We love Marianne Elliott, whose participation in our very first cycle of TeachNow introduced us to her work (Thank God and Marianne for 30 Days of Yoga!)

Over the ensuing years, our friendships have deepened. Jen loves her yoga and courage work so much she invited Marianne to be her guest yoga teacher at her Taos Writers’ Retreat and co-taught The Creative Joy Retreat with her both last year and this year.

Marianne’s background sounds like something it would take three lifetimes to amass (and she’s still a pup!) She’s been a human rights lawyer, an Oxfam policy advisor, a traveler, a UN Peacekeeper, a best-selling author, a yoga teacher (and guide for other teachers in taking their yoga off the mat into service work,) and restauranteur.

Listen in as Jen and Marianne talk about:

• How Marianne draws on human rights, the law, memoir writing, and yoga in her teaching heritage
• How Marianne got clear on her core teaching message through teaching
• What comforts and nurtures Marianne as a teacher
• How Marianne gets the most out of courses like TeachNow and turns them into a nurturing fest

Enjoy listening to our 20-minute romp:

• Marianne Elliott and Getting Zen with Teaching (MP3)

Check out all Marianne’s courses!

• Click here to learn more.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about the future of teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

Listen to the other interviews in this series:

• Brian Johnson,
• Tara Sophia Mohr, and
• Anna Guest-Jelley.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

This is one in our series of four case studies discussing the new face of teaching.

Brian Johnson is the author of A Philosopher’s Notes and founder of en*theos Academy, which is transforming the way virtual learning is done. Their purpose is to inspire and empower people to optimize their lives. Woo-wee, that’s a cool purpose.

You may be a member of the en*theos community, tuning in for this interview with Brian. If so, you already know Brian as not only a smarty-pants, but someone who is living his values. He’s inspiring just to hang around.

If this interview is your introduction to him, I am thrilled to have you meet Brian through our conversation. Honestly, I was high for hours after talking to Brian about teaching and marketing.

Brian is a gifted teacher of life optimization in his own right, but with en*theos Academy he is creating a platform for many other teachers to do what they do best – teach – with full support from the infrastructure of the Academy.

Brian shared so many innovative and inspiring perspectives on the future of teaching and what’s possible for teachers and learners of all sorts. Meaningful change, deep community, true success, and sustainable growth were all on the docket.

A few highlights of our talk:

• Why hustling doesn’t have to be part of your teaching future
• How trying to stay with what’s new and hot may not serve your students
•  What role self-trust plays in marketing.

You’ll also learn some surprising – and relieving – perspectives on:

• UNKNOWN TEACHERS:  Why Brian believes that changing the world depends on both big-name teachers and newer teachers with smaller followings

• VIDEO VS. AUDIO:  Why audio may be even more powerful than video for your audience

• CHANGING TOGETHER:  The power of community to support meaningful, lasting change

• FACE-TIME:  How online connection can support in-person connection between learning communities

• TRIUMPH OF THE MARKETING AVERSE: Why NOT being all about marketing can actually drive better business over the long term

• SUSTAINABLE GENEROSITY:  Great ways to make your teaching available to those who need it most without being “non-profit” yourself

• MAGNETIC MODELING:  The ultimate sales tool: your own happiness

Click this link to download the audio of this amazing 25-minute interview:

• Brian Johnson on the Future of the Teaching (MP3)

Check out all the courses at en*theos Academy!

• Click here to learn more.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about the future of teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

Listen to the other interviews in this series:

• Tara Sophia Mohr,
• Marianne Elliott, and
• Anna Guest-Jelley.

Anna Guest-Jelley is a yoga pioneer and the kind of tour-de-force woman that a distant observer might imagine never doubts herself.

She was an English teacher before she began teaching yoga, and in What It Means To Teach Yoga says, “Now my students’ writing is with their body and life, not the keyboard.” Her Curvy Yoga is a training and inspiration portal for full-figured yogis and their wholehearted teachers.

Our favorite Anna line is: ”Grab life by the curves and never let go.”  – Oh, yes.

