Art of Online Teaching: How Shannon Boyer Transformed Her Education Career | #195

Have you ever wondered if your professional experience could be turned into a thriving business? In this episode of the Second Act Success Career Podcast, host Shannon Russell sits down with curriculum and course creation expert Shannon Boyer to explore how she transitioned from a career in college education to launching a business that empowers entrepreneurs to teach what they know—successfully and effectively.

Shannon Boyer shares how her second act began during a maternity leave, why impactful work has always driven her career decisions, and how she cold-pitched her way into building a business that now supports online educators around the world. If you've ever considered creating an online course or are looking for a flexible business idea that aligns with your expertise, this episode will inspire and inform.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• How to identify your area of expertise and turn it into an online course
• The most common mistakes new course creators make—and how to avoid them
• Why feedback, structure, and interaction are essential for student success
• How Shannon built her business organically with zero website or social proof
• The truth about “passive income” and the real work behind successful courses

Whether you’re starting your second act or looking to grow your current business, Shannon Boyer’s story proves that your experience is valuable—and teachable.

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https://www.shannonlboyer.com/

https://www.shannonlboyer.com/podcast

https://www.shannonlboyer.com/freebies

https://www.instagram.com/shannonlboyer/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonlboyer/

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Transcript

Second Act Success Career Podcast

Season 1 - Art of Online Teaching: How Shannon Boyer Transformed Her Education Career | #195

Episode - #195

Host: Shannon Russell

Guest: Shannon Boyer

Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate) 

[00:00:00] what was interesting is doing it in this way was different enough, exciting enough that it allowed me to take all of that experience and expertise and education and everything that I had amassed over, more than 20 years and 

Shannon Boyer: just do it in a completely different way that has again, become something that's really rewarding and, impactful. Like that's something that's always been important to me in a career. Mm-hmm. that it's not just a job. 

Are you ready to quit your nine to five job and start a business of your own? Well, you're in the right place, my friend. Welcome to the second Act Success Career podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell. I am a former television producer, turned business owner, career transition coach, and boy mom. My mission is to help you produce your best life.

This podcast will teach you how to get from where you are now to where you want to be, and how to build a business that fits your life and lights you up. Let's get [00:01:00] started.

Shannon Russell: Shannon Boyer, welcome to second X Success. It's so nice to have you here. Thank you 

Shannon Boyer: so much for having me. I'm really excited. 

Shannon Russell: We know each other through another mastermind. We formed our own mastermind with a few friends, so we know each other's businesses pretty well.

 I love your story. I love that education is at the root of everything you've done, but let's take it to the beginning. Where did you start in, your professional career? 

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, so it's kind of interesting because my entire life, my mother told me that I should be a teacher, to which I replied like, absolutely not.

That looks like the most boring job in the world. , and in my, , late teens, early twenties, I really struggled. I was in university change my major a bazillion times. At one point the woman said to me, you know, you don't have to declare a major, because I just couldn't decide. I think I was in the office every week changing.

 So I left university. With no plans of going back. And I got into a job at the hospital, actually just an [00:02:00] administrative job at the hospital. I was at, in the kitchen at home and I walked past a brochure on the kitchen table and it was for volunteer teaching, , cognitively delayed adults, how to read.

And I was like, I don't know where this came from. I was back living at home. I said to my mom like, what's this? And she was like, oh, it's just some volunteer work that I'm doing. And I had no intention or interest in volunteering, but I was like, well, that looks really interesting. Maybe I should do that too.

She said, well, they actually have a different program I think would be more interesting for you. And it's teaching English to newcomers to Canada. So people who don't have English as the first language. I was like, oh yeah, I love, like, I love to travel. I'm very interested in other culture. Sure. I asked my boss could I have some time off work in the mornings, 'cause they only ran during the day and she let me, I don't know why she let me have some time off every Thursday morning.

And so one day she said to me like, how's. The volunteer work going. And I was like, it is amazing. If I could do it all day [00:03:00] every day, it wouldn't even be like a job. And that was like the light bulb moment for me where I was like, wait a minute, I could go back to school. I could do this. This is actually a job.

