Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
171: Teacherpreneurship and Course Creation: A Conversation with Dawn McLaughlin
What if you could turn your passion for teaching into a dynamic entrepreneurial journey? Join us in an engaging conversation with the multi-talented Dawn McLaughlin, also known as Rainbow Star. We uncover the secrets behind successful teacherpreneurship and explore how diversifying income streams can lead to innovative solutions. I also share my exhilarating leap into the world of course creation and email marketing with Digital Course Academy (DCA), and introduce a special project close to my heart—a new podcast with my daughter, Emily, titled "Mind your Heart," focusing on mindset and mental health.
Dawn shares her experience with the emotional rollercoaster of transitioning from a long-standing career in education to homeschooling during the pandemic. From meeting her husband in the bustling restaurant industry to fulfilling her dream of teaching at an independent school, this narrative is rich with life’s highs and lows. Discover how transforming the basement into a vibrant learning environment became a necessity to safeguard her elderly parents and prioritize family well-being amidst a global crisis. This story is a testament to resilience and adaptability in unprecedented times.
Lastly, find inspiration in Dawn's journey of rediscovering and revitalizing "The Home Aid Teacher" on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). Initially focused on third and fifth-grade materials, Dawn found her niche in experiential pre-K resources and expanded into graphic design with Rainbow Star Designs. Learn about the challenges and joys of turning a love for design into a thriving business. We wrap up with an insightful discussion on digital course creation using AI and offer valuable resources to help fellow teacherpreneurs embrace new possibilities. Join us for an episode filled with lessons, laughter, and valuable takeaways.
Welcome to Teacherpreneurs Raise your Hand, episode 171. This is my conversation with Dawn McLaughlin, Rainbow Star. So I'm excited today to talk to another teacherpreneur who has really dipped her toes in a multitude of entrepreneurial experiences and I think that can be super exciting, especially when we're feeling like you know what, I can't rely solely on one thing. I want to think about some other things. What are my options? What can I do? And I love when we get really creative and we come up with solutions. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Teacherpreneurs. Raise your Hand where bold teachers rise up and transform into successful teacherpreneurs who are destined for greatness. What exactly is a teacherpreneur, you might ask? Well, webster's Dictionary defines the term as um. Okay, it's not yet a word in the dictionary, but hear you me, it will be one day. In a nutshell, a teacherpreneur is both a teacher and a business person, and we're here to help you be better at both. So, without further ado, from One Tired Teacher and Trina Debery Teaching and Learning, here's your host, trina Debery your host, trina Deber.
Speaker 1:Hey, so today I'm talking to Don and we are talking about some different kinds of things that we can do as teacherpreneurs. Now I want you to know that I'm getting ready to move into DCA, digital Course, academy, courses that whole world of courses and course launching and email marketing and all the good things that come with. You know growing our business in a multitude of ways, and so we're going to be focusing on that type of energy, that type of, you know, direction for several for quite a bit of time, for a couple of months actually, all of August and all of September as we gear up to entering Digital Course Academy. If you know, if you are interested in creating a digital course and you're like that is my next step, I'm so excited about that then I think you're going to love this series course and you're like that is my next step, I'm so excited about that that I think you're going to love this series. And if you're not and you still want to think about other forms of income or other opportunities, then maybe you'll just hang on with us for the next couple of months and, as you can see, during that time, we are back to weekly, weekly episodes.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's come over me, but I'm like I've got so much to share, so many great people to talk to and so much to talk about that I got to go back to weekly episodes. And I like to do that this time of the year because, first of all, I know how much there is to talk about and especially if, like now, when this comes out, it will be in August and it's like the second week of August, I believe, and you're probably like I miss the TPT. If you miss the TPT conference, you're feeling the FOMO. I was feeling the FOMO. Hopefully, by the time this airs, my FOMO will have been erased. I will have gotten on with myself and moved on. But if not, that's okay, because you know we're gonna. We're gonna talk to some people, we're gonna learn some new things, and that's okay. So it's gonna be good.
Speaker 1:And also, I have added a third podcast to my list of podcasts. I mean, what in the world am I doing? So I am focusing on a third podcast, which is a passion project that I'm doing with my daughter, emily, and we are. We've created a podcast that's focused on mindset, mental health and moms and daughters, and by the time this airs, we will have had several episodes come out and I will have shared my story. Emily will have shared her story. We'll do a little episode on moms and daughters. We will have started to dive into some other you know deeper topics and it's been fun we have. Yeah, it's been so fun.
