Small Business Marketing & Making Online Work for You: The Fallacy of Getting Things Right First Time, with Tutor & Business Coach, Helen Dickman: Podcast Transcript

​​Ludo Millar
Hello, and welcome to the Qualified Tutor Podcast, the podcast that brings you the latest in the world of tutoring EdTech and education and hopefully inspires in us a big change that each and every one of us is capable of.

Qualified Tutor is an industry-leading tutor training organisation and an online tutoring community for 1000s of tutors around the world. This podcast is the voice of this community, where we aim to hear from tutors, teachers, entrepreneurs, coaches, business experts, students, tutor printers, and more from the world of tutoring about what inspires them every day, how they can help tutors like you and what they’ve learned about tutoring along the way.

The question is, what will you learn today?

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Ludo Millar 1:25
Hello, and welcome to the 142nd episode of the Qualified Tutor Podcast. My name is Ludo Millar, the host of this podcast. Welcome back to our regular listeners. Welcome to any of you for whom this is your first time listening to the Qualified Tutor Podcast and a very warm welcome to our guest today, Helen Dickman. Helen, welcome to the podcast.

Helen Dickman 2:40
Hello, thank you. Thank you so much for having me here today.

Ludo Millar 2:43
This is, as so many of our guests are, or at least a good number are, you are on the other side of the mic today. I don’t know if that will mean anything really. It’s going to be a wonderful conversation anyway. Helen, I’m sorry that you can’t host this one.

For those of you who don’t know Helen, which I imagine is probably not very many of you, Helen is in lots of communities online and of course has some of her own groups and communities which we’ll be touching on today. I just wanted to give a little bit of background to Helen so you know that where we’re coming from today. So Helen graduated with a BA in English Language before beginning her professional career as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Europe before moving onto a role as an educational consultant here in the UK, which is how many of you will have come across Helen, I’m sure. And after, I believe, a fairly swift role in customer support, Helen, you decided that running your own business was a much more worthwhile and valuable career move. So you founded the fantastic HD Home Tuition, kind of largely in the south east of England. That’s where you tend to have your clients and your base. And nowadays, Helen helps teachers and tutors with getting their business up and running something that so many of us have found ourselves doing over this lockdown period. And that, really, comes in the form of the Love Mondays Club, a multi-format series of resources, many of them totally free, to assist in this development, this progress. We’ve also got a free ebook, The Tutors’ Business Support Facebook Group, the Love Mondays Club Podcast and a 6-week programme for kickstarting that tuition business and a wonderful addition, may I also say, Helen, to any live event or conference. Many a good time has been shared at previous events. So really, really lovely to have you on Helen, what is giving you reason to smile today, Monday 21st November?

Helen Dickman 4:44
Oh my goodness, well you know, listening to all of that. Thank you so much for such a lovely welcoming, detailed introduction, Ludo. I feel a bit overwhelmed. Just you know all that stuff in there, but it’s true, I am a very busy lady [LAUGHS]. And now, you know, I’m really happy to be here. And like you said, it’s a funny one being on the other side of the microphone. I’ll be honest, it’s almost a bit nerve-wracking being on the other side of these things. It’s, you know, sort of, “What questions are coming??”. But no, it’s exciting and lots of stuff going on, you know, Christmas is around the corner. And I think this is a really nice time of year as well. I feel like it’s the last little push on the accelerator until we’ve got the Christmas holidays in a few weeks. So lots of stuff going on.

Ludo Millar 5:25
Perhaps not the rain. But as you say, there’s lots of things to look forward to, lots of work. So I wondered if we could start, Helen, by looking back to your why, about your journey to where you are today, came from. And really, if you could tell us a little bit about that why?