Like I could do this. And so that's what I did. Quit my job at the hospital. , went back to school, and then yeah, became a teacher. And my first year of teaching I actually taught in England.

It was Oh wow. No shade on anybody from England, but it was a horrific experience and I actually ended up quitting teaching 

Shannon Russell: Really after 

Shannon Boyer: that first year. Yeah. Again, being young swore that I would never go back to teaching, that was it for me. , and I started working in a nonprofit with newcomers to Canada again, in a slightly different role.

I was doing education counseling and that kind of a thing. And I noticed that there was a really big gap in the education system and I started advocating to the government, to the colleges, you know, to fill this gap. . They did, and in a roundabout way, kind of came back to me and said, would you [00:04:00] design and teach and teach this?

Wow. And I was like, , yeah. I guess. So that's kind of how I then got back into teaching. I ended up working at the college for about 17 years. I won a teaching award. I went into administration. I had very, very wonderful career. I found it very rewarding. I loved my job. It was really the universe directing me to where, you know, I needed to be.

Shannon Russell: You wrote curriculum, it was all encompassing education. 

Shannon Boyer: , that first program that I designed. I taught in that program for 10 years and I developed curriculum and, and that program grew and expanded. Then when I moved into administration, I continued to develop programs and curriculum.

I led curriculum development teams. I was in charge of student success and engagement for a period of time. Mentoring new teachers. It was just a really amazing opportunity to always be doing new things mm-hmm. Related to like my [00:05:00] strengths and my interests, and just where I thought I could make an impact.

Mm-hmm. So it, it was really, really rewarding time for me. 

Shannon Russell: What, , made you transition into something else? 

Shannon Boyer: Very good question because I loved my job. I had great pay, amazing benefits, 11 weeks of holidays a year. , loved it planned on retiring, and then life happens.

So I struggled with infertility for six years and finally had two kids. In my forties during Covid. And so I had my son in 2019 and then I went back to work, during lockdown. I worked from home for a year, and amazingly became pregnant with my daughter during that time. I was only back at work for.

One full year when I went on maternity leave. So I'm in Canada so we can go on maternity leave for 12 to 18 months. , amazing. Yeah. So, I was then on maternity leave again with my daughter and some [00:06:00] drastic changes started to happen in the college. So a couple things happened that were really impactful.

One was that my job was completely reclassified. It was not, , what it was when I left, and it, I really didn't see it as being conducive to having kids. , I wouldn't have applied for that position had I had children. So that was a, a pretty big change. Then also because of Covid, , enrollment was really down at the college and so they put a big call out for anybody who wants to volunteer to resign.

 There's like a big severance package that you could accept. , and they weren't expecting people like me to step forward and do it, but I was like, you're gonna give me more than a year's salary to stay home with my kids, like. Yeah, and at the same time I had started to explore other options online of what I could do to have more flexibility and spend more time with my [00:07:00] kids, especially when I found out that my position had been reclassified.

 My daughter, she had some, , health issues. She had to be held upright 24 7, so, you know, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning, I'm trying to stay awake 'cause that's what they tell you, right? Like, you can't sleep with your baby when you're holding it. So I'm trying to stay awake. , and I started watching online videos and I was watching training things, like watercolor classes and all, just all sorts of weird things in my, you know, exhausted.

State. , but I started to watch like more, , involved videos, longer videos, trainings and things. I thought, I was like, this is awesome. This is an opportunity for me to explore my creative side, my creativity in a way I've never been able to, I was thought I was gonna like.

Become a surface pattern designer and like I just, it just led to all of these different options, right? And I was like, this is, this is amazing. Well, yeah, like that. That was not a good path for me. 

Shannon Russell: Hey, it's better than you sitting there thinking , I can't do anything and I'm just trying to stay awake [00:08:00] and now I don't have a job to go back to.

So at least you were, giving yourself some education of what 

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, I was, I was exploring, right? Yeah. Like this was a really unique opportunity. When I first started watching these videos that the opportunity for the buyout had not happened yet. It was really kind of just more like, can I get a side?

