Entrepreneur: Jade Weatherington

Tilt: Online writing course network for youth; online course creation classes

Scene: Website, Outschool, Facebook (1K), Instagram (236)

Snack Bites: 

  • Teacher Jade turned years of cobbling together online teaching side hustles into a full-time content business bringing in $10K monthly.
  • In 2020, Jade added a new revenue stream to her one-on-one online teaching – a writing academy hosted on the Outschool platform.
  • By 2022, she expanded the business by adding seven teachers to her writing academy and creating a new service to help others learn how to teach online.

Why We Stan: Teacher Jade took a while to commit to being a full-time content entrepreneur, but she embraced the business model quickly. She added multiple products and viable revenue streams, developed passive income, and used her expertise to help others do the same.

The Story of Teacher Jade

Jade Weatherington didn’t plan to become a content entrepreneur. She manifested it as she built a career teaching courses online.

She substituted for one online teacher; those students wanted her to be their permanent teacher. Then, they referred her to their family, co-workers, and friends. “My student load was paying the bills, but I was doing a lot of work developing classes for them. That was when I started seeking other online teaching opportunities,” she explains.

Jade turned to teaching platforms – more than 10 – instructing live by video, doing audio recordings, and working with students in 20 countries in five time zones. Still, she applied for jobs in brick-and-mortar schools, got one, and stopped her online teaching.

Jade Weatherington earned a living from online teaching but still searched for a job at a brick-and-mortar school. #Stan #OnlineCourses Click To Tweet

But when her daughter opted to be homeschooled, she went back to teaching online. “I was still treating online teaching like a side hustle,” Jade writes. But by 2016, she realized it was her primary work.

Launching an online platform

In 2020, she expanded from one-on-one online teaching to launch Ashantae Academy, recently renamed Teacher Jade’s Writing Academy, on the Outschool platform. Jade’s launch on Outschool coincided with the pandemic. In March 2020, she earned $42K.  “If you saw what my calendar looked like it was scary,” she told Forbes later that year. 

Her most popular course on mastering the five-paragraph essay costs $79 per student for four 40-minute weekly classes with 15 or fewer students. She tells Afro Tech she can teach about eight to 10 of those classes a week.

By April 2022, she contracted with seven teachers to join the writing academy. They offer up to 60 classes on the site, as she tells CNBC. 

#ContentEntrepreneur Jade Weatherington contracted withed other teachers to join her writing academy on @Outschool to expand her #ContentBusiness without adding hours to her work schedule. #Stan Click To Tweet

Marketing to teachers

Jade has taken what she learned in crafting online courses and turned that into another revenue stream – helping other teachers do the same. She offers online courses as well as consultations and coaching sessions.

Not surprisingly, she uses content for marketing her content business, including a blog and a 15-minute mini-course – Should You Teach Online? – to generate leads.

In her recent CNBC interview, Jade says she makes about $15K a month and works about 10 hours a week.

Advice for content entrepreneurs

She tells CNBC her best advice for other entrepreneurs – get a mentor and heed their advice.

Jade did the first part – she found a mentor – but she didn’t do the second part when she was starting up her academy. After she contracted with two teachers, her mentor advised her to wait at least a year before she added others. She didn’t and now says the logistical challenges she faced would have been much easier had she waited.

About the author

Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. An IABC Communicator of the Year and founder of G Force Communication, Ann coaches and trains professionals in all things content. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.