Listen to hear:

• How Anna created her Curvy Yoga teacher training without a map, and what she had to do to keep herself going in the process
• Why you have to START teaching to get momentum on your confidence and expertise as a teacher
• How Anna’s background informed her teaching (once she really LET it) – and how yours can inform yours
• How in-person teachers or practitioners (like healers or yoga teachers) can also offer powerful teaching through blogging, ebooks, and other writing.

Click the link below to enjoy this audio romp between Jen and Anna!

• Anna Guest-Jelley and Getting Curvy (MP3)

Do yoga with Anna!

• Click here to learn more.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about the future of teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

Listen to the other interviews in this series:

• Brian Johnson,
• Tara Sophia Mohr, and
• Marianne Elliott.

Tara Sophia Mohr is an expert in women’s leadership and well-being.

Her Ten Rules for Brilliant Women is an astounding example of the power of succinct, potent teaching to go viral. She’s a poet with an MBA from Stanford (How’s that combo for a unique lineage?)

A few highlights of our talk:

• How Tara felt called to express ideas and see them have an impact, and backed into the awareness of being a teacher
• How you can start embodying your dreams now, and why you MUST
• Why the hierarchical model of teacher-as-expert, students-as-not is passing away
• How Tara helps women tap their internal mentor

Click this link to download the audio of this fantastic interview:

• Tara Mohr and Playing Big (MP3)

We highly recommend Tara’s signature program, Playing Big.

• Click here to learn more.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about the future of teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

Listen to the other interviews in this series:

• Brian Johnson,
• Marianne Elliott, and
• Anna Guest-Jelley.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

The change-maker I’m interviewing today is the woman who is teaching me what true servant leadership looks like, and showing me that real authenticity has survived the bastardisation of it’s name and is alive and well.

Jen Louden is a teacher, author, leader, change-maker and friend to many women (and men) all over the world. She was already talking about the importance of self-care while I was still running myself ragged and calling it ‘professional commitment’. She’s known to many as the queen of self-care, and she recently launched the Savor and Serve experiment:

“I’m so curious about the sweet spot where our longing to be happy meets our desire to make a difference I’m devoting a year to exploring it. [This is] the Savor and Serve experiment.” – Jen Louden

1. What is it that breaks your heart? And what are you doing about it?

Today, everything is breaking my heart. There are days like that. Today is one of them. More specifically, is injustice and ignorance. I want people to have a chance to be happy and I want people who have it all to see what a responsibility that is  (by have it all I mean running water, good food, safety, a livelihood). Fairness, sharing, making it better are my themes. What I’m doing about it right now is stewing.  Honestly, raising questions and being uncomfortable. Not letting myself or my readers off the hook.

2. What fills you with joy?

Today, everything. The feel of my dog’s fur, the way my daughter holds up her hand to ban me from her room, the ache in my back, writing this, the left over taste of salad in my mouth, the longing to know, to do, to create, the rain splattering against the window for the million day in a row, the sight of my Moleskin notebook filled with notes from a mediation retreat, being connected to you, yoga yesterday, really it all gives me such joy.

3. What do you do to take care of yourself and make sure your work is personally sustainable?

Honestly, I am, once again, deeply struggling with this. I seem to – over and over again – come to this place where I am not sustaining myself because I am caught in stories about why I can’t. Now, I must say that on the surface, I look like the poster child for self-care. I make myself healthy veggie based meals, I practice yoga and meditation a lot, exercise, get hugs, take the evenings and lots of weekends off, have a loving partnership, spend time with my kid, read boatloads, etc. I take care of myself financially. I ask for help. I go to therapy.

AND I had to admit to myself this morning I’M DEPLETED. Again. It’s so friggin embarrassing but there it is.  I’m going to have to go let go of a lot of stuff in the next 6 weeks so I can go into this depletion deeply and see what is there. That is the call. I hate that with all my being but there you have it. Breaking news.

4. This blog is a kind of a watering hole for people, like me, who have always been more focused on saving the world than caring for ourselves. What have you learned so far in the Savor + Serve experiment that you think we should know?