Has. Soul where I don't have to go back full time. Mm-hmm. I was really just exploring options, reading as much as I could and watching like as many videos and trainings and things and, and that kind of a thing. I was thinking about doing something new. It was almost like I was 20 again and like the, the world was, had opened itself up and I could do anything.

Right. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. And so that's what I started doing. But you know what, I also realized like, I'm not 20 anymore. I can't start from scratch anymore, or, or it's gonna take a, like a really long time if I, if I start from scratch anymore. But one of the things I realized while I was doing that was that there were a lot of people in the online space who had amazing expertise, but they [00:09:00] just didn't know how to package them properly.

So that. They could really teach their students what it was that they were trying to teach them in an efficient and effective way. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was no fault of their own. Like they were doing the best that they could. They were doing everything that they had been told to do, but they weren't teachers.

They were, you know, whatever their area of expertise was. So I started reaching out to people and just kind of saying like, Hey, this is my area of expertise. I want a little bit of help. , and you know, people started to say, yeah, actually I'm desperate for help. So it was really just cold calling, , or cold emailing, , just because I had nothing to lose.

Right, exactly. Very organic. Yeah, it was, my whole business has been very organic because, , you know, I've had clients who, from the very beginning have just been amazing at recommending me. , and it's been word, word of mouth mostly that my business has grown through. Um, and yeah, I've [00:10:00] just been really lucky to have amazing clients who speak really highly about me and recommend me to others.

 So that's what I do now. I work with either people who have their own online courses and they wanna make them better, or they wanna do a second course and they know they could do it in a better way. Or people who are brand new to course creation and they are, 

they have this area of expertise. They wanna expand online or they wanna expand their online business. And they just really wanna make sure that their course is at the same level of professionalism and quality and expertise that the rest of their business and the rest of their brand is. And I'm loving it.

That's 

Shannon Russell: great. And you're right, because you can be an expert in your field and want to teach others and not know how to package that. I have a course and it's definitely something that you, you think like, oh, I've got it all perfect and I did this, but you, you really never know until someone walks through and takes the course to see if they're getting what you want them to get out [00:11:00] of it at the end.

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, absolutely. I always say that like. Are they picking up what you're putting down? Right. Um, because we know in our heads, we we're so familiar with our expertise, we often forget what it's like to be, encountering that knowledge or those skills for the very first time. And it's very difficult to break it down.

, when we're at that. Point of, of expertise. It's hard because we have all been students for a large portion of our lives. I always say this, I hesitate to say it publicly because it can kind of, kind of come off wrong, but I think I, education and teaching is really the only area.

Where people say like, I've seen somebody do that for many, many years, so I can figure out how to do it, or I know how to do it. But none of us say like, oh, well I've been a patient of my doctor for 40 some years, so I think I'm ready to go be a doctor myself. Right. Like that. There's a lot of [00:12:00] training and expertise that go on behind the scenes that we can't just go to Google and be a doctor.

Mm-hmm. But when it comes to education, like. There's actually for the people who are good at teaching, 'cause I will admit that there's enough people out there who are, who are not very proficient at teaching, who are teachers. But for people who are very good at teaching, there's a lot that's going on behind the scenes that we don't even know about or see or, or are aware of.

So that's my role is I come in and kind of uncover that, unpack that, and help people add those really special things to their course. It's not even. Things. This is the way you do things, the way you organize things. , and sometimes it is what you add in. Like you, you need to have opportunities for practice in your course.

You need to have opportunities for implementation. The number one thing that leads to learning is feedback. Getting feedback. I mean, how many times have you taken a course and you're like, I don't know if I'm doing this. I saw what they did, and I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't know if I'm [00:13:00] doing it right.

I don't know if this is actually good and am I not getting the results because there's something wrong with me because I'm not implementing. We just have so many questions because we're left on our own with no feedback. So that's a key thing that, that is important for learning. So it's all of those kinds of things that, that we just see teachers do, but we're not aware that they're actually doing.

