The Importance and Value of Collaboration with Amy Roadman | 74
This week’s inspiring teacherpreneur journey is with Amy Roadman. I loved chatting with her (again!) about the importance of the creative process and the values it can bring to your collaboration.
Amy Roadman has been an art teacher for 20+ years and believes art and creativity can be taught, that you don't have to start with innate talent, but a desire to create and practice. By providing opportunities that really focus on the overall experience. She has learned how to ease the pressure of creating and allow many people to tap into their creative side and find that it can be really rewarding to do.
In this episode, Amy and I chat all about:
The benefits of collaboration
How to find people to collaborate with that compliments both your skill sets
Different ways and opportunities to incorporate art and creativity in our businesses
Connect with Amy Roadman:
Over on Instagram at: @amyroadman.art
Or on her website: amyroadman.com
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Episode Transcript:
Jenzaia: Hey there, I'm Jenzaia, and this is Market Scale Grow. A podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money. With weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you. My goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy. So you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams. Okay, so before we hop into the episode, I just want to remind you to download my free guide to Facebook targeting audiences. It has been created specifically for teacher business owners, and I go through the warm lookalike and cold interest-based audiences that you need to have set up to be running Facebook and Instagram ads. There are checklists and brainstorming pages so that you know it, you have everything. But as an exciting special, I'm opening up some audience audit calls where you can hop onto a 15-minute zoom call with me, and you'll get my eyes on your audiences so that you can make sure not only you have all the audiences, but they truly are perfect for your business. So head to marketscalegrow.com/audienceaudit to book your free audience audit call today. Okay, now into the episode.
Jenzaia: Welcome back to Market Scale Grow. I'm here with Amy Roadman. Today, I'm super excited to chat with her. So welcome, Amy.
Amy: Hi, thanks for having me on. This is exciting.
Jenzaia: Yeah, I'm super excited to have you here. Do you want to start by just letting me know or letting everyone know a little bit about your business?
Amy: Sure, I started off actually as a full time teacher that quit just before COVID. And as I was quitting, I was figuring out what I was going to be doing instead, which my primary goal at the time was to be an artist in residence it's a program where I still would go into schools, and I would team teach with people that like other teachers that host me. However, of course, that stopped almost immediately because I quit in January and you know, by mid March, we were not going into schools anymore. So I had to figure out what else I would do. Because that was part time, I knew it was only part time, but I hadn't really jumped into other things. So I had been teaching pottery classes, which also shut down for a while, but we were able to start them back up in the summer. And that, of course, has continued and is filling up quite well. But I'm kind of piecing things together. So I started teaching on out school teaching virtual art classes, and building up that part of my business, which I love. And I have a studio now built that I teach out of. And the other thing that I really was starting to enjoy doing was teaching adult workshops, which also had to be placed on hold. And once we me and another artist had kind of like started the idea. And I've branched out also collaborating with other wellness coaches, yoga teachers, other artists, we really have kind of found our niche. And it's one of those things where it took a while to figure out what I was passionate about. But that's where I'm heavily leaning now. So I'm doing adult workshops, adult like all day classes, overnighters, and even a week long retreat on an island. So I've so many plans, so many places to go so many really cool Airbnbs that I want to rent, but I'm taking it one step at a time.
Jenzaia: Oh my gosh, that's so so cool. And I actually just pulled it up while you're talking. Amy was on the podcast, back episode 13. You can hear more of her story if you want to go back and then we'll make sure that's linked in the show notes. So you can hear it's talking more about like as a teacher printer, what you were doing and the teaching and how you got into being a teacher. So definitely go back and listen to that. But today we're going to talk more about finding your niche or niche however, you never know which way to say it. And I say it both ways.
