003 - The Pit Pony Teaching Video: Where it all began (FULL Original Audio)

Hello and welcome back to the Pit Pony Podcast! In this episode, we’re bringing you the original audio from the Pit Pony YouTube video recorded back in April 2021. It’s the video that started it all – showing teachers how to break free from the financial and mental traps of teaching. While some things may have aged a bit, the principles still stand strong.

What We Talk About:

• Su’s Exit Story: Our guest, Su Bowie, talks about her journey out of teaching. She was the sole breadwinner, stuck in a job that was taking a toll on her mental health. Su shares how she felt completely trapped by her salary and responsibilities, but finally found a way out.
• Fear vs. Finances: We dive into the real reason teachers stay in toxic jobs – it’s not just about the money. It’s fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of leaving behind what you know, and fear of change. But we break down how to face that fear head-on and reframe your financial situation so you can make your escape.
• The Financial Blueprint: Sharon shares her famous “bottom line” method – a simple, no-nonsense approach to figuring out exactly what you need to live on. Forget about replacing one job with another. We talk about multiple income streams, living within your means, and setting realistic financial goals to start your new life.
• Real Talk: This episode is full of practical advice, from cutting out unnecessary expenses (yes, that daily coffee adds up!) to using your teaching skills in creative ways. Whether it’s tutoring, freelance work, or a complete career pivot, there’s always a way to make it work.

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Edited with finesse by our Podcast Super Producer, Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real

Transcript

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Sharon, hello and welcome to the pit pony podcast with myself, Sharon Cawley and me, Sarah Dunwood, in which we talk to teachers from all walks of life who exited the classroom from what they thought was a job for life and thrived on the other side of teaching. Here is the original audio of the pit pony video recorded in april 2021 please note that there may be certain aspects of the video that were relevant during that time that have not aged well. However, the underpinning principles within the recording are still relevant to a life after teaching so many of you on the group have known that there was posts that went on Friday night. I do like to date stamp these things because they age quite quickly. It is the 24th of April, and on our chat this afternoon, it's the Sarah dunwood Whose face that you all recognize, and then there's one of our group members, Sue Bowie, who has walked the path that many of you are hoping to walk, which is to leave teaching when you feel completely and utterly financially painted into a corner by your job. I spend two hours every evening speaking to members of the teaching profession who are desperate to get out of the classroom, but in the main genuinely believe that the reason that they are still in there is because they are either the breadwinner, the main earner, they've got dependence upon that teacher's salary. That mean, under no circumstances can they possibly leave. And what we want to do in the process of this interview and this chat is to walk you through a blueprint and to make you see your financial set of circumstances through a completely different lens, to the point that after you've listened to us, you're going like, I really haven't understood that at all. So we're not selling multi level marketing. We don't expect you to go knocking on doors, fogging moisturizer or anything like that. There is a very, very simple process where you evaluate your financial set of circumstances, you look at it in a completely different way, and then you create an exit strategy based upon what is a really realistic set of financial circumstances. Now you are not talking to three middle class women whose husbands were cosmetic dentists and we tinkered around the edges for fun. In teaching, you are talking to three women who, in a variety of different ways, were the main breadwinners in their homes. So Sue many of many of them know my story. Many of them know Sarah's story. Tell us a little bit about your exit from the classroom and the financial set of circumstances you faced that made you feel trapped. Okay? So I was a teacher for 10 years. There was UPS one and had a TLR because I'm secondary department. And in my house, I am the sole breader. I do have a husband and a son, neither of whom work for different circumstances. I am the sole I bring in. I'm the only one that brings in money in my house. So to say that you feel trapped by your salary is exactly how I would describe it. I was completely, utterly trapped by my salary I bought home, I think, is, I think my last wage, that was like 2450 pounds a month. What I brought in overdrawn most months, had bailiffs knocking on the door for council tax and things. Had education support, partnership, bringing me out which, which people don't think happens teachers, because, do you know what they think you're on a really good wage. You're a middle class profession? Yeah, I lived when I was married. I had exactly the same set of circumstances. You did go in on the 15th, it should be gone by the seventh. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah. So, so completely. And U trapped by my salary and and the thought of the thought of leaving Can God, can't do it. I can't do it. Or can I What? What can I do? Who's going to rent? I don't even know my own I used to go from our heads the world would come falling in. We cannot leave because of the finances. What we're going to say Sue is actually, it's not finances that keep you in the classroom. Like, what is it that keeps the teacher in the classroom fear, fear of its fear of change and fear of the unknown. And it is, it is literally just that you, you know, think you get to the point you're telling yourself it's the money, and you're telling yourself you might even tell yourself it's the kids. It is fear. It's fear. Idea of making that final set of staging, that leap. So what was your journey was? It was lockdown a good thing for you. Was locked down. Not a good thing for you. What was your set of circumstances there? Um, well, so January, 2020, I'd had enough. I really won the lease. I didn't, can't if I own too much money. And then I was sort of holding on, barely by the skin of my teeth, forcing myself to get into work every day. Many of you, many people who watch this, will know the comment about having a tree on the way to work. What was that? So I know what you mean. But just to explain, though, okay, so yeah, and I was so shocked that everybody had some of the other people had it. I had a pre picked out on the way to work. I just wanted to have an accident. Just put me out of action for five six weeks, but I would still get paid. I just need to, I just need to not have to go in five six weeks and have a good enough reason not go into five or six weeks. So I just crashed the car and have a bit of whiplash. Could I just my leg somehow died? Well, something and loads of people piled on the thread didn't Yeah, I've got a tree. I had a crash barrier. I had a wall and, oh, horrendous, yeah, it's horrendous. So lockdown happened, and it genuinely it saved me. It genuinely saved me I can breathe. Yes, I was still doing online. I was still teaching online to school and but that first lockdown was a bit for wasn't it? It was just about uploading PowerPoint and work and answering emails to students. So I still doing a 1214, hour day. But it didn't feel quite suppressed. Didn't have, you know, SLT observing, and different things happened to be done by a certain type. I mean, it was everybody was getting used to it, and it gave me a chance to breathe, really, and we chance to breathe. And me realize that's how stressed I was, if I'm honest, still I was unable to leave as what am I going to do? It'll pay the rent. He'll put food on the table. What can I do? I can't What? I'll get a job for my salary. Anyway, I've looked all through indeed, and all of it. I can't do it. I think you must have been googling something. I think I must have been going, How can I leave teaching? Do Google, please tell me you're my friend. So I think I must be one of the first people to join because your Facebook group would suggested page for me, and I joined the joined the group in about June. I think it must have been July. It's funny, um, we were only three weeks in, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're already two weeks heading 11,000 members. Yeah. Gives you a good idea, doesn't it? Yeah. And so I saw your how to tutor online video. The How to tutor online video, my inspiration and a phone with a gooseneck and a white can you? Can you see how that's aged so badly already. People are now using all sorts of different devices. And I, yeah, I was just about and I rigged up a gooseneck and a phone over I was trying to keep the wolf from the door. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So my initial, initial thought was right, okay, I do then some extra cash. So it's, like, a really good idea. I had a Facebook page and just put it on my profile and got, I think, four or five clients. We an extra 150 pound a week that I'll do. That'll keep I'll keep me going, that'll keep the walls from the door. I'll, you know, save me going overdrawn, and said, That's really and I went back to work in September. And if anybody was, if anybody was paying any attention to me back then on the page, I if it wasn't for the members on that page, I genuinely anyone need an asking guy would be here. I didn't want to go back. I was my God, just so highly anxious. Tree and into several trees on the drive every morning and every evening. They culminated in the kitchen the dining room, didn't it? Yeah, at school, I was on duty at school. Knew I wasn't well because actually I wasn't actually teaching that day. I had the whole day off, but I had to be in school, running in and I realized that actually, this is one day that