The ESL Breakroom by Business Class Language Solutions

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The Business Class ESL Breakroom as a community-building source of inspiration for all of us. The aim of the podcast is to provide inspiration, tips, and new insights into language training. We’ll not only explore trending topics in Business English training, but also bring you ideas on organization, motivation, and concrete tips on specific teaching points like negotiations.

The ESL Breakroom by Business Class Language Solutions

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May 19, 2023

Ep. 23: Investing for ELTers with Nicola Prentis: The Chilled Investor

Today’s ESL Breakroom Podcast takes us out of our ESL Business English training sessions and into our bank accounts! Where’s the connection? These two seemingly divergent paths converge with our special guest, Nicola Prentis, former ESL trainer and materials writer who’s uncovered an exciting new use for her skill set: teaching newbies about passive, low-risk investing. This episode is one where all the benefits are for you, trainer. We step away from our focus on improving our sessions to place it on improving our bottom lines. Why? As Nicola points out, our profession is particularly populated with well-meaning, pedagogically gifted types who statistically have not shown themselves to be particularly savvy when it comes to growing our finances. As a group, we are often drawn to the excitement of travel, cross-cultural exchanges, and the stimulating challenge of mastering languages. Unfortunately, the downside of our industry is that it often comes with a freelance lifestyle or lower salary. Many of us find ourselves after several years or even decades in language training without the enviable financial safety-net of our peers who followed a more traditional route to mortgage paying 9-to-5’s with corporate matching pension plans. Nicola's journey mirrors our own experiences in the ELT industry. After years as a teacher, author, and award-winning materials writer, Nicola realized her ESL-based income still wasn’t enough to purchase a home nor would it provide the financial security required for retirement. This wake-up call inspired her to take matters into her own hands and take the steps necessary to change that. She embarked on a transformative path, discovering the world of investing. She bravely went from someone who, like many of us, pooh-poohed the world of finance and investing as too complex, and not aligned with her vision of the world, to an eager student of the topic with a growth mindset approach. Not only did she discover that investing is not that scary, but also that she had the perfect skill set to share that knowledge with fellow ESL professionals like herself. Thus, her course and website The Chilled Investor was born. Today, numerous cohorts later, Nicola continues drawing upon her expertise in materials writing, and leveraging her knowledge to create relatable investment courses and content tailored to, but not limited to, ELT professionals as The Chilled Investor. She understands the stories and struggles of Business English trainers intimately. Through her content, Nicola empowers us to take control of our financial futures, providing us with the tools and knowledge to make a start in the world of investing and improve our long-term prospects. Join us in this episode as we look at why we as an industry are particularly susceptible to being left in the dark when it comes to investing, and hear how Nicola is empowering us to change that.