See #3. I have learned that depletion is here, it’s real, and there is a way I am colluding with it. I have to speak about that, experiment with that and be of service there. I have learned that you can run but it stays right with you. I have learned that the more of service you want to be, the more you need to deal with who you really are, what your issues are.  It’s just like teaching! The best teachers show up as who they are and they use teaching to see themselves, warts and beauty and in between, and grapple with that lovingly.

I have also learned, already, that service could be a great place to hide from myself, and that arrogance is a horrible possibility. “Look at me, look at all I can do!”  That makes me nauseous to say but it’s true. Self-care makes you humble or it helps when service has humbled you.

5. I learned so much from you and Michele in the Teach Now course last year about serving others by being nourished myself. How does the Savor + Serve experiment inform Teach Now, and vice versa?

I gave birth to Teach Now, and was lucky to have Michele (ed: that’s Michele over on the right) there to partner with and bring her brilliance too, a few weeks after I saw I wanted to work more directly with service, that I wanted to do more direct service, and support people in waking up to service. So it was my first “How I could do this” move. So many of us can serve through teaching, through igniting and sharing, and we have to do in a sustainable, self-loving way or we give up. Especially if we are teaching within a system or we are self-employed. We need support on so many levels.

Marianne, we all just aim to be fully alive and be of use in the world. I know a big part of my service is to bring self-acceptance and unmitigated joy to others. I also know if I’m not experiencing it myself, um, no go. So off do that!

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I did the Teach Now course with Jen and Michele last year and found it to be deeply nourishing, supportive and activating. In Jen’s own words, it’s a course in:

This is what I had to say about the course last year:

“Teach Now was exactly what I needed right now as a teacher, as a student and as a human being. Jen and Michele bring such honesty, generosity, wisdom and clarity to their teaching. Their insights into the wonderful, winding path towards becoming a fully embodied teacher, combined with the practical tools they shared, have nourished me and supported me to take the next steps along my own teaching path. This course was everything I had hoped it would be, and more. Thank you. I’ll be back for more!”

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

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Here’s a special Q&A with Jen Louden and Michele Lisenbury Christensen, creators of Teach Now. Together, they are working to empower teachers to be more visible, more confident, and more successful on every level. At the end of the interview, you’ll find a link to more Teach Now resources. Enjoy!

Q: What does teaching have to do with under-earning or vice-versa?

Jen: Teaching has far too much to do with under-earning, at least until we change that story! Traditional teachers in classrooms are frequently underpaid. That reality carries over into our story about other kinds of teaching, which fosters the idea that teaching cannot pay well.

Disprove that story for yourself now. Look for examples of teachers making a good living. Michele and I are; so is Molly. Who else? If you haven’t earned what you need or want in the past, that it is not a result of the act of teaching but of other factors like what course or product you offered, how many people knew about it, and if you connected with your student’s needs.

Michele: Teaching – as one stream of activities and revenue within a business – can help you overcome under-earning in a product or service-oriented business. It becomes a way to take clients and would-be clients through a number of learning curves, like:
•Understanding the need for your product/services.
•Learning how to use your service or product.
•Accelerating the pace of their growth through group learning vs. one-on-one work.

Being a great teacher, in addition to having great products or 1:1 services, helps you and your clients leverage your time so you can provide value at a greater scale, at a lower per-participant price.
Being great at making offers of teaching and at leading programs will truly help your business thrive.

Q: Is it possible to be a dedicated teacher and intentionally cultivate wealth?

Jen: Yes, and doing so requires personal honesty and integrity. As a teacher, you have a sacred bond with your students, and that bond begins with “do no harm” and grows from there to cultivating love.

Becoming wealthy can also be a sacred act that is done for the good of many, including, of course, yourself and your loved ones. Where it gets rewarding – and takes a lot of consciousness and support – is holding both: your desire to be of service to your students and your desire to cultivate wealth. It’s a very sophisticated spiritual path. You have to hold both ends of the continuum in your awareness and keep choosing moment by moment.