Helen Dickman 5:44
Yeah, of course. So I mean, I’ll try to do the short version. So when I was at school, I was I mean, we were chatting a little bit this about this just before we started the podcast, at school I was- I went to grammar school, I sort of did quite well, but I definitely sort of cruised in that average bracket at school, I was never really pushed that much. I still got good grades and went on to university and sort of ticked all those boxes. But even sort of the younger age, I was very aware of, if somebody just, I don’t know, maybe gave me that nudge or that push that I needed, that I was a teenager, I wasn’t overly self-motivated with these things. And I felt like I probably could have achieved a lot more.

So I decided I love teaching, I wanted to go into it, I actually started working at a Kumon centre when I was 16. So I’ve been doing this for a very long time now in some sort of capacity of tutoring. So I really love that was a great little first job to have, I was like marking the books in the corner or something like that. And I wanted to travel abroad. So sort of after I did my TESOL qualification, I went and did that in Europe. And that was fantastic. And I had to grow up, for this great company. And we did sort of like 5-day stints in different schools. And on the last day, we always had to do a production for the parents, which was a huge ask, because English was not their first language. I as a teacher was expected to not only teach for days, but write an entire script, write a play for them to then perform on the Friday. It was seriously intense, but also the best teaching experiences I’ve ever had.

So that kind of I guess that creativity and that freedom, I really loved that. And obviously there were learning outcomes and aims to achieve. But I was pretty much left to my own devices, which I loved. I came back to the UK did a bit of stuff in secondary schools, honestly didn’t enjoy it very much. I was put in to do intervention stuff – I was, you know, basically being brought in at the last minute, I could just see where there were so many faults in the system, I guess, for want of a better phrase. And that really frustrated me. And I just thought this is not the career for me. So yeah, as you said, I totally switched roles, said I’m going to get away from teaching for a bit, worked in customer services, really enjoyed it worked in management, people management – didn’t enjoy that so much sorry, 20 of my old employees who might be listening [LAUGHS]. I hate to say it, maybe I’m being too honest here, but people management in office was really similar to classroom management in some respects. And I was just like, wow, this isn’t actually as different as I thought it would be.

So off the back of this, I actually went and did qualifications and counselling skills. Because at the same time, I was still doing a little bit of tutoring on the side. And you know, I think as tutors we spend a lot of intense time with families and kids and we really get to know them in a way that you just don’t do in a classroom. And that presented me with some challenging situations, sometimes, you know, the ones that I just kind of wasn’t almost mentally myself prepared to deal with, but also didn’t know how to respond [to]. And I think being a teacher, we always feel like we have to have the answers to the problems. But actually doing this counselling course really taught me the value of just being quiet and just listening, something I struggled with for many years. I’ve got better at it.

So that was a fantastic opportunity. And yeah, I just, you know, ultimately, I’ve always known I’ve always wanted to work for myself. I know it sounds silly, but I used to hate asking for time off. And I would like to pretend that since becoming self-employed, I live this lovely life of having all this time off that I dreamed of. It’s probably been a bit of the opposite. But at least that’s my choice, you know, and it’s something that I get to do. So yeah, that was one main thing is becoming self-employed. And yeah, I started HD Home Tuition. I’ve been self-employed now for nearly five years. And kind of the rest is history. Yeah, I’ve done a lot of- I did lots of tutoring, started off working with loads of different students taking on sort of every job that first came my way totally overwhelmed, teaching way too many year groups and subjects and managed to niche it down to kind of just 11+ English now so that’s where we are on the tutoring journey at the moment.

Ludo Millar 10:02
Yeah, there’s so much in there and such a lovely summary of where you started. I think that Kumon stuff is huge. I think starting that young, you know, has so many advantages to understanding the classroom, and maybe it was a bit too young to be starting there. I don’t know, that was, you know, it’s one of those ones that, seeing as you found the classroom environment was a little bit tricky, maybe the tutoring should have been something that you started doing at 16 and not working in those Kumon centres, but it’s very similar, though, those environments. So I mean, what you mentioned there, obviously just starting to talk about the journey of being a small education business leader, some of the pitfalls people might fall into. But I wondered if you could give a little bit of an insight into how you are able to manage all the little stresses and pitfalls of running an education business, how do you get past those?

Helen Dickman 11:04
So I think, you know, what I think so much about running your own business is that, every day is a bit of a learning curve. I know, when I sort of looked back on when I first started my business, I expected to have it all figured out, you know, I wanted that silver bullet to kind of get it all perfect from day one. I’ve yet to meet a business owner who started a business and got it perfect from day one.

But I actually think my biggest bit of advice, right, from coaching, when I work with people, is just embrace that- I think my thing is, I just try everything, like any new bit of technology, any new sort of little marketing technique. And it’s really worked for me, because it’s one of the big things is it’s given a lot of confidence to put myself out there a bit more try these things. So I guess, one sort of big pitfall I think to avoid is what I just said that I did wrong, in the beginning, was taking on too many different students. I think it’s a bit of a mindset thing. I think it’s like that scarcity mindset of, ‘I’m going to run out of students almost overnight, I have to take this opportunity’. And that definitely led to me working like five, sometimes six, days a week. The pandemic then really made this 10 times worse, because ultimately, probably like everybody else, I was really bored and didn’t really have much to do. And so people said to me, “You want to do stuff on a Sunday?” I’d be like, “Oh well, Sunday is now Tuesday in the pandemic” [LAUGHS]. So you’re locked down. So what’s the problem, but I did suddenly find myself working like seven days a week at one point. And at the time, actually, just before we went into lockdown, I don’t know why I’d had some kind of wait perhaps weird for sites that I wanted to start doing online businesses. And I’d actually started building online courses, just before the pandemic hit us. So in other words, maybe it’s a bit of a fortuitous thing, but I was sort of a few steps ahead almost, in that sense. I had already kind of got a bit of online experience before we were all suddenly forced to move online. So I think that really helped.

But yeah, I think that’s a huge thing for people is boundaries. Making sure in those early days that you set really strict boundaries for yourself in terms of who you want to work with, the days and times that you want to work and that structure I think as well makes you much more productive. Because you kind of know you’ve only got a certain amount of hours to fill or certain amount of time. And I found that really helpful with running my business.

Ludo Millar 13:32
So the pandemic was quite a bit of a boost really?

Helen Dickman 13:38
Yeah, majorly. I mean, I think for lots of people I know I’ve spoken to lots of tutors about this and said, you know, getting people online beforehand was really difficult. People were quite skeptical about it. But of course it sort of forced us to move online. On the flip side, though, I have actually spoken to lots of people and parents who it had the negative effect where maybe the experience they had of the schools teaching online, they didn’t like that, their children didn’t get on with it. So then they’ve kind of ruled out online tutoring off the back of that. So I do think there’s a big education piece, in all of our all online tutors, of marketing is to really show the value of online tutoring and what families can get out of it.

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Ludo Millar 19:31
With thanks to our sponsors this week, Newman Tuition, and their founder, Zac Newman.

Zac Newman 19:37
Hi, this is Zac from Newman Tuition. Educating young people and helping them to fulfil their potential is one of life’s great joys. If you are a high calibre individual who shares our passion for teaching, then we would like to hear from you. We are committed to gathering together tutors who have strong academic records and enthusiasm for teaching and excellent interpersonal skills. This is why we seek only the best tutors to join our network and why we are recommended by the Good Schools Guide. To join our team or to find out more, please visit newmantuition.co.uk.

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Ludo Millar 15:14
We’ve had lots of conversations on this podcast and in the tutoring communities that we’re both in about a pandemic and what it did for tutoring, we are now in the back end of 2022 and certain processes and patterns from the pandemic have become ingrained, some of them good, some of the bad. I think people are learning to set those boundaries a lot better and I think parents in general are starting to see the power of online tutoring a little bit more, not as some temporary measure but as a long-term kind of measurement. What can we as tutors do to encourage parents and students that online tutoring perhaps is as good or perhaps a better option than the in-person stuff?

