From one-to-one English teacher to founder of a thriving bilingual membership community

My name’s Claire Catchpole. , I’ve been an English teacher for about 16 years.  I’m now living in Nice and,, since I did the Designed to Flourish course,, I’ve started my own project which is kind of flourishing  very nicely.

It’s called English in Nice, Nice en Francais, and it’s a, about bringing together a community in Nice of learners of both English and French. So it’s really a bilingual,, membership group, and we do things together in the city. It’s about exploring the city, getting to know Nice, getting to know each other, and enjoying language, and the learning just comes as a result of the activities and the things we’re doing.

What was your business like before you joined Designed to Flourish?

Before I did the course with Rachael, I, I was teaching kind of full time, balancing that with a bit of work as a violinist playing… and  I’d always loved teaching. I felt it was something I, I was good at, and I really enjoyed the contact, uh, mostly one-to-one, but there was something missing because I think I, I had this kind of creativity that I wanted to use, and although I could use it in the lessons, I felt I wasn’t using it to its fullest extent.

And the other thing that I felt wasn’t quite working was that,  the way it works with teaching professionals in France is that there’s a lot of government-subsidized training, but it’s limited, so a lot of my students would have 20 hours or maybe 30. And, and I’d feel like just as we were getting going, it was finished.

And so although it was fulfilling working with people, I always felt there was a, a missing piece that I had experienced myself as a language learner that I wanted to offer.

What made you decide to join my group programme?

I actually participated in three different courses before I even knew about your course and, I was, uh, slightly resistant to start with because having done the CPD already, , I thought, “Can I afford to do this?”

And then I think we ended up having a sort of chat, um, and I found that your way of talking about things was so grounded, so you, you spoke with so much integrity. There was none of the BS that you can get with coaching in certain industries and, … it was something that I’d been a bit wary about, but I felt you totally understood the, the business, and you offered something very clear, very, interesting.

And then I became a member of the Facebook collective, the Freelancer Collective, which also was a big inspiration for me because we don’t necessarily meet other teachers very much, and we’re not really able to share our situation and it can be quite lonely as an English teacher if you’re especially teaching online, as I was at that time. So that was the other factor that really spoke to me, and that I thought, “Wow, this is a really good way of bringing people together.” And, I was really interested in how you’d created that as well. 

What changed for you when you were on the programme? 

For me there was this thing about self-promotion.  It was this massive thing for me. I just felt so uncomfortable – the idea of selling yourself online, whether it’s on LinkedIn or Facebook or wherever. I, I really wasn’t ready. But I could see, following you I could see that it actually did, does work and, and that, if you’re serious about a business you have to have a way of reaching people.

So I think that was , probably the biggest thing for [00:04:00] me, overcoming that, discomfort about being online, And, and knowing how to focus your message in a certain way as well. 

Doing the course, , it was lovely because it was a group thing as well, it wasn’t just about me. It was about looking at what other people were doing, and bouncing ideas around with, with the other teachers who had very different interests or, or aims or objectives.

It felt really like a nice place to be, and supportive. Um, and I think what it did was, provide this toolkit of what you need to know in order to promote yourself,  to sell what you want to do, to understand what it is that you specifically have that is different to other people.

And I think that right at the beginning, one of the really amazing parts for me was this, uh, I think it was ikigai, is it? The Japanese….. that you kind of focus in on, on what it is that the core of you, the what makes you tick, what you believe as a teacher or, whatever you’ve done in your life.

Because my career path has kind of been not a straightforward one, it’s gone in, in different directions., But this process helped me condense and distill all these different experiences and passions that I’d had over the years, many years, and focus them in on what I could do with them to, to actually build it into something that could make a bit of money, but, I think more importantly, just something that felt right for me and, , that I felt excited about, and really knew what I was doin

Did you have any aha moments on the programme?

I think I had so many aha moments. You know, it was really, there were many things that I just…would never have known were holding me back, you know, without them being defined and laid out, and… and the fact that these aren’t things that are weird or unusual, they’re really normal. So to feel that a lot of the things that I thought, I felt was just me. It’s… it’s a kind of human thing, and it’s something that actually, once you understand it, you can address it, you can deal with it, and it might not disappear, but you know what to do with it, and how to react when you feel certain, certain feelings about, you know, whether it’s my particular thing of feeling very icky about, you know, being online, promoting myself, selling anything. You know, that was… it’s… it’s been amazing.

How has the experience changed you beyond your business? 

The fact is that really now,  I feel it’s not just impacted  that specific niche that I’m now working on- and really enjoying – it’s everything. It’s impacted my confidence as a teacher, my belief that I’m actually doing the right thing as a teacher, that my way of working is effective and, not feeling intimidated by other people who have very strong ideas about teaching and learning.

It’s also, , with my musical life – that’s always been part of my life since I’ve been a child, and it’s never been, like, the way I’ve made money, but  I’ve had more confidence to go out, I did a 365-day post every day with a video playing, playing my violin, which, you know, a, a couple of years before would’ve been just insane to me.

It actually was an amazing experience and, It helped me understand how just that regularity of sharing what you do, people appreciate it, and the people who don’t, they just go away.

And I think the main thing that’s come out is that this business or project or whatever I still don’t really think of it as a business because it’s just so much part of who I am. But it’s something that, it’s working. It’s just amazing to me that I had this idea and that I’ve made it into a thing and that it actually works

It definitely exceeded my expectations.

What was amazing for me when I launched, , it was this really scary moment where you’ve spent so many hours thinking, wondering how it’s gonna work and, and what was amazing for me is that within a couple of weeks I had 10 people who signed up. Five French speakers, five English speakers, .so somehow the messaging must have been right, It instantly felt like it was gonna work.

I think it was just realizing after a very short time that all the work I’d put into it and all the time that I’d spent doing professional development and then the coaching course, that had led to this thing that was really working for me. And for the people who’d signed up too.

Want to design (or refine) a business model, offer and marketing strategy that could completely change everything for you? Find out more about Designed to Flourish here.