Michele: The key to melding these two pursuits – profound service and significant wealth – is to keep the exchange equal. When your work consistently delivers meaningful value that exceeds the investment your students make, AND is lucrative for you, you are building on the solid foundation of the Law of Reciprocity (giving AND receiving).

Charging more in fees than your clients get in value will lead to either a lack of integrity, a lack of wealth, or both. Under-charging grossly – not allowing people to pay you what’s fair to YOU – will lead to a lack of wealth and a different kind of lack of integrity: self-denial. Yuck.
To be a dedicated teacher AND cultivate wealth, offer great value, charge fairly for it… then make sure you’re getting the word out in ways that ensure your programs are filled.

Q: How does teaching (serving) jibe with earning and savoring?

Jen: To serve (in all ways, including teaching), you must be resourced – you must have resources to draw on, beyond yourself, to keep you emotionally, physically and spiritually full and in touch with your truth. You can serve from an empty place but it usually hurts not only you – in exhaustion, burn out, resentment – but also whomever you are trying to help. It leads to power over and separation, rather than ““As I do unto others, so I do unto myself.” When we are earning what we need, and we are fully savoring this wild journey of being alive, we have so much better a chance of serving in a way that actually serves.

It’s not the model most of us grew up on. That was often a model of self-sacrifice to the point of illness or poverty. That model is very toxic. Let’s get rid of it now!

Michele: The notion that it’s noble to serve without thought for earning, and to savor only giving, versus savoring what you receive, is a notion that leads to moral superiority and condescension toward your students. You’re good and giving. They’re grasping and greedy.

What if, instead, you create relationships that are reciprocal, and model sustainable ways of living and serving? Why not craft relationships with your students that contain the giving and receiving, as well as candor, self-awareness, and responsibility? That’s what we want in all our relationships.

Q: What do teachers need to remember in order to earn an ample living?

Jen and Michele:

Ask yourself:
• What do I want to learn? (Successful teaching starts with your curiosity!)
• What am I passionate about sharing with the world? (Be honest.)
• What do I want to change in my world? (What makes you rant?)
• What do I see people struggling with? (Gather their words exactly and mull over them.)
• What solutions would I love to offer? (It doesn’t matter if you don’t fully know how yet.)
• How much is enough (to meet my needs, to provide for enough of my wants, to save for my future, and to give back in whatever ways feel best to me)?

Teaching is hot. The world is changing faster and getting more complex every week. People feel overwhelmed and stressed by all this change: what you know can change that and people will pay for that relief.

We’d love to help you claim your seat as a teacher or find the juice and joy in teaching again. We know it’s possible because we’ve done it again and again, for ourselves and hundreds of students.

The world needs what you know. Please, teach now.

Jennifer Louden and Michele Lisenbury Christensen have taught since their 20s: everything from yoga to writing to leadership skills. They’ve created a transformational program called Teach Now that delivers information, insight and Master Teacher interviews with Molly Gordon, Natalie Goldberg, Mark Nepo, and many more.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

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(Note: I don’t usually accept guest posts; I invited guest posters when I was in Italy, leading a retreat.) ~ Kate Swoboda

The See-through Teacher by Jennifer Louden

“Face to face with my students, only one resource is at my immediate command: my identity, my selfhood, my sense of this “I” who teaches – without which I have no sense of the “Thou” who learns.” ~Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

I so wish I had Mr. Palmer’s wisdom when, as a 29-year-old just published author, I started teaching self-care workshops and, later, retreats. I spent my first years certain if I was older or could have a mystical vision or a Ph.d. (I know, talk about extremes), then I could really serve the thousands of women who were showing up at my events.

I would end each teaching session exhausted because I had spent so much of the time wondering if I was doing a good job or using other people’s exercises and techniques in an attempt to “do it right.”

It took me until my mid 40’s (ack!) to realize that my most important asset as a teacher and facilitator was my ability to own my experience and to stay on my own side while teaching. Parker calls it knowing and trusting your own selfhood.