Speaker 1:So if you want to join us for that, it's called Mind your Heart and you can mind your heart on Mondays and then you can jump into your teacherpreneur selves on Tuesdays. So lots and lots of lots of podcasts. So Mondays, mind your Heart and you can find it anywhere you find podcasts. I don't have it on my website. So if you're listening to teacherpreneurs, raise your hand through my website. I don't have Mind your Heart on my website, but I do have it on my website. So if you're listening to Teachpreneurs, raise your hand through my website. I don't have Mind your Heart on my website, but I do have. It is on everything. It's on Spotify, iheartradio, apple, it's on YouTube. You can watch it on YouTube. You can also just listen to the podcast on YouTube. Whatever works for you, and I hope that you'll let me know what you think. And if that's like you know, I don't have any interest in any of those topics? No worries, because I'm still here for teacherpreneurs. Raise your hand and we will be, you know, heading strong towards the the conclusion of season five. Yes, the season end of the season five is coming upon us, and then we'll take a little break and then we'll be back All right.
Speaker 1:So I have one more thing to share, but I wanted to let you know, as a something that is really cool, that Amy Porterfield just came out with, and it is and this is, if you're thinking about creating a course yourself and you're like, you know what I've gotten success. I find that it's a repeatable success and I am really excited and I know a lot, or I've helped someone else and now I want to create a course. I want to add another source of revenue and course creation is on my radar DCA, digital Course Academy, but with Amy Porterfield, is coming around the bend, so I'm going to start talking about that. So you know. So, if you're looking forward to that and you want to join with me, I offer coaching, small group coaching, through the whole entire process. It is such an incredible experience with a group of people Every single year. I've had so much fun doing it, so that that is coming around the corner.
Speaker 1:But in the meantime, if you're thinking I don't even know what to create a course on, amy has this really great guide called three steps to unlock your digital course idea using AI. So you use AI to help you think of a course idea. I know you probably have a bunch of them brimming in your head, especially things that you've done well and you've done successfully and you've done repeatedly, and you're like I'm ready to share this with others and you can grab Amy's three steps to unlock your digital course idea using AI by going to trinadeveryteachingandlearningcom forward slash using AI. All right, let's get on with the show. All right, let's get on with the show. So I'm so excited to have Dawn Rainbow Star here today to talk about her journey into teacherpreneur and course creation and really like missing teaching and kind of how she was like I have to still have that part of me and so maybe that looks like courses. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today and I'm so excited to have her. Welcome Dawn.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me, Trina. I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited that you are here. My friend and friend of the show, Brittany. She was like you've got to talk to Dawn. You've got to talk to Dawn and I was like, okay, I'm like I'll message her and I'll see if she answers, Cause sometimes people, you know, they don't see that and I was so glad that you did so. Anyway, so, welcome, Tell us a little bit about like how your, how your journey kind of started.
Speaker 3:Well, um, I started teaching full time in 2004, graduated college in 93 and tried to find a job and it just wasn't happening and I was kind of a free spirit, so I actually wound up in the restaurant business for a long time. Wow, it's fine because, excuse me, because that's where I met my husband. We both worked at the same restaurant. So no regrets for anything in the past. It brings us to where we are today. But I finally started teaching after I was married and it was at an independent school, was at an independent school and it was experiential education, so everything, hands-on field trips, starting in kindergarten. It was a pre-K through 12th grade school, and I was there for 16 years. So my first job was a forever job.
Speaker 3:I thought I would retire from there and I guess essentially I did, but just a lot earlier than I thought. My kids got to go there. That was a perk of the job and I loved it and it was everything I ever wanted. Always wanted to be a teacher since I was in the third grade. And it was everything I ever wanted. Always wanted to be a teacher since I was in the third grade, and it was a dream come true and I always imagined my kids graduating from there and I was so thankful, after we adopted them, that they were able to go to that school and be with them every day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then 2020 came, yes, and everything changed. Yes, and at the time, we had just previously moved in with my parents, who had moved from New York three years prior, and my mom had a stroke in 2018 and has dementia now, and so my dad said move in with us. Yeah, we were just renting a house at the time and our lease was coming up and he said move in, help me take care of mom and it. You know, it was kind of a win-win situation. And then COVID happened. So that was in the summer.
