From Natalie herself:
I left teaching in schools after almost 30 years to start my own business... I'm now using my teaching skills and experience to help adults nurture their mental health by developing a more creative lifestyle. I like to share my story because, I learned the hard way, that if you feel trapped in a job you don't enjoy, it can contribute to a decline in your mental health.
My husband was proud of being known as a workaholic and perfectionist, even though he didn't even like his job and in 2009 he lost his will to live. I, on the other hand, had a dream job, in a school I loved.
Now I'm doing what I can to help adults change their lives and get their priorities right. Life is too short to not pursue your dreams!
For enquiries: hello@studioyellow.com.au
https://www.studioyellow.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/studioyellowaustralia/
From Natalie herself:
I left teaching in schools after almost 30 years to start my own business... I'm now using my teaching skills and experience to help adults nurture their mental health by developing a more creative lifestyle. I like to share my story because, I learned the hard way, that if you feel trapped in a job you don't enjoy, it can contribute to a decline in your mental health.
My husband was proud of being known as a workaholic and perfectionist, even though he didn't even like his job and in 2009 he lost his will to live. I, on the other hand, had a dream job, in a school I loved.
Now I'm doing what I can to help adults change their lives and get their priorities right. Life is too short to not pursue your dreams!
For enquiries: hello@studioyellow.com.au
https://www.studioyellow.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/studioyellowaustralia/
Welcome to Season 2 of the Get out of Teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises. I'm your host, Elizabeth Diacos. In this season, we'll meet ex-teachers who have taken their hobbies and passions from outside of Education and created a new career for themselves. We'll talk to people who can support and inspire us as we make the transition and work on identifying the legacy we want to leave in the world. So come along for the ride as we get out of teaching. Episode Four. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the show. And on today's show, I'm very pleased to be interviewing Natalie Lynch. Welcome to the show, Natalie.
Natalie Lynch :Hello, welcome.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so Natalie, tell us about your journey. What got you into teaching in the first place?
Natalie Lynch :Well, I'm from a family of teachers. So I've got parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles, my sister, everybody went into teaching. So, I think it's actually my blood. It's a genetic thing. But also it was because when I was in high school, I absolutely loved the subject of art. And like most people, I didn't have the confidence to think that I could make a living out of my art because I'm not talented enough. So, um, going into teaching and teaching a subject that I loved, which was art, was like the best of both worlds. It was giving me a career path, and I was still staying with the subject that I loved.
Elizabeth Diacos :Nice and I guess you got to play I got to play with all the art supplies too. That was certainly my experience. I love that part of it.
Natalie Lynch :Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty good when you're at uni and half your subjects are practical. You get to make good stuff, so yeah, that was really good.
Elizabeth Diacos :Nice. So what was the context? Like, where did you start working? When you began? How old were you?
Natalie Lynch :Oh, well, um, I was actually 20 my first year of teaching. So I did a diploma of secondary art teaching. Which was only three years, so then yeah, I'm a December baby. So I was very young - turned 21 at the end of my first year teaching and I started in Burnside High School in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast. So that was a pretty good place to start.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so for our international listeners that's in Queensland, Australia, so up in the northern part of Australia. And so, you started there teaching secondaries. That's a bit of a tough gig for 20 year old.
Natalie Lynch :Yes, definitely. I had some mature aged students, too, that were older than me. And I looked really, really young. So it was a bit of a tough gig that first year.
Elizabeth Diacos :You look pretty young now. So, okay... how long did you actually teach for then?