I could actually take a phone call off my doctor, because I'm not be anywhere. So I banged my doctor in the morning, and my doctor, you have during in the morning, they ring you back and said, I need, I need to speak to a doctor quite urgently. So I don't even, I don't even remember making that phone call. Next thing, I was on duty in the dining hall the major panic attack. Genuinely, honestly thought that's the first time I've ever had a really bad panic attack like that. I'm not home to them or anything like that. I like honestly, genuinely thought I was going to die. I couldn't breathe. I just couldn't breathe, and I was sent home. And my. To rang me literally on the right as I was driving home. Actually, I managed. I got the phone qualified doctor in home. I think I must have slept for about three days. My doctor signed me off there, and then, I mean, just immediately there and then, and the panic set in. Okay, so now, what do I do? Because what, what you've got is, and this is the bit where I speak to members from the group I do two a night. And this is the point they get themselves in everything I know to be true is tied up on that pay packet. Yeah, everything I've ever worked for every single because at this point they think that what they've got is a quality of life is tied up in that pay packet. However, I am broken, I am unwell. I cannot sustain this life anymore because I have to make a living on this wage, but I can't because it's killing me, but I can't give up, because otherwise, everything I've got is going to fall in on me, and then they find themselves in this central point in between these two horrendous trains of thoughts, and that's trapped in a classroom, because your perception is you are financially reliant upon that job. You know you are not you are financially reliant upon a certain amount of money each month. That's it. So let's start to reframe what's going on here. You are the breadwinner, the main earner. You are whatever you call yourself, who has to bring in? What's the famous expression we use to define it? Your what your bottom line? What's your bottom line? I've been talking about bottom lines since about 2013 Okay, and I want to really explain what a bottom line is, a bottom line, and I want the people watching this now. This is your road map. This is your blueprint. This is the plan. Tell me what you need to live on each month. Do not pluck a figure from your head, because if you pluck a figure from your head on 600 of it like that. Okay, go to your last three months with a bank statement and go through it with a highlighter pen. What do you need to keep that roof over your head? Because if it is the full Sky Sports package, no, you don't out free view and a fire stick. Sarah, Sarah's got a great one with her five pound Starbucks. How much does it cost you to have a cup of coffee a day? Sarah, a month? Well, if I paid for it, but yeah, well, obviously I fight well, yeah, I have a pet manager. But if, yeah, it's it works out on average, a five every day. If you go to Starbucks or any of those, five or a day, 35 week, 14 months. Okay, so 140 pounds a month on a coffee. Find those. Find your takeaway bill, find your wine bill. Well, I, you know what we I, I backtrack, didn't I? Last year where we did one of these conversations, yeah, I backtracked. And in the the 12 months prior to me exiting the classroom with a teenage boy at home, Andy's girlfriend and me and husband, we spent somewhere between eight and 10 grand in 12 months on takeaways they got. Yep, because has that's a symptomatic spend, yeah, of a stressed environment. Yeah? Because actually, when you do to come out of the classroom, you spend less petrol. Your clothes, bill goes down. Your lunchtime, bill goes down, petrol goes down, takeaways. Because when you walk through that door and you still got three hours worth of work to do, yeah, you do a couple of things. You feed the kids on convenience food and a takeaway, which is far more expensive, and at the end of it, you reward yourself with a bottle of wine. You smoke more. All of these things are symptomatic of maintaining that existence. And you know what else? You teach a salary. I'll let you into a clue is a bit rubbish, because when you actually look at what you take home, it isn't a lifestyle wage. It is if it's the second wage in a home, and if it is the second wage in a home and it's making you ill, leave the amount of people who get on the phone and they talk to me about the bottom line, and then I say, a young year old, oh, no, my husband earns, right? Well, stop, what's the bottom line, and is it covered by his salary? Yes. And these, yeah, oh, I talked to you the night on the phone, and I used it, but because she's from down south, she didn't get this. Sarah, so it's the pit pony. Look. On going, I suppose the pit pony, what you see? It to me, a pit pony had a job where it walked round all day in a field, pulling a cart right, the coal cart, or it go up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. They'd have these blinkers on. And when the pit pony retired and they're creating a field. Guess what? It still did? Just did exactly what it did because it knew. And teachers get into this pony mentality, where they're so focused on the job of what they do here, they can't stop and look up. So you start and you go, right. This is how you do it. This is what you do with your bottom line. On average, the amount of people I speak to a first scope of a bottom line is between about 17 102,300 right? 