Traditional academia (the institution) hasn’t changed, but academics (the people) have.
What if hosting and selling your own courses, workshops, and learning experiences was your most direct path to making the kind of impact you got into teaching for?
Here’s the reality: teaching is more than what you do for a living.
It’s how you make a meaningful impact in the world. But lately you haven’t been quite satisfied with the amount of impact you are making.
You want to expand your reach beyond your department, university, or organization but you might think you need to be an influencer (whatever that is) in order to do that.
That is actually not the case.
You can improve the lives of others, contribute to advancements in science or technology, and/or help address real-world problems through your own self-hosted learning experiences (courses, workshops, talks, etc) online.
During the Independent Professor Workshop Audio Experience, you’ll learn how to create a curriculum for elective learners and design your own profitable self-hosted learning experience.
Testimonial Excerpts
Brittany Trinh, Grad Student & Web Strategist/Designer
“I especially love that she created this strategy specifically for academics.”
Sabrina Speights, Assistant Professor
“…clarity about the process and even more ideas for products!”
You want more than tenure.
You want a life that you enjoy living.
You want fulfillment.
You got into higher education to make an impact. And now you are ready to boost that impact with a new approach…that also brings in additional income.
Spoiler Alert: Service doesn’t have to be for free.
But there seems to be no room to teach these topics in our respective universities’ curriculum.
What about your research? You’re publishing papers, speaking at conferences, and mentoring graduate students. But is this work making a broader impact?
What if you could make a bigger impact beyond mentoring a few students and colleagues each year, beyond your university?
What if anyone in the world could be given access to your knowledge and your teaching?
What if you could host your own online learning experience to share your knowledge and expertise with others and create an additional income stream for yourself?
We are passionate about helping others, advancing the collective knowledge of all humans, and giving back to the communities from which we came.
True fulfillment comes from serving others without neglecting ourselves.
Contrary to what academic culture implies, service can be fun, fulfilling, and financially rewarding!
So many of the skills that helped us progress and succeed in academia are not actually taught. How often have you found yourself saying or thinking, "if only students knew how to do this thing or that skill, they would have a much better academic experience?"
A Case Study Moment
A Case Study Moment
Dr. Jessye Talley, engineering professor and early career faculty coach helping junior faculty prepare for a successful third year review.
One of my consulting clients, a fifth year tenure track assistant professor who just had a baby, only had 2 hours to spare each week to devote to growing her independent professor business.
So, we developed a plan and streamlined her business with a self-hosted learning experience and content plan - and she’s now been invited to speak at multiple events that align with her purpose and her business.
My work with Dr. Talley along with my other clients inspired the framework that I share in the Independent Professor Workshop!
What is a self-hosted learning experience?
A self-hosted learning experience is an educational setting or platform that is created and managed by an individual or an organization outside of traditional educational institutions. It involves designing and delivering learning experiences independent of a formal academic structure or university framework.
Does it have to be a semester-length course?
Not at all! It can look however you want it to look.
I've personally created self-hosted learning experiences that have taken the following forms:
a workshop
a masterclass
a course
a training
a book
a presentation
Perhaps, you've had a topic on your mind where you have expertise, knowledge, and experience but it goes beyond the scope of the disciplinary courses that you teach at your university.
Creating and selling a self-hosted learning experience may be your best next step!
Just as your academic work does not exist in a silo, neither does your self-hosted learning experience. Self-hosted learning experiences that are created without the input of its intended students fall flat and minimize the scope of your impact.
Do you remember the first time you taught the course that you are known for in your department? I remember this experience like it was yesterday! It was likely the worst I’ve ever taught. I was nervous, underprepared, and took pity on the students taking the course.
The next time I taught the course was a wildly different experience! I had a better understanding of how to present the content, what the students needed, and how to articulate the expectations for the course.
The takeaway: Valuable and successful self-hosted learning experiences are co-created with its students.
With the NLT Co-creation Model, every student can experience your best teaching! And when they do, they will share their experience and recommend you to everyone they know.
The NLT Co-Creation Method
Nudge:
You feel a nudge or tug on your heart (intuition) to teach a topic that you are passionate to an audience who needs/wants to learn from your experience and knowledge.
Listen:
To determine if there is a need for your self-hosted learning experience, it’s important to listen to your potential students. Is this something they want to learn about? What questions do they have? Why do they want to learn about this topic? Why would they want to learn it from you?
Teach:
Use backward design to identify 3-5 learning outcomes for your learning experience. Design a class, create learning materials and assessments, and then teach it live (virtually)based on what your potential students want to know.
Listen:
Get feedback from the attendees of your learning experience. Ask them what they enjoy most, what could have been clearer, and what they wish they learned. Make the updates and teach the class again (giving access to your first students).
I have used the NLT Co-Creation Method to reach over 2,000 students.
Today, I have enrolled over 2,000 students in my self-hosted learning experiences and the impact I’ve created still blows me away! 🤯
The above are messages from students who have enrolled in my free and paid self-hosted learning experience! Getting these messages always validates my mission!
