If you have an idea for a new business, get started! It’s never too late to change careers or try something new. My guest on today’s episode, Jessica Lattimore, is living proof. After beginning her teaching career at 40, she now is creating her own education business after retirement. She’s sharing how building a classroom community contributes to student learning, and how the mistakes you make provide you an opportunity to grow. 

Jessica’s education business is all about impacting and supporting teachers with resources, courses, and professional development surrounding building relationships with students. Since that’s when she believes that learning takes place, she decided to build her educational business around it. Of course, there were things she learned with this new business venture, but she shares her advice for those wanting to do the same. So the next time you think you’re not ready or qualified to start your own business, think again!

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode48

Watch our free on-demand workshop to learn more about flexible work opportunities beyond the classroom: https://www.educatorforever.com/workshop

Take our free quiz to discover your next career step: https://www.educatorforever.com/quiz

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Lily

Jessica Lattimore is a passionate and authentic educational consultant with an unwavering dedication to fostering collaboration and community engagement. With over 30 years of diverse experience as a teacher, mentor, coach and leader, Jessica's journey and education has been marked by our commitment to making a positive impact on students lives.

Lily

Jessica has been the director of the Rome Teacher Center, where she was instrumental in providing professional learning experiences, curriculum development and teacher support. Another one of the defining aspects of Jessica's career has been her involvement with the community schools in the Rome Central School District.

Lily

She played a pivotal role as a founding member of both community schools and the Rome alliance for education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing educational opportunities in the community. This experience gave her a unique perspective on the importance of community engagement and creating holistic and equitable learning environments for students.

Lily

Jessica's authentic dedication to educational excellence, and her deep rooted involvement in the community showcase her as more than just an educational consultant. She was a champion for positive change in the lives of students and educators alike.

Lily

Welcome, so glad to have you here with us.

Jessica

It's great to be here, Lily.

Lily

Well, I've been following some of your journey as an educator for the past year or so. And I am excited about all the progress you've been making. And I'd love for you to kind of take us back in time, wherever you want to start. And tell us a little bit about your journey as an educator.

Jessica

Well, it started a long time ago, 30 years, but I'll just start in the middle. I've been in the education for about 14 years as an assistant and I decided to become a teacher. It just seemed like the right direction to go. And I loved working with the kids. I like being with the kids. I have my own kids, and I just love being in the classroom.

Jessica

It turns out that education was my passion and helping students learn and being a part of watching that light bulb moment when they learned to read. It was just it was just exciting. And I enjoy being with our kids and being in the classroom.

Lily

Now what grades did you teach?

Jessica

So most of my career, I taught sixth grade. And I know people say Oh, sixth grade what'd you pick that for? But you know, it's what I wanted, from the very beginning, I started out with the tougher kids or the kids, you know, that like to give you that little bit of a challenge. And I just enjoy being with them.

Jessica

And I think it's partly because they're real, I can be real with them. And I can kind of tell them like it is. And yes, they give you a little bit of an attitude, but they also listen, and they're still in that stage where they want to have that comfort and that relationship yet they're moving out and expanding themselves. And so it was just a fun grade to work with.

Lily

Yeah, well, my daughter is about to start sixth grade in just a few days. So I'm seeing that from the parent side and actually was just talking to some of her teachers about Yeah, the beauty of sixth grade, you know that they're both old and young at once and sometimes seem like babies and so I assume like grownups, you never really know what you're gonna get.

Jessica

No, you don't. But it's a lot of fun. You know, you have to as long as you're open to it, it's a lot of fun because it can be challenging.

Lily

Awesome. And did you stay a sixth grade teacher throughout your career? Or did you dabble in anything else?

Jessica

You know what I did I but then I came across professional learning, right? I was soaking in professional learning as a new teacher as an adult new teacher because I became a teacher as an adult at the age of almost 40. And so I was sucking in all the professional learning I can get and then all of a sudden the table's turned. And someone asked me if I would teach professional learning if I would facilitate and do courses and it was like, well, that's a new world.

Jessica

And I loved it. I loved doing curriculum. I love teaching teachers. I love supporting them with courses and classwork. And then I became the director of our local teachers center, and we do professional learning for teachers and staff in our district. And it just a new journey. I did that alongside my teaching career for the last probably 10 years. wasn't easy to do both but I loved both, which has kind of led me to where I am today.

Jessica

Because I as much as I enjoyed the classroom and I enjoy being with the kids, I really wanted to move into just working with the teachers and so I decided to retire after 30 years. And that which leads me to how I met you Lily.

Lily

Yes, I Absolutely, well, it's so exciting to be at this turning point of your journey. And, you know, I'd love to hear more about what made you make that decision to retire. And also to start your own thing.

