Becoming a Skillshare Teacher
The theme of the month in my newsletter is “Paving the Way“ and to delve deeper into this point, I could find no better experience to share with you than a very special one I accomplished last year: I finally became a Skillshare teacher.
For many years, I had tried to follow my endless list of tasks and dreams. But it wasn’t until last year that I felt something had changed. I had moved in the right direction. I said to myself: “There’s a lot of time for fine tuning ahead but you need to start once and for all. You need to find what’s attainable for you—something you can and you want to introduce into your life in this moment and mean it. It won’t be trivial—no real change will ever be. But it will be something you are able to start building today.”
The Best Goals
The best new goals are those that cannot be ignored anymore.
Anaïs Nin expresses it perfectly:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anaïs Nin
If you had asked me in the past, if I saw myself teaching online, I wouldn’t have thought I had what it takes to do it. I did, in fact, have experience teaching in-person classes: both English and Spanish—I take it after my mother. But teaching online (and teaching art no less) was something that often crossed my mind but belonged in the world of dreams—I had never felt that I had all the right pieces of the puzzle to pull it off.
At times, we might trick ourselves into thinking we need to be experts at something before we dare to consider doing it. But how could we be masters at it if we never give it a try? In other words, how could I have ever become an online teacher if I would never allow myself to start creating online classes?
Only experience can lead to mastery. And before I plunged in, I decided to finally accept one simple fact: my first class would probably not be the best. Back then, it was a harsh truth to swallow but today, it makes total sense. My classes could only get better with time.
As a graphic designer, I had experience with very important skills that helped: recording, editing and making my class visually appealing both decorating my set and when it came to graphics and illustrations. But the part that made me feel the least ready and the most apprehensive was… being on camera.
Being an introvert, I never feel comfortable putting myself out there too much and exposing what could potentially be perceived as flaws. However, my dreams became too big and outgrew the chest where I had kept them hidden and locked up. And so what used to be a seemingly impenetrable barrier became a puzzle I craved to solve.
And here I pause for a moment to share a scene from the series “Lost“ that you may remember. This interchange will complement and walk in harmony along the previous quote about “remaining tight in a bud.“
Locke: “What do you suppose is in that cocoon, Charlie?“
Charlie: “I don’t know. A butterfly, I guess?“
Locke: “No. It’s much more beautiful than that. That’s a moth cocoon. It’s ironic: butterflies get all the attention but moths—they spin silk. They are stronger. They are faster.“
Charlie: “That’s wonderful, but…“
Locke: ”You see this little hole? This moth’s just about to emerge. It’s in there right now, struggling. It’s digging its way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it. Take my knife, gently widen the opening and the moth would be free but it would be too weak to survive. Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it.”
Even though this moment was related to a much darker aspect of the series, it’s interesting to consider that sometimes, it’s ok to take some time to strengthen ourselves and have a fuller heart to then be ready to truly flourish the way we deserve.
I designed a strategy to avoid overwhelm: having always been an introspective person (ahem, overthinker?), I was aware of every single thing that could potentially cause anxiety and this allowed me to create a system with steps to follow that I could slowly but surely tackle. Before I knew it, all of these challenging experiences became a natural and, to my huge surprise, even comfortable part of my workflow.
Having said that, making an online class is most definitely not an easy goal.
Obstacles
There were too many factors that I deemed as hurdles, which made me end up delaying my online teaching dream for far too long.
My thoughts sounded a bit like this:
“There’s not enough light. There’s too much background noise, I don’t have the right equipment. My phone doesn’t have the best quality, I don’t have a good enough computer for video editing, I don’t have the right ideas, what I am teaching has been taught before, who would want to learn from me?” Bla blah.
Self-doubt took the driver’s seat for the longest time and clarity moved further and further away.
In 2021, I got very close to finally releasing my first class. But something always got in the middle. Both life events and again, feeling that I was not ready. Something didn’t seem right. It’s actually a class idea that I still want to release. I have to admit, in hindsight, I’m glad I waited.