Speaker 3:We moved in there and then COVID happened in the spring and you know we got through the whole e-learning debacle you know to learn how to teach my kids were learning, figuring out how to learn through e-learning debacle, you know, to learn how to teach my kids were learning, figuring out how to learn through e-learning. And then and then the summer came and you know I had a lot of fear through that time because my parents are in their seventies and my dad has heart issues and anyway, um, in august, my school started announcing how they were going to be preparing for covid and when I got the email that, um, I think we had like 60 some odd faculty members. We were all going to be in one 60 some odd faculty members. We were all going to be in one room together that had no doors or window, in a theater.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness I had a complete full on panic attack.
Speaker 3:Yeah and um, I listened to my body and my heart and I said I cannot go back, we cannot go back.
Speaker 3:I cannot go back. We cannot go back because we didn't want to bring infection back into the house. Yes, yes. So my kids, especially my daughter who was about to be a fifth grader kind of an important year for her yes for sure, Very angry with me, still holds a little resentment about it, but she understands more now at 14. But so I decided I was going to homeschool the kids. Yeah, I thought you know, I know what to do. They're in third and fifth grade. I'm licensed for this, I have experience in this.
Speaker 3:And we were excited. I was excited more than them I think, and so we renovated our basement, which was a complete storage area, into a really cute classroom. We had a teepee and desks and all the whole nine yards it was yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:Went on a ton of field trips, used all my experiential ed experience that I had as a teacher and wanted to give them the experiences that they would have had had they been in school. Yeah, and I knew what the curriculum would be, so, yeah, so we did that and it was really successful. And the following year things were settling down and feeling safer and so, yeah, it was time to go to school. But I could not afford to send them to the private school Because you weren't teaching anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I wasn't teaching and I didn't want to go back. Actually, my mom had gotten worse and I really wasn't able to go back. I really needed to, and my dad had had some heart issues and I just really needed to stay here. So that's what we did, but sorry to get off on such a tangent. It's so beautiful, it's like such a beautiful story.
Speaker 1:I mean to be able to be there for your parents and for your mom and for your dad, and then you know to to like, transform your life and do what you have to do for the kids. And I can't, honestly can't imagine. I can't imagine because my son has dyslexia and I, you know it was like I I've I've taught hundreds of children how to read, but working with him he's like mom, why are you talking like that? And I'm like what do you mean? Why am I talking like this? I'm like this is my. Why am I talking like this? I'm like this is my everybody loves to read voice. What do you mean?
Speaker 1:It was awful. And so I'm like, working with him, I felt like the worst teacher ever, and so it was such a and I've never had been able to like not reach a kid. And I'm like this is my kid. What is happening? It was so. I really give you a ton of credit for doing that, because that is, and and then to think this is the kind of school that they have grown up in and you continued that, which is completely, sounds, completely different than a public school, and then to think I'm going to send them, I don't even know. Yes, I'm like, I feel like I'm in shock. I don't even know.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm like I feel like I'm in shock. Yeah, you know I sometimes forget the struggles, but my son especially it was. It was very difficult teaching him. You know he really I don't want to say manipulated me, but he really was able to get out of a lot of things. You know, he's just not a traditional learning kind of kid, yeah, but we figured it out and at the end of it he said can you homeschool me forever, like even? In college.
Speaker 1:That's great. Yeah, what have I gotten myself into? Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:What have I gotten myself into? Yeah, exactly so. My daughter had to go to middle school public middle school, knew nobody. Oh wow, Wow. That was huge and it was like she was in a class with 12 kids at our other school. Now she has over 300 kids in her class, so I give her props.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's an adjustment, for sure.
Speaker 3:Big yeah, really big. That's such a pivotal time and, yes, it turned out great for her. You know she's able to look back now and be so thankful for the experience. You know she has a ton of friends. You know she, she's great at volleyball and she's happy.
Speaker 1:So it worked out. Yeah, I'm really glad. I'm glad to hear that because it can be can be hard, especially at the at that age. I mean. I was, I moved and moved and moved and moved and like a crazy number of times and it was hard to be the new, the new kid at that, at that age, specifically at the at those ages, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, good for her.
Speaker 1:That's a good, that's a happy ending.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she you know she wants stability because her childhood, first four years of her life life, was so unstable, and so I'm glad she was able to bounce back from that.
Speaker 2:So she's very resilient and my son we found a.
Speaker 3:we found a great fit for him. We found a public elementary school that was um steam based.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, so it was perfect for him.
Speaker 3:It was really hands on and you know he learned how to play the bass guitar and it was cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great, that's so great. Okay, when did you okay? So you taught for that long? When did you start like creating things or focusing on teachers? And now you, now you, you even have more of like. Isn't it more towards like teacherpreneurs, like talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I have multiple questions in one, sorry.