Jessica

You know, there were a lot of things. One of them was is that my husband is retired, he's been retired for quite a few years. And I wanted to join him in that journey of being able to spend time with him and do things together. And then after, you know, after COVID, and now the fact that we now have all this online learning and all these online potential to learn, and I thought, well, I could do something remotely, right, I could teach remote and do something like that.

Jessica

I figured I had these skills, I knew how to use them, I was already using them for the professional learning for the Teacher Center. And I thought, let me do this, I can do this, I can do this. And I can go out and I can do this online. And I can support teachers in that way. And then I found out that Sure, it's as easy as that sounded, it was a world I had never experienced before.

Jessica

It seemed easy, it seemed great. I have I have the knowledge. I mean, I know I have the knowledge I have the experience I've done. I've done more than even just, you know, the professional learning. I've done many different things throughout my career. But that jumping into the online world was a little scary. And it was a little more overwhelming than I thought it would be because I was trying to take what I knew, and use it in a new way.

Jessica

And that's what I came across you and I, I was searching, I had a great team of people that were helping me to build my confidence and my you know, in the other parts of my of myself, but I didn't know how to move from the classroom to this new journey. And then I came across you and I came across Educator Forever.

Lily

Well, I'm so glad you did. And it's been such a pleasure having you in our in many of our different programs, including our curriculum programs, and also the Grow Your Education Business Accelerator where I've really been able to watch you get this business off the ground. So I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about the business that you're starting, you know, what you're planning on offering, and kind of your concept behind it.

Jessica

So I wasn't sure what direction to go in. But then I decided that I really want to continue to support teachers by offering them resources. But I also want to continue in that realm of doing courses and offering courses.

Jessica

So my philosophy is firmly in student led learning students being you know, the voice of the classroom, empowering students to do to do their best right to together to build those relationships and build that community. And I believe that that's the foundation of our learning. If you don't have that community, if you don't have those relationships, the rest of the learning isn't going to happen.

Jessica

So that's really what I'm founded my business on is sharing everything that I've learned over the 30 years, every other mistakes, I made all the great things that I did, and you know, to where I ended up. You know, my students that I still have connections, I still have connections with some of the first students I had. And that's because of those relationships that we built in the classroom.

Jessica

And I want to help other people learn how to do that in their classroom, because I believe that that's probably one of the biggest struggles, especially as a first year teacher, you walk into the classroom, they, they gave you the science, they gave you the math, they gave you everything else, but they really didn't tell you how to manage your classroom and how to build that community.

Jessica

And so that's what I want to do. I want to continue to help teachers do that with their students. Absolutely. The first thing I'm bringing out is I'm going to be doing a monthly challenge. So it's going to be every month, I'm gonna have five different tips and activities that teachers can do in their classroom.

Jessica

Because yes, the biggest connection is made at the beginning of the year. But you can start anytime you can start, you can reset, like if you already started the year, and it's not going the way you want, you can reset it, you can reset it, do new activities and build those relationships. It doesn't matter whether it's September or may or, you know, March you can always keep building those activities.

Jessica

So I want to keep keep offering those throughout the year, I just put one out actually on Instagram and Facebook. And I'm going to keep offering those different challenges. The first one is specifically on building those relationships. But as we go along, I want to look at classroom management and a little social emotional, and show how it all ties in together.

Lily

I love that. Yes, so helpful. And we'll put a link for all of those down below if people are interested in signing up as well and the show notes.

Lily

But I love to just the focus on relationships because I think it's one of those things that sometimes we can think like, oh, it's easy. And it's not especially with teachers and beginning teachers in particular, you know, trying to do all the things and so I think that really is like what makes it easier for everybody and better you know and with anything you do, but especially with teaching, you know having that support and focus on the relationships as being foundational.

Jessica

Exactly. And then that's the important thing. And it's really all about being authentic, you know, beating yourself. But I think we step into the classroom, and we think we have to be this all knowing, right. And it doesn't always have to be that way.

Jessica

They need to know that we're human, and that we're, we're going to, we're going to make mistakes, and we're gonna do different things. And I, and I think that's what it's all about. And it's just, it's hard, though. Because when you start in that door, you want to make sure you do it all. And that's not always what it's all about.

Lily

Absolutely. And just hear you talk about your journey, both in the classroom and now trying new things. You know, you said with teachers and teaching teachers, you know, it's all it is about making mistakes, right, like for everything we learn.

Lily

And I always think back to I taught kindergarten mostly in first grade. And I would always talk to my kids about growth mindset. And like, kind of say it like, it's easy, like, oh, mistakes are how we learn, and then going out as an adult trying something totally new, you know, be many years ago, also being in your same boat, you know, being a classroom teacher, moving to an online business, and being completely overwhelmed of like, how do I do this.

Lily

And how I do this is by making mistakes. It's by trying things, making mistakes, improving learning, collecting data, it's all the same process.