Natalie Lynch :Well, I've been teaching all my life. So I spent about 10 years teaching high school. And then when I stopped to have babies, I upgraded my qualifications from a diploma to a degree, and it was during that extra study that I did that I discovered that there were actually some schools in Queensland that have primary school art specialists. And up until then, I knew that the education department - the Queensland Education Department didn't have specialist teachers in the primary school. So, I was really intrigued to find out for the first time that some of the independent schools and private schools did. So that actually changed the course of my career because then I started to work out how to get myself into that... So, I discovered that some of the private schools and independent schools had primary art specialists and I really was intrigued by that because I thought if I could only get to the younger students - and I'd always felt this way with high school teaching - if I could get to the students younger, then I can help them bridge that gap between loving art as a child and being really blasé about, you know "I don't like art, I'm not good at art" in high school. So I followed that path, I met up with a few people, I just sort of rang up people and said, "Hey, can I shadow you for a day and see what your jobs like?" And then I actually found a position being advertised and I applied for it, and absolutely did not think I would get the job... but I did. And so then I started basically a whole new career because teaching primary school was so different to teaching high school. But yeah, I started as the primary art specialist and an independent private school, and I ended up staying there for 20 years. So I really liked it.
Elizabeth Diacos :Did you stay in the same school that whole time?
Natalie Lynch :Yeah. So,
Elizabeth Diacos :Well
Natalie Lynch :I mean, with long service leave and a year of leave without pay and all of that it was probably about 18 years of teaching, but it was a beautiful place to work and I really enjoyed working with the younger students, so it just ended up I stayed, and stayed, and stayed.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Okay, so after 20 years then what was the tipping point that made you decide to leave?
Natalie Lynch :Well, unfortunately for me back in 2009, my whole life changed very instantly because I lost my husband. He'd been battling with depression, and it got the better of him. And so in September 2009, I suddenly found I was a widow. So that was just... devastating, as you can imagine. I've got two children, they were 15 and 18 at the time. And so after that event, I actually... because I couldn't cope with full time teaching, I went into a part time position at the same school, they were wonderful and they really looked after me. So I worked part time and during that part - those part time years as I gradually sort of found myself again and recovered a little, I started thinking more and more and more about the fact that adults need this creative outlet too. It's okay for kids to do it, but they do it naturally, but there are so many adults out there who loved art at school, or wanted to do art in high school, and then they couldn't because it didn't match up on the right subject lines... all the reasons that you know, people just stopped doing art. And so I decided that it was time to especially once my kids graduate, and I'm like, why am I still going to school every day when they're out and I'm still here? So really... it really started making me think maybe now is the time to start my own business and start teaching adults - and I mean, I didn't have a business plan, I really just thought it'd be really nice to teach adults how to enjoy art because I knew from teaching primary school I was very good at breaking down tasks into very basic steps for beginners to really grasp it. So I thought of it I could do this for adults, then they wouldn't be so tentative about starting. And so, you know, that was my whole business plan was "it'd be good to teach adults." And so luckily, because I was working part time, I was able to do some of the behind the scenes work and start formulating a plan and getting websites made and figuring out what on earth I was going to do with it, what the program would be and the curriculum and the timing of what lessons would be offered when and all of that sort of thing. And so I really was able to transition into the business by working on my other days from home working on the business. And so it was 2016 and December that I actually launched the business and I taught the first classes in 2017.
Elizabeth Diacos :Wow, fantastic. I love the way you've described. Like I've seen it described like an iceberg. You know, you've got the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the ocean and underneath there's all this backwork that you had to do before you could actually "go live", so to speak.
Natalie Lynch :Yes. And I often laugh when they have ads on the TV that say "you can start a business in an hour by jumping onto this banking website", and you can do this or whatever. And I just think "hahaha, so false". Yeah, and you know, now this is my fourth year. And it's still like, I'm still building that iceberg underneath and yeah, what everybody else sees on social media, it's just the little the little bit that people see, but there's so much more to be done behind the scenes.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. So I think it's really nice to give people a bit of a reality check about that, because it is a wonderful thing to run your own business, but then there's all this stuff that's, you know, the hidden side of it that you don't no one realizes until you have to start doing it. Or until you see someone else do it and you recognize that in them: "oh, yeah, I know. I know what that took to get that to there," you know.