Jenzaia: Because like you just kind of got alluded to, I guess is that it can be a journey. And it can take time and experimenting a little bit with all the different pieces and trying to figure out what it is that lights your fire, I guess
Amy: Exactly. Not only that, but also starting one thing and getting good at it before you move into another and I definitely sometimes have that shiny object syndrome. And it's like, oh, I want to do this and wait, I could do that. And you're never going to really make headway if you're constantly spinning your wheels. So after I started teaching out school and feeling comfortable and getting a buildup of repeat students and establishing my classes there then I felt like I could move to the next thing and then and move to another thing. So the pottery classes are well established, the outschool schedule is set. And I just know what I'm teaching. And I love it. And I'm actually starting to apply to be an organization to have other teachers teach with me as well, because I want to do these other things, too. I don't want that to just be my full time income. Plus, I always think it's a good idea to not put all of your eggs in one basket. But by expanding my hours and having other teachers be able to teach with me that will be able to help me scale my business
Jenzaia: That's cool,I feel like I recently heard about that feature, but you can basically like build a mini school school, right?
Amy: Yeah, exactly. So I actually interviewed another art teacher this past week. And I love what she had to say we had pretty similar views on things. And she also has experience in a few different types of media that she's more comfortable with. So we're discussing how she could make that work within the organization rather than her having to start up her own teacher business, because she's not really interested in doing that. And starting from scratch, and I'm already established. So having over 500 reviews and teaching over almost 2000 students like I'm there already, and she can kind of just jump in and have that base of students.
Jenzaia: That is like the power of collaboration, right? Yes. Working together, finding where your strengths are, and finding someone else who has complementing strengths that you can work together, instead of stomping people down and being like, No, I can be the only art teacher on all of out school.
Amy: And the other thing is, every student will find the teacher that they click with, or that teaches in a style that really complements their learning styles. So it's helpful to have a variety of teachers. I mean, I know I'm not the only teacher on out school. And I know that there's lots of people that can teach pottery classes, or whatever it is that I'm doing. But once somebody finds the person that they like taking classes with, and I'm the same way, I love to take classes, I love being the student every once in a while and not being the one in charge and constantly busy and having to do it all. And so I like to sit back and learn something new. And I'm not saying that I've gone to a class where I haven't had a teacher that was like, and you know, I was they were okay, I learned from them, but like, I didn't click with them. And that's okay, you do get notifications sometimes will, in your ongoing classes, it'll tell you, they have choices of why they are not enrolled with you anymore. And sometimes it says teacher was not a good fit. And that's okay, like I'm not offended, because I totally understand that we all learn in different ways. But it's also nice to not compete with these people, but instead, find other people that you can recommend the kids to because they still are interested in art. But maybe your class wasn't the best fit or the times that you offer don't work for them, and it's a struggle. So I'd rather recommend someone else for them that maybe has a different teaching style than me. Yeah, absolutely.
Jenzaia: And I think that that expands like to business in general, like as a Facebook ad strategist, I can only take on so many clients, I can't, as much as I wish I could help every single person who wants to run Facebook ads, I just can't right and there's nobody who can. And so having different people and having that referral network, and maybe like I specialize in one type of ads, and they specialize in another one. So I think no matter what niche you're in, you can find that the value of collaboration over competition, for sure.
Amy: Oh, for sure. And the other thing too, is you are networking and making your circle bigger.So a lot of the in person stuff that I'm doing. I'm collaborating with others. And so for instance, I'm collaborating with somebody who is she's actually a family and marriage counselor, and she is being certified to her no, she already got her certification as an outdoor, oh, gosh, I don't remember her title now. But it's really cool. Like she takes you outdoors, it's experiences and like really getting you to like experience the nature through your senses and making connections. And we've collaborated on a couple of the workshops. And one of the people coming to my retreat that's in the middle of May down at the beach is someone I met through that collaboration. And so she found that what I was doing was something that she was really interested in. And that's awesome to be able to just build your network and start to see how things connect. My daughter is certified to teach yoga. So she's going to be leading all the yoga sessions. So it's really neat to be able to collaborate with my own kid even now that she's old enough and she's experienced with this and she's really excited to because it's a place that we're really familiar with and we can like lead excursions and it's not fully focused on art but just Like wellness in general all around,
Jenzaia: Which is a cool expansion that you've been able to make in your business of going from our teacher to now facilitating these wellness retreats.