Jessica

It's all the same. It doesn't matter who we are. When I was 40 years old, trying to go into the classroom, as a teacher, it was a whole new world when I was a student, it was all book book book. And then when I was going back in at 40, it wasn't about the books anymore. It was, you know, constructiveness. And that was a whole new, that was a whole new thing I had to get over, I had to get over that too.

Jessica

And that really helped me become the teacher I am today. Because of learning, I had to learn how to learn all over again, at 40 years old. And that really changed my mindset, and what it meant to be a teacher and build those relationships. And I really think that that helped me to make my classroom students centered, and not about me just dishing out information, it really made a difference. And now I'm going through it all over again, making the mistakes about how to set this up and how to do this.

Lily

It's part of the process. I mean, I think if we take kind of a bird's eye view, you know, it is all part of the process, it's part of learning. And as teachers, you know, we're experts in learning.

Lily

So I think, you know, anything that you can't figure out, we could figure out and it's really that mindset piece is so key, like persevering, you know, having some humor, giving yourself grace, you know, trying things out and going through it.

Jessica

And that is the biggest thing. And and it's a knowing that everything that I learned in the classroom is still usable, it's still valuable outside the classroom. I mean, yes, it's 100% valuable while I'm in the classroom, but they are I'm teaching the students skills they can use anywhere I can take these skills and use them somewhere else too.

Jessica

And I think that was one of the biggest things I had to learn and it was okay, for me to make mistakes, and it was gonna be, it's gonna be messy, it's still gonna be messy, you know, it's gonna be messy, and it's gonna, I'm gonna still fumble here and there, even with putting it all out there. I put my whole life out there today, you know, and that was, that was scary. It was scary.

Jessica

So first blog I've ever written, you know, it was scary to put myself out there today. But if I'm going to move forward, and I'm going to move outside the classroom to support teachers, I needed to do it. And it's, for me, it's all about the kids. If I support the teachers, I'm supporting the kids.

Lily

Absolutely, you're truly expanding your impact, you know, some of the visibility, I just had another podcast interview with a woman who runs a literacy based business. And she was saying for her also, it's about the impact.

Lily

You know, of having more teachers in her membership site where she creates literacy materials, and then can reach so many more kids that way. And I think that, yeah, it's all about just like growing that impact and creating that career pathway for you.

Jessica

It is now more than ever, because, you know, I had a little guilt walking out of the classroom right now, when they're so desperate for teachers, you know, I mean, they're desperate for teachers everywhere you look and the teachers are struggling to, to make it to keep going because of that, you know, with all the changes that have happened.

Jessica

So I think this helps me as I'm walking away from the classroom to know that I am going to be able to support those teachers and I still want to encourage new people to become teachers. We need educators here now we need more than ever, and anything that I can do to keep that happening and to support them while they're in the middle of that struggle. I want to do.

Lily

Absolutely. And we need teachers in all places. You know, we need teachers supporting teachers in the classroom, we need teachers coaching, we need teachers creating curriculum. And so I think really, that is a in my view, you know, a big solution to this teacher pipeline problem is showing teachers that you don't have to be a classroom teacher forever, but you can use what you've learned and try different things.

Lily

Stay in education, all with the goal, like you're saying of supporting students and supporting teachers supporting success, and innovating through the process. No,

Jessica

No, right. There's so many different ways to do it.

Lily

Absolutely. Well, thinking about I know we touched on this a little bit but kind of your journey beyond the classroom and trying these new things. What have you learned personally and or professionally through the process?

Jessica

I've learned that you don't have to have it all planned, just put it out there and go with it and see where it goes. Yes, absolutely. And to just trust, trust the process, trust my gut, have a good tribe around you, you'll have a good group of people around you, like you in all my people for Educator Forever that I work with.

Jessica

And that I have another tribe that supports me and is there to encourage me and, and just keep open to new things and learning. It's not about what you knew in the past, but it's about learning, you know, learning what's out there and learning the new things.

Lily

Yeah, taking what you've learned, and kind of reforming it into something new, you know, I keep picturing like, the spiral staircase, where it's like, all of the things you've done before, and now more and really expanding that in different ways.

Jessica

And that is, even if there's a lot of people out there doing it already. There's enough people out there who need that support that everybody needs it from where they get it, right, I have my tribe, I have my people that work for me, that hopefully I can be that person to work for somebody else.

Jessica

Even though there's a lot of people out there doing it. I'm going to connect with somebody who feels that I'm the right person to connect with. And we're gonna work just like I was able to connect with the people I needed.

Lily

Yes, and nobody else is you, you know, and I think it's really about that is market validation, right? There are other people out there doing similar things. Great. There's an audience for it, but no one else is you. So putting your own spin and your own experience on it, I think is really key.

Lily

And that's kind of like you were alluding to with writing your blog and putting yourself out there today, you know, that does also involve putting our unique flavor was a hard thing to do. And it'll get easier. But celebrating but I think all of those that you know, having the courage to try something new, to put yourself out there like all of that is something to celebrate.

Jessica

No, it is. And I'm very excited. as nervous as I was. I'm very excited. I'm very excited to be sitting here doing this podcast with you. This is a whole new experience for me. Yeah, but it's all great. It's all great things moving in the right direction. And I feel wonderful.

Jessica

I feel I feel empowered you I'm always trying to empower students and teachers, but I'm feeling empowered right now. And it feels good. It feels good that I feel like I've been working on this transition for over a year, even though I retired in June, I started taking your classes over a year ago, because I knew that if I was going to do it, I had to be prepared to do it.

Jessica

You know, and so I've been working on this for over a year. And I feel like today, I met a huge goal. And I made a huge achievement today. And I'm excited to see where it takes me.

Lily

Yes, me too. Oh, well, thinking about other people who might be kind of in your same boat that you were maybe a few years ago, thinking about maybe moving beyond the classroom, whether they're retiring, or maybe they want to move on to something else, what advice would you give them?

Jessica

You know, so hard one, you know, I would say don't be afraid, you know, if that's if that's what your gut is telling you do if that's what your life is feeling that that's the way your journey is supposed to take it, go for it, don't be afraid. look inside and see what it is that you have to offer. And where you want to offer that you know, what do you have to offer where you want to offer it and, and go with it.

Jessica

Because you should be happy in what you do. And you should be excited and have passion in what you do. And if you feel that you can offer things to others in a different platform and just in the classroom, then go for it.

Jessica

And find the people I think that's huge tears, deep down in digging down in yourself and where you really want to be but find the people who can help you get there. Because it's all about believing in your goals and going for it have the dream and go for it.

Lily

Yes, I know, I was listening to I think a podcast yesterday, where it said that once you have the idea, you basically already done the hardest part of the work, like it's already started putting in motion, right. So if you have this idea coming up over and over again, that it's like, alright, that's your path to at least allow yourself to explore.

Lily

You don't have to commit to forever, maybe it won't work out the same way you have pictured it. But if you keep having that same kind of feeling, you will need to give yourself permission to explore it.

Jessica

Right and talk about it. I think that was one of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning is I kept it for myself as I go, I can't share this with other people because I don't know if it's gonna work or what's going to happen. But you have to talk about it. If you want to make it reality and you want to really make it happen. You have to share it, you share it with everybody.

Jessica

And like it goes back to what we said, I'm going to share my mistakes, I'm going to share the failures, I'm going to share the successes, but if you don't share it, it's not gonna it's not going to be reality. You have to share it, you have to manifest it and it will happen but you can't keep it to yourself. You just got to put it out there.

Lily

Put it out there. Absolutely. I think sometimes that can be one of the hardest parts. Like when I kept thinking about starting about Educator Forever, I was like didn't tell anybody for so long because I was like, Oh, well, I don't know what do people think I'm trying to take teachers away from the classroom. You know, like, how do I do this and it seemed overwhelming.

Lily

So I just kept it in my head for God knows how long Yep. And then finally, when I started talking about it and got feedback from people, then it allowed me to take the direction and have the motivation and the support to really move forward.

Jessica

And this exactly the same thing I did. And to be honest, today was probably the first time that I put it out there the farthest, but I did start reaching out. And the more I talked about it with more people, I talked about it, I felt confident in what I was doing.

Lily

Yes. And I think that I mean, I found that like, you can't get that confidence until you go through it. Right? You can't wait for a moment where you feel like okay, I'm finally feeling confident today was my day could be in 10 years, it could be never, so it's really going through it and getting clarity of like, okay, I explained it to one person, maybe did a great maybe didn't but it'll get better each time.

Jessica

And and you don't know where that idea that great ideas gonna come for from or that great piece of feedback or that great advice, you don't know where it's gonna come from, or that connection that you needed. It could be any one of those people that you meet that you share it with. So the more you share it, the better.

Lily

I love that. Well, it's such a pleasure to see your journey unfold, and I'm so excited for what comes next for you. And I'm wondering if you can share with people how they could connect with you.

Jessica

So I just put everything out on Instagram. My Instagram is obviously this is also new to me. My Instagram is @learnmorewithlattimore is the Instagram page so it's @learnmorewithlattimore.

Jessica

Lily

Wonderful, we'll add them the links to everything in the show notes. And when the websites ready, we can add it in there as well.

Jessica

Excellent.

Lily

Thank you so much for coming on the show sharing your journey and being part of the Educator Forever community.

Jessica

Thank you, Lily. I love being a part of the Educator Forever community I probably will be forever so yeah.

Lily

Thank you. We love it.

Jessica

Thank you so much.