In 2022, I got even closer. I wrote the full script for another class (I also still want to release that one 😂), I got all the materials I needed, I made the full design of a mural, I recorded many lessons BUT… the way that I was delivering my script was too far from what I had envisioned and what I wanted.
Fortunately, I didn’t give up and finally 2023 was the year where all the variables and factors I deemed necessary came together with enough force to make me feel ready and confident to be able to say “I DID IT!“
I don’t like boasting but after revealing how long it took for me to gather the guts to do this, I feel like I can tell you that not only I was very proud of the results but I also won the Skillshare teach challenge: a prize value of an iPad Air. 🎉
I already have an iPad (my old little friend) so I invested what I earned in my desktop computer which I desperately needed. I had been trying to not let my laptop get the best out of me (there were days when I just barely dodged losing the fight haha 💻). The tech obstacles I experienced were something I couldn’t deal with any longer for my type of work (not just video editing but my entire field): lack of storage, lack of RAM, small screen, you name it.
I genuinely put all of what I knew I could into building my class from the ground up. And even though the perfectionism in me could see many holes in it, I knew that this was the best I was able achieve in that moment with my tools, my skills and my experience. I was prudent enough to finally internalize that it was ok to launch this product. It didn’t need to be the best it could ever be. And the only way that I could ever achieve a more polished and better outcome would be to allow myself to release that one in that moment. We all learn and we all get better by knowing when to stop refining and when it’s for our art or creation to be in the hands of our audience.
My Goal Turned into a Habit
Some goals don’t need to become habits. Some will be a one time thing we work towards. But I was so excited seeing that I had finally accomplished one of my biggest dreams:
I could finally earn money doing what I had created 100% myself.
I wasn’t following a client’s requests.
I wasn’t modifying a pattern to fit someone else’s brand.
This was all me. And in the process of creating my class, I realized how many elements that I’m passionate about it involved:
Art
Storytelling
Teaching
Branding
Video making
Photography
Decoration
Visual impact
So my momentum resulted in me making 2 more classes. That means a total of 3 classes of 60-80 minutes in half a year.
In other words, that which had taken 3+ years to muster the courage for, was now 3 full classes that I had made on my own from start to finish, in 6 months.
My point is that sometimes when you allow yourself to jump over a barrier even when you don’t feel 100% confident, you may find a very rewarding experience on the other side of the fence. And even if that first thing takes long to make or do, the next one will be inherently easier to undertake, and so will be the following, and so on and so forth.
There’s so much to write about that I learned from my class creating process and the systems I developed to streamline what I now know how to do in a much more productive way, bringing the work time down from 3 months to 3 weeks.
Like with everything else practice makes “perfect.” You can focus on the quality of your product because now the technical stuff becomes less and less of an obstacle. You’ve tackled it.
Regrets?
At the end of the day, the excitement was great but I could not help but ruminate around the following question: “why didn’t I start earlier?“
So I stopped and “had a conversation” with myself where I said: “cut yourself some slack.”
Sure I had postponed creating an online class for years. But doing this (especially for the first time) was no walk in the park: I’m only one person who had to turn into a crew: designer, director, screenwriter, editor, set designer, audio quality assistant, animator, host, teacher, continuity specialist, photographer, videographer, storyteller, and I could keep going.
This is an adventure that’s incredibly rewarding but it does take time. And it’s ok to need support and get the right guidance. That’s why if I had to give advice on how to start, I think the best way is by far through a Skillshare teach challenge. And if you can find a teaching coach, even better. I had a fantastic one called Nevila :).
In any case, to wrap up for now, remember that if you give enough time to your habits, you’ll see more benefits than you have originally aspired to or even imagined could happen.
Student review on my first Skillshare class ❤️
Student review on my Halloween class ❤️
I can’t wait to tell you more about what I learned from teaching but for now, allow me to end this post with a random tip for those times when you get overwhelmed with a long to-do list:
When I have a ton of goals and I can’t find a good reason to prioritize one or the other, I write them down in small pieces of paper and put them inside an container: it can be a piggy bank, a treasure chest, a bottle or anything that you can slip them into. Then I shuffle and let randomness assign the next task to me.
Until next time! Happy goal planning and class creating!
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