With the due date of his son fast approaching, Dustin knew he needed to change both his income and lifestyle.
His wife, Anna, was quitting her job as a nurse and Dustin was not making enough money to pay for the family's expenses. He describes himself as the clichéd, underpaid teacher scrambling to pay rent. Much of his workweek was spent away from his family in one long commute and two disempowering jobs. However, he began to dream.
He spent his commutes envisioning a new career: one that would empower his family and students. He made plans to work with students independently, as an online writing coach. He began creating a unique curriculum that would help students master writing skills and develop empowering mindsets. Through focusing on providing each student with as much value as possible, he began receiving excellent feedback from his clients: soon, his side-hustle became the family's main source of income.
Despite his success, he kept one of his jobs as a failsafe until in 2019 Dustin moved with his family to Chile. This forced him to fully commit to his business. He lived in Chile until making an emergency return home during the pandemic of 2020. Now, Dustin works as a full-time writing coach and content editor (with a soft spot for Latin America).
Connect with Dustin through his website or LinkedIn page:
stevenseducation.com
With the due date of his son fast approaching, Dustin knew he needed to change both his income and lifestyle.
His wife, Anna, was quitting her job as a nurse and Dustin was not making enough money to pay for the family's expenses. He describes himself as the clichéd, underpaid teacher scrambling to pay rent. Much of his workweek was spent away from his family in one long commute and two disempowering jobs. However, he began to dream.
He spent his commutes envisioning a new career: one that would empower his family and students. He made plans to work with students independently, as an online writing coach. He began creating a unique curriculum that would help students master writing skills and develop empowering mindsets. Through focusing on providing each student with as much value as possible, he began receiving excellent feedback from his clients: soon, his side-hustle became the family's main source of income.
Despite his success, he kept one of his jobs as a failsafe until in 2019 Dustin moved with his family to Chile. This forced him to fully commit to his business. He lived in Chile until making an emergency return home during the pandemic of 2020. Now, Dustin works as a full-time writing coach and content editor (with a soft spot for Latin America).
Connect with Dustin through his website or LinkedIn page:
stevenseducation.com
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 Seven. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the show. And on today's show, we're very pleased to be speaking with Dustin Stevens. Hi, Dustin, thanks for coming on the show today.
Dustin Stevens :Hi, thanks for having me, Elizabeth. It's great to be here. Thank you so much.
Elizabeth Diacos :So, Dustin tell us your story. Where did you begin your teaching career?
Dustin Stevens :So I started in a small town in South Korea, actually, called Cheonan and I taught in two public schools for a while. It was a-
Elizabeth Diacos :Hang on, go back. Where did you do your training?
Dustin Stevens :It was actually in South Korea. I had trained at university, I had a practicum and everything. But then when I landed in South Korea, there was also a week long training session for the Korean schools. So at that time, I had an undergraduate degree. And then I had a one year long teaching English certificate.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay. Yeah. And so you come from Canada. Is that right?
Dustin Stevens :That's right, originally. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :That explains the accent.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah. I wasn't aware I had an accent.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, well. Okay. So you got to Korea, and then what happened?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, so I taught for two years. So it was an excellent experience. And then my wife visited me right at the end (at that time, we were just dating). So we had a wonderful time traveling through Seoul and another city in Korea called Daegu as well. And then I came back to Canada. And I got a job at a language school, which is like, they teach SAT and reading and writing. It's an after school program. I mainly taught Chinese students and Koreans as well. And then I started my master's program, stayed at the school. And so I was just working a lot during that time. And then my son was born in August 13 of 2017. And my wife was quitting work, she's a nurse, and I realized, oh my goodness, it's up to me now to pay the bills, and she had a great job. And I was not working full time yet at that point. So I really hustled, I got a website together. And I don't know if you've heard of the term baby focus, but that was definitely me. I was, you know, my son was on his way. And I was very, very focused on, you know, creating this website, tutoring first in-person, and then later that led to online tutoring. And once I started that, I didn't want to look back. And so during that period, I was looking for jobs here and there as well. And I taught at college for a brief time, but it really wasn't what I was expecting nor what I was looking for. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :That's a huge pressure isn't that? You've got a young family, it's about to happen. I know a lot of the people I talked to who were, you know, a bit older. That's one of the main reasons they don't leave the profession is because of the security of having a job in, you know, as a teacher, they at least they know kind of, they've got a regular income. But it sounds like your job wasn't that great anyways, it wasn't really providing you what you needed in the first place.
Dustin Stevens :That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah. And Vancouver has a very expensive cost of living. And so you know, we had to find a way to pay the bills, basically. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :So you hustled, you set up your website?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :So how long? By that time how long had you been teaching for?