Natalie Lynch :I have a whole new respect now for small business owners, that's for sure.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so as you were leaving then and going, so are you still teaching at all?
Natalie Lynch :Oh yeah so I basically teach my own timetable now. So I teach three or four, but it's only like three or four classes a week.
Elizabeth Diacos :So hang on, are you teaching in schools at all?
Natalie Lynch :Oh, no, no, no.
Elizabeth Diacos :You launched in 2017. Is that when you stopped teaching?
Natalie Lynch :No, I continued in a part time role. So I think I was working three days a week when I launched. And then within a very short amount of time, I knew I still couldn't run a business with three days a week in a school. Because you know, you can't even answer a phone or answer emails, and you still have preparation planning in the evenings and all of that. So I then was able to swap the role with my teaching partner. So she took on three days and I had the two days and that suited her luckily, and it didn't disrupt the school very much. Um, yes. So... then I dropped down to two days a week and I think I only did that for 6 months. And then I went "I'm not going on leave" 'cos I still don't have enough time to run my business. And yeah, I probably was ready to resign at that stage but my parents were really much like "well, are you sure you should give away such a great position you'll never get it back again? And it's security and it's..." But you know, that's coming from a place of them being teachers, and their parents being teachers, and everyone in their life being teachers so they were very much "Go the safe road." But I knew that if I was going to do this (and I'd invested so much time in it by then that I thought I really have to give it my whole effort and I've come too far now to still just squeeze it out the sides), I have to go "right this is it, I'm doing it." And I think once you do resign, it does mean you've got a different everything because suddenly you don't have any income to fall back on. And you don't have the security of you know, sick days, sick pay, and holiday pay and all that sort of thing as well.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, so that's the reality check. Was there fear around that for you? Like, it sounds like you were really resolute that you wanted to work yourself. But there must have been a little inkling of, you know, hearing those other voices.
Natalie Lynch :Oh, definitely, yeah, my mum was who was trying to keep me really being safe. And she was the one who was saying, "are you sure you should resign? Maybe you should, you know, take leave without pay and not cut off that source of income." Whereas my dad was the one who really was "no, just go for it." And I must admit, the day I actually resigned, I was perfectly okay with it. So that really helped me think well, it must have been the right decision then because it's okay, now I've got things to do and I got off back to working on my business. (laughs)
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. And that, that courage to take the leap when... I mean teaching's a very secure job isn't it. It's very regimented, you have very structured life when you're a teacher. And to go from that to just being the master of your own destiny, in a sense, there's always that little frisson of fear and excitement isn't there?
Natalie Lynch :Yeah, and it's, you know, such a lot of work too. It's... when you're a teacher, you're working on weekends you're working on at night, you're working... every single day you're there at the same time, you finish at the same, you leave late. Sometimes there's so much involved in that job and then to suddenly be in charge of your own time is really, really different, but it's, I want to say it's almost like getting out of jail (laughs). Because suddenly if you need to or want to, you could have a coffee at a 10 o'clock on a weekday in a coffee shop. And it could be a meeting. And it can still be all very valid and working and everything. But there's that freedom to actually choose, pick and choose what you do, when you do and how you do it. So that's nice.
Elizabeth Diacos :So it sounds like you overcame that fear pretty easily, that sense of is this the right choice now?
Natalie Lynch :Yes, but as I said, I think I'd been working towards it for probably five years before I made the ultimate cut off all ties, resign from this school. So I've certainly didn't have the guts to do that right back at the beginning and I think I would have gone broke if I had because it takes a long time to build up an income from your business.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Okay. And so what would you say... tell us what you're doing now and then tell us what skills you brought from teaching into your new role?