Helen Dickman 15:57
Oh, that’s an interesting one. I think I guess I can only speak from my own experience. Kind of two things really. One, I think a lot of this comes down to marketing and who you’re trying to attract. So, for me, I know that I’m very much targeting people online, that’s only who I want to work with now. So I’m very strategic about where I place my marketing and what sort of messages I put out there. And to be honest, I don’t get any face-to-face inquiries anymore. Like we always say, your marketing should attract the people, the right people you want to work with and repel the ones you don’t want to work with, not in a horrible way, but it’s just good for both sides of the party.

So I think one major thing is being careful with people and saying to them, you know, if you only want to work online, make sure that it’s really clear in what you’re offering and the services you’re offering. But also as well, if you’ve got people who are maybe a little bit on the fence with it, I mean, I had this with a few families, and I think especially when you’re first starting off and you’re trying to build your business, why not offer them just like a little free trial, not a whole hour, it could literally just be 20 minutes, but just something that- and make sure that that listen is super engaging, you know, in something that the child really gets on with, because we want, ultimately, the kids are our best reviews aren’t they? If the child goes back to the parent and says, “I had a great time. I learned all this stuff. I really enjoyed it”, I think 9 times out of 10, that’s what a lot of parents are looking for is that like engagement from their child. So I always think if I can win the kid over, then actually the parent side of it isn’t too tricky, you know?

So yeah, I’d recommend doing that. Yeah, I think those are my my sort of two main things I’d say.

Ludo Millar 17:42
Yeah, I think that that focus on branding and marketing, in the online world, it’s become more difficult to market yourself as a tutor because the competition is now so much larger, but it has become easier to market yourself in the way that you want to market yourself, in a particular niche or providing a particular set of services that has become easier. There are a lot of marketing tools now and marketing channels to do that.

Helen Dickman 18:09
Yeah. And actually, as well, another thing I was speaking- so from my coaching point of view, one of my clients I work with, they’re trying to build an online business, and we were talking about this the other day, and I said to them – actually, another bit of advice is like always get people on the phone. I’m not a fan of this whole, you know, selling in emails and direct messages, mainly because it takes a lot of time going back and forth, you know, and the truth is, it’s a lot easier for people to ghost you because I hear this a lot from people, they say, “I get all these inquiries, and then I don’t hear anything back when I reply to them!”, so I think this is something I learned from working in customer services is don’t put things in writing and get people on the phone [LAUGHS]. But it’s really true. And it’s really powerful. Because you know, when people hear your voice, or they can see you, even better if you can get them on Zoom, that’s 10 times better. We’re kind of going into like sales tactics here, sales techniques [LAUGHS] but, you know, ultimately, if you’re having a proper conversation with people, you can challenge them on maybe some of the beliefs they have.

So you know, if they say they’re not interested in online tuition, ask them why, be really curious and find out about it. And like I’ve said, in my experience, lots of people have said to me, it’s because they had a bad time in school, the way that maybe the school did it with them, so then that gives you the prime opportunity to talk about why your tuition online is so different and how it differs from school so much. And of course, as well, again, with marketing, sharing feedback and results and things from other parents is going to be really powerful as well to help persuade people.

Ludo Millar 19:39
Yeah. So you’ve kind of just touched on it now, and I know you’re being humble in not promoting your coaching business, but, Helen, how do you support small education businesses?

Helen Dickman 19:51
Yes. So basically, I help tutors get up and running in their businesses. I think as I said when I first started mine, look, I was a super stubborn person and was like, I can do this all by myself, I don’t need any help. Looking back, oh my goodness, I would probably be so much further right now than I am if I had actually taken some advice or taken some help. So that was partly my inspiration. And I got into coaching, I’d always wanted to do it in the future. But I got into it because a woman has actually been following my tuition business and basically said to me, “Can you show me how you do it?” and that was only a year ago, and it opened a can of worms. And here we are.

