Real stories from educators building on Teachable

Tom Darling walked into the City of Albuquerque's HR department in 2016 with one task: build an employee training program for 6,000 city workers.

He already knew which platform he was going to use.

Tom had been a Teachable creator since around 2014 or 2015, running online courses through his personal coaching and consulting business. When he became the associate director of HR and took over the Employee Learning Center, he saw no reason to look elsewhere. Teachable was affordable, easy to use, and he could have courses live within days.

That was 10 years ago.

Today, Tom's team runs a three-platform training operation covering everything from mandatory HR compliance courses for full-time city staff to onboarding programs for roughly 900 summer seasonal workers who show up every June without a city email address. Teachable sits at the center of the piece that formal enterprise systems simply cannot reach.

"I feel like I've cheated a little bit, because I'm using Teachable in a way that it wasn't necessarily designed for. But it works. And I think if more people could see how they could use this tool this way, they would be able to accomplish a lot." —Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

The City of Albuquerque Teachable journey at a glance

The problem with enterprise LMS platforms

Before Tom arrived, the city had a barely functional Moodle setup. The police department ran its own separate training system through PowerDMS. Tom scrapped Moodle on day one.

A few years in, the city adopted PeopleSoft ELM as its enterprise record repository. It was supposed to handle everything. In practice, PeopleSoft's learning module requires SCORM-compliant content to work, and the city has never been able to get that integration functioning reliably. PeopleSoft ELM also requires VPN access, which means a bus driver or patrol officer trying to complete a mandatory course on their phone during downtime runs into a security wall.

The city also brought on Knowledge City, a licensed LMS with a database of roughly 15,000–18,000 pre-built courses covering leadership, technology, and compliance. At approximately $11 per employee per year across 6,000 staff, Knowledge City runs the city about $67,000 annually. It works well for registered employees with city email accounts and employee ID numbers.

For everyone else, it falls apart.

Summer seasonal workers arrive in June without Microsoft accounts. Volunteers at animal shelters, homeless services, and the zoo have no city credentials. Boards, commissions, and committees connected to city council need training but never formally enter the city's records system. None of them can use Knowledge City.

That's where Teachable fills the gap.

"In a perfect world I would love to have one LMS that did everything, that we could pay one time for. Unfortunately, that's not the way the world works." — Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

How the City of Albuquerque uses Teachable

Will Wheeler, the team's organizational learning analyst, handles most of the digital content production and manages Teachable day to day. The question he asks before building any new piece of content is always the same: who's the audience?

The answer determines everything. Full-time and part-time employees with city accounts go into Knowledge City. Everyone else goes into Teachable.

That 'everyone else' covers a lot of ground:

• Summer seasonal workers: Every year, roughly 900 people arrive for summer positions in parks and recreation, youth and family services, and other departments. They need the same onboarding content as permanent employees but have no city login. Tom's team packages that content in Teachable, sends out a URL, and workers create an account with their personal email.

• Volunteers: Animal welfare is the city's largest Teachable user group. Almost the entire volunteer corps at the city's animal shelters runs through Teachable. Will also produces training for volunteers in environmental health, spill prevention (SWIP and SPCC), and the city's homeless services division.

• Boards, commissions, and committees: Groups connected to city council need mandatory training without access to internal systems. Teachable handles those enrollments without any IT involvement.

• Leadership development cohorts: The city runs a year-long Pre-Management Development Program for 25 employees each cycle, meeting every Thursday for a year. Teachable serves as the content repository and collaboration space. Participants log in throughout the week, access course materials, and comment on each other's work. The city also runs five cohorts per year of the Supervisory Development Program, an eight-week requirement for newly promoted managers (20–25 people per cohort). A new apprenticeship program launching soon will use Teachable as the two-year record repository for employees shadowing senior staff.

"Not only are we using it for that larger group, it's also a nice tool for small learning communities within the city. We wouldn't use Knowledge City for that because there's no way for people to interact with each other." —Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

The City of Albuquerque’s strategies for running government training on a budget

Tom has spent 10 years refining what works. He's also shared his approach with four other New Mexico municipalities dealing with the same problem. Here's what he tells them.

Strategy 1: Match the platform to the audience, not the other way around

Most organizations try to find one system that handles everything. Tom's team stopped chasing that. Knowledge City handles career development for registered employees. PeopleSoft ELM maintains the official training records. Teachable serves everyone the other two platforms cannot reach.

The result is a three-platform operation that Tom and Will manage without a large team. Each platform does one job well.

Take action: Before evaluating any new LMS, map your learner types. Who has accounts in your system? Who does not? The platforms serving your credentialed employees likely cannot serve your volunteers, seasonal staff, or external partners. A separate, lower-cost platform for those populations may be more defensible than forcing one enterprise solution to handle everyone. Explore Teachable's plans or get in touch with the Teachable team today to find an option that fits.

Strategy 2: Prioritize access over complexity

The most important outcome Tom described is simple: when someone logs in to take a course, the course works. No VPN required. No IT ticket to open an account. No multi-step security wall before a seasonal worker can watch an onboarding video.

Tom's team can have a new course live in Teachable within a day. They send a URL, and anyone anywhere can register and start using Teachable’s mobile apps. For a bus driver completing mandatory training on a lunch break, or a volunteer showing up to an animal shelter orientation, that frictionless access matters more than any advanced feature.

"The most important experience for the user is that every single time you're assigned a course, when you log into that course, the course works, you can hear it, you can access the content, you can complete it, and you can get your certificate." —Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

Take action: Audit your current training delivery from the perspective of your lowest-tech user. Walk through the exact steps someone with no company account, using a personal phone, would need to take to access a required course. Every friction point is a completion risk. Teachable's course compliance tools let you enforce lesson order and video completion without adding login complexity.

Strategy 3: Use the leaderboard to manage compliance, not just track it

Will inherited a manual process. When a department needed confirmation that employees had completed required training, he checked each record individually, every day, until completions appeared.

Teachable's reporting changed that. Will can now see exactly who has logged in, how far they've progressed, and when the last activity occurred. For programs involving minors, like the summer seasonal workers who may be 16-year-olds in their first job, that oversight matters. Supervisors get regular completion updates. Departments can verify that the people they sent through training actually finished.

"That leaderboard has been a lifesaver for us. We can pull so much data out of that and see exactly what happened when. That's been a real big improvement." —Will Wheeler, Organizational Learning Analyst, City of Albuquerque

Take action: Set a weekly appointment to review student progress reports on your most compliance-critical courses. Build a simple reporting template so you can send department managers a one-page completion status update without digging through raw data each time.

Strategy 4: Build the cost case for leadership

When Tom recommends Teachable to smaller municipalities, he makes a specific argument. A city with 500 employees and 50 courses can run its entire custom training program for a fraction of the cost of other enterprise systems.

The content creation work exists either way. What changes is where you host it and what you pay.

"For a couple grand a year, you can buy access to a platform that will allow you to put all your stuff online. The hardest part of all this is finding somebody who can develop digital content for you." —Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

Take action: Build a simple cost comparison for your leadership. Line up your current per-seat LMS costs against the number of non-employee, temporary, or volunteer users you need to train annually. If that group is significant, a second, lower-cost platform may be the more defensible budget decision. Contact Teachable's sales team if you need a custom setup.

Looking ahead

Tom has been watching the budget pressure on Knowledge City's $67,000 annual license for years. His contingency plan has always been the same: if the city stops paying for Knowledge City, everything moves back to Teachable.

That's not a crisis. Tom's team has built the content, knows the platform, and has a decade of workflow built around it. The flexibility to absorb a major platform change without rebuilding from scratch is itself part of Teachable's value.

The new apprenticeship program launching this year will be the city's most complex Teachable use case yet. Individual employees will track their own two-year development journey, uploading weekly reflections, working through assigned content, and documenting progress toward eventual supervisory credit. No equivalent exists in any of the city's enterprise systems.

New Mexico municipalities still call Tom for advice. His answer has not changed much in 10 years.

"Teachable is kind of the pinch hitter for us. When something doesn't work with the other platforms we have, Teachable always ends up being where we move it, and we know we can have that course delivered to those people next week." —Tom Darling, Associate Director of HR, City of Albuquerque

What to do next

Explore Teachable for your organization:  If your workforce includes volunteers, seasonal staff, contractors, board members, or anyone without an account in your primary system, Teachable's no-VPN access and simple enrollment model may solve a problem you've been working around for years. 

Browse Teachable's plans here.

Talk to our team: Organizations with more complex training needs can contact the Teachable sales team to explore a setup that fits.

Elisa Azoum had a camera in her hands since childhood. Sleepless nights creating short films with friends eventually led her to Paris, where she worked as an assistant editor for television programs, including work at the Cannes Film Festival.

But after years of hectic Parisian life, something felt off. The extraordinary professional opportunities no longer compensated for the unsustainable pace. She considered becoming a yoga teacher, drawn by the idea of sharing something that brought her serenity.

Then came 2020. Elisa had taken a sabbatical year to travel the world and reflect on what she wanted from life. She explored breathtaking countries and met extraordinary people. Then the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted everything.

During lockdown, looking for a way to continue traveling virtually, she decided to teach her native language to students from around the world. She started tutoring on platforms like italki. The response from students surprised her. They wanted more than just conversation practice. They wanted structured learning, pronunciation help, cultural context.

Elisa realized she could combine everything she loved: languages, teaching, and her passion for visual creation. In 2021, she launched her YouTube channel. It grew rapidly. By May 2022, she launched her first course on Teachable. Three years later, French Mornings with Elisa has become one of the most successful French schools on Teachable.

"My courses are now my main revenue generator. It gave me flexibility that sponsorships never could. I stopped working on other people's deadlines and started building something that was truly mine." –Elisa Azoum, Founder of French Mornings with Elisa

Elisa’s Teachable journey at a glance

The turning point

When Elisa started tutoring on italki during lockdown, she quickly realized something. One-on-one sessions had a ceiling. She could only help as many students as she had hours in the day. Meanwhile, her students kept asking for resources they could use between sessions. Pronunciation guides. Grammar explanations. Cultural context.

"I realized there was potential for a course-based business." –Elisa Azoum, Founder of French Mornings with Elisa

The YouTube channel came first, launched in 2021. Growth happened quickly because Elisa brought something rare: the combination of native speaker authenticity, professional video production skills from her Paris days, and genuine pedagogical instincts developed through hundreds of tutoring sessions.

By May 2022, she was ready to launch her first course. The pronunciation course (Flawless French Pronunciation) addressed the exact pain point her YouTube audience kept mentioning: fear of speaking. Students knew the grammar rules but froze when it came time to actually say the words.

Teachable gave her something sponsorships and tutoring never could: recurring revenue that didn't depend on her being personally present. The course could sell while she slept, traveled, or created new content. Success allowed her to invest in creating more courses, expanding from pronunciation into complete learning paths for different proficiency levels.

Elisa's strategies for building a language education business

Elisa built French Mornings the same way she teaches French: with structure, clarity, and genuine connection to learners. Here's how she turned a YouTube channel into a sustainable education business.

Strategy 1: Replace sponsorship income with owned products

Early on, Elisa's YouTube revenue came from sponsorships, particularly from other language learning companies. The income was good, but the tradeoffs bothered her. Sponsor deadlines added pressure. Promoting competitors' products felt awkward. She had limited control over her own schedule.

"I eventually stopped doing sponsorships, particularly with other language course providers, to focus on promoting my own courses." –Elisa Azoum, Founder of French Mornings with Elisa

The shift required patience. Sponsorship money was immediate. Course revenue took time to build. But once her courses gained traction, the math worked decisively in her favor. Course sales provided more flexibility, more control, and income that compounded rather than reset to zero each month.

Take action: Calculate how much time you spend managing sponsor relationships versus creating content. If sponsors consume more energy than they provide value, consider redirecting that effort toward building your own product suite.

Strategy 2: Build a team to scale beyond solo creator limits

Elisa runs French Mornings with a team of five: a virtual assistant, scriptwriter, video editor, teacher, and email marketing specialist. Each role addresses a specific bottleneck that would otherwise limit growth.

The scriptwriter helps maintain content volume on YouTube without Elisa writing every word. The editor handles post-production so she can focus on filming. The VA manages administrative tasks. The teacher supports course delivery. The email specialist nurtures leads and students.

This structure lets Elisa remain the face and voice of French Mornings while multiplying her capacity. She didn't hire everyone at once. Each addition came when revenue justified it and a specific constraint demanded it.

Take action: Identify your single biggest bottleneck. Is it content creation? Student support? Marketing? Hire for that specific problem before expanding broadly.

Strategy 3: Design courses around real student pain points

Elisa's first course targeted pronunciation for a reason. Her tutoring students kept expressing the same frustration: they could read and write French, but speaking terrified them. Native speakers asked them to repeat themselves. They felt embarrassed ordering food in Paris. Written knowledge wasn't translating to verbal confidence.

The Flawless French Pronunciation course addresses this directly. It covers every single sound in the French language, teaches the syllabic method, includes over 70 practice exercises, and focuses as much on building confidence as teaching technique.

Her course progression (A2, B1, B2 levels) follows the same principle. Each course solves a specific problem for students at a specific stage. A2 builds foundation for first conversations. B1 takes learners from basic to conversational. B2 makes French feel natural.

Take action: Survey your audience about their biggest frustrations. Build your first course around the problem that appears most frequently. Specific pain points make better courses than broad topics.

Strategy 4: Teach real French, not textbook French

One student testimonial captures why Elisa's courses resonate: the content teaches "real French and not school French." This distinction matters for adult learners who want to actually use the language, not pass academic exams.

Elisa incorporates slang, colloquial expressions, and cultural context that textbooks skip. Her audio courses (like Les Aventures de Mike et Elisa) use authentic dialogue that sounds like how French people actually talk. Students hear contracted forms, casual expressions, and natural speech rhythms.

This authenticity comes from Elisa being a native speaker who understands both formal French and everyday communication. Her production background means the content also looks and sounds professional, not like amateur recordings.

Take action: Identify the gap between how your subject is traditionally taught and how it actually works in practice. Position your courses to bridge that gap.

How Elisa's courses change students' lives

Elisa's mission extends beyond language instruction. She's helping people connect with cultures, pursue opportunities, and build confidence that transfers far beyond French vocabulary.

Her students come from Germany, Finland, the UK, the US, Canada, Spain, Indonesia, Austria, India, and dozens of other countries. They're learning French for travel, work, family connections, and personal growth. Some plan to move to France. Others want to reconnect with heritage. Many simply fell in love with French culture and want to engage with it more deeply.

The transformation isn't just linguistic. Students report reduced anxiety, increased confidence in challenging situations, and willingness to take risks they previously avoided. Learning a language, done well, teaches people they're capable of more than they thought.

Looking ahead

French Mornings continues expanding. Elisa regularly releases new YouTube content, podcast episodes, and course updates. Student demand drives the roadmap, with learners frequently requesting advanced levels and specialized content.

The team structure means growth doesn't depend entirely on Elisa's personal time. She can travel to Paris to record content, take breaks when needed, and focus on the high-value creative work while her team handles operations.

Her vision extends beyond courses. French Mornings has become a community of French language enthusiasts sharing a learning experience together. The combination of YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, and courses creates multiple entry points for different learners with different preferences. Someone might discover Elisa through a YouTube short, subscribe to the podcast for daily practice, and eventually enroll in a structured course when they're ready for deeper commitment.

What to do next

Explore French Mornings: Visit frenchmornings.com to browse Elisa's course catalog. Whether you're working on pronunciation, building foundational skills, or pushing toward advanced fluency, there's a structured learning path waiting for you. Subscribe to the French Mornings with Elisa YouTube channel. Follow French Mornings with Elisa on Instagram.

Try Teachable yourself: Ready to build your own language education business? Elisa's story shows what's possible when you combine authentic expertise with a platform built to help creators scale. Keep more of your revenue, build direct relationships with students, and create courses that sell while you sleep. Start your free Teachable trial today.

In an unexpected turn of events, TikTok announced earlier this week that the Creator Fund, the $1 billion allotment the brand had set aside to pay top creators on the app for successful content, will cease to exist come December 2023.

End of an era: TikTok Creator Fund closes

Originally launched in 2021, the fund was designed to provide those TikTok creators whose videos with at least 100K views the ability to earn revenue on their content. While this sounds like a noble effort and a great way for popular creators who had amassed a following to earn, word soon got around that the payout wasn’t quite what it originally seemed. Top creators noted getting as little as 2.5 cents per 1,000 views.

And while the Creator Fund is shuddering, TikTok says it will launch a new program (still in its beta phase at the moment) that will allow creators to earn up to 20 times more than with the previous program. (You can learn more about the rollout and the eligibility here.)

Ownership is at the core

At first glance, it may not seem like the biggest shocker that yet another app payout program has folded. However, as any creator who relies on their content and community for revenue knows, this news matters—a lot. TikTok’s fund closing is yet another example of the battle for ownership between creators and their platforms of choice.

While relying on platforms like TikTok or other social media apps can be necessary for audience growth and content reach (50% of people report first finding a creator through an algorithmic recommendation!), they can be huge blockers for revenue generation and content ownership. When Instagram was down for the better part of a day a few years ago, creators lost opportunities to communicate with their audience, post their offerings, and ultimately retain control over their businesses.

As an online creator, you should be in control of your business—always. At Teachable, that’s the crux of what we do. We put control and ownership over your content, audience, and pay outs in your hands. That way if your social media platform or email service provider goes out, your business won’t.

Our no-code platform is designed for creators who want to build more impactful businesses through courses, coaching, and digital downloads—not just social media clicks or views.

Escaping the algorithm

When your entire business relies on an ever-changing algorithm, one little change can make or break you. But with Teachable, you own your content and control how it appears to your audience. Plus, you own how you’re paid out. You can seamlessly customize your content with our no-code course builder.

Then, use our simple ecommerce features to get paid directly by your audience. Plus, our robust suite of monetization tools—including upsells, bundles, and order bumps—unlocks more value from every product you create.

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In the sun-drenched realm of Cannes, an event like no other is unfolding.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is an annual gathering of the world’s top creative minds, leading companies, and advertisers.

This year it’s where the new rules of the creator economy are being written, and every creator should be paying attention.

Here’s what we’re seeing from the festival so far…

Creators get in on the action

For the first time, Cannes Lions is rolling out the red carpet for creators. Yes, you read that right. 

Creators, who once operated on the fringes of the advertising world, are now being welcomed into the grand halls of Cannes with all the pomp usually reserved for Hollywood's elite.

Top creators like MrBeast, Colin & Samir, and Madeline Argy are not just attending; they are headlining. They will be rubbing shoulders with tech giants like Elon Musk and stars like Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.

This year’s festival will feature creator-focused panels, networking events, and even a dedicated "headquarters" for creators to meet advertisers. This change shows how creators are redefining the boundaries of advertising and marketing.

What it's like for creators at Cannes

Picture this: you’re sitting on an outdoor terrace overlooking one of the most breathtaking views in Cannes, complete with perfect lighting and makeup stations courtesy of Elf Cosmetics. This isn't just a fantasy—it's the new reality at Cannes, where creators can shoot content that screams luxury and exclusivity. Thea Skelton, vice president of events at Cannes Lions, says, "The backdrop is probably one of the best views in Cannes."

And if the view isn't enough to make you envious, consider the special “creator ticket” priced at a tempting €1,374 ($1,476)—about a third of the cost of a standard pass. It’s as if Cannes is saying, ‘Hop in, creators! The water is warm.’

Why the Cannes matters for creators

There is a major shift in how advertisers view and use the influence of creators. 

As Ammar Kandil, co-founder of Yes Theory, puts it, "Creators are the ones who have people’s attention through the work that we do. Ultimately, advertising is based on being able to monetize that attention."

For creators, this festival is a golden opportunity to mingle with top advertising executives. It’s a chance to forge new partnerships and make deals that could elevate their brands to new heights. 

Samir Chaudry of Colin & Samir highlights the rare opportunity to sit down face-to-face with marketers. "Those are people making decisions to spend with us, and learning the problems they are trying to solve teaches us a lot about our own business."

Join Teachable with a free plan today and start owning your income and impact as a creator. Whether you're a budding influencer or an established content creator, we bring the tools you need to turn your passion into a thriving business. Don’t wait—start completely free today.

The space where a creator works can be one of the most personal spaces they have at their disposal. Whether you create from home or you have a studio somewhere else, where you create has a direct impact on what you create. Our column “Where I create” will take you where Teachable creators do their most important work. We’ll feature a new creator’s space each month to inspire others.

Becoming an online creator isn’t an overnight process. For Birgit O’Connor, it was one many years in the making. The watercolor artist, author, online course creator, and instructor started teaching painting courses in person in 2000. She now runs multiple six-week courses on Teachable at a time. Helping others learn the joys and challenges of watercolor painting.

Her studio

“It’s pretty wonderful to do what you love and I love my studio,” said Birgit. Her studio is in a coastal California town a few miles north of San Francisco. She has tailored it to perfectly fit her needs for painting, and for teaching.

For teaching, she has two webcams set up. One for when she’s just talking to students but not demonstrating and another to film her painting from an aerial view. So her students can see her painting and get a good, well-lit view. Her studio is full of beautiful paintings she’s worked on. Of course, she’s got plenty of supplies too: paint, brushes, canvases, paper, and easels.

But in a broader sense, her studio is anywhere she’s painting. If she’s working on a landscape piece, her studio could be the beach that day. For florals, it might be a field of wildflowers. She can go where the art takes her to create.

Just starting out

With a family history in the arts, Birgit didn’t find it difficult to pick up a paintbrush. Her mother was a photographer, her father a lithographer, her uncle was a gold-medal watercolorist, and her aunt was a graphic designer. She grew up surrounded by people working in the arts.

“My mom would always talk about art and how much she admired my uncle. So that inspired me, because I was never great in school. And so I think, I just have a different way of looking at things, right? The artistic mind,” Birgit told Teachable.

After having her first son, she really started exploring art at home. But she was having a hard time figuring out how to layer her colors well and to make the connection between her brush and the image she had in mind.

So she ended up going to a one-day workshop on color charts, which helped her get her colors right. Then she upgraded the materials she was working with. “That’s the beginning of how I understood how to be a student,” she said of her experience teaching herself and understanding what works for her.

Making her first sale

Of all things, a parking ticket ended up being the thing that prompted her to make her first sales. She had gotten a ticket, and her husband suggested she try selling some of her paintings to pay off the ticket. “And I thought, ‘No, that’s a terrible idea.’ And I thought I’m gonna go ahead and fight this ticket,” Birgit explained.

“I thought the idea of going in front of the judge or showing my work, both felt absolutely horrible because I was so insecure,” she said. But she ended up going into a local cafe and asking if they would consider displaying her paintings and offering them for sale. Every single one sold. “So art has been an incredible journey of removing insecurities,” said Birgit.

The student becomes the teacher

After making her first sales, she started expanding her horizons from landscapes to florals and beyond. She started entering art shows, and soon her art made its way to galleries and shows in other states and countries.

She later started making instructional DVDs and writing books on painting too. For a time she would travel and teach painting as well. But it took three or four weeks at a time.

However, once Birgit went online and started teaching from home, she had all her materials at her disposal, she said. “The wonderful thing about Teachable is that it gives me so much flexibility,” she added.

The space where a creator works can be one of the most personal spaces they have at their disposal. Whether you create from home or you have a studio somewhere else, where you create has a direct impact on what you create. Our column “Where I create” will take you where Teachable creators do their most important work. We’ll feature a new creator’s space each month to inspire others.

Susan Guagliumi is a machine knitting expert, she’s been using them and teaching others for decades. She’s also a Teachable creator with a beautiful studio workspace. Take a look at her cozy studio full of all the tools she needs for a productive day of creativity and educating others.

A cozy corner for creating—and machine knitting

Susan works from her in-home studio in a small town outside of New Haven, Connecticut. Her studio features exposed beams, a few knitting machines, a large window offering lots of light, and some momentos dotted around the space.

While giving a virtual tour of her space, she pointed out a photo on a wall behind her.

“That’s a picture that an uncle took of me when I was about five,” she said. “Talk about prophecy. I mean, there I am with a big wooly sheep. He must have known.”

Susan’s been using knitting machines and teaching others how to use them for decades. She’s also been perfecting her craft and earning her expert status over the years. She’s worked for several knitting machine companies and was even the Education Director for Studio by White Knitting Machines.

Her experience filming educational video content for knitting machine manufacturers helped her hone the art of teaching. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was teaching students in person at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She’s also written several books on machine knitting which helped her jumpstart her content for her online courses.

A new era of teaching and learning

When in-person learning was suspended, online courses with Teachable gave her the opportunity to continue teaching. With Teachable, she’s able to share her passion for machine knitting with others through six courses that make up her school. And she can do it all while working from home. “The flexibility that you get from working at home is just—you can’t compare it to anything else,” she said.

While she loves that she no longer has to set her alarm for 4:30 a.m. to get on a train to Manhattan, she loves the flexibility of working from home when the creative inspiration hits even more. “The thing that I really love is that I can work when I feel like working. So if it means that I’m still writing at 11 o’clock at night, then so be it,” she said.

Creative challenges

Even with her experience creating educational video content, Susan had a bit of a learning curve to tackle when it came to recording content for her first courses. “I’m finding that in order to do what I need to do with the knitting machine, that ideally, a three-camera shoot is what I need,” she said.

She ended up with three separate videos that need to be consolidated and synced, work she was able to contract out. But she did take on learning to edit video herself, and she ended up really enjoying it too. “I do pretty well with it and the editing that gets to be sort of cut and paste,” she said.

“That was fun. And I loved it,” she added. “You could just get lost in that with a glass of wine and a sandwich and spend all day at the computer.” For this work, having two monitors was important for her editing and creating her course.

Necessities for a machine knitting expert

The key items every creator needs in their space will obviously differ depending on the creator, the courses they teach, and whether they need any materials for their craft. For Susan, her necessities include lots of fabric, and of course yarn, in addition to the various machines she uses to knit and create.

“I have two machines on the floor here in the studio. I’ve got a sewing machine and a serger. I’m trying to make friends with a cover stitch machine. We have our days, sometimes it works, sometimes the hiccups are a little unpreventable. And a good iron—an iron is critical for me,” she said. Her electric yarn ball winder is also a tool she uses on a regular basis, though after years of reliable service, it’s on the fritz and might need replacing.

Other than those machines, her studio features some decor that holds sentimental value and offers inspiration. “There is a collection of Matryoshka dolls that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with knitting or sewing or anything else. But they started showing up probably 40 years ago and for birthdays and whatever family has sent them as gifts,” she said.

She’s also got valentines from over the years on her walls from her husband, an artist himself. “My husband and I have been making valentines for each other for years. And he’s an assemblage artist. So his are all three-dimensional boxes,” she explained.

Personal and professional in one space

While Susan’s space is clearly full of the items she needs to create and to teach, it’s got the personal touches that reflect who she is beyond her Teachable courses and her knitting career. The room reflects who she is as a creator with the inspiration of her past and present featured.

For a peek into Susan’s studio, head over to our Instagram post featuring her!

Do you want to share your workspace? Reach out to nina@teachable.com

The space where a creator works can be one of the most personal spaces they have at their disposal. Whether you create from home or you have a studio somewhere else, where you create has a direct impact on what you create. Our column “Where I create” will take you where Teachable creators do their most important work. We’ll feature a new creator’s space each month to inspire others.

Sitting down to write can be a daunting task. But when you’ve written more than 400 short stories, like Nila Patel has, it becomes less intimidating. Nila is a writer and has a school on Teachable to help others succeed with their writing as well. We caught up with her to learn about the workspace she’s found works best for her.

Consistency is key

“I’ve always wanted to write. When I was very young, I thought I wanted to be a novelist,” Nila told Teachable. “But fast forward to 2013, I started a website where I was posting, and I’m still posting, short stories every week,” she said. Now she also has a podcast where she discusses her weekly writing too.

Nila is in her ninth year of writing and posting a short story each week on her site. “I’m in a very, I think, unique position,” said Nila. That unique position? She had a proven track record that she can get it done, so she can help others get their writing done, too. After all, she’s done it hundreds of times.

Taking the plunge

“I had a day job up until last year. I quit my day job, but I have always wanted to work for myself and have my own business, but I wasn’t sure how to do that,” she said. Teachable gave her the means to do so. She took advantage of the various challenges and summits Teachable hosted to get started on her journey. The Launch Accelerator Challenge was the thing that really helped her get her course started. “It was the right time,” she said. She made one sale during her pre-sale prompting her to finish her course. Next up is the work to promote her course and increase those sales numbers.

Her course is set up to help aspiring fiction writers write a short story in just five weeks. She covers everything from the brainstorming and outlining phases all the way through the final draft of the story. She also covers the common challenges of writing. Like how to overcome writer’s block and decide on the direction a story should take. In her course, she also shares some of the tactics that help her most too, like asking “What if?” and “Why?” of her own story. This helps her see where her story is and decide whether she wants to continue with the story that way or change it up.

Ready when inspiration strikes

Unlike many of the subjects of “Where I create,” Nila doesn’t have a hyper-specific setting that she needs for her writing. What she needs more to be creative is a place that delivers a feeling more so than a specific space. She doesn’t need a large desk or screen like some creators do. “I don’t like to be anchored,” she said.

“​​Sometimes I even rotate between my laptop, and I even have a couple of tablets, which sometimes just makes it feel more [like a] casual environment,” she said. “I also don’t like any kind of sound or music or anything. And I think that’s because it could clash with whatever I’m writing,” Nila said. If she does want some background sound, she goes for white noise, such as rain. She even keeps some bluetooth keyboards around the house so she can easily grab a tablet and keyboard whenever the inspiration to write strikes. A casual environment with plent of writing tools helps the creativity flow for Nila.

Even within her course she explains to students how sitting down at a big desk and screen can be daunting and actually make it harder to get writing. The freedom to move around, get comfortable, change settings, and adjust when necessary is important to getting down to it and writing.

“Sometimes I’ll have a mug of tea or something next to me just to make myself comfortable. So that’s what that means for me,” Ultimately, to Nila it’s the comfort and feeling of an environment that makes where she creates special.

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The space where a creator works can be one of the most personal spaces they have at their disposal. Whether you create from home or you have a studio somewhere else, where you create has a direct impact on what you create. Our column “Where I create” will take you where Teachable creators do their most important work. We’ll feature a new creator’s space each month to inspire others.

On any given day Gwenydd Jones, the creator of the Teachable school The Translator’s Studio, could be anywhere in the world. When we spoke with her, she happened to be in the Swiss Alps. She and her husband are digital nomads, making their way around the globe while running their business online.

They’re in the process of building a new house in Spain, but while waiting for it to be done, they needed a place to stay. “We were like, well we could just rent an apartment here in Seville. Or we can become house sitters and go travel around and see where we land. And so that is how I come to be here today,” Gwenydd said.

Helping others reach their goals

Gwenydd and her husband run The Translator’s Studio on Teachable, a school that helps students learn to become translators and pass the professional exams required. Their courses can help students who are just starting out all the way to those becoming professional translators.

Gwenydd has been a translator since 2009 when she passed the DipTrans exams she now teaches others to pass. “I did two master’s degrees in translation, one in translation and one in legal translation, and I sat the exam, the DipTrans, and I failed it,” she said. “And then I came back and passed it. And that’s kind of what inspired me to start writing these courses because I thought that I could offer more vocational-focused training or practical training for translators,” Gweyndd said.

She released her first course in 2014 as a large PDF file. And she was initially just sending it out as a large zip file. Which she admits, wasn’t the most professional or sustainable way to run her business. Luckily, she later found Teachable.

Adding Teachable to her course

As Gwenydd’s online business grew she decided to invest in some business mentoring. Which led her to make the decision to invest in an education platform to help her share her courses better. “I’m very glad I did, I did it actually before just before the pandemic,” she said. “I was well set up and was able to sell quite a lot of courses during that time because people suddenly found themselves with time and looking for online courses,” she said.

And the success hasn’t stopped there. She said her business has continued to grow along with Teachable over the last three years. Which in turn allows her and her husband to live their lives as digital nomads.

Her remote creator essentials

Due to the fact that she’s always on the go and changing locations, Gwenydd doesn’t have one home office. Her office is whatever home she happens to be in that day. Sometimes that means she has a view of mountains, other times, it’s a view of the beach or a city street. And sometimes she has co-workers in the form of pets that belong to the owner of the home she’s house-sitting.

What she does take with her to every location? Her rituals. “I can’t take my space with me, so it’s really important to me that I follow rituals,” she said. It’s important for her to write every day, so she structures her day so that she can wake up, write, and then have breakfast. Then she prioritizes whatever else she’s focusing on that day. “By thinking like that, I’m able to focus on the work I want to get done and not get distracted by things like gorgeous cats (she’s pet sitting,) and just being in a nice new city,” she said.

But there are some technical items that help her get settled in too. She’s narrowed them down to the minimum of what she needs in order to travel light. She brings her laptop, a stand for it, and a mouse that she can pack up. But one thing sets the tone and makes whatever space she’s in feel like her office: a coaster.

“As long as I’ve kind of got this ritual in place, then I’m able to sit and focus. And I have this little coaster that always goes in my suitcase. And so I lay out my computer, and I put my coaster down so I can put my cup of tea there. And then I’m like, ‘Okay, yeah, it’s just a coaster but it creates my working space,'” she said.

Do you want to share your workspace? Reach out to nina@teachable.com

The news is still fresh: Last week, members of the House voted to approve a bipartisan bill giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, one of two options, either sell the social media platform or face a nationwide ban.

As an online business owner who dedicates time and energy to promoting your brand, business, products, and services on various social media platforms (TikTok likely one of them!), you may be asking yourself, “What’s next?”

Let’s dive a little deeper into what’s really happening, get insights from top voices in the social media industry, and explore what your options as an online creator and business owner are in the face of this update.

So, wait, does this mean that TikTok is definitely getting banned?

Although the bill was pushed through the House, now it must pass through the Senate. Even if it does successfully make it past the Senate, TikTok plans to exercise its legal rights before ever considering a sale.

All that is to say, this isn’t an immediate concern for creators. However, it’s important to keep in mind as things move forward. And, as a creator who's work may very well be promoted or tied to the social platform, it's important to keep tabs on.

We spoke to some creators in the space to better understand their concerns, worries, and thoughts on the pressing creator economy news.

Annie-Mai Hodge is the founder and CEO of Girl Power Marketing and has nearly 65,000 followers on LinkedIn. Needless to say, she knows a thing or two about the ins and outs of social media platforms. “My biggest concern was TikTok’s US employees—which is roughly 7,000 people—who could potentially lose their jobs,” she said.

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“And with mass layoffs happening across tech and gaming companies over the past couple of years, it couldn’t come at a worse time,” she added. Another creator we spoke to, Katie Stoller, founder of Influencer Insider Guide, is no stranger to understanding how influencers and creators tick—especially when it comes to TikTok.

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“My initial thought went straight to the creators,” she said. “This issue is so much more complex than it seems at first blush. It's politically charged; it brings up the topic of safety and its effects on children, and it deals with how the US views China (with some racist undertones there). It's A LOT. But, my first thought went to the thousands of influencers I have personally hired on behalf of my clients who rely on this platform as their primary income stream. TikTok has democratized marketing. It has democratized becoming famous. It has allowed anyone with an idea and the guts to put it out there the ability to reach an audience. Banning the platform will be catastrophic to many. And even a sale to a new owner has the potential to alter how the platform behaves (for better or worse) and that will have an impact as well.”

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Does this potential ban affect the landscape of social media as a whole?

This isn't the first time we've seen social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram come under the harsh eyes of both politics and the public. But for creators, this is more than just losing follower or going dark for a few hours: It's business.

Whether because of talks of bans or multiple outages and glitches, social media platforms have had their fair share of tumultuous activity over the last few years. So, does this recent TikTok news affect the way people view social media platforms in general?

Short answer: maybe.

“If it [TikTok] truly does go away (which it seems like it would be purchased by someone—no one wants to leave all that money on the table), there will be ‘copycat’ social media platforms that come to claim that market share,” said Katie.

“However, we rarely see copycats achieve the level of the original (i.e. Threads vs. Twitter/X). I also think YouTube and Meta will battle it out over procuring that short-form video market share,” she added.

And she’s not wrong. Although “copycat” social media platforms such as Triller and Dubsmash exist, they simply have not picked up the same steam as a platform like TikTok.

“I think initially—TikTok would take a hit in popularity—but I don’t think it would impact the platform on a large scale, and long-term,” said Annie-Mai. “That is, of course, if other countries don't follow suit and ban the app too. And I think people in the US would, ultimately, find a way around the ban—this isn’t a move that’ll kill TikTok.”

How creators and online business owners can navigate the uncertainty that comes with some social media platforms

Although there's no need to start panicking yet, this news is a healthy reminder that platforms like TikTok are at the mercy of not only algorithms but also larger nation-wide business decisions. As a creator and business owner who may have felt reliant on the platform before, what should you do now to feel prepared in case a ban is in the cards? Let’s talk about it.

Annie-Mai wants to make one thing very clear: “Don’t panic. But think about diversifying your brand where possible, and across different channels,” she said. “If you’ve built a strong presence on TikTok, then you’ve probably got a lot of content at hand—so think about how you can repurpose it via platforms like Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts.”

Katie reflects the same sentiment, noting that she’s in contract with 20+ creators who owe her clients TikTok content by the summer. “People don't realize how many deals happen on the platform every hour," she said. "If the platform disappears, that means hours upon hours of re-jiggering strategy and amending contracts,” she added.

“I would say for now, we need to see what the Senate does,” she noted. “This all might be a non-issue if the bill is not passed there. If it is, we might get more insight into the next steps. I am very curious about what types of companies might step up to purchase it. In summary, for now, it's business as usual, but marketers and creators alike should stay up to date on what is going on as the impact will be huge. For creators specifically, focus on building your email database, invest in ownable assets, and drive followers from TikTok to Instagram and YouTube where applicable. Do this sooner than later since so much of this seems to be happening overnight.”

Now, what does this mean for you? For starters: Having own-able assets is key. If all of your content and audience live strictly on social media platforms, you risk losing that hard work if a ban like this goes into effect. So, what should you do instead?

• Create an online course
• Launch a digital product (ebooks, audio files, templates—anything!)
• Set up a membership
• Sell your expertise through 1:1 or group coaching services
• Build and nurture a community
• Invest in a website of your own

If you have any kind of engaged following online, whether that’s through social media or an email list, creating learning products is the key to unlocking a deeper connection with your audience, expanding your reach, and most importantly creating safety and security for the online business you’ve worked so hard to build and nurture.

And that's exactly why at Teachable, we empower creators like you to make income and impact with your work on a platform you control. Freeing yourself from an algorithm or legislation outside of your control by opting for content outside of a platform like TikTok is the first step to true creation and business autonomy, which puts you back in the driver's seat.

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