2300 is a lot for a bottom line, right? So let's go with you've you've cut everything back. You've stopped sponsoring that donkey from Afghanistan that you did 10 years ago because you got canceled a gym membership. Cancel the gym membership. You never go to ever. And you go, right. What's the bottom line? Let's get the calculator out. My bottom line is 17 on Japan. That's what I've got to generate, not earn, not find a job. I've got to generate this, yep, and then what you do is you divide it by four. I've got to bring it 425, a week. And then you divide it by five. I've gotta generate 85 pound a day to keep a roof over my head and meet my bottom line, yep, and it's important. It's 85 pound a day. Oh yeah, the seven that's only Monday to Friday, the actual weekend, absolutely. So you suddenly say, alright, let me have a look at my financial set of circumstances. I've gotta bring in 85 quid a day, right? What you don't do is you don't then look on indeed, for a job that does that. Now I know one of the biggest pushbacks we have is people watch this and say, yeah, it's alright being a tutor. I don't really want to be a tutor because I'm a PE teacher, or I'm a French teacher, and I know that, and I know that if you primary school teacher go down the route of tutoring, tell you that now, yeah, if you even if it's just to get you, going to get you from L to B, because this what we're talking about. Now, yes, for the moment, this is what's going to get you out. 85 pound a day is going to get you out of the classroom. What you do from there and go upwards is the next stage of the conversation we'll have. But if you've got to do 85 quid a day, look at multiple income streams. Absolutely don't go from one job to another. So how I did it was I signed up with an agency. I signed up with supply agencies, three days away a week. Supply pulled me Darren. I built up some tutoring in an evening. Well, a lot of tutoring. For those of you know my story, I joined the National Teaching and advisory service. They don't care what your subject is. You're going into children's homes doing functional maths and functional English. You can do that if you're a DT teacher. You can do that if you're a PE teacher. I signed up with me local Borough Council for kids who've broken the legs. Right? So supply, National Teaching and advisory service hospital schools have to be a certain how to really have a certain kind of gusto to do that. If you're teaching terminally ill kids signing up with acting agencies who need chaperones and that kind of thing. There are a variety of different ways that you suddenly start to go. What's my commodity? I'm a teacher working Aldi for an afternoon, if it gets you 85 quid, and clean caravans in Cornwall, if you clean caravans, you get, on average, 94 for the day. Because what you've actually said to yourself is, that's what I need to generate. Don't forget your family allowance or knock some of that money off. Yeah, you've got a variety of different ways. Stop thinking of replacing one job for another job, because 85 pound a day. It's not that much, and that's such a crucial mindset thing, yeah, that that I can't jump because I need to get another job that brings me out money, you know? And and that, that was the moment this scale spell from my year with you last, last January, was like, Oh, God, I've got so many skills. I can go and I can go and make resources. I can be an exam market. I can go and be an exam invigilator and do whatever needs to do. I can go be a midday assistant. I'm not bothered because I've got my got my figure on the fridge. I was 1300 by the way. What was yours? Seven. 100, yeah, I think, yeah, just over 1700s I think 1740 something. And what else you do is you go, right? That's my buffer. So whilst I'm in teaching, I'm going to just live to 1700 and I'm going to save the rest so I've got a buffer that that was my advantage, was that for a long period of time, even before everything happened with me, I'd always had this pipe job, what I thought was pipe dream of getting out and being a photographer, and so I swept money away. So in the 20 minute drive home the day that I walked out from Seoul, I'd got myself in my head from needing three and a half 1000 pounds a month, which was what my tenco was to about 1900 because I just said, right, well, I stopped saving. I stopped either paying mortgage. I stopped doing Yeah, mine. I go back to my my bills that I stopped paying the minimum credit card bill, yeah? Because this is a temporary plan. This is your life. Bolt out, yeah, go back over those things and start to pay less. And if you're off sick, bloody squirrel it away. Yeah, turn it away. Because, I mean, that's what I