If you weren’t able to make it yesterday for our “Introduction to TeachStreet Team” event, we had a great talk with Sara Selepouchin and Marlo Miyashiro about their experiences starting and leading Teams of their own. First, I wanted to thanks them both for taking the time and sharing their knowledge with us and I know it’ll be a benefit to the whole community. The real takeaways I got out of it were the following:
Teams is a great way to connect with more teachers in your area and subject
Learn from and help your team members
Having local teams with a diversity of teachers may be a good start
Competition in Teams is always good
The success of your team is what you make of it
Start simple
If you missed the event, check out the video and transcript below:
Webcast: Introduction to TeachStreet Teams (Video):
Webcast: Introduction to TeachStreet Teams (Chat Transcript):
http://rec1.dimdim.com/chat/dimdim/f2ee29c2-dd7d-102c-8e71-003048642bd7
We’ll be doing regular webcasts highlighting different topics our community is seeking to learn. If you have a topic of interest or questions about TeachStreet Teams, please send me an e-mail to joseph@teachstreet.com.
Our pilot program, TeachStreet Teams, is finally here and I wanted to let the community know. We have a total of 30 teams ranging from local teams in Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver to subject-based teams like Holistic Healers and the Marketing and Design Team. We’re eager to get everyone’s feedback. Check out TeachStreet Teams below:
Forums for each Team to stay connected with other members
Unique URLs for each Team to help spread the word
We’re having an event next week, “Introduction to TeachStreet Teams“, that will provide you a good time to chat with us and with two special guests who have a wealth of experience creating, maintaining, and supporting teams.
Sara Selepouchin Former Etsy Teams Coordinator and Philly Etsy Street Team Leader
Sara has run here own crafts teams in the Philadelphia area, and actually worked with Etsy.com to help get their Teams program successfully off the ground to over 20,000+ members worldwide while she was there. I’m happy to say she’ll be helping us get started here at TeachStreet.
Marlo Miyashiro EtsyRain Team Leader and Local Crafts Teacher
Marlo, is both a crafts teacher on TeachStreet and active participant in the crafts community here in Seattle. She currently runs EtsyRain (Seattle-based crafts team) which she has helped grow to over 600 members. They also organized the EtsyRain Spring Crafts Show which showcased their members.
I encourage all of you to sign up for this event, August 18th – 1:00-2:00pm PST. If you’re interested in how Teams can help your business grow, this will be the event to find out.
Introduction to TeachStreet Teams
August 18, 2009 – 1:00-2:00pm PST
We’re excited to announce our new pilot program, TeachStreet Teams. This initiative was born out of the feedback we got from you, the community; telling us that you wanted to connect with other teachers, schools, and organizations within your geographic or subject area. If you want to learn more about TeachStreet Teams through our Team Guides and join or lead your own team, please check out the links below.
Learn more about TeachStreet Teams: We’ve created TeachStreet Team Guides to explore the things you can do with Teams.
» Visit Team Guides
Join a TeachStreet Team: If you’d like to network with fellow teachers in your geographic or subject area, feel free to join an existing TeachStreet Team
» Join a Team!
Create and lead your own Team: If you love networking, enjoy helping others learn new things, and just love to connect with other folks — we’re looking for you.
» Lead a Team!
With the excitement of this new initiative, we’ve actually have gotten some great leaders who’ve already created their teams, which we have a lot in store for in the future — so stay tuned. But I’d like to take the time to introduce to you the leaders and the teams today.
Qigong & Tai Chi Team
Develop a shared Qigong class and workshop newsletter for local classes to give even greater visibility to classes and to give Qigong teachers from different lineages a chance to meet and get to know each other, as well as a chance to get to know the different styles or outlooks that each person or lineage has.
Holistic Healers
The purpose of HolisticHealers is to provide an online network of practitioners from any area of alternative or integrative health. This community offers a platform of support across the country, and serves to enrich our individual practices in order to improve the health and lifestyle of the general public.
Seattle Dance Coop
A cooperative group of dance teachers and others who love dance, dedicated to collaborating and supporting one another and the community in pursuit of our love of dance.
