08/10/2021
hey everybody it's lizzy here and um i'm glad to welcome you to um
another uh itttt live stream uh just in case that somebody doesn't know me
let me quickly introduce myself so i'm a tefl and tesol expert with itttt
and i'm also a non-native esl teacher working online primarily
from time to time i go offline as well and organize some
speaking clubs or meetings for people [Music]
in my area uh but generally speaking i prefer online
lessons and uh that is why uh when i do these live streams i
usually give some uh tips and tricks on how to develop in this
field and how to uh promote yourself as an online teacher uh before we start um i'm actually going
to add this banner um of today's meeting with the name of today's meeting but
before we start um i just want to check out uh if everything works so if you see
me and hear me clearly please let me know via the chat box
so uh can you hear me can you see me let me know uh and um what else uh i'm actually
based in uh russia uh in in the central part of russia
and uh today it's pretty gloomy in here um i believe that that's because um of
the smoke from the fires you know um
like um a region uh which is really close um to
my place um has bad fires um in there and we have
this extreme weather weather conditions which is not good um yeah but
anyways i hope that today um will be sunny
probably a little bit later let me know where are you guys from uh and
if the weather is good in there uh so yeah we have this comment section
uh feel free to write um whatever you want uh let me know if you see if you
hear um it is always pleasant uh to know that someone is behind
the camera uh because basically right now i i talk to myself and it is a
little bit weird uh and let me switch on the banner with
today's meeting's name so we're going to talk about different
ways on how to find students online and i would like to uh discuss some um
ways that are not that typical uh in this field uh because usually when it comes to um
searching for students searching for clients online people
go to some teaching platforms and
or find some employers with their own platforms i
believe that these approaches are good however there are even more ways
how to find students uh and how to work with them directly so
in this case uh you will be able to create your own um personal brand and probably it it's
going to be it would be a great start for your own teaching business why not
so um i want to share these strategies with you
and yeah just let me know that you hear and see me okay um i'm still waiting
and let me know where you you guys are tuning in from um so i'm based in russia
where are you from um it's also um
a.m in here so it's 10 a.m um i believe that um
it might be later or earlier in your places so i
would really love to know about it uh all right and the last thing to
mention uh i just want to draw your attention to this qr code in here
and um i want to say that it's a really special offer uh we have
at itttt for those uh who are seeking this opportunity
uh to get tefl certified and i will dwell upon this
situation a little bit later uh because i know that
many people believe that it is not necessary to be
certified it's not necessary to have a diploma to teach um that's not true from
my point of view uh but yeah i will explain that a little bit later
all right i see uh some comments in the chat box hello guys nice to hear from you so here
is andrea from uh vancouver canada and also
uh poe um i hope i pronounce your name correctly uh if not i am
abs i'm i'm so sorry um okay you ran from venice uh venezuela um
yeah so nice to see you guys in here thanks for coming and also let me send
the link um to our website uh with this um 30
off okay all right so um let's
now jump into the discussion uh so today we are discussing different
ways different unusual ways on how to find esl students
as i've mentioned uh there is no problem with looking for students on uh online teaching platforms
or um going uh to work for some uh teaching
companies it's totally fine and it's actually a great start for
those who don't have any teaching experience for example but
i would like to dwell upon some other ways and the first one i would like to
mention is social media so basically it's also pretty obvious
uh it is not a secret that anybody
on the net can find students over there on social media but
when you start looking for people on the internet when you want to reach
out your clients your potential clients it is um absolutely necessary uh first
to choose um the right social media uh which fits your needs which fits your
positioning and which will assist you
in a way of creating your personal brand and um to find your perfect social media
it is um really important to narrow down your niche
to narrow down to one specific niche for example or and at the same time to research your
audience so um it might sound slightly vague so um i'm going to give you an example for
uh so for instance you are an english teacher and you are
um specialized at teaching general english
so uh you can basically work with young students you can work with
teenagers you can work with adults as well which is fine you can get a lot of
clients this way just working with this general audience however
um if you want to find that specific niche and if you want to
succeed in teaching some specific students
and some sometimes even get more leads and get more uh
funding you know get get more money from this perspective you should research
some specific audience even if you work with this general
audience uh you should still break down to um small smaller
sub audiences to smaller niches yeah so um first of all i would start
with researching um based on um the audience's age and some um
i don't know um some demographical um
things like uh gender and social status for example
so it will help you understand uh what is the driver for those people
to study english so it is absolutely crucial before you choose a
specific social media to place your um personal brand to pursue your uh to
place your business uh you have to research every every single audience
um yeah let's talk about um a more um
specific example so um i um
since last year i started working with adult students
and for example in my local area there are a lot of people who want
to learn english um just because it is necessary some people want to
travel abroad some people want to um you know get this um content in english