did. I mean, I literally, I looked at my debts, but still doing some shooting in the evening. I had like five clients, and I was which were all sort of children of friends and family and stuff. Did that money I use. I had one debt that I was paying of 100 pound a month off, actually, this hunt. I rang them up and said, when you take a settlement, if I pay it early, how much is that? Literally, I could pay it off with three weeks, three weeks of that, five students, I could pay that off, and that was like a big Gong. And you know what? Several stuff away if you've got, if you've got to say, call it 90, for sake of argument, if you've got to earn 90 day, you need three students a night for easy days when it's Yep, and you suddenly go and go back. And this is what happens to go, That can't be right, and there's still a push back, because it's fear, because that's they suddenly go, and this is what will happen, and this is the process of what people will do when they're watching this. They'll go, That can't be right. And then they look at it, and they come back at it, and they unpick it, and they go, Pdl, they write. And then that sits with them for a minute. And then they go, our butt. And that's when the fear rushes over them with an avalanche, and they go, but what if? What if I don't get the three students? What if NTAS don't want me? What if there's no supply in my area? I live in a remote area where there's only 15 secondary school right? They start blocking everything in this work. So do you know what I do? And this is the one where they have an absolute epiphany. I say, right, so what's your life looking like at the moment? Or I've no time for the kids. I cry all the time. My husband doesn't even recognize me. He says he misses the old me, and working round the clock, I go, right up. Hey, have you got kids? Yeah. How old are they? I've got I've got a boy who's 15, and I've got a girl who's nine. Alright, do you know the biggest soul influence on a child as a parent? Yeah, can you tell me the role model you're being for your daughter? And there's this silence that so your daughter sees a stressed out mother, overworking, crying because she's not got the guts to leave. Is that what you're teaching your girl, that if she's in a really place, she's got to stay? No, absolutely not. Would you want your daughter living like, No, I tell me to get out. And then all of a sudden they go, Oh, because I don't value myself enough to do that, but I wouldn't have it for me kids. I think that's what teacher does to you. I think, you know, we've all there's that constant criticism of teaching, and even if you're the person that you know, it could be positive criticism, if you like. You know genuinely, because you're in God all the time. Yeah, you then start to doubt yourself, and you start to judge yourself. That's, that's what you do. So, but what kind of messages are we giving our own kids? No, say this is what working life looks like. No, this is what's a job does do? You know what you do, kids, I'm going to work really hard with you to do your homework so you can go to university and end up as miserable as I am. What kind of a message is that where dads, fathers in the profession are pushing the kids away, going show me after son, show me after because they do the other kids work. Yeah. So the biggest and most powerful message we can give our children is, if it's toxic, if it's making you well, whether it is a marriage or a job, you vote with your feet and you will leave, and you find the confidence to get out there for 85 quid a day. Yeah, absolutely. I've even said to our ally, and I've taught her this if you're going out with your mates and one of them turns a bit toxic, and you get the black spot the way girls do you. Come and get me. I'm on me way kid, because you don't stay in an environment that makes you ill and teach your kids that, yeah, absolutely every time. And what you what you said about that, and I do remember, I mean, again, it's so many little light bulb moments over the last six months, at when you said, I think you called it multiple income stream. I call it and all my eggs in one basket. Yeah, that's what I call it. So once I realized that didn't have to come money that I needed didn't have to come from one income, one thing. Tell us what you're doing now. Sue, please. I am a pooter, and you might all go, yeah, they're going to be Google had those five clients, and I thought, still did not believe that I could do it on my own. Also, actually, I need to have that 85 pound a day. What I mean, that's what I need to earn. So how am I going to get that? So I did, did mine specifically for tutoring. So I applied for, I did type in maths tutor on Facebook. Those people went like, Okay, I'll reply to them. I typed it in on Indeed, had a couple of alternative education provision near me. Wanted math online Master, so I applied to them. I applied to two or three other companies. I met a lovely lady on on the teaching group who runs alternative school in Horsham in Surrey. Folks to her and offered my services to her if she wanted it. I also then my