Speaker 3:That was a bad practice. Yeah, so much pivoting, you know, one thing just leads to another, and that's just how life goes. But so, while I was homeschooling the kids, I was creating things for them. And while I was creating things for them, I thought, wait, I have a TPT store. Yeah, I completely forgot about. You know, I threw a few things up there between 2009 and 2012. It brought in a couple hundred dollars a year passive income and you know, it just went into my PayPal account. I never thought about it. Yeah, I was not at all serious about it. In fact, I forgot about it and I thought, oh my gosh, I'm creating stuff for them. I could put it on there and bring in some money because, you know, even though we were living with my parents, losing my salary was a big.
Speaker 1:that's hard, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, so I, like everything else I do, I completely submerged myself into it and I, you know, I joined memberships and I was taking courses and I learned all the things and you know, and it wasn't just about TPT, but it was about marketing and it's about you know the financials and all the things and I loved it you know, as a teacher.
Speaker 3:I'm a lifelong learner and I love to learn, and I love to learn new things, and I especially love to implement what I learned. So so, yeah, so I changed my store name from Dawn Rainbow Star to the Home Aid Teacher A-I-D-IDE.
Speaker 3:I thought I'm at home and I'm helping people, so anyway, so, at first I was just putting up third and fifth grade stuff because that's what I was making for my kids. And then they went back to public school and I was home and I was like I am all in on this. This is so fun, and I had previously been a pre-K teacher for the previous eight years, and so I decided to niche down into experiential pre-K. How cool Resources.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:I, I created a, an, a unit, an experiential unit on oceans, and it was huge and it took me, I think, about eight months to create it. And, you know, finish and finish it and put it up there and connect all the things and, um, during that process, I fell in love with Canva.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love Canva. Yeah, I love Canva. Okay, first of all, I totally have a friend who was a longtime second grade teacher but she's teaching pre-K next year and she wrote me and she's like do you have anything for pre-K? I'm like I do not have anything for pre-K. I wouldn't even begin to tell you what to do, but I am going to totally give her your name of your store because she will love this. Like this is very exciting. Okay, so go on. So you, you were doing that, and then you fell in love with Canva, which I don't know how people don't love Canva. That is just my favorite, One of my favorite, very favorite tools.
Speaker 3:I just love it, love it, absolutely love it. You know, I had been using Keynote and it was just felt so clunky to me and I was going from tab to tab to tab and Yep, I can relate Getting so lost and anyway.
Speaker 3:So I was on a call with a coworking group that I'm a part of. We met in another course and we're still still together to this day, and that's fine. I remember saying I just wish I could play in canva all day and like a light bulb went off and I was like, well, hmm, I, I'm feeling really overwhelmed with all of the things. Right, what if I could help teacherpreneurs market their businesses with graphics?
Speaker 1:from Canva.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I thought then I could just focus on that one thing. I'm still helping other people. My store can just be there in the background, and I was really excited for this next thing. So that's when I started working with teacher printers. Um, I thought about doing um mock-ups and some photography, but, um, I started that but my back did not appreciate that.
Speaker 1:I have a herniated disc. Oh goodness, it wasn't a good match.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you know, I just kept on with the Canva and in fact I just500 designs, Wow, Wow. And you know, practice makes progress. Yes, so you know, I'm really putting in the reps and I've, you know, taken courses and because I said, you know, as I said, I love learning, but so that's what happened? I created a freelance Rainbow Star Designs. You know it's a great. My last name again came into play.
Speaker 1:Yes, came in and bright and happy. And, yeah, I love how you took well, first of all, like even listening, and I hear this, and I think it's so cool that we the thing that we, a lot of us, have in common is that love for learning and then being able to adjust, and then sometimes not being able to be satisfied with that one thing and like, okay, I can't try something else too, I need to try this. But then, but in this case, you took you thought this is the thing that I love, Like how do I take the thing that I what could do this all day long? That would be. And then I'm okay, I can, I can make a course. So many people get stuck on like ideas for courses. They're like I can't do a course, I can't think of an idea, and this is just one way you know you do what you love, you teach what you love, like that.
Speaker 3:That just makes it fun love you teach what you love, like that. That just makes it fun. Yeah, and you know I I hemmed and hawed for a long time about um, a course. You know what. What do I pick? Am I niched down enough? Are people going to pay for this? They don't even know me. You know Um, so um about. I think it was about a year and a half ago. I put on a five day challenge called listed and love it and it was really fun.
