From Taking on Flexible Jobs in Education to Building an Online Course
Two years ago, I met Ileana Hilton when she joined the Beyond the Classroom Course. She’s been a beloved part of the Educator Forever community ever since, exploring a variety of flexible jobs in education and other teacher entrepreneur ideas!
When Ileana began to explore education jobs other than teaching, she found flexible work as an online teacher, curriculum reviewer, curriculum writer, and many other interesting pursuits. Ileana formed Seraphim Educational Consulting and began to think about growing her own business in addition to working for other organizations.
In the fall of 2021, Ileana joined the Grow Your Education Business Accelerator and took action on her teacher entrepreneur ideas to create her first online course, Be You! Do You! For You! Self Care 101 for Educators & Anyone.
Through this online course creation experience, Ileana has been able to expand her impact in education to help not just students, but teachers too.
Developing Her Teacher Entrepreneur Ideas
Before expanding her impact beyond the classroom, Ileana was a classroom teacher for about 18 years. She decided to get her doctorate, thinking that she would then move into a different position within her school district. When that didn’t happen, Ileana realized it was time to take action towards building her own dreams as a teacher entrepreneur.
“I was tired of waiting for other people to give me opportunities. It was time for me to make my own opportunity,” Ileana said in a recent conversation we had. “I just was like, I have nothing to lose. I was so excited to join the Beyond the Classroom course and realized there are so many opportunities out there. The way you help us evaluate our skills and see that these skills that you have as an educator are transferable— no one ever really puts it out there like that to you.”
When Ileana decided to take action to find work beyond her district, it was the start of the pandemic. At the time, so many things had moved online and Ileana dug into a variety of opportunities for flexible jobs in education.
She applied for several positions… then didn’t hear back right away. But she kept at it, applying for more and more jobs outside of the classroom as she became aware of them. She started to quickly pick up work as a curriculum designer, virtual teacher, online facilitator, and curriculum reviewer.
As Ileana took on more and more work, she started realizing that she was creating the same stressful patterns she experienced as a teacher. Her schedule was really busy, getting up to teach at five in the morning, then working on curriculum review, grading papers, and juggling multiple projects. She knew she needed to rethink her teacher entrepreneur ideas to come up with a more sustainable and flexible schedule.
“I was like, wait a minute, what's the whole point? Starting my whole business, so that I can have flexibility and time to relax was the whole point,” said Ileana. “So I had a conversation with myself and realized something's got to change. I needed to slow down and pick and choose what it is that I wanted to do.”
Ileana looked at her many projects and evaluated if they were currently bringing her joy, purpose, and/or experience. She culled down her work to focus on what lit her up. Then with a more manageable workload, she was able to consider the next steps for her education business.
“The Beyond the Classroom course is the first step. Through it, you can decide whether you want to leave the classroom completely or whether you just want to do something else, in addition. I think that's perfect because sometimes as long as you have something else going on, besides being in the classroom, that will be your saving grace. Once you make the decision that you want to have your own business, it’s time for the accelerator. When I started the accelerator, I was crystal clear. I wanted to build my business and I needed to move it up to the next level.”
Taking Her Teacher Entrepreneur Ideas to The Next Level
Through the accelerator, Ileana realized that she wanted to focus on helping teachers develop the same self-care strategies that she personally found so valuable. She began by starting a blog, then grew the blog into an online course focused on self-care for teachers. Throughout the process, Ileana got clear on who she wanted to help with her teacher entrepreneur ideas and how she could best help them. Along the way, she learned to let go of the desire to be perfect.
“Try it. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time around,” Ileana said, encouraging others to go after their dreams. “For me, the biggest thing has been realizing I don't have to be perfect. I can do something and see how it works out. Just learning to get over that fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of failing, of not being good enough. A lot of it is all in our head and at the end of the day, who cares?“
Starting her own business and starting an online course has been a major learning experience, but Ileana has found it to be well worth it. By exploring work that she truly enjoys, Ileana has been able to build a professional life based on her passions and interests.
“There's nothing better than having something that's your own. Right?” she said, “You're your boss, you get to make your own decisions, and you decide what it is you want to do. And you decide when you don't want to do things too.”
Looking to start your own business? Want to explore your best teacher entrepreneur ideas? Apply to join our next round of the Grow Your Education Business Accelerator. We’d love to have you join us to build and scale a flexible education business.
Check out my entire conversation with Ileana here: