24 — The 3 Biggest Mistakes Educators Make When Launching a Business
Release Date: 05/26/2025
47 – How to Book Clients in a Conference Workshop
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
Today's episode takes you behind the curtain of the Educator Freedom Lab. Each week inside the Lab, we host six live coaching calls designed to help experienced educators sign paid consulting clients. These calls are built around the three core systems we help our clients develop to create consistency in their businesses: Visibility — how people continuously discover you and understand what you do. Conversion — how you turn a moment of discovery into a signed client. Offer — how you structure and deliver your work with schools and districts so you can grow without burning out. ...
info_outline
46 – The Model That’s Replacing Traditional PD (And Paying Consultants More)
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
Traditional professional development rarely leads to lasting change. It is typically one-size-fits-all, event-based, and quickly forgotten once educators return to their daily reality. In this episode of Unleash YES, we introduce online group coaching as a more effective alternative. This model focuses on structured, community-based experiences that move educators from intention to implementation. We break down what online group coaching is, why it creates deeper transformation, and how it provides a more sustainable and predictable business model for education consultants. You will also...
info_outline
45 – Education Consulting 101: What It Actually Is (And Whether It Could Be for You)
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
Think education consulting is only for keynote speakers with massive followings and published books? Think again. In this episode, Tom and Nat break down exactly what education consultants do, who hires them, how they make money, and — most importantly — whether you could be one. You'll learn the different consulting delivery models (from in-person PD to online group coaching), who's actually writing the checks and why, and the three biggest myths that stop qualified educators from ever getting started. Plus: the one question to ask yourself before anything else — "Which problem in...
info_outline
44 – This Is Marketing by Seth Godin (Book Summary for Educators Who Hate Marketing)
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
Most educators think marketing means advertising, promoting, or “selling yourself.” And if you’ve ever felt that resistance rise in your chest at the thought of doing marketing, you’re not alone. In this episode, we break down our biggest takeaways from Seth Godin’s bestselling book This Is Marketing and explore why educators are actually uniquely positioned to thrive in this new era of marketing. If marketing is the act of making change happen, then teachers and leaders have been marketers their entire careers. We unpack five powerful ideas from the book, including serving the...
info_outline
43 – Pricing Without Flinching: What to Say When a School Asks Your Rates
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
You finally receive the email you have been hoping for. The subject line says, “PD Request.” For a moment you feel excited, and then you open it and see the question: “What are your rates?” Suddenly the confidence you had about your expertise disappears. Most educators were never taught how to talk about money. In schools, you show up, do meaningful work, and move up a salary grid. But consulting is different. The moment you name a price can feel uncomfortable, awkward, or even selfish. In this episode, Tom and Nat explain why pricing is not separate from your impact — it...
info_outline
42 – Teachers Deserve It: How Rae Hughart is Reimagining K-12 Consulting
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
👉 Feeling called to make a bigger impact in education? If you’re curious about building aligned, paid work beyond your current role, you can book a clarity call with us here: [] Some people talk about innovation in education. Rae Hughart lives it. In this episode of Unleash YES, we sit down with Rae Hughart—former middle school math teacher, education leader, and founder of Teachers Deserve It—to unpack what it really looks like to build a learning-based consulting business that respects teachers and creates systems-level change. Rae shares how her journey evolved from the...
info_outline
41 – Stop Doing These 5 Things to Grow Your Educator Business to $100K in 2026
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
You’re posting. You’re speaking. People tell you your work matters. And yet… your business is still stuck. In this episode of Unleash YES, we name the real reason so many educators stay under $25K—not because they lack ideas or expertise, but because they’re giving hobby-level consistency to something they want to be real. It took both of us far longer than we want to admit to cross our first $100K. Not because we didn’t know what to do—but because we hadn’t stopped doing the things that kept us playing small. In this conversation, we break down the five behaviors we had to...
info_outline
40 – The One-Year Tipping Point: How Kendra’s Business Exploded as a Side Hustle
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
What does it actually look like to go from classroom teacher to in-demand PD consultant—and hit the one-year tipping point in a learning-based business? In this episode of Unleash YES, we’re joined by Kendra Jacobs (), a mathematics thought leader who, in just one year, grew her audience from 2K to 11K, launched a thriving membership community, created an online membership, and saw her professional development requests from districts explode. Kendra shares the exact moments that changed everything: · The identity shift from teacher to thought...
info_outline
BONUS – Introducing...The Educator Freedom Lab!
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
The Unleash YES Bootcamp is officially becoming the Educator Freedom Lab. In this short bonus episode, we share: Why “bootcamp” no longer fits the educators we serve What freedom actually looks like when you go independent Who the Educator Freedom Lab is for (and who it’s not) If you love education but feel like your role can’t hold you anymore… this episode will land. 👉 Curious if the Educator Freedom Lab is aligned for you? Book a with us and let’s find out. Let’s go.
info_outline
39 — Why the System Loved You… Until It Didn’t
Unleash YES (Your Entrepreneurial Spirit) with Tom Schimmer & Natalie Vardabasso — Business, Education, Mindset
If you’ve ever wondered why the school system loved you… until it didn’t, this episode will feel like someone finally turned the lights on. Natalie and Tom unpack the research-backed pattern behind why innovative educators go from “golden child” to “too much,” and why the very qualities that once made you indispensable are the same ones pointing you toward your next chapter. You’ll hear what 95 in-depth educator interviews revealed about the Innovator Backlash, and the deeper truth that you were never misaligned — you were miscast. And once you see what’s actually...
info_outlineYou’re not stuck because you’re unqualified. You’re stuck because you’re doing things that look like business-building… but aren’t.
In this episode, we break down the 3 biggest mistakes educators make when launching a learning-based business—and how to fix them before they sabotage your momentum.
You’ll learn:
- Why selling ideas (instead of outcomes) is killing your sales
- How perfectionism hides behind constant rebranding and research
- Why all-or-nothing thinking is keeping you inconsistent and invisible
We also share the story of Lauren and Kristy—two “accidental entrepreneurs” who were terrified to show up online… until they realized their story was the strategy.
If you’re overthinking your next move, disappearing after every flop, or secretly avoiding visibility—this episode is your mirror and your map.
🎁 Want a 2-day shortcut out of overthinking and into real momentum?
Grab the Educators Business Blueprint: https://www.unleashyes.org/ebb
🧡 If this episode helped, leave a review and email a screenshot to hello@unleashyes.com—we’ll send you one of our favorite business books as a thank-you.
Resources:
>> Grab the Educators’ Business Blueprint on pre-summer sale for just $47!
>> Learn More About the Unleash YES Bootcamp!
>> Quiz: Which Learning-Based Business Model is Right for Me?
>> Starter Guide: The First 6 Steps to Launch Your Learning-Based Business
Connect with Tom & Nat:
>> Follow Tom on Linkedin
>> Follow Nat on Linkedin
>> Follow @unleashyes on Instagram
>> email info@unleashyes.org
>> Book a call.