“Everyone has something to teach”: Sarah Cordiner on turning your skills into a business

Sarah Cordiner has never been afraid to buck convention, building herself up from the first woman in her family to go to university to becoming a world-leading edupreneur. She joined editors Cec Busby and Adam Bub on the First Act podcast to share her top tips for entrepreneurs and leaders who are keen to turn their expertise into education.

The path to becoming an educator wasn’t always set in stone for Sarah Cordiner. In fact, her early schooling years were not a crowning success and a disenchanted Sarah left high school with no set career plans except for a dream to see the world. It was a chance encounter with a small Fijian child on her travels that changed everything.

“A 10-year-old girl in a tiny community on a small Fijian island became quite fascinated by me,” Sarah recalls. “She couldn’t speak English, but I had a Lonely Planet travel guide and using pigeon-English and sign language, I explained to her where on the map was her island. Then I flipped the page to a world map view, pointed at this little dot and said, ‘you are here’, and I showed her my country. By her expression, I could see she understood. She was so excited by this, she grabbed the book and I watched her repeat the same process to all the other kids, just as I’d shown her.

“I sat there thinking, ‘I just showed someone the world’. And on top of that, that person has now gone on and shown other people. I’ve just opened up somebody’s knowledge and perception of their reality in a way that they had never understood or seen before, in a way that’s excited them and made them see a whole world they didn’t know existed.

“And I thought, wow, I want to do that again! I want to help people see things they didn’t know were there, to understand things they didn’t comprehend before. In that moment, I realised that learning was a lot more than memorising facts; it was something that opened people up to discovering themselves in different ways and that this could be applied to life in so many different forms. I discovered a completely different definition of education and self-improvement.”

Sarah Cordiner, course creation specialist and business consultant

Delivering positivity through education

Moving home to the UK to study adult education, Sarah’s practical work experience included teaching in an all-male prison – a training ground which inspired her to develop her own two-way teaching pedagogy that not only enhanced her students’ knowledge and wellbeing, but also boosted her skills as she learned to teach people from all walks of life.

“We are all intrinsically curious from the day we are born,” Sarah says. “That’s how our species has been able to evolve and grow into the species we are today. I discovered different definitions of what education can be, how it can be done, and who it can be done for.

“What I discovered in that classroom inside a prison was that people are still people. If we are going to be a good educator, leader, coach or consultant – or even a great friend or partner – we have to strip away the things that people have done. I found that you can teach in any environment, and they could still learn. You can help anyone, from any circumstance, if you care enough to see them as people too. I thought, if I can do this inside a prison, I can do this anywhere.”

Moving into the welfare sector, delivering self-esteem and confidence programs to the long-term unemployed and parenting programs to struggling parents, only reinforced Sarah’s belief that learning is for everyone.

“Positivity can be delivered through education in so many different ways,” she says. “That’s how I’ve expanded beyond an institution into helping people all over the world in all kinds of situations, economically and socially. Our role is not to change people’s paths or their behaviours; it’s simply to share with them the things that we know.”

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Out of the ashes

Facing eventual redundancy in the UK prompted Sarah to kick off her own business providing teaching programs to multiple sectors, which quickly went from strength to strength. A move to Western Australia amidst the 2010s mining boom helped Sarah rebuild her business into a fast success in a new country, however, the mining collapse of 2014 saw Sarah’s prospects hit dire straits, causing a massive rethink in her business model.

“I don’t like remembering that time very much,” she admits. “Every single one of my clients were in the mining space and through a random collection of economic and political changes, there was a big crash in the space. Overnight, I lost $2.7 million in contracts – it was devastating.

“I looked at my client base and realised that almost every single dollar I’d earned had come from Western Australia and that I therefore had a very small market. No wonder this had happened – if you are focusing on one tiny market that is going to be impacted by one tiny change, you have a high-risk business model, just like I did.

“So, I turned on the webcam and started answering all the questions I was answering as a consultant or in a classroom; I took every PowerPoint I’d delivered and filmed it to the camera. I uploaded them to a platform online and opened it up to the world. And it changed everything.

“I went from a tiny local market and a physical classroom to a market of potentially billions of people. My whole business model switched to the online platform and I saved the business. And here I am today with over 160,000 students in 181 countries – something that never would’ve been possible when I was doing business the way I was before. Looking back, it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Turning your expertise into a business

If you’re a would-be entrepreneur or business leader who wants to share their skills but you’re feeling the fear of failure or rejection, Sarah has plenty of wisdom to share.

“I passionately believe that everyone has something to teach, and you do not have to be a qualified teacher or an ‘approved’ training organisation to deliver training,” Sarah insists. “You can teach anything that you love, that you are passionate about, something that you’ve done or developed through your professional work experience.

“And the great thing about using that approach is that you are not saying ‘I’m qualified’ or ‘I’m the best person at this in the world’ – you’re simply saying, ‘Here’s what I’ve learned, what worked for me’. You will attract people who are like you, who are going through that experience too. Start there, and you will be amazed at just how far you can take yourself,” she says.

“I think the biggest thing that holds anyone back from any dream, whether you want to start a business or become a leader in your field, is overcoming that terror of failure and rejection. What if people don’t like me? What if I make myself look like an idiot? What if this all goes wrong and I end up in debt? These endless fears hold us back from our dreams, so it’s all about winning that battle against ourselves. That is the difference between success or failure, and it’s a battle that never ends. If we have the courage to war through that with ourselves, what’s on the other side is quite miraculous.”

A forever journey

“From my experience in 15 years of doing this, it’s a forever journey,” Sarah says. “A lot of people think that in starting a business, you come up with the name and the product and the journey’s done. Really, that’s where it begins – it’s a constant journey of up and down. If you learn to see every one of the downs as an incredible opportunity or a learning moment, there’s nothing that can hold you down for long. Keep remembering all those people who need your help or advice. Remember that you’re going to leave this world a better place than you found it.

“We talk about trials, tribulations and challenges – that is just an intrinsic part of this incredible journey that is being a business owner,” Sarah explains. “Luckily, I’ve built my business around my passions. I have been accused of being a workaholic, but I like to banish that word for entrepreneurs because when you build your business around something that you love, around your genuine passion, you can do it all the time without it ever feeling like work.”

This insightful episode of First Act is packed with lots more advice from Sarah Cordiner on her journey to business success. Listen to the full ep now.

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