So yeah, I have different kinds of processes. So I have a, as you mentioned earlier, my Kickstart programme, which starts in December. And that’s a 6-week course that basically just helps people get up and running online. And a lot of what we talked about today, you know, obviously going into a lot more detail, but talking about marketing strategies, and, you know, if you want to work just online, then we need to really look at your messaging and how you’re attracting those kinds of people. So a lot of it is  business strategy and marketing advice. I certainly don’t teach people how to tutor and things like that, because, you know, we all have our own styles, and that’s not my specialism. And then I’ve got a big 7-month programme for people who are the next level up, maybe you already have students, but they want to expand and grow a lot more. So start, you know, big group programmes, or maybe even agencies and things like that.

Ludo Millar 21:21
Awesome. So where can people go to find out about that part of what you do? What’s the best thing to do?

Helen Dickman 21:28
So it’s probably two places really, probably my website, which is lovemondaysclub.co.uk. The name I know is super, super cheesy, and it makes me kind of cringe a bit every time I say it. But honestly, it was inspired from commuting to work on a Monday feeling totally miserable, not wanting to go to work, having suffered the Sunday scaries. And I was like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be – it’s super, like cringy cheesy when I say it, but I genuinely said to myself – it’d be nice just to love Mondays and actually, you know, feel excited about what I’m going to do [LAUGHS]”. So yeah, kind of in a nutshell, that’s how I want people to feel. I don’t want them to feel like stressed and not enjoying the process of running their own business, despite the kind of ups and downs there are. So yeah, the website and then also, my Facebook group is a good one to go to as well, which is The Tutors’ Business Support Group.

Ludo Millar 22:24
Thank God we chose today to record this podcast, it being Monday 21st November [LAUGHS]. So that’s why you’re on such flying form!

Yeah, I think it’d be really helpful, as you’ve mentioned at some points already, but just for those listening, we like, you know, some actionable tips on this podcast. That’s what I’m always trying to push guests on and help them share their expertise. What are your top 3 tips for an entrepreneur looking to grow their small tutoring business?

Helen Dickman 23:07
Okay, I’m going to narrow these down. I think honestly, one of the main ones is show your face and be present. I think that a lot of people hide behind logos or branding. Lots of people love to use the royal ‘we’ when they’re talking about their business. But then when you scratch or you ask them, you know, “Who else works in the business? Oh no, it’s just me”. And I think- but listen, look, no judgment, I did that when I first started, I was the royal ‘we’. And it was, you know, maybe me and my virtual assistant that was helping me. But I think that we do this because we feel like it makes us seem like a bigger company or you know, bigger business and, you know, more ‘legitimate’, but actually, what people are buying into, especially I think the tutoring and any kind of service-based business really is, that phrase, people buy people. So you know, you r clients, they want to see your face, they want to see your personality, they want to see who their child’s going to be working with. So that’s my number one thing, like have logos, everything else, but just make sure that your face is on there as well, because again, that’s much more recognisable for people. So show your face.

Another big one that maybe people might not suspect, I’m gonna say this, is starting an email list. Because if you want to grow your business, email lists are well, you know, they’re not just a sort of form of marketing, but they’re also an asset in your business. And something I always come back to people – I mean, I could literally go off on a huge tangent here for 20 minutes talking about why you should do email marketing – but essentially, you get almost, do the maths, eight times more reach, roughly, when it comes to email marketing. Let’s say you’re building your business on social media, okay that’s great. You have a huge audience out there, but not too long a while ago, Facebook and Instagram went down for the day, didn’t they? And imagine if you were doing a big launch or something on that day, what could you do? Absolutely nothing. How are you meant to reach people? And also as well, you know, we can’t work, ultimately, we’re not in control of our social media accounts. And I don’t want to instil fear in people here, but I think also being honest, your account can be hacked, you know. I’ve had Facebook send me messages saying they were gonna like freeze my account, because I was commenting on something too much. And I was replying to comments that people were sort of directing to me! But because I was replying too quickly, Facebook didn’t like that, for some reason. It’s just super frustrating, you know.