Facebook page and put it on flop site, put it on home educational sites, if I got kicked off, fine, I'll just put on another one that on homemade sites. Joined homemade sites as myself and started just offering free advice to people and not saying I was a math tutor, necessarily, to get myself in there and talking and generating then when they asked. But how do you know? You do know that if you're not teaching, oh, I'm a math tutor. Now not allowed to advertise, though my page is linked to my face, my personal profile. So I got all these different income stories that I'd new you advertised on Facebook for tutors. So I started working for you, working for you. I then started working for Sarah and Charlotte on must message me every week and you've got any spaces yet? No, that's what I did. Actually. I'm going to ask you a personal question, what you're taking on round about. So friend of mine didn't start till January. So this is only four months I take over around about 880 pound a week. How much is that for? How many hours? Um, many feel the different colors. That's all the different providers. And you can see that the vast majority of it is still private, because that's the purple, obviously, in real terms, in real terms, 32 hours a week. It's 33 definitely that less than a 60 to 80 hour work. Yeah, and, and don't get me wrong, I get it. None of my days start before 10. I am not a morning person, extra two hours in bed. Extra two hours. I'm not getting up at 20 past six. I'm getting up a quarter past eight, sitting in bed with a cup of tea, done the reading the news. I'm sitting here in my slippers in my room. I'm gonna have a wee while. I want a cup of tea when I'm on, and have some lunch when I'm on. I have teach an hour, I have a half hour of gap. I teach an hour, I have an hour gap. I might teach two or three hours and have an hour gap. What's your mindset like, though? Sue, are you panicking about September? What's going to happen if all this dries up and whatever? What if it doesn't? Yeah, what if it doesn't? Sia, kept me two years longer in school than I should have been. It's not even longer stopped me to see my family. It made me miss funerals, weddings, birthdays. Was lucky. I was only just lucky to be at the present at the birth of one of my grandchildren, only because it was half term week. It has made me miss doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, hospital appointments. I am now a free like you don't say I'm an ex teacher. I'm a freelance educator. Now let's assume your I tell you what I'd do if I was primary, and I keep talking about this, and I keep dropping this into people that was primary, I'd start off with some tuition, and then, in this day and age, I know exactly what I would do. I would book a church hall, or I would book a community center, and I would plan myself a six week program of phonics for mums and tops, not just mums and tots and the old dribble with sing along with Johnny and all that stuff. I would be teaching parents how to teach their. Children to read, and you could write a blank check for that, yeah, because it doesn't exist the covid gaps that these kids have been left with. You could teach a mother how to help their kid read. Could so if you're a primary school teacher, don't come crying to me that you can't leave because there's such a demand for online tuition. It's untrue. There's such a demand for face to face tuition. It's untrue. The National tutoring program is massive, a massive demand for tutors. Well on it, when I applied for all those different tutoring agencies and things, I set myself on figure of where I was, what I was willing to work for, and my bottom figure was 25 pound an hour. I'm not working for less than 25 pounds an hour. That's four students a day. I need as a minimum. And so when a tutoring program, a tutoring agency, would get back to me and say, Yeah, and we offer you 17 pounds 50 an hour, I'd go there. Thank you, knowing my worth is so important, yeah, and it's interesting, just off our tangent that I was talking to somebody the other day. I'm not even sure if she's a member of the group, but she should be who was paid 44 pounds for a day's life. Really, I do know a Linda Evangelista. I'm not getting out of bed unless that my bottom line amount. I think it's multiple income streams. It's really entrepreneurial. So all right, if you're if you're a DT teacher, or if you're a modern foreign languages teacher, I understand there are limits to what you can do that is your subject specialism, and you are in secondary school, but there are ways around it. We've just told you, do a couple of days supply with the right mindset. I'm in and out. Not asked functional skills. Nobody can everybody can teach functional skills. Everyone can teach functional skills. So do you know what? If you've got half a brain, you can go and analyze the year six. That's curriculum. Yeah. And you can do it. You stand there and you go, I'm a mathematical or I'm a literacy, I'm a numeracy or literacy, I'm literacy, right? What does a kid need to know for year six? That's and I defy anybody is in the