Hi, I’m Dr. Toyin Alli.
Math PhD, Senior Lecturer & Entrepreneur
An Independent Professor
The independent online education industry is growing and innovating at a rate beyond what is happening in colleges and universities and it’s wild to me that academics and professors are NOT at the forefront of this movement.
As lifelong learners, academics are uniquely suited to share our expertise, education, and experience beyond the scope of our university courses.
I created my first self-hosted learning experience in 2017 and I haven’t looked back. These learning experiences have built my personal brand, supported my academic goals, and brought me financial freedom!
I truly believe that it’s possible to be successful in academia and live a fulfilled life at the same time. I’m doing it!
Because of my personal brand built by teaching self-hosted online courses:
I was promoted to Senior Lecturer a year early
I won two teaching awards
I surpassed $100,000 in course sales per year
How? I’ve created an education business that I run alongside my academic career. (I spend about 5 hours/week operating this self-hosted learning experience business.)
And I help other academics do the same.
Upon reflecting on the work that I’ve done with academics who are interested in expanding their impact beyond their university, I’ve noticed that they all have one thing in common.
They all want to share their knowledge on their own platform outside of the university structure.
And through their work with me, they have all created self-hosted learning experiences.
Here are a few topics that past clients have created self-hosted learning experiences around:
helping healthcare professionals complete doctoral programs quickly so they can get back to their career
helping junior faculty get past their third year review so that they are on track for tenure
helping leaders write memoirs to share their life lessons
helping PhD students navigate paying their quarterly or annual taxes when they receive fellowship stipends
helping law students pass the bar exam
As educators and researchers, we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that often goes untapped within the confines of our university classrooms. We tend to teach the same topics semester after semester, year after year.
Teaching from our expertise, experience, and knowledge as independent professors is an opportunity for us to create something outside of our university, either for profit or to freely share our expertise with others. By designing these experiences, we gain full control over the content, structure, and delivery methods, ensuring that our knowledge reaches a wider audience in a meaningful way.
Did you know that the independent online education industry brought in over $12 billion in 2022 alone?
Yup!
Now, I help professors gain access to this industry through creating their own teaching experiences independent of their university contract.
This is what you’ll create for yourself in The Independent Professor Workshop. You’ll choose a topic and design your own self-hosted learning experience.
🎧 Consume The Independent Professor Workshop On-The-Go
The lessons detailed above are delivered as a private podcast for you to listen to on your podcast player of choice.
Phase 1: Personal Branding for Academics
Lesson 1: You are uniquely positioned to create a self-hosted learning experience
Most professors identify themselves as lifelong learners. That personality trait is exactly why creating a business based on self-hosted learning experiences is a perfect fit for academics.
In this lesson, we will highlight five unique skills that academics have that will make your self-hosted learning experience a profitable success.
Lesson 2: The rules for creating curriculum for (and selling a course to) an adult
There are very different rules to creating curriculum for and selling a course to an adult who is paying out of pocket to attend, learn, or improve something compared to teaching a university course for undergraduates or even grad students. When you teach a self-hosted learning experience, your students are adults who have opted in to elective learning
They enroll because they want to, not because they need your course to satisfy a major requirement
They are spending their hard-earned money to receive a transformation or solve a problem they have
In this lesson, you’ll learn 3 rules to follow as you create your self-hosted learning experience for an adult elective learner.
Lesson 3: Building an Academic Personal Brand
Before you start creating and building out your self-hosted learning experience, you’ll need a system to support your new business. An academic personal brand.
Your academic personal brand includes how you show up online, the content you share, and the audience you speak to. In this lesson, you’ll learn a simple, time efficient framework for creating an academic personal brand that sells your self-hosted learning experience and sets you up for academic success.
Phase 2: Choosing a Self-Hosted Learning Experience Topic that Sells
Lesson 4: B2C v. B2B Selling
Who you are creating your self-hosted learning experience for may not be who pays for it. Your self-hosted learning experiences may be valued by other businesses and organizations and they would be willing to invest a large amount of money to have their people learn from you.
In this lesson, you’ll determine who you’ll be selling your self-hosted learning experience to as well as how that affects how you design it.
Lesson 5: Finding your Zone of Alignment
Many academics create a digital business (selling books, courses, templates, coaching, consulting, etc) because they want to help people. And online businesses are a great way to expand your impact beyond just your students at your school.
However, you want to make sure that you don’t choose a side hustle that is more demanding and energy draining than your academic position. In this lesson, you’ll learn what it means to create from your Zone of Alignment.
Lesson 6: 10 Recommended Types of Self-Hosted Learning Experiences
This lesson is a comprehensive guide of 10 meticulously outlined types of self-hosted learning experiences. It provides a detailed roadmap that will guide you through the creation process of each type of learning experience.
With step-by-step instructions, recommended tools, and realistic timelines, this lesson will equip you with the necessary resources and strategies to initiate and manage your self-hosted learning experiences.