Amy: Yeah,it's so much fun. And I love to plan. And another art teacher who also left the classroom, we're planning one for June, and we got together to discuss it. And she pointed out, and I'm gonna steal this forever. She's like, we are event planners, as teachers, we plan events, we just don't have the time to like, implement them to the like, degree that wedding planners do. You know, it's like you are planning six to eight events a day for your classroom, and then you are able to pull them off like that, you know,
Jenzaia: I've never thought about it that way. But that is exactly what it is.
Amy: Isn't it amazing. I know, like you really do. So when my daughter was heading to college and taking all of those tests didn't like personality tests, and what would be a good career, I took one of them, event planner was way up there. And I'm like, Well, that makes total sense. I love to plan things and think about all the little details to make it really special. So this has really helped build that part of the business that I'm really passionate about. Because I have been coming up with all these ideas and themes and all the stuff that would go along with it to make it an experience and not just like, Oh, I'm coming to a class, I'm going to make a clay pot, or I'm going to paint to know like we want this to be an experience overall.
Jenzaia: Oh, cool. So do you have any tips for finding these people that complement you and can help you do the things that you maybe like, if you're not certified in yoga, I mean, it's very convenient that your daughter is like, how do you find these complementary services, or people who either do things that you just don't do or you don't have the time to do
Amy: Then a lot of happenstance, my daughter was being certified to teach yoga and there was a yoga class nearby that I saw pop up for an outdoor one during COVID. And so I said, Well, let's try it out, do you want to go and so we went. And that's how I met the teacher that I go to a yoga class weekly now with this woman, and she actually helped collaborate and teach a yoga class right before bed at our last overnight retreat. So it was really nice and relaxing, and just the perfect way to end the day. And she also attended it. So I gave her a discount for her teaching that she really wanted to attend and do the art stuff. And everything else that was happening. The woman that I was talking about doing the outdoor experiences, I met her through a yoga class, and we just happened to be talking as we would walk to the car. So just like that kind of just happened. The other ones all the artist, it's just I have a network of art teachers and different people that I've met throughout the years that I've been collaborating with. So this just seems to like kind of fall into your lap at the right time sometimes. So that's what's happening. Whenever it comes to collaborations, you know, finding the people that I know that we would complement each other well, and just building those relationships, and even virtually, through the teacher hustle University, I met another art teacher who is kind of going through similar changes. And we've discussed like, probably in the future, we'll probably post something together because that's also a goal of her. So just wherever you meet people and build those relationships up and see how they would be a good fit.
Jenzaia: And there are there are lots of those little pocket communities that you can find people even online, so
Amy: Yeah, cuz she's in Ohio, and I'm in Pennsylvania. And it's like, okay, well, we could plan something sort of halfway between, or it's really not like a ridiculous drive for one of us to drive to each other for one of the retreats or events.
Jenzaia: Yeah, that's so cool. Just to see like, how the network expands and those connections that you can make.
Amy: Yeah, just keep growing them too. Because once you meet people from the other network, like the yoga classes, or whatever, they then like, open up a whole new stream of audience for you. So you realize that there's a lot of women like, I don't teach, I teach art classes, fundamental art classes to the kids. But for the retreats, it's more like a lot of ladies who are empty nesters or they're retired, and they want to be creative, but maybe they haven't really painted or done something in such a long time that they're, they're a little weary, they don't feel like they're artists, but they do also want to just like, get out with their girlfriends and have fun and have something to do. And so that's why I really focus on making it an experience rather than like, okay, when you leave, you're going to have a perfectly painted tree. It's more, I promise you by the time you leave, you'll have something displayable but it's more about the process than the product.
Jenzaia: Absolutely, I am okay, so switching gears just a little bit how do you think that you have navigated this, these changes in your niche and really finding what you're passionate in, without going down the shiny object syndrome route and like balancing the two because I think that that's really hard. If you're to not be constantly changing, changing, changing, for there to be some consistency, but also to follow your heart and to lean into what's working.