To be willing to be who I am, to claim what I know in the moment, and to share it honestly and with an undefended heart – to be what I call a see-through teacher – this is where real teaching lives, and thus the ability to serve others.

Here are a few things I’ve learned that help me to be a more present and see-through teacher. I hope they help you, too.

Slow down often and ask yourself, “What do I know, in my bones, about this subject? Not what I think I should say but what I really know.” Teach that.

Make teaching plans and then throw them away when you sense something isn’t landing, and instead, heart perhaps pounding, ask your students, “What do you need right now?”

Dose appropriately – we can only take in about 8 minutes of new information at a time before we need to do something with it – apply it, teach it, try it out. Close your lips when you want to add just one more wee point that might make you look smart but won’t serve their learning.

Claim your style of teaching rather than aping the “good” or “right” way to speak or lead. Here’s a brief video of me being goofy – I am a goofy teacher. So be it.

Deflect student projections, rather than cultivating them. Help people to claim their own power and knowledge.

Give yourself time to be a student, to fill your learning well, and do it with a beginner’s mind.

I could go on – and I will in the TeachNow course – but if I said anymore right now, I’d be saying it to make me look good rather than serve you, and that would negate the entire point of this post.

As a teacher – of anything and anybody – the most vital part of your job is your inner work, the claiming and owning of all of you, and being willing to show up as that person when you teach. Which is very different than inappropriate sharing of oneself, but again, that’s another post.

The see-through teacher saves the world by example. Jai!

Jennifer Louden helps people find the good so they never give up on themselves or each other. A best-selling author of six books, ontologically trained coach, speaker and retreat creator, and her newest project is TeachNow. Her favorite name is Lilly’s mom.

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).

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Have you met Jen Louden? She’s the best-selling author of six books, a teacher, retreat leader and all-round powerhouse of kindness and honesty. Jen beams such wonderful energy into the world and you only have to watch one of her videos to know she does everything with integrity and care (which is why i love her so.) Last year I signed up for her fantastic TeachNow* class and I’ll be doing it again this month – as my path as a teacher grows and expands, learning from Jen and Michelle was exactly what I needed — highly recommended!

So with that said, please welcome the luminous Jen Louden to the stand…

SC: Did you always know you’d teach and write? How did this path begin for you, Jen?

JL: If you ask my family, they would say I’ve been telling people what to do since I started talking – maybe before. I’m fairly insufferable.

I’m passionate about helping and I’m over-the-moon passionate about creating. Besides love, it’s what makes life worth living for me.

So I always knew I would create but not how or what. It’s been difficult – and most days still is – to find the right form. I was drawn to art, photography and film-making as a kid but truly, I sucked, even though I made it through USC film school. That is where I discovered writing, and from there, teaching. So that’s where I play these days!

SC: Could you describe a typical day?

JL: Snuggle with the sweetheart. Snuggle with sweetheart and the little doodle dogs.

Drink some healthy stuff (E3Live and kefir) then off to my studio for asana and meditation and chanting – 5 days a week, not usually on the weekends, like to be a goof off then.

Then quick email check in because there are often little emergencies to deal with. Black tea with stevia, more water, and work until I take Lilly, my 16 year old, to school. I use that as a break to get off the computer and into creative work when I get back – but sometimes, okay, often, I cheat and have to peel myself off Twitter and email an hour later.  I spend the day writing, teaching, creating content for my Savor & Serve Cafe, banging my head up against the wall, telling people about my work, and not getting out in the world enough.

Exercise happens somewhere in there most days – I suffer immediately if I don’t move my body. I’m usually cooked by 4 and need a long break, then do email again in the evening after dinner.

Evenings are mostly about helping with homework and reading!

SC: How do you prepare yourself before leading a retreat? I imagine they must take a lot out of you!

JL: What takes a lot out of me is trying to be someone I’m not. Truly, when I can settle in to being utterly myself and not think I’m supposed to be wise or know it all, I have a blast.

I’m about to lead a new retreat at Kripalu, Stepping into the Shero’s Journey, and that is going to require some real digging and research. I always always start with me on the couch in the studio with my journal. What do I know that I want to share? What stories do I have?