So I think, for me, an email list has always been my insurance and backup of my customers. But it’s also been the place where I’ve got the most sales in my business. It does take a lot of work and setting it all up. And it does take a little while for it to get going. But like all these things, it’s a bit of a snowball effect. And once you make it, a part of your business, I promise you, it becomes such a valuable asset for them to have. So yeah, show your face, email lists.

And what will be the last one, probably be open to new ideas and new opportunities. Just try lots of different things. I think, especially with technology, if you want to do tutoring online, there is so much interesting technology out there that you can use, whether it’s like online course creations, or help lots of people do that. So I also run the 11+ English club with a lady called Lucy Kennedy. And we have loads of online courses and things that we’ve created. And that has been an incredible asset for our business, because now we can offer not just tuition, but also like all of these resources and practice materials alongside it. So yeah, really be open to the possibility of trying all this stuff. And it’s not difficult to learn either. You know, don’t let technology scare you.

Ludo Millar 27:04
That’s it. Number four. Don’t let technology scare.

Helen Dickman 27:10
Sorry. Yes, three, I said three.

Ludo Millar 27:14
Yeah, that’s just a snippet of what Helen can do for you and your business.

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Ludo Millar 27:20
Now, a brief word from last week’s guest, Steph Barber, whose episode you can catch after this.

Steph Barber 27:28
Hi, Steph here. First of all, I just wanted to thank the Qualified Tutor Podcast for the opportunity to talk to you, and Ludo particularly thank you so much. It was great fun talking to you. And to be honest, I could have kept talking to you all afternoon and really enjoyed it. It was also lovely to take a moment to be able to say thank you to tutors and teachers. And just remember how life-changing, particularly in my case, a teacher was.

I would also like to say that I know that tutors are going through change at the moment and that process is always going to be uncomfortable. But you know what, if you plan and you see it as an opportunity to review how you’re working, you are going to end up with a business that’s better for you, that’s better for your clients. And it’s gotten to be more profitable and easier to run. And there is help out there. If you want to join our webinar, free information, please do reach out. And if you are thinking about being a guest on the Qualified Tutor Podcast, I would say don’t think, don’t hesitate, just go and be a guest because I just know you’re going to enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks very much.

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Ludo Millar 28:48
We’re just kind of coming to a close here. But I have to say the questions that I want to ask because- well, the second one is one that we ask all guests, but the first one I want to ask is: someone like you is clearly ambitious, clearly has a good handle on the educational landscape tutoring landscape, and this podcast is all about hearing those great ideas. So please be as ambitious and as forward thinking as you can. But if you if you had a magic wand, let’s just say, and you could wave it over the educational landscape, what would we see?

Helen Dickman 29:23
Oh, that is an interesting one. You know, something to me that I have really struggled with, and I know this is maybe sort of a bit bizarre because I’m an 11+ tutor, I don’t know whether I should say this, but I actually don’t like the 11+ exams now; in the sense that I don’t like- I live in an area where the schools are so competitive to get into, you know, like hundreds, thousands of kids applying for a few spaces and I don’t like the pressure that the kids [get] put under for it. I mean, this is a whole part of my tutoring business is that I say to parents, I’m not about hothousing your kid to get them a result. For me, this is about them learning and giving them an opportunity. And if they pass, fantastic, we’ll celebrate it. But if they don’t pass, that doesn’t matter, they’re still probably going to be top sets of the schools that they go to. And you know, going to a grammar school doesn’t necessarily define your future.