want to uh watch movies and listen to some audios in english
and they want to authentic content however
i decided to focus uh on a more um
interesting kind of audience which is people traveling uh abroad
to work there uh it's it's not that obvious that
those people uh might need english um
harder might need english skills uh more often than those who just want
to travel abroad so i i decided to focus on immigrants
those people who go to native english-speaking countries or
go to just some different countries to work there because this audience
has some more specific needs and their needs are
excellent absolutely clear and motivating basically
their income depends on their english skills which is why it is really um easy to
reach out to such potential clients and to build this relationship with them
if we talk on the if we talk the same language if if we speak the same
language in terms of our work opportunities and career goals it
is much easier uh to give them what they want to offer them some services and
to help them understand that i am the person who can actually help
yeah otherwise if you work with younger children for example
it it might be slightly more challenging to reach out
to this audience because basically uh you have to deal with uh
two different um audiences i should say uh with two
different um niches so um
you you might think that you are going to teach a child however the person
who decides um if you are going to be a teacher or not
is a parent so basically you have to count on two different audiences you have to think
about uh parents needs uh and you have to think about children's needs
as well so uh when you start looking for the base placement for your uh freelance job
or for your small business research the audience first and then
choose um the most appropriate social media to place your business to place
yourself so i'm not sure about
this demand all over the world in terms of social media i know that in some
countries uh instagram is really popular uh on the other hand in some other
countries uh facebook uh is um the that social media which is more um
convenient and which is more um oftenly used
um and for example um in such countries like uh china japan
um i don't know maybe some other um asian countries
uh there are some other social media which are more more popular so you have
to count on this difference as well uh and you have to think uh which
um placement will be the most suitable for you yeah so
this is probably uh the first way um the first unusual way i wanted to dwell
upon and i believe uh it is really easy uh to start your um
freelance career or freelance teaching career i mean or uh your even your own
business on social media if you research everything
really um in in small details yeah
and now i would like to move on to the next idea i have and it is always my it is also might
seem obvious to you so um basically i have mentioned this point
many times in my previous live streams personal network is also really great in
terms of uh offering your services but i know that many people for some
reason are ashamed uh mentioning that they provide teaching services
um i don't know why we we just feel uncomfortable
saying our friends and i don't know uh saying uh friends of our friends that we are
professionals in the in this field and it's a great mistake because
in your personal network there might be people who are seeking
um those services and they just don't know where
to find so make sure uh you are absolutely um fair uh and you
you don't worry about saying that that you are that person who can give what
they want um yeah it means that you have to
communicate uh with those um you you know uh you have to mention every time you
have to mention that you are a teacher you have to say uh that out loud on your
social media on facebook on instagram wherever you just have to build on your network
and you have to uh you have to create this
personal brand as well uh in the offline sphere
yeah with this uh technology and all stuff happened
last year we are worried to communicate with people in real life and it's a
great mistake um so consider um telling your friends
families um and just some people uh in your social
circle that you're a teacher and you can offer these qualities
uh this this quality services uh it's it's a great way uh to find
students it's a great way uh to sell um various um
goods various um services as well uh so
just bear that in mind it might work together with the first approach
uh and it might work um solely without
anything else uh and i believe that this way is really convenient for those who
doesn't have much experience um actually when i was a student myself
when i was um at university uh that was the way i found my students
back in the day uh so i wasn't experienced
i was inexperienced at all in english teaching but um i really wanted to uh have some
extra money you know because i was a student and my scholarship was really
small like um it was nothing i had to work and i
had to make money so um i worked as a tutor uh but at that
time it was um even harder to find students not because
of this um a lot of services provided um in in the field but because there were
no placements uh to look for uh online business wasn't that developed at that
time yet so i had to talk to my um parents friends i had to
um i had to tell um
i have to i had to talk to people in uh to um offer my services and that
actually worked well um i i found a lot of students at that time uh and i
started working when i was um i don't know 19 probably
yeah so i just provided my english uh tutoring services to those i
knew at that time it might seem easy but at the same time
for many people it is difficult just because you have to get out of your comfort zone but basically if you want
to sell anything um you have to get out of your comfort zone right
okay and let me move on to the third idea uh
it is um less obvious so uh you can basically you
can basically find um clients in some site projects
by collaborating with other professionals and this is a more
challenging approach i should say however it's really strategical
uh so when you um take part in some other projects um
you still can create your personal brand as a professional in your own field
so for example um my own example again um
i believe it's really interesting i didn't think it might be a way to
find clients but it turned out that it is so um
recently i started working as a volunteer uh in an ecological project so
i decided to take part in that project
to build on my resume as a professional because you know
when you apply for some specific um programs at universities or when you
want to get a scholarship you have to show that you do some social work
as well so that was my idea but then when i started doing that i
realized that actually i can uh build my network around that project around that
site project and it worked out so um in in that project um i um
help out uh as a social media manager and every time i uh make some
videos every time i um reach out to the audience on on the
project social media i think of the ways i can introduce myself as well
it's it it might be a little bit of sly
uh so i'm sly as a fox um so but anyways
it works out because i do that job for free and why not
exchanging the audience why not exchanging uh you know clients
uh it's actually good and last week uh on saturday
i uh worked on the field um so we we had um
a regular um event uh offline um every month
we go um to a specific point and organize um
recycle a recycling place uh so people come uh to get away of
their plastics to get away of their paper waste and
stuff like that uh and i decided to communicate with everyone who came to take part in the
event uh with our potential not i can't say that their clients but
just with the members of that community i interviewed them and also presented
myself not only as a volunteer for the project but also
as an esl teacher that was just the way i um
that was just the way i introduced myself but that was a great
way uh to get that meaningful connections uh too so that was um
pretty easy uh it took me like a minute to explain what i do in the project and then i i
just added something um to that that might be
useful to the to those people coming to the event but at the same time
that wasn't really pushing you know uh you can think of some other ways um
to reach out um people when you
take part in different projects uh it it doesn't mean that you have to volunteer
uh you can do whatever you want but basically it's one of the ways
to get meaningful connections and to
create [Music] your personal brand as well because
if you are not worried and afraid to express yourself especially offline
it will give you even more credentials because people uh respect those who are
fair and people uh want to work with those who um
who is who isn't afraid who aren't afraid uh to say
where uh they are professionals uh and what fields they can help with
right so um it's um it's a strange approach but yet it works
out uh and it once again it may be um helpful to those who don't have much
experience so if it is your case uh if you want um
to find students if you want to find clients
uh especially for a longer relationship
uh it's a great way to start your um
personalized approach because on social media there is um
a lot of demand but at the same time the competition level is pretty huge
is pretty high uh so sometimes you have to invest in your social media to promote yourself uh
because if uh if you don't think of uh you know strategies how to
um engage your audience for free um you have to pay uh
you have to pay out for advertisements you have to
buy your audience but number two and number three approaches
are absolutely for free because the only thing you have to do is
talking to people being friendly and being communicative
so it is really helpful in terms of saving some
extra cash and at the same time um building on your personal brand
uh on social media and uh offline
okay and that is actually all i wanted to discuss today uh if you guys have any
questions related to the topic so i'm going to switch on uh this banner
we are talking about unusual ways to find esl students online
basically we can have a talk right now uh if you have any questions if you
have any concerns feel free to um type it in feel free to
use uh the comments section i will be glad to communicate with you i
will be glad uh to help you out um if you need my help
i also want to um invite you to my um
facebook group so i created this facebook group uh to
you know to stay connected with those who come to my uh live streams
uh and i believe it's a great way to make connections as well so if you have
any questions after this live stream feel free to
ask me on the facebook group or feel free to write me a message on facebook as well
and now i'm going to look at the comment section and answer your questions if you
have any all right there are actually people from south africa
and um yeah and central america uh we're truly global i am so impressed
uh every time i do this live streams i i can't believe that i communicate with so
many people from various um places around the globe
it's it's so amazing yeah so
okay just one second
all right um this is the ques this is a question from amitava and it's a great question i
believe uh so amitava asks about
the ways i price my lessons well basically uh you have to research
the market before you create your price before you create
a specific cost on your lessons so you have to research how much other
teachers price and at the same time how much
people can pay for some specific services
it is usually based on the situation in a specific area for example here in
russia there are various needs and various possibilities
opportunities so some people can afford paying more
and some people can can't afford paying um even some average uh price
um you have to um focus on that um
audience uh which fits your best in terms of your
um location uh in terms of your professional skills and your experience
and then um probably you have to create like um
the basic price um to offer your services for
uh it is really subjective um to um many various factors
so as for me when i uh try to uh make up this amount of money uh to
offer my services for i count on my personal experience and my
professional skills so for example this year i took three different uh teaching
courses so i increased my professional skills and at the same time
what else at the same time the level of inflation in the region um
got um what was accelerated you know so um
the um that amount of money which was um okay
last year isn't okay this year so i added like that percentage
uh which is equal or slightly uh above the inflation level