Speaker 3:And I just have it on my website as an evergreen Um, it's um, you know, just as a self-paced. Basically it's just the recordings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a little, like a little bootcamp, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And, um you know, it tells people how to create covers and thumbnails, previews and descriptions for their products to get them up within an hour.
Speaker 1:Wow, cause I'm all about time saving. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:I don't have a lot of time with um constantly, you know, being taken away from what I'm doing. I have very yeah, that's awesome needs. What my dad needs, you know I watch her while he plays golf or works at the golf course one day a week. And you know my kids I've got two teenagers and so time-saving is everything to me and I have found Canva to be the one thing that I can touch every part of my business. I can touch every part of my business. You have Canva in one tab, in one place. Everything connects back to Canva and I want to share that with people Because when I was a teacher, I loved sharing the things that I learned. Oh man, if I went to a literacy conference, I came back and I was presenting and you know it's funny.
Speaker 1:You too, I loved that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny as a teacherpreneur, how you know, it's kind of taken me some time to realize, but the talents that we have as teachers are huge. I mean, we do it all, we've done it all and we can apply that to this new world that we live in, this technological world of the 21st century. Yeah, and it's okay. I haven't lost my identity. You know I thought I did. Yeah, leaving the classroom was devastating. I mean, it was a real grieving period.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I felt the same way. Yes, like a real grieving period. Yes, I could. Yeah, I felt the same way. Yes, like a part of you.
Speaker 3:Yes, Like, who am I if I'm not a teacher? Yeah, and I can be someone now, and I can even continue to teach through courses and and you do it through your podcast and yeah, there's all ways that we can still connect and learn. You're right there, you're right, and yeah, there's all ways that we can still connect and learn.
Speaker 1:You're right, you're right, and sometimes I think we forget, or because we don't, we can't see it in the same.
Speaker 1:My glasses are crooked, so it's making me crazy we can't see it in the same way that it was in the past. It's like, sometimes it's you're almost, you almost have to get have a paradigm shift, like I can use this in a different way. I can still exercise this muscle, but it's you're, you almost have to get have a paradigm shift. Like I can use this in a different way. I can still exercise this muscle, but it's going to look a little bit. You know it's going to look a lot different than what I did in the classroom, but I think no, I think that's exciting. And you know, sharing something that you're passionate about, that's, I mean, that's the kind of people I want to learn from. Like when, when I find someone that is like this is the thing I love, I'm like okay, tell me all about it. So I think that's exciting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. It is really exciting and you know my my niche is Canva, for teacherpreneurs, you know. And then you have all these pillars to like. You know. Well, I also want to talk about this, and I want to talk about marketing and branding and cause. It all ties together Right and never did. I think that my next course would be about Instagram, which is oh, yeah, which is what I'm doing now, and it's like, oh, I wasn't planning on that, but I have put so much time and effort into learning about content creation. Yeah, now I'm doing it Right. So it's like okay, we'll come along for the ride. Let me teach you what I've learned from someone else and from my experience and let me help you with that else and from my experience and let me help you with that.
Speaker 1:So that's what I'm. Yeah, that's exciting, how exciting. So you're just adapting, which I think is look, the cool thing is like I'm going to figure this out and I'll try this and and it works or it doesn't work, and then I oh, that leads me to the next thing. And then I move on from there and kind of being open to what comes which I think is just the most beautiful part, is just being open to to where life leads you. That's exciting.
Speaker 3:It gives me, um, I don't feel as scared as I did even a year ago. Yeah, um, you know, and this you know. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I'm still in the red, you know, and I've been at this for, you know, about four years, even though it's gone through different stages. But it's okay, because of our situation we're able to kind of handle that. You know, I don't give my kids the exact life I would love to give them, but there's a lot of love that can make up for a lot of things. But anyway, I'm not sure where's. I feel like.
Speaker 1:I'm going backwards, but I think it's a good reminder that to just keep moving forward and and allow yourself to be open to the possibilities that are like in front of you that you might not see right away and um, and I think that I think that's like such a great way to live life, so I think that I think that's really cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, if, if life has taught me anything, it's that everything's going to work out the way it was supposed to. Yeah, and there's. You know there's always a silver lining that drives my kids nuts, that I always looking at the positive. But you know it gives me hope and knowing that I can always pivot. Yeah, I have a lot of experience and knowledge and the passion for sure. And you know, as long as I'm here and my body cooperates, and you know, I'm just going to keep going. You know there's so much to learn and you can't ever stop learning. No, no.