Natalie Lynch :Well, what I'm doing now is I'm teaching art classes and with the real art therapy basis. So I've developed my own programs, and I teach one of workshops as well but it's all for adults now. So it's... Studio Yellow is the name of the business. And yeah, I teach programs that run weekly. So people sign up for a whole term and for 8 weeks they come along every week for a two hour session. And they learn different skills and techniques and concepts and ideas that help them to make that transition into "I don't know anything about art" to "ooh, I'm excited. I've got lots of ideas, and I could try this and I could try that." And get them you know, feeling, thinking and feeling like an artist so that they don't just shut down and say, I don't know what to do, or I can't draw, so I can't be an artist, all of those sort of mindset things I work on as well.
Elizabeth Diacos :So is it something around, empowering them to have that creative expression, or is it about overcoming the fear? Or is it a little bit of both?
Natalie Lynch :It's definitely a little bit of both because pure art therapy is really about using art materials to, you know, express your emotions. So the example I always use is, if you can't express your anger, you could punch clay and squash clay and throw clay against the wall, and you're going to feel better and you won't have hurt anybody. But when I think to really use art for therapy, and to make your whole life more balanced and creative, and a way of expressing your feelings is you still want to have made something that you like in the end. So you need a little bit of skills and a little bit of the hints and tips that artists use so that you can start making things that you actually like so it really is a blend of both at but I really see myself as the starting point. And once people get that confidence that they could say "well now that I've started and now that I've tried this, I can take an art class. anywhere in the world with any tutor in the world, because I've got the confidence at least, to have a go and I will enroll, and I will try it." Whereas a lot of people have a little bit of trouble getting to that stage or they enroll in a class that's way beyond their, their capabilities. So after the first lesson, they don't want to go back and they just go "nah, you know, I didn't even know which paint brush she wanted me to pick up so I'm not going back." So it's really try to aim for the beginners. But then again, being a teacher and with all of those years of experience, you certainly know how to cater for all abilities in class. And you can... art is very open ended, so if there's somebody in the room who has got a bit more confidence, they can take that idea as far as they want. Whereas the other person who might be brand new and a bit anxious, they could copy exactly what I've shown them and it's all okay, because I don't have to mark them. I don't have to compare them to a criteria. I don't have to write a report card. So that is the freedom that you have then to be able to say, "go with it, try it, have a go." It's the way teaching should be. (laughs)
Elizabeth Diacos :I agree with you, especially teaching art it used to pain me to have to give a mark to a little preppies who were just experiencing
Natalie Lynch :Absolutely
Elizabeth Diacos :...and trying materials.
Natalie Lynch :One of the... that's probably around when I started to get a little bit sick of teaching in classrooms was when the government started to mandate that with the new curriculum in Australia, we had to start giving an A-E rating at every level from prep to grade 6, and grade 7 when I was teaching grade sevens and it's like... how can you judge little tiny people. Because I found then it wasn't really giving the child an assessment of where they were. It was really just brainwashing the parents into thinking, well, if my child's getting B's and C's, especially in an independent private school, they mustn't be very good at art, I'm only going to let them continue on with their A subjects. So these children who are just at a different developmental stage, or you know, they just, they're doing well they're getting B's. That's great.
Elizabeth Diacos :They just love it. And they're just not great at it, but they still enjoy it.
Natalie Lynch :Absolutely and yet, we have to then grade them so that on a report card, a parent can glance down and go, "oh, they only got a C, they only got a B. Well, that's not their area of expertise. So we'll direct them this way for future studies." And that that was really hard to do that. So yeah, that is one real positive about what I'm doing now is that after it's all said and done, the student is student centered, and I do not need to hit them with an A B or C at the end.
Elizabeth Diacos :Nice. So what skills do you think you took with you from teaching into your new role?