Mm-hmm. So, yeah. That's my soap. Little soapbox 

Shannon Russell: there about it teaching. It's such a good example. The doctor example is so, so good you can be really great at medicine or art or music and get on a Zoom, record yourself talking about it, and then think that's a course, but really. Did you thoughtfully write out the curriculum?

Do you have resources? Do you have a way of connecting with those students afterwards? Mm-hmm. You really go through all of that and you're so good at wanting to get together with your students, and have those in-person group, or one-on-one conversations and make sure that they [00:14:00] understand it, and really teaching the teacher so that that teacher can teach the students, and you've done it.

You've done all of that in the classroom, and so what a perfect. Through line as a business to start when you needed it the most. 

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, it's so interesting how like, again, just like in my twenties, the universe like, you know, pointed me towards that direction of that volunteer teaching job. And then again, I tried to veer off onto like another path, and the universe was like, Uhuh, uh, that's not your path.

And really drew me back to like, what were my area, what was my area of expertise? And you know, after 20 years, I wasn't. Burnt out, but it was little getting a little like antsy, I wanna do something new, I wanna try something different. , but what was interesting is doing it in this way was different enough, exciting enough that it allowed me to take all of that experience and expertise and education and, and everything that I had amassed over, you know, more than 20 [00:15:00] years and just.

Just do it in a completely different way that has again, become something that's really rewarding and, and I feel like very impactful. Like that's something that's always been important to me in a career. Mm-hmm. Or is that it's not just a job. I could not stand as a teenager. , when I was 16, I wrecked my parents' car and I had to get a job and the only place I would hire me was McDonald's.

And it was so funny because like. Every single day, they'd be like, okay, it's slowing down. We need to send some people home. Who wants to go home? And I was the first person to be like me, send me home. Yeah. Because I just couldn't stand something that was just a job and it didn't have a purpose and it wasn't impactful and rewarding.

Mm-hmm. So. I knew that, that I had to have that component in whatever it was that, that I did. 

Shannon Russell: Especially at this point in your life, maybe you were getting antsy 'cause you were focusing on starting a family and then the kids came along and you're, and it really does change. Everything. And maybe it's a [00:16:00] blessing or the universe again, saying that your position had changed and you were like, you know what?

It's not worth it for me anymore when I've got these two little ones that I've dreamt about for so long. I wanna be with them. I. 

Shannon Boyer: Absolutely. And when I first started looking for like different options, I thought, , okay, my focus is on my kids now. I will get all of that reward that I need from them.

And so it doesn't really matter what I'm doing as long as it allows me to know, be flexible and present for them. But I realized that that actually wasn't the case. I still also needed that, , creative outlet, intellectual challenge, , and everything from, from a job as well, or from a career as well.

So yeah, I was really lucky to find 

Shannon Russell: both. So you have this idea, okay, I'm gonna start my own business. What was that first step when you wrote that first email or you pitched that first person did you have a website already? , how was this person you were blindly reaching out [00:17:00] to going to know that you legitimately could help them with their business and their course?

Shannon Boyer: Okay, so that's a great question I had nothing. Nothing. And that's okay. That's what 

Shannon Russell: I want my listeners to hear, that it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Shannon Boyer: No, like nothing. I, I had no idea about it. I, like, I hadn't decided I was gonna start a business. Mm-hmm. But I saw that there was a per that, you know, I, I reached out to a couple people.

It was probably the third person I reached out to where, because I was really just like, can I help you? You know? Yeah. Like, and because some people who I reached out to, like had said, like, I remember one woman she posted on Instagram. She was like, universe, send me a person because I need help. And I replied, and I was like.

I'm your person. Like I'm the universe, you know, you asked the universe and I'm here. And she was kind of like, oh, thanks. I was just joking. Sorry. Yeah. So then the second person I reached out, I just sent an email and actually, 'cause I had taken her course, so I was like, Hey, I took your course. It looks [00:18:00] like you might be at the point where you're ready to do some.