um and then what else um and then i also um focused on my audience so i don't
work uh with uh children i don't work um with uh general english students because
it's really vague to teach this audience for me um so i just looked at those um who
need some specific services as i've mentioned earlier and yeah
and just research how much they can pay actually yeah so that was um that was it
um yeah this is basically the way you um create
your own price um pricing is really important uh make
sure you don't put a low price uh because
um such people you know such teachers who don't
who either do not over um do not estimate yourself
like um fairly uh they um
mess up with the whole market because if there are people who are ready to work for like i don't know one
dollar um and at the same time there are people who provide the same quality services
for um let's say twenty five dollars it's it's uh slightly strange and
customers they get this
vision that everything might be super cheap so we don't want the market to be
like this make sure you don't uh set an unreasonable price
both unreasonably high and unreasonable unreasonably low
you want something really specific but at the same time failure
okay uh yeah i can actually write my email
but um as i've mentioned you can contact me on facebook and you can contact me uh via the
facebook group um i have sent um the link to the chat box already
but yeah you can you can contact me at
um yeah just one second
yeah it's here uh here is my email address at uh itttt so if you have any questions
related to tefl courses um online teaching um whatever related
to this esl field you can reach me out via this email
and if you guys don't have any further questions related to
tefl tesol online teaching teaching abroad so whatever questions you have
in your mind um that's probably it for today however i've now
remembered uh one thing i wanted to mention as well so um
when you look for your students either online or offline uh via social media
on online teaching through online teaching platforms uh whatever use uh
what whatever ways you use uh you still have to think about your
professional skills and um as i've mentioned it is possible uh to work
um without any experience because i actually did that many years
ago um but still you have to build your um
professional skills as well you have to develop as a professional what helps you
developing professional skills is taking courses um
like taking part in different uh workshops master classes whatever
whatever helps you understand teaching better whatever helps you uh understand
how to communicate with other people how to uh provide the best quality services to
your potential clients uh is helping your
professionalism it is an asset to your general profile
and you know this personal brand
it is absolutely necessary if you don't have a diploma
so if you don't have any degree it is absolutely crucial uh to get tefl
certified if you want to if you want providing teaching services
um people want pay for some
um unreasonable quality or for some
strange services uh they are offered with um
right after they unders understand that there are some other people who are actually better uh even if the price is
higher uh they still um want some specific quality and you have to make
sure that you can provide this quality um yeah and the quality of teaching is
is really necessary so make sure you read at your spare time that you um take
various professional courses professional development it is helpful indeed
uh it is helpful for you as a person um it is helpful for you as a
professional and um it is necessary for your um
online business for your offline business yeah you have to work
on your own skills uh and basically uh itttt can help you
um working on your professional career or developing your professional skills
just make sure that you have a look over our website
and check out which courses we provide these days
because we had a major update and we added for example a teaching practicum
specifically for those who don't have any experience and doesn't know uh how
to work online or offline so there is this option
at the same time if you've never worked on social media if you've never worked online
you can also take a course related to teaching online
or if you want to narrow down to some specific niche you can also
take a look over our business english teaching
and teaching to young students teaching to young learners
those are great options and i wish i had that opportunity
back in 2013 when i started teaching because at that time that was
a real disaster um i taught uh the way i thought uh
people should be taught but that was not um correct absolutely
so i hope um you chase this opportunity and um you
you give it a shot a shot at least okay so i hope to see you guys next week uh
before we uh wrap up before we finish today's session i just wanna mention
that uh every week we have two live streams i know that many of you uh go to
my live streams and then visit linda's live streams but just in case you don't
know that um we have two different uh uh hosts presenting so i go live either
on tuesday or on wednesday and my colleague linda goes live on thursday or
friday so we decided to um variety the
days of the week and um we've decided to to go live um at
different time i just to make sure that we we can reach
out everyone who needs that uh linda is
an esl teacher and a native english speaker so she can actually give you um
her professional advice and share her own experience
from different perspective make sure you check out her previous videos
or make sure you check out her next live stream which will be this week
uh and yeah if you have any suggestions related to some specific topics so for
example you want me to talk about something related to i don't know a
personal branding as an english teacher just let me let me know uh write down in
the comment section um it will help me to think of the next
live streams it will help me creating various topics and
adjusting the content to your needs and yeah
thanks for coming that was really nice to communicate with you uh yeah amitabha uh let um letterg
thanks a lot for um asking questions and giving your feedback
it's really invaluable i hope to see you soon once again and if
you have any further questions you can totally reach me out on facebook
either on messenger or via the group so
thanks a lot for coming and see you soon again bye bye guys