Lesson 7: Market Research Strategies for your Self-Hosted Learning Experience
Once you’ve narrowed down the topic for your self-hosted learning experience, you’ll want to use market research to validate your idea and make sure that you create a resource that your potential students would actually want and be willing to pay for.
This lesson includes an exercise that will show you exactly how your ideal student identifies themself as well as the problem or struggles they are facing…IN THEIR OWN WORDS!
Phase 3: Launching your Minimal Viable Self-Hosted Learning Experience
Lesson 8: Competitor Analysis
Once you’ve decided your focus, the type of learning experience you want to create, and an initial outline for the experience, it’s important to do a bit of competitor analysis.
This lesson teaches you to understand your specific market and understand how sophisticated your market is so that you can position and price your self-hosted learning experience appropriately.
Lesson 9: The NLT Co-Creation Method
For your self-hosted learning experience to be perfect (or amazing)…something that is meant to transform the learner, you can’t create the program in a vacuum.
This lesson teaches you how to co-create your self-hosted learning experience WITH the learner to build a best-fit learning experience for them.
Lesson 10: Launching your Minimal Viable First Draft
So, how do you do it! How do you teach a class online, outside of your university, for profit? In this lesson, you’ll how to set up and launch your minimal viable first draft for your self-hosted learning experience.
This draft will be quick to create (low tech), easy to sell, and most importantly give you the feedback you need to create a truly profitable final version of your self-hosted learning experience.
🎧 Learn on-the-go!
All lessons are delivered as audio episodes via a private podcast.
In total, you’ll be able to complete each of the 10 lessons in just under 2.5 hours!
(An academic-friendly commitment.)
YOU’LL ALSO RECEIVE
Additional Bonus Resources
Independent Professor Planning Space Templates
You’ll receive customizable Notion and Google Doc templates to organize your thoughts and plan out your self-hosted learning experience based on the lessons inside the workshop.
Market Research Scripts
Get customizable scripts and interview questions so that you know exactly what to say to your ideal students to understand what self-hosted learning experience they would be willing to pay for.
Google Form Templates for Soliciting Feedback
Part of the NLT Co-Creation involves getting feedback from the students enrolled in your Minimal Viable First Draft. The Google Form Templates include targeted questions to ask your students for valuable feedback.
15 Inspiring Academic Personal Brands
You are not the only (or first) academic to seek independence from the traditional academic culture of promotion and tenure. You’ll get a list of academic entrepreneurs who have achieved their own independence.
A Case Study Moment
A Case Study Moment
Dr. Orobosa Owie, healthcare administration and public health professor and coach and content creator for healthcare scholars .
Dr. Orobosa Owie is a Healthcare Administration and Public Health professor who is beyond impressive. She’s an author and runs her own non-profit organization.
Dr. Owie reached out to me because she was interested in creating a semester-proof business around teaching self-hosted learning experience for healthcare scholars.
Since our work together, I’ve watched her thrive online and become the leading expert supporting students interested in healthcare fields.
Testimonials
From past students and consulting clients
Brittany Trinh, Grad Student & Web Strategist/Designer
Student of The Semester-Proof Business Course (taught workshop style)
“I especially love that she created this strategy specifically for academics.”
I love absolutely everything that Dr. Toyin Alli creates and offers! The Semester-Proof Business Course was exactly what I expected from her.
I love how she taught me how to set up a passive funnel system without all the expenses or complications that other business coaches teach.
I especially love that she created this strategy specifically for academics. I'm designing my funnel now, and I've been constantly referring back to her templates as I prepare my own funnel. With this strategy, I hope to continue building my business and expanding my impact while being a chemistry grad student.
Sabrina Speights, Assistant Professor
Student of The Semester-Proof Business Course (taught workshop style)
“…clarity about the process and even more ideas for products!”
Toyin's workshop is AMAZING. She's thoughtful, clear, and sets up an easy to follow system. I left the workshop with much clarity about the process and even more ideas for products!
You got the degree ✔
You’re on a mission for impact ✔
What if independently publishing your own courses and learning experiences is the most direct path to your goals?
Teaching is more than what you do for a living…it’s how you make a meaningful difference in the world.
With the Independent Professor Workshop Audio Experience, you will:
☑️ Create the key components of your academic personal brand positioned to further your career. (You don’t need to become an influencer!)
☑️ Choose best self-hosted learning experience topic and structure optimized for elective learners.
☑️ Validate your self-hosted learning experience with your best fit learners.
☑️ Solicit and keep your feedback and ideas organized for future updates of your self-hosted learning experience.
☑️ Choose the right platform to host your self-hosted learning experience for both you and your learners’ needs.
☑️ Sell your minimal viable first draft self-hosted learning experience
Enroll in the Independent Professor Workshop Audio Experience to get
All 10 audio lessons of the workshop, the Independent Professor Planning Space Templates for Notion and Google Docs, Market Research Scripts and Interview Questions, Google Form Templates, and links to connect with 15 Academic Personal Brands.