You’re an Amazing Educational Consultant. Unfortunately, That’s Not Enough.
When I left my job as the head of Language Arts Curriculum & Instruction at a state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and launched my own independent educational consulting business, I was fired up to share my expertise with the world.
And, of course, I also dreamed of making good money as a consultant and speaker and living a lifestyle where I was my own boss, where I got to travel to cool places to do my presentations, and where I could work from my home office on days I wasn’t traveling.
Now, I will admit that those early days were a little scary, as I was giving up a steady paycheck and benefits to start my consulting business. Luckily, I had enough work to start with as a result of my connections from being at the State Department, as well from running an annual teachers’ conference.
But it didn’t take me long to realize that, while I had the expertise in my field (brain-based teaching and language arts instruction) and I was a good presenter, I didn’t know the first thing about running a business.
Oops!
The Difference Between Successful Educational Consultants and Those Who Don’t Make It
Looking back on that time, I realize that I simply didn’t know enough about what I was getting into to be worried. You’ve heard of “blissful ignorance”? Yep, that was me.
I was confident in my subject matter expertise, and I was confident in my presenting skills. That would be enough to help me build a successful business, right?
Ummm…No. Not really.
What I quickly learned was that, as a beginning entrepreneur, you’re a one-man show. You not only have to create it, but you have to design it, market it, and sell it. You have to do the booking, the invoicing, the accounting, all the handouts, keep the website up to date, everything. It’s a huge learning curve.
This is an all-too-common story. The longer I spent in consulting, the more educational consultants I met who were struggling with the same issues I was struggling with. Some of them figured things out and became highly successful. Others, sadly, did not (and some of the ones who didn’t make it were true experts in their fields and fantastic presenters).
And I realized that the difference between those who made it and those who didn’t came down to one thing: learning how to run a profitable business. So, I buckled down and got busy.
Over the course of the 18 years I spent as a full-time educational consultant, I learned many things the hard way, through trial and error. I also read countless business books and spent thousands of dollars on online business courses.
Here are just a few of the things I had to learn:
- How to find the balance between time working IN my business vs. time spent working ON my business
- How to reach out to conferences and write proposals to get on the programs
- How to sell myself to school districts with the right balance of confidence and humility
- How to make connections and build relationships with other experts in my field
- How to create a steady stream of new business leads coming into my business
- How to create content to build credibility and repurpose that content multiple ways to maximize the mileage I got from each piece
- How to build back-end systems to streamline the office work so I could spend more of my time creating thought-leader content
It was slow going because I was learning all of this one piece at a time. It took a few years before all those pieces of the puzzle came together to form a coherent business model.
In the end, I’m happy to report that things worked out really well.
Over the years, I provided professional development workshops for hundreds of school districts around the U.S. and established myself as a frequent speaker at regional, national, and international conferences.
It was a wild ride, and I absolutely loved working with teachers to help them improve their instruction and classroom management skills. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
The Birth of Ed Consultant Marketing: Even Luke Skywalker Needed a Yoda
But then, a few years ago, I decided to make a change. I decided that, after 18 years of traveling, it was time to come off the road and serve education in a different way.
I created Ed Consultant Marketing because I wanted to share the lessons I’d learned about growing an educational consulting business and help make the path a little easier for other consultants facing the same challenges I had faced.
Now, I hope to share those same lessons with you…
You have expertise to share. You have a mission and a vision for what you want your business to become. You’re the hero of this story.
But even Luke Skywalker had to learn the ways of the Force before he could become a Jedi.
So, if you’re looking for a guide to help you accelerate your business growth, someone who’s “been there, done that,” I’d love to explore how we could work together.
Use the form on the Contact page to ask a question or send me a message. Or click below to schedule a free discovery call.
I look forward to hearing from you!
But What You REALLY Want to Know Is…
Can I help YOU, specifically?
You may be thinking that everything I’ve described above sounds good in theory. But maybe you believe that your specific situation might be a little different than that of others I’ve helped and you’re not sure that I can do the same for you.
Let me give you two reasons why I think I can, indeed, help you:
1.
All successful educational consulting businesses are pretty much the same at their core. There are common elements that need to be present in any expert business if it’s going to work. I know what those elements are, and I know how to either create those elements for you (if you choose to outsource the work) or how to teach you to do it for yourself (if you choose to have me coach you).
2.
I’ve worked with a wide variety of clients—early childhood consultants, middle and high school writing consultants, reading consultants, educational software consultants, curriculum publishers, educational app developers, educational non-profit organizations, etc. More than likely, whatever your specific challenges are, I’ve probably already dealt with it, either in my own business or in the businesses of one or more of my clients.
Bottom line? I’m confident that I can help you achieve your business goals. But there’s only one way to find out…
Let’s schedule a free consultation call to talk about your needs. If we’re a good fit, wonderful! We can get started right away.
If we’re not a good fit, that’s OK, too. I’ll let you know why I don’t think it would work and do my best to give you some other options to look into. I have plenty of work, so I don’t need to take you on if we’re a bad fit. I just want you to be successful.
And Now for Some Totally Random Stuff that You May NOT Want to Know…
In the sections above, I’ve given a lot of reasons why I think I can help you achieve the successful educational consulting business you’ve been dreaming of.
But there’s one thing that you can’t really know until you actually meet someone (or at least talk to them on a Zoom call): whether you’d be a good fit personality-wise.
I get along well with the vast majority of my clients (I still stay in regular touch with some former clients years after working with them), but I’m not going to lie, it sucks when you’re trying to help someone and there’s a major personality clash.
So, just to give you a little taste of what I’m like beyond all the business talk on this site, here are a few random fun facts:
- I was an English teacher for 14 years (evenly split between high school and university levels) before becoming the Language Arts Consultant for Curriculum & Instruction at the State Department. I taught all the high school grades, though more 9th grade than the others (I taught a mean Romeo and Juliet). At the university level, I taught literature and writing courses (composition, fiction writing, and poetry writing).
- I’m certified to teach English, Social Studies, and Physical Education, and I have coached boys’ basketball and baseball and girls’ basketball, volleyball, and softball at the high school level as well as several traveling teams.
- My wife is also a career educator, with nearly 40 years in various roles (elementary teacher, principal, and State Department Early Childhood Director).
- My wife and I have three grown sons of whom we’re very proud—Mikael, Rory, and Jordan—and one grandson, Henry, who we’re unapologetically spoiling (he’s the only grandchild on both sides of his family, so he doesn’t stand a chance).
- In addition to my current business, for nearly 30 years I’ve run an annual K-12 language arts teachers’ conference in Missouri called the Write to Learn Conference. At one time or another, I’ve hired most of the top language arts consultants in the U.S. to speak at my conference.
- My wife and I are big golden doodle lovers and will happily share photos if you ask (maybe even if you don’t ask). But if you’re a “cat person,” I’m cool with that, too. We once had a cat, Buddy, who lived to the ripe old age of 24. Best. Cat. Ever.
- I love music, especially rock, blues, jazz, soul, R & B, and funk (but don’t even think about playing country or rap within 100 yards of me or we might have words) and we attend as many live concerts as we can. Some favorite concerts we’ve attended: Santana; Neil Young and Crazy Horse; Tina Turner (R.I.P.); Trombone Shorty; John Hiatt; Monophonics; Earth, Wind, & Fire; B. B. King (R.I.P.); Kenny Wayne Shepherd; Jonny Lang; Buddy Guy; and Here Come the Mummies.
So, now you know a little more about me. If you think I can help you grow your business and if the fun facts above haven’t caused you to back slowly away from the computer, we should talk about how to take your business to the next level.
All you have to do is hit that button.