Revitalizing of the course, or renewing of the course. This is, that happens with all courses, and that's true. Like if you have an online course, don't think that it's gonna stay like that forever. Courses have a cycle and they do need not only to be continually updated, but they need a major overhaul.

Periodically and I could tell that she was getting to that point and I just said, you know, this is my background, this is my area of expertise. Like, I understand your course because I've just taken it, if you would like to connect, , you know, feel free. And so I just offered her. Like a couple sessions for like a very reasonable price.

And to her credit, she has been one of my best client students ever because she is just very open to not only what the universe is bringing to her, but also to learning new things and learning from the expertise of others. So I will say that I do like there [00:19:00] was. Like it was a match made in heaven, like between the two of us.

 So then it was just really getting a foot in the door. And I think that that's for your listeners. I think that's really an important. Point is that like your expertise may be worth a thousand dollars an hour, but when you're starting out, what you really need is just those opportunities to show people what you can do to get that social proof, to get the testimonials.

I mean, she is responsible for. My business becoming a business. Mm-hmm. We ended up working together. I was on salary with her for six months actually. Wow. Before I act, you know, started reaching out and, working with others. So, so yeah, it was, I mean, it was a bit of, I think it's always a bit of, 

a spark or like people say it's a coincidence. Some people might call it divine intervention, whatever that, you know, gives you that very first step, but that first step will not happen unless [00:20:00] you're putting yourself out there over and over and over again. Mm-hmm. And I think it's easy for us to look at other people and be like, well yeah, but you got lucky 'cause you met that like unicorn person.

But it was like, no. 'cause there were, there were like people who said no. I was cold calling people like it. It wasn't that this person came out of thin air to me and said, Hey, I know you have all of these expertise. I was continually putting myself out there and looking for opportunities. And if I, I'm talking a lot, but if I can digress for just a second here, I think along this path of like, success and, and how do you find it?

I find a really interesting message that people talk about a lot is like you just have to stay the course and don't let anything distract you in one foot after another. And I, that's never really sat right with me because I feel like when you are just on that really, really straight and narrow, with the blinders on, you miss so many opportunities of where [00:21:00] you really should be going to find your success and what's meant for you.

So at the beginning, you know. I said, I wanna be a surface pattern designer. This is my opportunity for creativity and blah, blah, blah, and, and had I just kept banging my head against the wall with that goal. But I probably would not have achieved the success that I did when I just kind of kept my eyes open and kept looking for opportunities and allowing myself to be directed where it was, you know, I was meant to go.

Mm-hmm. And I think that. The message really is keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep trying, new things. Keep your eyes open, , to opportunities, but don't get blinders on about it, right? We're looking for success, but we don't really know. What that success, what that endpoint is gonna look like.

Shannon Russell: Right? Right. 'cause you're vulnerable at that stage when you're [00:22:00] thinking about that next opportunity. So walk carefully, keep taking action. But you know, realize that that path you're walking towards maybe isn't the ultimate goal. And if you veer off a little bit, you'll find it. You keep talking about experience and skills and wanting to teach that, but there's a lot of listeners who, you know, a lot of times we get in this silo and we know what we know so well, but we don't think it's important to others. Yes. And so for listeners who are thinking about a second act and they're like, well, I'm really good at this, but I don't know as an everyone and no, maybe you can take that and create a course that can teach someone else.

So I guess my question would be. Courses? Mm-hmm. Should someone with expertise like create a course, like who should be creating a course and can that be a fulfilling business in its own? 

Shannon Boyer: Great question. So my first thing is, I always say you do have to have an area of expertise. , there's people out there who say like, oh, you only need to know [00:23:00] 10% more than the person who you're teaching.

Like, I don't subscribe to that just because like, that's a really awful feeling. I've been there as a new teacher. That's an awful feeling when you only know a little bit more and you're afraid of the questions and like. I could go off on that path. 'cause you know, people, they then they don't wanna have live q and As 'cause they're afraid of their students and what they're gonna ask.

So start with your area of expertise, but you're right in that we downplay what we know because it's come so easily. To us. , it's not to other people. So you don't have to be the expert, you just have to have expertise. So start there. And then you have to want to help people. That's the other thing, this is where I'm different from other people too, because I don't see online courses as this.

 Sit in your office, record these videos all by yourself. Put them out there and sit on the beach and watch the money come in. That, that would be so nice. I know, right. But the passive income thing is like just a snake oil [00:24:00] kind of thing when it comes to education. Education is very, very active, so you need to want to help people.

Mm-hmm. Through your expertise, and then you have to be willing to do the work. Because if you talk to anybody who's created an online course, or at least like an online course that gets results for their students, it is an investment of time and energy. It, it's like writing a book. It is work. And so you have to be invested and committed to doing that work.

I will say the first course that you create is the most difficult. It will never be as difficult as the first one 'cause there's a huge learning curve. . But, , yeah, it gets easier and it gets better and there is like, it's not a dollars. Per hour. Like for hour. How's the saying? You're noting dollars for 

Shannon Russell: hours.

Yeah. You're putting in a lot of work in the beginning before you're gonna see anything. Yeah, exactly. 

Shannon Boyer: And then I think anybody who just kind of is willing to, [00:25:00] has that, has the expertise, they wanna help people and they're willing to kind of put in the work and care about the results that their students are gonna get, then you can absolutely, , you know, create a business.

 That is based on like an online business with a course that's based on those expertise. And you may start out doing it on the side, while you're still moving away from your nine to five, or even maybe not like your nine to five. Mm-hmm. And you want to , increase your wealth and share your expertise with others, , or you could use it to transition out of your nine to five and, and build your online business.

Or expand an existing online business and have an alternate, source of revenue. There's a lot of different ways that you can, package it and, and utilize it. , I strongly believe in inter student interactions, like a high degree of interactions within the course. So within the, between the students and the instructors.

And the students and the students. But you also have to create a course that, . Fits your [00:26:00] business and your lifestyle as well. So there's variations within there in terms of how involved you are with your course. 

Shannon Russell: You work with people one-on-one to help create a course as well. Is that right? 

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, so I work with people in many different ways. , I have two big kind of groups of people I work with. So one group of people I work with, they already have an online course. Sometimes they already have a very successful online course.

, and they hire me either, so I can look at their course and do like an audit and tell them like. What they're doing well, where there's opportunities for improvement, , and how they might, I call it, revisit, revitalize, revisit, revise, and revitalize their course. , and so that's what we do. 'cause like I said, there's a cycle and it's, it's you, you need to do that at some point in time.

Mm-hmm. I also work with those experienced course creators. Like I said, they're ready to move on to their next course. They wanna do it in a better way than their first course. And so we can go through the whole course creation process together. And I, I work [00:27:00] one-on-one with people, , doing that and then brand new course creators.

So I have my own course on how to teach a course. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's always kind of mouthful, but. We focus on the actual, like, you have an idea or you think you have an idea how to validate that idea and make sure like it's, you know, you, it's something that you should be investing the time in developing.

How to plan it out, the course map, how to outline your modules, how to outline your lessons, and video it and record it and organize it. Put all together the teaching methodology to make sure that you're actually instructing it in the right way. So take them through the whole course creation process. And then at the end I have expert guests who come in that talk about the actual, like selling and launching of the course.

So I have that course. And then I also work one-on-one with brand new course creators as well, who want me to help them, , personalize all of the lessons. I have a lot of interactions within my course 'cause I [00:28:00] practice what I preach. Right. But sometimes people also wanna have that like , higher just.

Personalization and, and help to do that as well. So, yeah, so I have a course, I do audits, and then I also do the, the one-on-one coaching as well. 

Shannon Russell: It's so needed. It's so needed, especially if you're like, I know I have expertise, I wanna get it across, but I have no idea the technical aspect of it.

So to be able to walk through it with you is so valuable. And you also have a podcast of your own that talks all about this world. So tell us a bit about your podcast. 

Shannon Boyer: The podcast is called The Art of Online Course Creation, and it focuses mostly on the creation of the curriculum in the course and, other people's experiences like I have guests on who have created their own courses and their learning and their experiences as well.