Natalie Lynch :Well... ooh, that's a hard one. I suppose being organised is so important, and being disciplined enough to timetable yourself because there are so many things to follow up on and to do on a regular basis. So, I think, you know, as a teacher, you already had those skills. A lot of the things I do now, it's almost like planning an event and I know when I was teaching I planned events and had to be ready for the annual art show, and ready for the fete and ready for this and ready for, you know, school musical sets and design- so you're always doing a lot of planning and, I think also, when I teach now, I really have specific aims and objectives for every lesson. And you know, how to question people to get the best out of them. Whereas I've, I go along to art classes sometimes and don't tell anybody who I am I just sign up or... not who I am, that sounds a bit pretentious, but I don't tell anyone my background. So I'll sign up for a class on, you know, beginner watercolors somewhere, and just go in and they go, "have you had much experience?" I go, "oh no, not a lot", and I just have a go. And I'm amazed at how many people, they have the talent in the area that they're teaching, but they don't have that teaching ability. I think so many people think teaching is just easy, but it is a skill. And there is a big difference. And a lot of my students have been telling me that anyway, they go, my classes are different. And yeah, it's sort of an intangible difference, but I'm sure it's just because I'm an experienced teacher. And I'm not just somebody who's trying to show people, "I can do this, so now I'll show you how to do it too."
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, yeah, no that's a really valid point. So, with that, did you need to do any further training? Like, you said you've got an Art Therapy focus. So did you do any training in that area?
Natalie Lynch :I actually did a diploma in Art Therapy, which was an online course that I did before I launched the business, so... which was another reason why I was a little bit busy, because I was working and studying and trying to get my business up and running. But I really found that I knew art was therapeutic. I had used Art Therapy, and the course just consolidated all of that for me. But I also knew that I needed to, to convince other people that it wasn't... my lessons weren't just another art class. I knew it would help to have a diploma of Art Therapy as credentials to go with my Bachelor of Education and my Diploma of Teaching. So it was really just to consolidate what I already knew. And it's been an enormous benefit because it does mean that I just, I can say "yes, I am an art therapist as well as an art teacher and an artist." And that just gives you that more credibility.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. And I guess even just for yourself to have that confidence of having that behind you, that probably helped as well.
Natalie Lynch :Definitely. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :So what advice would you give to someone, Natalie, who's feeling stuck in maybe considering leaving their profession, leaving Education? And they're just like on that brink of "this is a huge risk." They're not sure what to do next. What would you tell them?
Natalie Lynch :Well, I suppose there's two ways to go. You leave teaching to get employed by somebody else, or you leave teaching to employ yourself. If you're leaving teaching to employ yourself, I suppose the number one piece of advice I would say is you have to be passionate about what you want to do, because it's all-consuming, for a while at least. There are so many decisions that you have to make, so many hours that you have to put in, you know, when you first started out... well, I didn't have the financial backing to say I'm going to pay an expert to do this for me, and I'm going to pay a marketing manager and I'm going to pay an accountant and a bookkeeper and a this and a that, or whatever. So you put on all of these hats, and for me, that was all new learning. But then again, because I'm absolutely sure that the service I'm providing is needed, and I'm absolutely sure that I don't want to be in a school anymore... I'm willing to put in those hours. You know, as soon as I talk to some of my colleagues from my previous school, and I know that they're spending time doing things like staff meetings and going online at short notice because of COVID, and all of these things that happen, and I just think, well, I don't have to think about any of that now. I'm not in that basket. I do what I want, when I want how I want. But then with that comes a lot of learning that you have to do. So if you're not passionate about it, you're not going to make any money out of it because you do have to put the hours in and you've got to not resent it. I mean, I still, I'm doing long hours now, but I don't resent the hours because it's almost like I wake up thinking, "oh, how much can I get done today?" and not "oh, I've got so much to do today." And while I'm still feeling that, it's all okay.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, got it. So if someone wanted to work, to come to your studio as a student, what would they need to do to access your service?
Natalie Lynch :Well, at the moment, I've just launched my first online program, and it's the first - even though it might be a long time before the second one comes, it is the first one, but it is very targeted at carers and carers of people living with dementia so that they can learn skills online and then work with the person that they care for, to both benefit from art and creativity. But if you're in Brisbane, of course, you can come to my studio and learn face to face. And so I do the weekday classes I do one 8-week, class as well. And then I do, every second Saturday I do a workshop that is a one-off event. So just a topic that you do three or four hours in one go. And they're very popular for people who work full time and people who, who haven't got the flexibility to come during the week.