The best way to get the most out of your TeachStreet Team experience is to work together to improve your Team across the board. In many cases, this can mean serving as a mentor or constructive critic for each other. Perhaps some of your Teammates are a little savvier when it comes to creating online profiles or blogging, others might find their strengths include proofreading or lending a creative eye, while others might be social networking gurus. Teachers with more experience in certain areas provide expertise and knowledge to others who might be seeking advice. These mentoring partnerships within a Team benefit the entire group because as your Team members’ profiles get better and their classes are well attended and informative, it raises the bar for the entire team and increases your success altogether. You can set up a mentoring program among your Team by:
Determine what areas of expertise would be useful for your Team
This can include things like choosing class images, the class listing process, communication or tagging your classes.
Seek volunteers to be mentors in those areas
Organize a list of who is great at what, and share that information.
Members can get in touch with one another
Having the ability to ask a simple question or seek some coaching one-on-one in areas they’re having issues with. Mentors might also politely reach out to give suggestions to fellow members on how to make the most of their TeachStreet profiles.
TeachStreet experts are such a wealth of information, and mentoring is not only a wonderful way of improving the quality of your Teammates profiles, but also a great way to get to know one another. The better each of your Teammates is individually, the more your Team will benefit as a whole.
No two Teams are alike, and so it’s important to communicate with your Team to figure out what works best for you all as a group, in terms of logistics. With that in mind, we thought it’d be helpful to give you some ideas and suggestions on what we’ve seen work well for Teams. Think of the points below as a loose framework when organizing your Team, and be sure to make adjustments as needed to keep things rolling. Still working on gathering other experts to form a Team? Here’s a post on great ways to find people to work with on a TeachStreet Team.
Establish a routine for meeting with your Team
This can be a weekly check-in through an online forum like Google Groups, a Facebook group or a Meet-up Group or you can plan to meet monthly in person. Keep it up and don’t be afraid to communicate – don’t leave your Team hanging!
Set expectations for your Team
Everyone should understand that being part of a TeachStreet Team means being involved to some degree. Establish at the beginning what your TeamMate’s availability of time is and plan your goals accordingly.
Get to know your TeamMates’ talents
Some Teams make a spreadsheet or list of the areas members have experience in – this could include blogging, sending press releases, networking, group organization, making people feel welcome. If you jot down what people acknowledge they’re good at, it will make delegating tasks among the Team easier.
Setting Goals for your TeachStreet Team
Having a specific, achievable goal in common will help your Team focus and work together, which will ultimately help your Team become strong and more capable of accomplishing future goals.
Share the work load with your TeamMates
If you find yourself feeling like you’re doing more than your share of the work, refer to the list of different talents people on your Team have (see number 3!) and consider what tasks you can delegate. You’ll have more success asking people to do specific tasks rather than ongoing, open-ended projects – for example, ask your TeamMate to email 3 local blogs about your event, rather than just saying “Contact the press online”. Assigning do-able pieces of work will make it easier for your TeamMates to help, and produce better results for your Team.
Encourage participation in your TeachStreet Team Be sure that new members to your Team understand that your Team is active and that activity will be required of them upon joining. Take advantage of fresh energy when you have a new member, and get them involved in what your Team is doing right away.
Split or shrink Teams to encourage activity If you feel your Team is getting too big and not everyone is communicating or participating, determine as a group whether your best bet is to split the Team into two or three smaller, more active Teams or to check in with members to see why they’re not participating at this time. Sometimes members don’t participate actively because they’re unsure of what they should do.
The biggest overall points that we can emphasize enough are to communicate with your Team, have specific goals and delegate tasks among all your TeamMates. If your Team is doing these three things, we know you’ll accomplish so much more than any one expert could ever achieve alone. We’re excited to see what you do!
Joining together with other Teachers can be a great way to increase your visibility and achieve goals. Teachers on TeachStreet can form a Team to hold organize unique learning events, share information and help promote one another. Sometimes it’s important to step back and make sure that all the effort your Team is exerting is achieving your Team Goals
Here are some steps your Team can take to accomplish common Team Goals.
If your Team aims to increase class attendance:
Mentor one another on successful practices
Organize critiques among Team members
Help maximize class listings
Give notes to improve TeachStreet profiles
Drive traffic to your TeachStreet profile:
Joint advertising on popular websites or blogs
Blogging about your talented TeachStreet Teammates and their classes
Exchange links and information on your blogs with other TeachStreet Teams
Use your Team name as a tag on relevant photos on Flickr or other sites
Send professional quality press releases about your Team events to relevant online publications
If your Team is also a social outlet, and you enjoy meeting interesting Teachers around the world:
Get to know Team members by taking some time each week to really check out your Teammates’ profiles and blogs
Do a business card swap with Teammates so you have their cards to give to interested friends
Share tips and advice with your Teammates
Help each other out! Being someone your Teammates can talk to about TeachStreet, classes and teaching is important
If your Team’s goal is to help other Teachers or students:
Communicate well among your Team so everyone is familiar with the goal
Be public about your goal
Blog about how your Team is making a difference
TeachStreet profile to give a tiny bit of information about your Team
Come up with an FAQ about your Team’s mission, perhaps on a Team blog
Be sure to follow through
Let others know your Team’s accomplishments to date
If your Team wants to grow and attract many members:
Follow some of these ideas for finding new Team members
Consider forming a small membership committee within your Team to distribute the work of acclimating new members
Create some guidelines for the Team to prevent potential issues among the Team
Communication! Determine the best ways to communicate effectively and how often you’ll want to all touch base
There are many ways to measure success. If you define success as meeting or achieving your goals, then it looks like your TeachStreet Team should be sure it has clear goals! Each TeachStreet Team will be different, since every group of creative people will be as unique as each person in the group. Since each Team is different, it only makes sense that Teams will have any number of different goals.
Just about everyone who joins a Team does so to ultimately to improve their TeachStreet experience — perhaps by attracting more students, improving their classes, promoting their skills, networking or simply meeting people to share common interests. These are all excellent reasons to join a Team and really great overall goals for Teams to have.
Let’s consider some specific goals a TeachStreet Team might set. Your Team might strive to have a really useful, well-read blog, which would inform potential students about your skill and its value. A Team might decide upon a mission to educate people about your specific topic. Perhaps the Team decides that they’d like to participate in local events as a group, maybe tabling at Farmers Markets to reach a wider group of potential students offline.
It’s important that all Teams clearly spell out their goals and that all Team members are not only aware of the goals, but can participate in helping the Team actively achieve them. Having a mission statement is great, but it’s also important to determine how you will achieve it and what that means on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, if your TeachStreet Team’s goal is to support one another, perhaps you should meet up to chat once a month to see how you’re doing, brainstorm marketing ideas and share stories on what’s worked (and what hasn’t). Ultimately, the benefit of joining a Team is that you’re able to accomplish so much more than you would alone, so don’t be afraid to work together and communicate to reach your goals.
So, you’ve gotten a great team of experts together and you’re all excited about your first meeting and working together to promote your skills, classes and TeachStreet as the best place to learn something new. Excellent! Now what?
Before your first meeting, you’ll want to touch upon a few points among your Team to make the most of your time together and so everyone is on the same page.
What type of meeting will work best for your Team – how formal would you like to be?
Are one or two members planning on leading the meeting?
Do you, as a group, want an agenda to follow, or would you rather have a round table discussion and let the ideas flow from there?
And, of course, where and when will you be meeting? If it’s a public place like a coffee house, etc, should someone call the venue to check if hosting a group is okay?
Don’t forget to at very least bring a pen and paper, and a camera to document the event!
Discuss what the best way to communicate as a group between meetings is. Consider options like a Google Group, Meetup Group or Facebook Group to stay organized and in touch.
Decide when you’d like to meet again, and if what you’d like to have done before your next meeting.
If you have goals you’d like to accomplish, as a group before you meet again, be sure everyone is clear about what action items they’re responsible before they go.
After your meeting, follow through! Keep in touch with your Team – communication is key for meeting your goals as a Team, staying focused and really making the most of your new network of skilled teachers. Working together to promote your expertise and your class listings on TeachStreet means accomplishing so much more than would be possible to do yourself.
We’ve all heard that two heads are better than one, and with that wisdom in mind, we’re happy to introduce Teams to TeachStreet.
TeachStreet Teams are groups of teachers and experts who can join together to accomplish more than they could on their own. Teams can work together to market their skills and classes, help each other improve their profiles and online presence and provide a support network of advice. So you’re probably thinking “This sounds great! How do I go about finding these Teammates to get started?”
The best way to connect with other experts is here through TeachStreet, of course. One option for finding TeamMates would be to post an open call for interested people in the TeachStreet forums. If you want a more direct approach, you can find other experts in your city or by browsing through classes related to your area of knowledge to find other instructors to partner up with. To find experts you have helpful things in common with, from the TeachStreet homepage, click on the “Learn New Things” button. From there, pick your subject. Don’t forget to look under other related topics, too, to find experts in fields similar to yours! For example, if you’re a jewelry making expert, you might also want to broaden your search to check out metalsmithing or beading experts, as well.
Once you’ve determined a small pool of experts you’d be interested in working together with, follow some basic guidelines for contacting them about working together.
Don’t want to overwhelm (or spam) potential TeamMates
If you don’t hear back from someone you’ve contacted, don’t keep messaging them. Focus on having good contact with perspective TeamMates who are responsive, instead of a few who might not have gotten a chance to get back to you.
Keep an open mind
Mention some ideas you have for your Team (look for more Team ideas in future blog posts here!) when initiating contact with other experts, but remember that by staying flexible, you’ll come up with a list of Team goals that you’re all excited about, and it’s more likely you’ll accomplish these goals as a group.
Avoid the temptation to simply cut and paste your whole message
It’s easy to spot a form letter that’s been sent to too many people. While using some of the same bits to discuss the basics of why you’d like to get started on a TeachStreet Team makes some sense, be sure to personalize your message. Why are you interested in working with each person you’re contacting, specifically? Putting a little extra thought into your initial contact with an expert will go a long way.
Ask TeamMates to recruit If you have a group working together, ask them if they know anyone else who might be a good fit for the group! Finding friends of friends is a great way to form a core group of TeamMates to work together to promote your skills.
Suggest a few times and places the group might meet up
If a Team of experts in one location, meet ups are great to discuss what your objectives are as a group. Putting faces to names will also help you get to know one another, and make working together easier.
Respect people’s decision to say “No, thanks” While you might be super excited about forming a TeachStreet Team (which is great!), it might not be the right time for everyone. If an expert you’ve reached out to declines your invitation to form a Team, thank them for their time and consideration, and move on.
Use common sense
As with any interaction you might have with other folks on the Internet, if something feels a little off, go with your instinct. Some people you’ll click with immediately, but sometimes you might run into someone you don’t quite mesh with. That’s okay! Just keep in mind that every profile here belongs to a real person.
We’ll have more helpful posts to guide you along your Team making process, so please do check back to the TeachStreet blog for more ideas and tips on forming a successful Team. If you have other thoughts, feedback or ideas on getting started with a TeachStreet Team, please let us know!
What are TeachStreet’s expectations of Teams and Leaders?
Joining a Team means more than simply adding your name to a list of members. Here’s a general outline of what we expect from Teams and Team leaders:
Goals/Mission
Teams are most successful when they’re working together on a common goal. Team Leaders are going to be responsible for identifying what everyone would like to get out of participating on a TeachStreet Team. This is the only way to gain anything from the experience. Goals will vary by Team, but will generally include some of the following:
Networking: connecting with experts you have something in common with
Marketing: getting out the word about your class listings, attract new students and promote TeachStreet as the best place to find something new to learn
Outreach: bringing attention to your area of expertise through local events
Communication
We expect our Team Leader to create a place where communication is a key of part of their success. We find that teams with great communication tend to work better together. Also, keep in touch with your Team regularly (in person or online) and you’ll get much more out of the experience.
Initiative
The best Team Leaders will set the pace for their Teams, and come up with unique ways to accomplish their goals. Team Leaders will lead by example, so experts with strong communication skills make really excellent leaders. We encourage creativity and ingenuity in event planning and Team marketing work.
Delegation and Teamwork
The whole idea behind a Team is that as a group, you’ll accomplish more than you could alone. We expect Team Leaders to work with other Team members toward their goals.
Feedback
Team leaders are our eyes and ears on the ground, so please send up occasional bi-weekly/monthly updates about site feedback, issues and feature requests you are hearing from your team.
What should Teams and Leaders expect of TeachStreet?
So you’re a TeachStreet Team accomplishing awesome things together – what is TeachStreet doing for Teams?
Tips and Tricks
TeachStreet staff will share resources, guides and tutorials on what we find works well for various aspects of running a Team, promoting and working together.
Inspiration We’ll regularly spotlight great examples of TeachStreet Teams’ successes as we see them. One good idea often sparks another, and stellar work deserves recognition.
Toolkits Having the right tools makes any job easier, and we’ll consider feedback from Team members in helping to create useful things to empower Teams.
Independence We don’t want to mandate how you get things done as a group. Every group of people will have a different dynamic, and we respect that individual Teams will all have different goals and work differently to get things done.