teaching profession who cannot reskill themselves to do that. Yeah, if you want to, that's absolutely fine. Find your joy. So if you're a PE teacher and you say, right, I can't do this, then go and set yourself up as a personal trainer. And this, this just, I'm not picking on PE teachers, but PE teachers in schools have a limited lifespan that they do. They they hit a point where schools don't want them to be PE teachers anymore, and they sideline them into so either at that point they choose to go to their second subject while they get called somewhere. So So do that? Take control of that situation? Yeah, and find your niche now, before somebody says, I do you know what I want you teaching bottom set geography, yes. And you're absolutely right. Sarah, and there are so many, start being entrepreneurial. Start saying, if I've got to earn 85 pound a day, I'll drive a fault of trucking for me too. But what I'll do is I will grow my jumping beans business of whatever, where I'm doing mini football, or I'm doing karate, or I'm doing there's a great business model, and it's a really, really simple business model. If you've got a skill, whether it's phonics or PE or calligraphy or whatever you could do, right go and book a room. Go and book a room in a venue for about 25 quid, and have a price point of seven pound 50, right per customer, right? So let's say for one minute your skills was karate or Pilates or whatever. These are unregulated business models. And, you know, charge seven pound 50 for a person to come in and you get 10 people in that room. It's 75 quid. You only need to earn 85 a day. Move. Get rid of being a pit pony. Work out what you like doing. I spoke to a guy last night. He put something on frog it Friday. I'm going to give him a shout out. Jonathan Parker's name is, oh, he you know those pens, right? I got on a zoom call with him last night. Well, what you doing? I said they are phenomenal, and I couldn't buy one because you'd not set up a sales funnel that I was three clicks away from purchasing, right? And he's looking at me so most talented man said, Why have you not done a video of how to make them? 35 pound pen, right? That's how much he's charging. Who's sell for a day. But I think, I think as well about Helena in our group showed in Helena how to how to warpsia. I know she's over in reddish. A day and a Medicus market, they're all stocked, yeah, and, and now they'll do it. And she's okay. You are rings, isn't it? You are not going to make a living coming out of teaching selling candles, right? Absolutely not. But what you are going to do is chip away that 85 quid with how many candles you do sell, if you've got three other days supply, if you're then working in a hospital school, if you're then working in Aldi, if you're doing one of the things we have to drop is the pride of being a teacher, because it's hard, because if you're first generation University, like I was in our family, my my dad would be Help, help my daughter, who is a teacher, is drowning because he's so proud. So to actually suddenly go, I've quit, burnt out, they've won. You've got to fight your pride. And that's when you go back to what role model I've been to my family. Because you walk away. You've also gotta flip that, because the other aspect of the of the mindset is the word just, I'm just a teacher. My God, you are so much more Yes. And when you, when you're coming out, and you, you're making that bottom line work for yourself, right? And you pull in that 1500 that month. The one thing that doesn't happen, and this is the last section of this that I think is important. When you've been on an incremental glass ceiling type institution, no matter how many hours you work that pay pack, it's going to look the same. There is an abundance of wealth out there. So if you are going to leave teaching and do that bottom line, then you have got to work as hard on your mindset as you do on creating that money. Absolutely, this is what I say as well. You start with really, really understanding the power of your mental robustness, and that comes from mental health and well being. The first thing you do is you read books like The secret, the law of attraction, the importance of manifestation of success. Okay, go down a rabbit hole at three o'clock at night, when you can't sleep because of stress, watch TED Talks. Look at the most successful entrepreneurs in our society, because they don't do it by chance. They have a robust mental attitude to money. So you start to look at things like the power of the universe, the law of attraction, the secret the next thing you do is you meditate. You get into mental health and well being, where you meditate, and if you have come out of teaching, you start to find the joy in nature. You go for that walk. You treat yourself kindly. Do some work on your inner child, and be as passionate about your mental health as you are about your financial health. And then what will happen is you will exceed what you were earning in the classroom, yeah, within no time at all. So just to summarize on what we do, sort your finances out, get your bottom