Amy: I'll be honest with you, I did follow the shiny object syndrome for a little while when it came to virtual teaching, and just what what I wanted to do to expand my business once I was teaching on out school and feeling really comfortable with it. I was looking at what can I do to scale? And part of like, learning the marketing of stuff, I decided, okay, well, I, I think I need to offer something that I felt like I was lacking whenever I first started teaching virtually. And so I started developing a whole like program, and course and figuring out like, how could I have learned better if I would have had this information for virtual teachers. And the longer I got into it, and don't get me wrong, I spent a lot of time behind the scenes time figuring out exactly what I would be doing for this. But then when it came time to market it, I wasn't in love with it. And I didn't like talking about it. And I didn't like getting on stories, and I felt too salesy, and it just didn't feel right. But whenever I was marketing, the few like this was whenever I was just starting to break into doing the workshops, again, because people were starting to feel comfortable getting out and doing things, those I felt totally fine talking about. And I was excited about promoting them. And I was realizing to most of my audience on social media was there for the art. And I was having to like start from scratch and build up the virtual teacher audience. And so I just realized, like, what am I doing? My passion has always been art. I've been an art teacher for over 20 years. Why am I switching gears? And so I think the biggest thing is just knowing what you really like doing. And once I realized, I'm doing this, I really liked doing this, why am I not leaning into this more, I just I abandoned the whole helping virtual teachers specifically. And I have that idea. It's developed and maybe sometime down the road, it's something I decide is the passion. Eventually, I'll do it. And I still I help teachers if they asked me questions, or I help them get started on out school or set up, since I use a document camera and more than one device and like help people set things up. But it's not what I was passionate about. So it sounds like just like really listening to your heart. Yeah,
Jenzaia: it really is absolutely,
Amy: For sure. Because if you're not comfortable posting about it, talking about it getting on stories, and like showing your face and saying I'm excited about this, then what's the point like, you don't want to dread what you're doing, and you want to enjoy the business that you're starting.
Jenzaia: I feel like your audience can sense that too. If you're not really passionate about what you're promoting, and you're kind of like, I have this course and it's going to be great. Like, it just isn't the same as if you legitimately love what you're doing. And you really feel it and you want to talk about it. There's just a difference. And it's just it's very noticeable.
Amy: I think, I think so too. It's just, even though you're on the screen across from these people, you give off a vibe. And if you're not giving off the right vibe, you're not gonna make it make the sales and you're not going to scale your business. I mean, it's as simple as that you have to be excited about what you're doing.
Jenzaia: Absolutely. Okay, so let's talk more about these retreats and how as like, if I were to participate, what the benefits are for me, because I'm like super curious about. If you don't mind, if you don't mind.
Amy: I don't mind. See because this is what I like to talk about and what I like to do. So the main thing is, I don't want you to feel like you are coming to a class where you have to be good at it already. Because I get a lot of people that tells me they're not creative. I don't know how to draw, and they associate creativity with that. And I, I like to bring out like, start questioning them, like what is it that you love to do? How did that seem creative to you? Or what did you do that maybe helped you solve a problem as you were doing it? How did you build something? How did you make something just a lot of people are working with they're sitting on the computer so much that they're not working with their hands. And I was talking to a friend who said she just she knows she's not good at painting but she wanted painting supplies for Christmas and she just wanted to work with her hands literally use her hands to do something. And it made so much sense. And so a lot of people that come to the retreats and workshops are very wary of it. I've never done this before, I'm going to try something new. It's sort of scary. I hear that a lot. But by the time they're done, they're proud of what they've done, because they've accomplished something that maybe they didn't think they could do. So it's just fun to convince people that you don't have to be good at it to do it. You don't just enjoy the process, like I've said before.
