went on an educational pursuit, what are some things YOU wish you knew, before starting? We surely have so much to learn from you.
Creatively yours,
Squaremuse team