And then I have some guests who come on and talk about like, the peripheral, I call them the peripheral things because my focus is on the actual creation of the course. But you know, all of the other, , [00:29:00] components. That come together with, with course creation. And I think that's an important point too, is that there are other people out there who are teaching how to create an online course, but they're mostly either marketers who are coming from it, coming at it from a marketing perspective.

And so when they think about create a course. They think like, oh, okay, you're gonna like build your audience and put some information in a slide deck and then create a webinar and launch and sell the course. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. That's the periphery. Mm-hmm. Yes. The creating of the course is like a huge, huge part.

 You know, the mission of my business is to elevate the.

Quality of online education in the online space because I've wasted my money, I've seen other people waste their money, so I wanna make sure that like the, the environment is elevated so that we know what we're getting when we invest our money, but also that we can showcase our expertise in a way that we're really proud [00:30:00] of.

, and that can get our students results so that we have that success and sustainability in our businesses as well. Mm-hmm. 

Shannon Russell: You know, I know you enjoyed your first act, but now in the place that you're in, in your life with your two little kids, how do you feel about this business that you've built for yourself?

Shannon Boyer: I cannot imagine doing anything else. I heard a fellow entrepreneur, uh, recently, describe herself as being unemployable. I like that. Yeah. And I was like, that is me. I loved that job. I don't think I could go back to it now. Like I love being an entrepreneur if. It's a hard job.

There's always something new. You have to wear all of the hats like, you know, we can't just give this off to the admin team or you know that off to the research department. You are the admin team in the research department. Yeah. . But it, yeah, it is highly, highly rewarding and I can't imagine doing anything else now.

Hmm. I agree. 

Shannon Russell: So [00:31:00] what would your advice be to someone who is listening and they think they're ready to start a second act? What would you advise them? 

Shannon Boyer: That is such a good question. I think that maybe my advice is gonna be a little bit contradictory. I think you have to prepare for it, but I also think.

The time is never gonna be perfect. It's kind of like having kids. Yeah. You know, like you have to prepare for it, but you're never gonna be ready. And so at some point in time you just have to take that leap of faith. Believe in yourself, believe in what it is you have to offer the world and, , and do it.

But be smart about it. Don't give the two weeks notice with no planning and no, no backup. Please don't. Yeah, please. So, yeah, just plan for it and, and then just go for it. 

Shannon Russell: We're aligned on that front. I always say learn before you leap, prepare, because that leads to your [00:32:00] confidence so that you can move forward and say, I know what I'm doing.

Yeah, absolutely. It makes all the difference in the world. Even if sometimes we start and we don't know, but we're figuring it out and we're, self-aware enough to. To follow our heart and our guts. 

Shannon Boyer: Yeah. And look for those opportunities, like make stuff happen. But look for those opportunities. Don't put your blinders on.

No. 

Shannon Russell: Oh, Shannon, this was so great. You've taught so much. Great advice. Where can my audience connect with you, especially if they're thinking about creating a course and really diving into that as their second act. 

Shannon Boyer: Thanks for asking. So, on Instagram, I'm @shannonlboyer um, that's also my website, shannon l boyer.com.

I am newly on LinkedIn at Shannon l Boyer. And, uh, I have a, a freebie also that people can, , access if they're interested. It's called the Seven Things. All Courses must have to Max Student. Referrals. And so I'll give you the link to that if you [00:33:00] wanna put it in the show notes and you can get it on my website as well.

And that's a really great way to have an amazing resource and get on my newsletter so you can hear all about all the new things I've got coming up. 

Shannon Russell: Amazing. Oh, thank you for all that you shared. This was a really interesting,

 I don't think we've had anyone talking about course creation yet on the show, and I think it's a really great idea to not only, start a business, but enhance an already existing business. So I really thank you for all your expertise that you shared, and I'm so happy to call you a friend.

Shannon Boyer: Yeah, me too. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to second act, success. To view show notes from this episode, visit second act success.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell. [00:34:00] And this is second act success.