line. The next thing is, feel the fear and do it anyway. Before you don't have a choice. Yeah, yeah, while you can still negotiate your reference, whilst you still are fit enough to earn that 1300 what you then do is, when you are out, you have faith that this is going to be okay. And that comes quite quickly. Actually, I think Sue's four months in, four months out, four months in, she's meeting the bottom line, and there's an abund and exceeding it, quite frankly. And there's stuff out there that's coming in quite nicely. Sarah. Sarah's got multiple income streams, and she's got multiple businesses. Okay, what are you prepared to do? What is your bottom Are you prepared to do your earnings? At the moment, I'm not including the profits from your businesses. No. So my, my bottom line, my absolute bottom line, is 1468, a month, and the last month was my first 3k months. Is that include? Profit from your businesses? No, no. So that was my 3k take home. So lead to profits from the businesses as well. So separate and off the top in my coach and the profits from the business probably going to get another sick i in me just intend to profit by the end of July, and then weddings and things that have that have started back up again. I I've tipped now into I might have a couple of what, what my dad likely calls squeaky. Moments where, then when he doesn't come in at the right time, yeah, but that's what a bit of sleight of hand and transfer enough credit card, doing something here there and but it's balancing out now. And I now back at a point which I didn't envisage being at where I'm having conversations with Mike and about a being able to put back the savings that I needed to decimate last year, but also talk about starting to say, to create a deposit for my son to be able to buy a house in three or four years. And Sarah, are you English maths or science? No, what's No. What's your specialism? Right? But what did you do? I went and learned syllabuses. I scaled myself up. So I teach children. So you teach English maths and science, because you just went and did it. You've got a Connexus business that you've talked about, which has got healthy profit, actually two connexuses, to be fair. You've then got your joy products, which is your photography and your wedding. So realistically speaking, spanning that between now and July, and you do an over, because I know what your figures are, you're looking at about 5000 pound a month earnings? Yeah, I'm gonna have to pay the tax. Mum. It's always worth it. Always worth it, yeah? But this is the other thing that this thing just kind of cycling back. It's the the things that you don't realize how much they're actually taking out of that. You know, I used to I'm on a Christian number here. I'm on 65k a year. Actually, in terms of what you're taking home, it was 3538 four to one, and so over a third of that was thrown on top. Oh, this pension business. What about repeat? Oh, shut up. About your teacher's pension? Wide Miss mouth thing, you are better off coming out, right, getting life insurance and starting paying the Prudential if that's what's keeping you in that classroom. You are being utterly ridiculous, right? Because they are just the false gods that if I I've got to earn this amount of like my T, like you said, My teacher's pension was 65k No, it wasn't. In reality, you were bringing on one to 40, right? You're bringing now, when you do your figures for this year, and you've got your you're going to be bringing about 40 again, once you've paid the tax man, but you're in control. You're not ill. And this is where you then got to factor in. How am I conducting myself? I go to Starbucks. We have a ball. I go for whoops like I can sit in my garden want my breakfast. I can see my trial and breathe. Yeah, I'm not in a grip of anxiety and fear. Do you know? And I speak to teachers on the phone, and it does make me laugh. The mindset speaking to a lovely lady the other night, I was talking to about group tutoring, and she said to me, and I talked to her about my group tutoring at the weekend, and how many I have on a call. And she went, how many are you allowed to have? Said, right, it's your business, and have as many as you want of and she's saying, Oh, it's different. It's so difficult to get out of that pit pony, yeah, and that, in a nutshell, is what you do in order to get out of teaching. Work out what's the minimum I've got to earn find out a means of earning it, which is easier than you think, but take the bloody leap before it kills you, if only to model to your own family that I am worth more than this, and I am not having my teenage daughter and teenage son thinking that this is what an adult's life looks like because it doesn't. Thank you, as always, for listening to our pit pony podcast. On behalf of Sarah, our guests and all involved with the production, we're so grateful for your support. Please subscribe to our channels, follow us on social media, and we look forward to seeing you next time, when we will have another inspirational story from a fellow pit pony who has exited the classroom and thrived. You.