Dustin Stevens :By that time, I had been teaching... Let's see, that was 2017. So that was about five years at that point.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so you're pretty experienced teacher by then.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, fairly experienced at that point.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, okay. And so the tipping point then was really needing to provide for your family. What was the next thing you did? Like, you created a website. But you know, lots of people do that and nothing happens. How did you make it work?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, well, I was advertising. There's a platform here called Craigslist. I guess it's all over the world too, but it's more popular here. And so I was advertising on there for home tutoring. And through that I started tutoring to about, you know, the point where about half of my hours were tutoring within the house, twice driving everywhere. You know, it was, it was kind of crazy because I wasn't just within one city, I was driving to other cities within Metro Vancouver. And then I realized with my online students, that I could be so much more focused and just this the way that I think too, I think it fit very well for making the most out of our time. And so I used Google Drive and other technologies to just build my own lessons, from what I had learned at the language school and other places. And yeah, and and then once I saw that, I realized, okay, this is what I want to do from now on, because I saw the results with my students, and people were improving a lot more than they were in the classroom.
Elizabeth Diacos :It's really interesting, isn't it? So, I mean, I guess the other thing is that if you're online, you don't have all the social niceties, like knocking on the door and saying hello to the mom, and would you like a cup of tea and all those things that happen when you're in someone's home, you just get straight down to business.
Dustin Stevens :Right, yeah. So I usually have a bit of time with a student, you know, a minute or two just to touch base. But yeah, we really do hit the ground running right away. So, yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :So you're getting better results now than you were if you're going into their homes as well, is that right?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, because I, well, what I started doing is I started bringing my laptop into the home and getting the student to use their laptop too, because that system was working well. And then I could just make use of the Internet to teach. You know, I could use presentations online or videos and integrate that into my lesson. And whereas, you know, in the classroom, typically, I was more restricted. It was paper handouts in the schools I was in or even when I was using the computer, it was for a PowerPoint presentation, but the medium of instruction wasn't the computer itself.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah.
Dustin Stevens :So I found the Internet has led to very efficient teaching and effective too.
Elizabeth Diacos :So, you are actually in the in their house, sitting opposite them and you're both on your computers.
Dustin Stevens :Yep. So we were talking but I was also trying to get people onto the idea of tutoring online. So I even tried video chat in the houses when I first got started. And some people signed on or kind of, you know, when it was, I remember a few snowstorms actually were it was inconvenient to go to their house, and then they would try it, and then they would think, "Oh, this, you know, actually, this is working quite well." And so that's how I gradually shifted into online teaching. And then at some point, I just said, "You know what? This is, this is all I want to do."
Elizabeth Diacos :Yes. Did you, did you charge less because you weren't doing all the travel? Like how did you? Was there a sweetener for them? Or was it just like, this is how I'm doing it now. You're in or you're out?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, I think I did play around with that a little bit at the beginning. But what I've focused on now is I put a lot of my time into preparing lessons. So I see that driving time (that I'm not doing now) as an opportunity to really focus on the quality of my lessons, you know. And so I've also made, you know, things like billing more efficient as well. So I can focus on the teaching and curriculum development.
Elizabeth Diacos :So how do you how have you done that? How have you made billing more efficient?
Dustin Stevens :So for example, originally, I was invoicing everything.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay.
Dustin Stevens :And I moved to a subscription model.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right.
Dustin Stevens :So that I could... a lot of time was used up creating invoices even when I would have recurring invoices, just emailing people, reminding them to pay the invoice, etc. So, I've used programs where I can basically have a subscription model, like you would see elsewhere on the internet.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right. Okay. So then they're just paying you, there's no drama, it's all good, easy.
Dustin Stevens :Right. And they can cancel easily from the top of any receipt email too, so they're still in control and it works well. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :That's great. Excellent. And have you lost much business because of COVID?
Dustin Stevens :No, it's been the opposite.
Elizabeth Diacos :Really?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah. Yeah, it's been the opposite. Because, you know, usually there would be summer camps, and so people would be dropping off in the summertime. But actually, a lot of parents have increased their hours. I just had a parent increase from two hours to six hours, now, so that's just one example.
Elizabeth Diacos :In a week?
Dustin Stevens :In a week. Yep. So I'm teaching more than 40 hours right now, so it's quite busy.
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, that's amazing. And so do you do any group work?
Dustin Stevens :I do actually, right now it's primarily with siblings who are within the same grade, which isn't that common. Or, you know, close to... they have close to the same level. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right. Okay. Yeah. But there's obviously scope there. If you've got someone signing up for six hours, you could say, why don't you do two hours in a group? And then we'll do four hours, one on one or something like that.