Speaker 3:I can't. I don't really ever have to stop teaching, because I'm always going to learn new things and I want to share it, so I don't want to share it with others.
Speaker 1:No, I think that is so cool and also like sometimes and I tell my kids this all the time sometimes we have to do things scared. We just do it scared and that's just part of living life. And if we let fear dictate, we let it rule and we let it make us feel less than, or we make it like it's not possible, we're not going to make it, then we won't, so we kind of have to just face it.
Speaker 3:Yes, because we'll learn from it regardless and it will shape our future. Yeah, and it doesn't always have to be, you know, just because I'm afraid of this thing, and even if I do fail, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It just lets you learn more about who you are and what you can handle and what you can't, and what you'll put up with Right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:No, it's so true. It's so true. We learned such like lessons from, from failing. So I think that is yeah, I think that's definitely true.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Okay, I have. I have a few quick lightning round questions that I did not tell you about in advance. I have a few quick lightning round questions that I did not tell you about in advance, and I'm sorry I just I always forget this part, but it's. They're not hard. I've only had like one or two people were like, oh, that's a hard question, but then we just skip it. So, so they're easy, they're, they're fun. So I'm now, I'm stressing you out, all right, we're just going to start.
Speaker 1:So on a scale of one to 10,. How good of a driver are you?
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm going to come up with my own answer, not what my family would say. I think I'm an eight. All right, yeah, I know how to parallel park. I grew up in New York. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I know the rules of the road. Am I a distracted driver? Probably.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Okay, so parallel parking puts you at an eight, because I feel like I would have put myself at an eight. But I'm not great at parallel parking, but I'm not really a distracted driver, I'm. I always am like anticipating what's going to happen and so I feel like, so, I feel like I'm, I'm all right in that sense, but I'm not. But the parallel park it's because I had to. In driver's ed, I had to parallel park with this. This senior was taking this class with me and I was older for my grade, so I was older and he was a senior and I was a freshman and I thought he was so cute and I was so embarrassed that I had a parallel park with him in the car and it hit the comb and so from then on I am like I feel like a bad. It's like scarred me. I'm a bad parallel Parker, so I get scared.
Speaker 3:But you got to do it scared, so you know they have some great video tips on Instagram these days that I'm parallel parking, all right, I need to check, yeah, like how to line up your mirror. They have all these cute little tricks. I guess, daughters, sort of verging on that age. That's why I'm getting.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. Yeah, I need to check this out. All right, what is your favorite day of the week? Monday? Yes, me too Interesting. Yeah, I feel like teacherpreneur more teacherpreneur say that than I expect. I wouldn't have said that when I was teaching. Would you have said that when you were teaching? No, yeah, I know, I think it changes. I think that's funny. Um, what's one? Let's see what's one of your favorite memories.
Speaker 3:That's a really hard one, but I have to say, I have to say, the first time I met my son before we adopted him, because you need to foster for six months at least before you adopt them, and so we hadn't even seen his picture or anything, and so just meeting him for the first time, and you know, just so cool holding him and yeah, um, he was 15 months old at the time and that was.
Speaker 3:It was just such a long time. Yeah, you know, I mean I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I was definitely in my upper thirties, um. So, you know, I thought we were never going to have kids and it was something I always wanted my whole life Um, um, yeah, so that was pretty special.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's beautiful, beautiful, that's so beautiful. Um, all right, knowing what you know, now, what would you tell your 18 year old self?
Speaker 3:wow, um, I would say to slow down and make good choices. The choices you make now are going to affect your future and I wouldn't have listened to that advice, but just slow down and enjoy this time of your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good one, that's so good. All right, well, thank you, I won't um, I won't keep you any longer, but I appreciate your time and thank you for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me. This was such a nice, a nice talk. And it's so great to get to know you a little better, trina Um.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate you. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for sticking around and remember, if you're thinking at all about a course for yourself and you want to use AI to help you, you can grab Amy's free guide three steps to unlock your digital course idea using AI, and you can find this at Trina Devery, teaching and learningcom. Forward slash AI course. All one word AI course. And remember, teacherpreneurs, I am proud to stand among you and if you're feeling it, I'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the show so you don't miss a thing. You can also catch me on Facebook at Teacherpreneurs Raise your Hand or on my website, trina Debery, teaching and Learning. Teacherpreneurs, raise your Hand. I'll catch you next time. Bye for now.