I Wanted to Teach, But Felt Like an Imposter
3 Lessons I Had to Learn to Get Over It
This is the first post in a series that will cover how I transitioned from a writer to an educational creator.
My mosaic career consisted of a decade in medicine as a physician and surgeon, another decade in higher education as a university lecturer, and later as a consultant and writer.
I’d had some teaching experience and I thought that prepared me for the role of being an educational creator.
But I was wrong.
Addressing university students several times every week prepared me for the public aspect of teaching, but not for the online world of video lessons, minimized attention spans, or the course structure necessary to keep students engaged.
The 3 Lessons I Needed To Learn to Teach Online
Maybe you’re thinking of transitioning from being a strait-laced newsletter writer to an educational creator. You’d like to enjoy the rewards that accompany teaching and the money from leveraging your knowledge and expertise via online courses but you feel like an imposter.
Here are the three lessons I had to learn to get over feeling like an imposter in the online teaching world.
1️⃣ I didn’t need to know everything
I found that expertise is relative and students value experiential advice from someone just ahead of them on the journey more than advice from someone who’s more of an academic.
For example, when I enrolled in a memorable mini-course way back in 2011 for $247 called, “Getting Paid To Write,” it was because the person offering and teaching the course was doing exactly that - getting paid to write.
He wasn’t a professor or a certificated teacher, but a writer sharing his experience and expertise and getting paid for it.
He offered a 12-week course consisting of one long form email per week for 12 weeks, each with a mini-assignment or practical application.
That one email course is probably the most consequential training I’ve ever been a part of.
When I realized I didn’t have to know everything under the sun about my topic, I felt lighter by 100 pounds. That brings me to the second lesson I needed to learn…
2️⃣ What I already knew was more than enough
Because I was teaching one of my authority topics (ATs) - the subjects from my employment, education, and/or hobbies and interests that I knew frontwards and backwards, I found that my unique perspective and experiences added value that others couldn’t replicate.
No academic from any university had lived my life, experienced what I’d experienced, and, therefore, could never have the same impact on those with whom I’d share this information.
And that led me to the third and perhaps the most valuable lesson of all - that teaching is something I’d been doing all my life.
And, so have you!
To put it another way, teaching was simply sharing information. That I could do!
3️⃣ Teaching was just sharing information
Imposter syndrome told me the same lies it tells you, such as:
I needed years of teaching experience to teach online
I needed a teaching certification
I needed a degree (I have several, but that’s never been a factor in buying my courses)
I needed to be an author or have some sort of mini-celebrity status
All lies.
I found that embracing my vulnerability and sharing my own experiences through ‘experience telling’ rather than assuming the air of an ‘authoritative teacher’ built more trust with students.
Here’s the only qualification required to become an educational creator and simultaneously pulverize imposter syndrome: Sharing helpful information.
Because I’d solved a problem that I’d experienced first hand, simply by sharing the solution that worked for me, I was teaching.
💡Teaching was nothing more than sharing helpful information. 💡
Tomorrow’s post via email only - not on Substack
Tomorrow, I’ll write about how I knew what specific knowledge was valuable enough to teach.
That will be for SUBSCRIBERS ONLY via email so be sure to subscribe here: