How Elisa grew French Mornings to 2,850+ students on Teachable

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.