Dustin Stevens :Right. Yeah. And I have taught groups before, it's just, it takes more to set it up. And, you know, to contact people to make sure they're available for the same period of time. And right now, I'm just not focused on that. But probably in the future I will.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, I was thinking about scaling, how would you scale it? Anyway, sorry.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, no problem. Well, I do... Now, actually, I'm working with a small team of tutors, who are taking on clients that I feel are are better suited for somebody else. And what I mean by that is that I'm trying to stay focused primarily on grades 5 through 12. And so I'll have adult clients looking for, you know, IELTS or TOEFL training. And so I do 5th to 12th grade, and then also SAT prep as well. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, and you're passing on the other people who want something different to someone else.
Dustin Stevens :That's right. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :So you've got an empire that you're building up right now?
Dustin Stevens :Well, I wouldn't say that, but it's certainly better than what was happening before I think, and primarily for for students, I think, because I'm able to actually see that the lessons are more productive, right, and I'm able to really feel invested in them and I guess that's the way I am too, right? You know, these are my lessons - I created them. It's not a school's curriculum that I think is maybe ineffective at reaching out to students.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so on your way out as you were developing this business and you were still teaching and still hustling, like working in different jobs was there fear around that, like "am I going to be able to make a good living doing this?"
Dustin Stevens :Yep. So I relied on the language school and other schools as well because of that fear for a long time. And then about, let's see, how long has it been now? About 10 months ago, I decided, "Okay. Let's go 100% full in with this business." And so what my family and I decided to do because we're crazy, is moved to South America in order to make that happen. So we went and lived in a small town in Chile.
Elizabeth Diacos :Was that just an economic decision to have a cheaper cost of living?
Dustin Stevens :It didn't end up really to be a cheaper cost of living because I had to make up those lost hours. But then also, you know, with flights... we were traveling a lot as well, but it did really push me to be fully focused on the business and we really enjoyed our time down there as well, of course.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right. So there were other benefits that weren't financial, or officious, right? Yeah.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, long term it was financially beneficial though. Because of shifting.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yes, yeah. Okay.
Dustin Stevens :...slowly been.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, but you're not there now.
Dustin Stevens :No, no, I'm not. We we moved back right as the Canadian and US borders were basically shutting down. My wife's actually American. So we heard a news story about the Canadian border not allowing Americans to come into the country and that really worried us. It was still family members that could come in and that's how it is right now. But at that point with the uncertainty that was in the air, we decided, "Okay, it's time to go back" and Chile was actually creating hygiene zones at that time (closed off provinces within the country). So, our flight was canceled to get from the small town we were in to Santiago. And we were you know, wondering what what we were going to do, we were contacting friends and neighbors. My next door neighbor drove me around the town to talk to the police, talk to the bus stations to try to get out and to try to get to the International Airport in Santiago. And eventually, a friend of a friend drove us from our town to Santiago. It was about a nine hour drive.
Elizabeth Diacos :Wow.
Dustin Stevens :We flew through all of the high risk airports, Atlanta, Georgia, and then on to Seattle. And then- no, Atlanta, Georgia, Minneapolis, Seattle, and then Vancouver.
Elizabeth Diacos :So many airports.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, during COVID, right?
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, wow. It's amazing that you made it because once they shut our borders... like we said all our kids "If you want to come home, you come home now". Because you know even here in Australia they shut borders. And so, yeah, we have the same issues only not as extreme, as yours. Okay.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, it was nerve racking, for sure.
Elizabeth Diacos :I can imagine, especially with your little one. So, as you were doing this, did you have to, like learn some new stuff? Did you have to get some training to set up your business? Like, what what did you already know? What did you need to learn? What did you bring from Education?
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, so a lot of, I wish I would have gone that route, actually. But a lot of it I learned slowly, and part of that was was financial. But now when I look back, it would have been a great idea to you know, have a have a coach, you know, to guide me through some of it, but I was using, you know, YouTube videos and people that had gone through a similar experience and were like, 10 years ahead of me, basically.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, well that's, you know, that's good, isn't it? Just finding out that information from somewhere, and so did you have to go and do any kind of training or it was just using YouTube and other resources that were free?
Dustin Stevens :I didn't, I just use YouTube. And, you know, just googling a lot of different resources. So, that was it. But you know, I had the teacher training that I could rely on. And I'm comfortable with technology and really comfortable, you know, navigating online tools and working with that, and that's something I've kind of done as a hobby. So that was certainly a strength.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right? Yeah. So I was gonna ask about setting up your website. So you did that yourself?
Dustin Stevens :Yep. I used a website builder, and it was a learning experience. And it was my... I set up a website earlier, under a different name and everything and it didn't quite work. I didn't like how it looked. So I scrapped the entire thing. So it was a lot of hours that I wasted in the first version of that website.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right. But you also must have learned some things along the way, surely.
