Raise Your Game – Louisa Chan: Multiply Your Talents, Teach Online
[The podcast interview was first published on the BFM site]
Freda Liu: You recently published a book “Teach Online, Multiply Your Talents“. What do you have in mind when you use the phrase “multiply your talents” in the title?
Louisa Chan: A talent is roughly equivalent to 20 years’ of wages in the context that this phrase was first used. In today’s term that would roughly amount to 1 million for a person earning $50k a year. The word “talent” is also used to refer to natural gifts and capabilities.
When we teach, mentor, train, coach or share the knowledge and skills that we have we are leveraging and passing on talents and gifts that have been bestowed upon us and in so doing we are helping others learn important skills that can equip them to lead better lives. One very effective way of passing on our knowledge and skills is to do it online. When we do that, we are able reach more people and impact more lives.
Freda Liu: Why it is important to multiply our talents? What happens if we don’t?
Louisa Chan: Talents are given to us for a purpose. If we hoard and not use these gifts, we will eventually lose them, financially, physically and spiritually. We know that muslces that are not used will lose its tone and eventually Gifts and talents that are not used will get rusty. Gifts and talents are given to us not just for our own enjoyment and use; they are to be shared, taught and passed on.
We may not be able to change a million lives, but we all have the opportunity to make a real difference to someone in some significant and real ways.
If we want to 发杨光大 (spread the knowledge or skill far and wide) then we need to strategically pass it on and teach it. As an example, how did the art of Chinese Martial and its philosophy got introduced to the western world? This has been passed down from generation to generation and demonstrated in person. But with advances in technology these can now be taught online either in real time or broadcasted as a video on demand.
Freda Liu: You mention anyone can start an online teaching business: is it really a viable model? Can anyone do it?
Louisa Chan: I spent an entire chapter discussing this and highlighted some statistics to show the upward trend in online learning business with great potential especially with learners embracing MOOC Massive Open Online Courses.
Yes, anyone can teach, because we all have unique background, experiences and skills that others can learn from. Whether you are a retiree or a fresh university graduate, you have some skills that can help someone out there battling with similiar issues.
Today all sorts of courses are conducted online, business courses for corporate staff, tehnical courses as well as courses on soft skills, EQ, Web Design, Videography, Photography, Developer, 3D Animation, technical programming courses, language, yoga.
My 13-year old niece crocheted a scarf by following a YouTube video. Google just rolled out Google Online University called HelpOut that offers free and paid courses on almost anything (although this is early days) but there are many other similar platforms that we can use
Freda Liu: Why don’t we see more people doing this since we have many who are in between jobs, out of jobs or retired? What can help them do this and make some income while doing what they are good at and enjoy?
Louisa Chan: Most people are not aware of the possibilities or may not have thought through how they want to use their skills. Some questions often asked include: Can this be done? Can I do this? I am not good enough? I don’t know how to do this. I have not done business before…. All these are pulling people back from launching out and exploring possibilities. The good news is these can be re-framed quite easily and and I have included a free self-administered mindset assessment for readers to work through these mental challenges. More details here.
Put simply anyone can do this – you already have the skills. And most of the technology is free or cost effective and user friendly. But you will need to have the 3 pillars of business building mindset in place to build a sustainable business.
There are more points discussed than what has been included here so I encourage you to lisent to the podcast or get the book here. The question I’d like to ask the BFM audience is what’s stopping you from multiplying your talents?
This book offers the practical guidance that heart-centered professionals need to start their own profitable online teaching business and have the time and financial freedom to further their mission.
Here’s a video that’ll highlight what included in the book. And you can get the book and the accompany mindset-assessment here.
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