Now, I’m not saying get rid of the 11+ but I just wished that there was kind of more opportunity out there for kids, and it wasn’t so competitive. Now, I know lots of people listening to this might be thinking, “What’s this woman saying, because it’s gonna take us all out of the business of tuition”. But I guess this is trying to be a selfless thing to say is that I don’t believe that, you know, 10 year olds should feel as much pressure as- a 10 year old should not be burning out like as adults. We struggle so much with our mental health and stress and finding balance – why are we putting our kids through that at such a young age as well?

Ludo Millar 31:01
Yeah, I think that focus is funny that there is a potentially confusing thing to be saying, but hey, that is the truth and it would be great to see if not, you know, removal of the 11+, maybe that’s too strong, but at least an update to focus on more valuable things as [you said]. Exactly, yeah.

Helen Dickman 31:22
Exactly. And I know that that conversation can lead us down very political roots. But I mean, you know, like I say, this is kind of the main ethos of us with our 11+ English club that I run with Lucy, is that, yeah, it’s about trying to make it as stress-free and – easy is not the right word – but as accessible as possible for families, so they just don’t feel that. Because it’s also a very secretive world, as well, you know, people don’t share it, because obviously, it’s so competitive. So, you know, people don’t share very much information. So there’s always a kind of- you can see it in the forums and things you know, parents are very distressed ab out it all.

Ludo Millar 32:02
Yeah, it’d be nice to see a way to navigate that. How that looks, maybe the magic wand will develop those ideas, it being magic after all. But yeah. Final question then here, because we love to look ahead to the future, and I know that there’s so much to come from both HD Home Tuition and the Love Mondays Club, which may be well become Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. What is next for you? What’s next for Helen Dickman?

Helen Dickman 32:35
Oh well, this is almost sort of doing a full circle back to the beginning, isn’t it? It’s overwhelming [LAUGHS]. No, so, I mean, look, I am still doing a lot of tutoring, and I really love it. And I think, again, we were talking about this just before the podcast, I think it’s really important that I’ll always stay doing some form of tutoring, because it keeps, you sort of real and at that level, and at the grassroots working with people. So the plan is for the 11+ English Club, which is more my focus now than HD Home Tuition, we’re going to grow that a lot more. We’re on target hopefully to be working with by about 100 kids next year, so that’s really exciting.

And then for my coaching, it’s just working with lots of new people. So I’ve got my new programme that’s starting in December. And something that I think I’m going to focus a lot on in 2023 is really helping people build their confidence. Because I think sometimes, and I see this a lot with coaching and mentoring, that you can give people all the tools in the toolkit, but actually a huge part of online business is having that confidence to show up and put your face out there. So that is something that I would really like to help a lot more people to do. Because there are so many people out there who are the best kept secret. And they’re really frustrated as well that other people don’t know about them. So I want to be that bridge to help people get to what they can achieve in the future.

Ludo Millar 34:04
What a lovely journey to be on and to be part of. So I feel very, very lucky, Helen. Thank you so, so much for coming on, Helen. I know you’re have a very busy schedule. And fitting this in was a really nice thing to do. To get this episode in before Christmas before that time of the year so that people can really start to think about that heading into the new year. So thank you for coming on. I hope you enjoyed talking about your a little bit about your background, your career moving ahead. It’s a nice thing to discuss for business leaders.

Helen Dickman 34:37
Bit of a trip down memory lane [LAUGHS]. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Ludo Millar 34:41
Awesome. Well, we will see you again next time. Today has been the 142nd episode of the Qualified Tutor Podcast. I’ve been Ludo Millar, our guest has been Helen Dickman. We’ll see you all again next time. Cheerio Helen.

Helen Dickman 34:54
Bye. Thank you.

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Ludo Millar
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Qualified Tutor Podcast. Your next step is to check out the Love Tutoring Community and in particular LTC Connect, a premium membership space which will serve all your subject-specific CPD needs alongside a friendly, professional community space that meets regularly. Visit qualifiedtutor.org/transformational-training to find out more about our CPD-Accredited, Level 2 Safeguarding and Ofqual-recognised courses: the first of their kind in the tutoring industry.