Dustin Stevens :Definitely, yep, definitely.
Elizabeth Diacos :So it's not really a waste.
Dustin Stevens :That's true.
Elizabeth Diacos :I just want to reframe that for you.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah. No, thank you for that. I appreciate that. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay. So now you you've got your own business and is it a viable income? Are you able to support your family on that?
Dustin Stevens :Absolutely. Yup.
Elizabeth Diacos :And you're living in Vancouver, so the cost of living is fairly high.
Dustin Stevens :We're living just outside Vancouver right now. During COVID, we returned to my hometown, which is close to the metropolitan area. But yeah, the cost of living is pretty high here. Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Can you tell me before you... we started recording that you had to quickly find somewhere to live when you got back?
Dustin Stevens :Right. Yeah, so we had friends scrambling. We actually came the day before - get this - the day before self quarantine was mandatory. So we would have been stuck in the hotel that we were in. It was a one bedroom hotel. And I was ready to start teaching right away. So that would have been an interesting situation with three people, you know, one of them being a toddler, in a one bedroom hotel.
Elizabeth Diacos :I can imagine it would not be fun. They'd have to hole up in the bathroom while you were teaching or something.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah. So our family members and friends really came through for us.
Elizabeth Diacos :Awesome. And so if someone wanted to work with you as a student, how would they go about that? What's the best way to get in touch with you if they wanted to use your service?
Dustin Stevens :The easiest way would be through my website, which is stevenseducation.com. And there's a number on the top right, and they could just click that and you know, there's information there. Usually I'm teaching so if they phone they might not get through to me, so usually texting is best.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, got it. Okay, so they can just find you that way and sounds pretty easy. And you got a website, and do you take payments through your website as well?
Dustin Stevens :Yup, I do. Or I'll send a link through an email. That's from my website.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right, right. Okay, I'm just trying to get a picture of how you run your business because I know that there are lots of teachers out there who have thought of doing this as another, either as a side hustle or as an alternative to their Education, like regular classroom teaching. And especially now they're experiencing using that technology, because they've all been having to do online education in the classroom. And I'm pretty sure there's enough students out there that everybody could have a job quite happily. Everyone could do it is plenty of work. So, Dustin, do you feel - have you got any regrets about leaving your regular job and doing what you're doing now?
Dustin Stevens :No, I don't regret it at all. I would have regretted it if I hadn't done it, for sure.
Elizabeth Diacos :Right.
Dustin Stevens :Yup, that's one of the best decisions that I've made and that we've made as a family. It was risky. It wasn't always easy, right? Like at the beginning, there were days where I really had to hustle, and work hard. There were days in Chile where I was working 16 hours, but it was definitely worth it.
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, so you could, I guess, because of time zones, you can do that. But that's a long day.
Dustin Stevens :Yeah, not teaching the whole day, but just working on long term projects. You know, whether that was blogging or marketing or whatever it was, yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Okay, so working on the business as well as in the business.
Dustin Stevens :Mm hmm.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Got it. Okay. And so, Dustin, as we wrap this up, what's the legacy that you want to leave in the world?
Dustin Stevens :Well, one thing I've noticed that really impacts my students is their mindset. And so for instance, I had a student recently who made the connection with a dream he had, he actually wanted to be, he wants to be an entrepreneur, and that writing was an important component of that.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay.
Dustin Stevens :And wow, did his grades take off. He was a D student when we started. And I think... about two and a bit, after about two months of tutoring, he was an A student.
Elizabeth Diacos :Wow.
Dustin Stevens :Which is incredible. Yeah. And I had a hard time believing that when he told me, I was like, "Prove it, buddy". But, I - so I've been reflecting on that. And I thought, well, you know, in the business world, we have all these, there's all this talk about mindset, and how important that is, and it absolutely is. But students need that too, to succeed in school. They need to know about the compounding effect, right? They need to know that if they just improve by 1% each day that, you know, that's going to have massive impact over time.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah.
Dustin Stevens :Right? And and that's just one area to work on in terms of mindset. So the legacy that I would like to have now, as I'm becoming more aware of the importance of mindset and motivation, is to basically encourage my students to become confident, to develop those mindsets, that, you know, we value as business people, and to, you know, make that connection to their schoolwork as well and so that it's not just writing as this thing that's done for an assignment, but it's writing as part of the vision that you've developed for your life because that's going to help you, now and in the future beyond school. So that's the impact I'd like to have. And that is a wonderful impact to have in the world. Dustin Stevens, thank you so much for coming on the Get Out of Teaching Podcast today. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Diacos :You have 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 they 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