How to Get Comfortable Pitching Yourself as a Teacher Beyond the Classroom

For teachers, often the idea of self-promotion and pitching can often feel uncomfortable or “salesy.” But what if we reframe selling as helping? Learning how to pitch yourself as a teacher beyond the classroom is key to expanding your impact as an educator.

Whether you’re developing educational materials, creating a tutoring business, starting an education consulting business, or designing innovative teaching tools, learning how to effectively pitch yourself is essential to achieve success. 

Communicating the value you and your product, program, or service bring is important, whether your ideal clients are individuals, school districts, or companies.

As you leverage your expertise and share your offerings with a wider audience, you’ll want to get comfortable with self-promotion and confidently marketing your products or services. But first, let’s take a look at what it really means to pitch yourself as a teacher moving beyond the classroom.

What Does Pitching Yourself Really Mean?

When you decide to seek alternative careers for teachers, there might be many times when you need to pitch yourself. 

Perhaps you’ll need to convince an ed-tech company that your curriculum experience as a teacher qualifies you for a freelance curriculum development role. Maybe you’ll want to pitch an education business idea to a potential customer or investor. 

In these scenarios — and other similar ones — a successful pitch comes down to creating a message that communicates your expertise, resonates with your target audience and helps build relationships with your potential clients and customers.

Ready to start learning how to pitch yourself as a teacher exploring careers beyond the classroom? Keep reading for our best tips.

How to Pitch Yourself as a Teacher Beyond the Classroom: 3 Tips

If creating an elevator pitch for teachers doesn’t sound appealing, here are three effective ways to pitch yourself and your offerings while staying authentic and true to your values and personal brand.

1. Shift your focus and remember your purpose

To feel good about pitching your programs, products, or services, it can be helpful to shift your mindset from "selling" to "helping." 

Take the time to consider the unique value you bring to the table and how you can make a difference. Reflect on how your offerings can genuinely benefit teachers, students, schools, or the education world. Remember the solutions and positive outcomes you and your offerings provide. 

By reflecting on your “why” and reframing your mindset on how you can make a difference and help others, you'll likely approach pitching opportunities authentically and with a greater sense of purpose.

2. Create your pitch with thoughtfulness

When exploring how to pitch yourself, it's important to develop messaging that resonates with your target audience while still aligning with your values and personal brand. 

To create pitches that “feel good” to you, consider approaches that work best for you. A few approaches could be: 

Sharing your personal journey: You might share your personal journey and the experiences that led you to create your products or services. These stories or anecdotes could highlight your journey as an educator and the motivation behind your offerings. By connecting emotionally with your audience, you might highlight the challenges you faced as an educator and how your offerings can help educators and/or students. You'll likely inspire others and build a genuine connection along the way.

Focusing on a problem-solution:  You can focus on the pain points or needs of your target audience and position your offerings as the solution. Clearly communicate how your products or services address specific challenges, save time, improve learning outcomes, align with educational goals, etc. By speaking directly to their needs, you'll capture their attention and interest, and by presenting yourself as a problem-solver, you'll demonstrate value and build trust.

Highlighting your expertise:  As a teacher, remember you are truly an expert in the field of education, and you are an expert on teacher and student needs. You have so much to offer, and by highlighting your expertise and what sets you and your product/service apart from others, you’ll establish yourself as a trusted authority. To further demonstrate this, consider highlighting any facts, figures, or testimonials that show growth or support your offerings. This can help potential clients and customers see the impact of your expertise and the value of your offerings.

3. Stay true to yourself and your values

Learning how to pitch yourself confidently as a teacher is truly about building relationships and helping people. Growing an education business requires the same skills. A successful business requires not just providing high-quality products or services but also establishing strong relationships with clients and customers. 

When promoting yourself and your products or services, authenticity is key. Ensure that your pitches and marketing materials reflect your true self and genuinely align with your values. Always be transparent and honest. Focus on building meaningful connections and nurturing relationships with potential customers. 

By being genuine, consistent, and true to yourself, you'll be more likely to attract like-minded individuals who resonate with your mission and offerings.

Want more support as you pitch yourself and start or grow an education business?

For teachers who start an education business, mastering the art of self-promotion is crucial for successfully marketing your programs, products, or services. 

If you want guidance and support, along with the business skills necessary to grow your education business, Educator Forever is here to help! 

Join the Grow Your Education Business Accelerator, Educator Forever’s empowering program that will guide you to launch a rewarding, profitable education business successfully. 

While many ideas and courses out there focus on business strategies, this program is uniquely designed for the education industry to give you everything you need to have a successful education business.

Have questions? Contact Educator Forever anytime!