Then I start thinking about who do I want to interview? What books do I want to revisit?

Then I start writing bits down on post it notes and looking for a flow. I think in modules – so I might teach Conditions of Enoughness (lecture) then an exercise (so people can get it) then a way to “dump their baskets” or share what they’ve learned. I also consider different learning styles – it’s so easy as a teacher to fall into teaching the way you like to learn and forget there are other learning styles, like visual learners or auditory or kinesthetic.

I also spend time in meditation blessing the women who are coming and asking what they need, and then I’m sure to rest rest rest the day before~

SC: I’m so inspired by your new Savor & Serve Experiment! Could you share with us what inspired this new direction?

JL: Longing. Longing to make a more direct difference. Longing to face into the fact our planet is in deep shit and we all need to find our way to help. Longing to know my life matters. Longing to be fully engaged in what I’m doing. Longing to say to the women who have followed me for years, “Self-care is essential but so is world care. We must do both. We can do both!” But since I have no idea how to do both, especially the save the world part, I made it an experiment.

SC: What one thing could we do right now to savor our lives more?

JL: Stop trying to change anything about this very moment. Stop judging anything about this very moment. Stop thinking that you will do this when you are done with whatever you are thinking you will do next. Do it now. (I just did.)

Second thing to do – breath directly into your heart. Right now. Feel the longing to be intimate with yourself and life. Feel how overwhelming and tender that longing is and rest there. Even for 2 seconds.

SC: What and who inspires you? Please share some hot links

JL: You do! [Susannah Conway] You are so talented and full of beauty. I took Unravelling just to watch your videos. My daughter (she’s 16) inspires me – she’s doesn’t bend to peer pressure. Amazing. Desiree Adaway is a new friend who inspires me. Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on banning land mines, blows me away. Pema Chodron, because she’s like me but way smarter and more enlightened. My friend Elizabeth Lesser in this TED talk Take the Other to Lunch. My sweetheart Bob, who works hard for the planet everyday.

SC: What is the message you want to share with the world? (In other words, what do you consider to be your life’s work?)

JL: Be kind to yourself and share that kindness with the world – and – it really is possible to be whole and at peace – yes, really, and thus it really is possible to change the world.

SC: What are you working on next?

JL: Besides my Savor & Serve Experiment, this month I’m leading Teach Now again with Michele Lisenbury Christensen. It’s all about how to teach with more ease and joy, and it’s also about finding your voice and your power, and sharing it. It’s about changing the world through sharing what you love – and doing that in a way that brings you alive. It includes 6 recorded classes, 5 live integration calls, work sheets, homework, videos, guided meditations, and something like 28+ master teacher interviews with people like Sharon Salzburg, Parker Palmer, Mark Nepo, Cheri Huber, Meg Wheatley, Elizabeth Lesser – really great stuff.

The program starts March 24th with a free class on where you are on the teacher’s path, how to give yourself the full permission you need to teach, and lots more. It’s not a sales spiel, it’s the actual first class. The people who took it last time – 120 – loved it and many had been teaching for years, and some had never taught. And people actually used the materials, and did the work – love that!

SC: You’re having a dinner party and can invite six famous people from the past or present – who would you choose and why?

JL:
Buddha – I want transmission!
Jesus – What do you think of Christianity?
Hildegard of Bingen – So what’s it like to be so creative?
Homer – How the heck did you remember those epics?
Cleopatra – Teach me some strategy, baby.

Okay, weird but I’d be happy at that party. But then again, I’m happy at most any party, especially one with you, Susannah. Thanks for inviting me to yours!

* * * * *

Isn’t she awesome? Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us today, Jen!

What exactly is the TeachNow program?

• Click here for all the details.

We will be talking a lot more about teaching in our next session of TeachNow, which will open for enrollment in early 2014.

Please sign up below to be notified when enrollment re-opens.

You will also receive twice-monthly, super-concise, actionable TeachNow e-tips – AND The Quick and Fab Guide to Course Creation and Better Participation (PDF).