Jenzaia: I think it also is a really good way to take time away from the every day that you have. And that we get so drawn into our businesses and our families. And I'm not saying that either of those are a bad thing, but that there is so much value to taking a step outside of your everyday grind and doing something new that will make your brain think in a different way and connect those neurons in a different way. And I'm such a scientist, no. Like, pulling that away, and like going and doing something different that isn't, that takes you out of your comfort zone. And or in a different place, or any literally anything that's different from the everyday,
Amy: My biggest thing is, that too many people feel guilty for taking that time. And growing up. I was always my family's all artistic. My parents are not my brother and sister and I all are. And we were encouraged to be artistic, we all have pretty artistic careers even. But once I had kids, I didn't do as much because like you said, you know, you're kind of just everything's family, it's this, I have to do this. And then I'm working or I have my own business. And one thing that I was definitely very excited that I was able to do because I realized that not everybody was able to do this, as I my best friend from college live three hours away super easy drive. And once or twice a year, I would go to her house, and just spend the weekend. And at first, whenever my first was born, I would take her with me, and it was fine. It's still fun. But whenever I was pregnant with my second, I told my husband, I'm gonna go out there before he's born, and I'm not taking my daughter with me. And he was fine with that. And a lot of people she was also a teacher. And she was telling them like I was coming out to visit and they're like, Wait, so who's watching the who's watching her daughter, and she's like her husband's parenting her daughter. So by doing that, that one time it I could actually feel the relief. As I drove out there, I was so stressed and didn't realize it. And I just like felt that relief as I drove those three hours. But by the end of the weekend, I was excited to come home and see them. And so I did that every year. And it's just like for the retreats or whatever. Go ahead and mean it's called a retreat. You're like taking time for yourself. But also treat yourself well and allow yourself that time. And sometimes I do just an overnighter sometimes they're just three hours, my biggest one is the one in the middle of May, where it's 10 hours from where I live. So it's a road trip, I get that. But it's on an island that you drive golf carts, and you Yeah, you leave your car behind. And I'm telling you, leaving that car behind makes you feel like you're just like leaving everything, you're in a place where you don't even have to get into your everyday driver, you know, like whatever you're normally driving like you're hopping on a golf cart or a bike to go anywhere on the island. So it just feels like you're so disconnected. That I think that's really important. And it's okay to do that for yourself every once in a while.
Jenzaia: I'm definitely going to look into signing up for one though. I'm in Canada. So
Amy: I know you have to make a trip have it. But I do live in an area that's really pretty. It's like a tourist area. It's called the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. So we have lots of state parks and just really pretty trails and woods and doing a summer camp in July, where it's a three-day thing. And there's the option of it could be a day camp if you're local or you can stay overnight, because we're doing it at a farmhouse so the farmhouse is kind of like the dorm. But it's also part. Yeah, it's also part of a bigger lodge where I've done a different retreat. So if you don't want to be part of like the dorm, feel and have a shared room, you can come to the day camp, but then only a mile away go up to the main lodge and I'm talking like luxury. It's so amazing. So yeah, like who says the kids? Only ones that get to have fun. We're having a summer camp like outdoor activities. There's a lake right there. We're going on hiking trails, we're doing art stuff. We're having fun.
Jenzaia: I'm like totally thrown back to when I went to summer camp as a kid. Like polar bear dance. Ridiculous this well, I don't think I'm willing to do it now either. But I'm just remembering those times of like, yeah, those memories.
Amy: Yeah, but see, like thinking about it and thinking about all the possibilities of what we can do is so much fun. Like just coming up with an itinerary is amazing. I have a meeting tomorrow. borrow with someone that's going to help collaborate on parts of it. And it's just it's as much fun to plan as to actually implement and like, build those friendships with everybody.
Jenzaia: Okay, so if anyone else is interested in this or would like to learn more about your retreats in creativity and anything, where can they go?
Amy: They can find me everywhere at AmyRoadman @AmyRoadman.art on Instagram, Facebook, and my websites Amyroadman.com.
Jenzaia: So and I have a free guide. Well, it's not mine. It's Amy's, but I have the link for the FREE guide from Amy to your quick guide to creativity, right.
Amy: Yeah, and that's just like helping you on a daily basis. Just think of some things that you can do that are creative that aren't necessarily I don't know how to draw
Jenzaia: Well thanks so much for coming on and chatting all about me.
Amy: Thanks for having me.
Jenzaia: Thank you for listening to this week's inspiring story. If you'd like to share your story with us, then head to marketscalegrow.com/journey and complete the quick application form. Then head to our community at marketscalegrow.com/community so you can join our group of inspiring teacherpreneurs who are working on growing and scaling their businesses to see you soon