Elizabeth Diacos :So are you running, give or take, about 20 workshops a year?
Natalie Lynch :Oh easily more than that.
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, but like the weekend ones, you, like... there's 52 weeks in the year, so.
Natalie Lynch :Yeah, yeah, I am, and then I have my programs that I teach every week, so the people who have signed up for the group lessons, and then I have other little one off things that happen, so... But I'm having less and less of those because I'm learning more about business, and I'm not saying yes to everything anymore. I'm targeting... niching down to what I really want to do, and that's helped adults with their wellness. But I have done birthday parties for kids and I've done painting classes and I've done corporate workshops, and all sorts of things like that. But I do public speaking as well to spread the word basically about the benefits of Art Therapy. But that's also another way then to be... for exposure so that people know I exist and get the message and once they've got the message, then they can sign up, probably, maybe, sign up for some classes. So it's all about marketing.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, fantastic. So I'm going to put the links to your studio in the show notes for this episode. So if anyone does want to find out more about what you do, they can go to that. The links will be on the Buzzsprout platform or all the platforms, and also on my website as well. So, I've got two more questions for you. First one, do you have any regrets about this pathway that you've taken?
Natalie Lynch :Well, no, no, I don't have any regrets. It has been a very huge learning curve. So there's been a lot of anxiety and angst over "is this going to work? Am I doing it the right way? How could I be doing it better." But when it really comes down to it, I really believe that my place in this world right now is to be working with adults. And so there are no regrets because what I... the feedback I get from the people that I work with now makes it all worthwhile. So, probably the only thing that I miss is the security of knowing that you've got that set income, and the set holiday periods and the set hours, even though you do more hours than what are the set hours. I really... I don't know, I just think the security of that is lovely. But then again, I'm in a time in my life now where my kids are independent and have gone and moved out of home. So if I was going to, I only really have to look after myself financially anyway. So for me, it was the right time.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, yeah. So, Natalie, what's the legacy that you want to leave in the world?
Natalie Lynch :Well, I suppose the legacy would be that if I can change even one person's life through teaching them art, teaching them how to use art for their own wellness and their own emotional expression, and stop them from experiencing or stop anyone experiencing what I went through when I became a widow and the trauma that they that existed around that... I don't want anyone to get to the stage where they feel hopeless and they don't think life is worth living. And for anybody touched by trauma of any kind, you have to claw your way out of that grief and trauma that happens. And so, yeah, if I can help somebody make their day just that little bit brighter and have that future seem a little bit more hopeful, and find that there is actually joy and beauty everywhere in the world, then that would be what I'd like to be remembered for because, yeah it's... to me, life is wonderful, and I'm very grateful for everything that I have in my life. And even though I would never wish this upon anybody, I've learnt a lot in the last 10 years, and yeah, if I can pass on any of that wisdom - that's a part of that getting old, you accidentally get some wisdom - and if I can pass on any of that in the future through Studio Yellow, and if it lives on beyond me, then that'd be even better. But who knows? That's what I'm hoping to do: Is just change, change the world for somebody.
Elizabeth Diacos :That sounds like a really wonderful and worthy legacy to leave in the world. Natalie Lynch, thank you so much for coming on the Get Out of Teaching podcast today.
Natalie Lynch :My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Elizabeth Diacos :You've been listening to the Get Out of Teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises, with your host Elizabeth Diacos. Do you know someone else who could benefit from hearing more stories of hope and transition from teachers all around the world? Please take a moment to share this and other episodes via your podcast app. Each share helps me reach listeners just like you who can benefit from this content. The Get Out of Teaching podcast is proud to be part of the Experts On Air Podcast Network. For show notes and other resources, please visit larksong.com.au/podcast.