Andrew taught public school for 6 years, took a deferred salary leave, took a year off and traveled, and brought what he learned back into the classroom. He loves teaching education but also wanted to become more financially successful.
What did Andrew do during his time abroad?
Andrew and his wife took a year off to explore the world and cycle around Europe. He started getting offers to speak at schools that were near where he was traveling. Andrew ended up giving 90 talks in Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Jordan, Dubai, United States, Indonesia, and more. AND, he did these for free.
Andrew learned a lot about personal finance and was able to write for finance magazines while teaching at the same time.
He was able to continue to write while traveling and put international stories together. Teachers then started asking him to put on some financial seminars. Andrew would go on to write his own finance books, which developed into his #1 best-seller: Millionaire Teacher
Andrew built this wonderful network of writers, editors, teachers, and colleagues while making money through multiple revenue streams. His journey as an author started when he was offered money to write a featured story for a popular magazine.
Speak to an audience like it is your classroom
Having an educating skill set and teaching background allows someone to read an audience and involve them like no one else. They can treat the audience like they treat students in a classroom and know how to speak to an audience in a way that includes audience involvement. Andrew believes that someone who is successful is holistically successful. This includes wealth, health, relationships, friendships, etc.
Andrew emphasizes enthusiasm as his approach to connecting and giving back to the community. Being enthusiastic and passionate will give the community a feeling of enthusiasm as well. His financial independence and travel experiences also gave him opportunities as a speaker.
Once he started to charge money for his talks, he ended up getting even more offers to speak than when he did them for free. He found that when you charge money, people want you even more.
Andrew’s biggest challenge he is facing right now is the inability to travel and gain new experiences because of COVID-19 and travel restrictions.
Sean McCormick 0:01 This week on Earn more tutoring. Andrew Hallam and I talk about how a simple suggestion from his mom led to the beginning of a wildly successful career in personal finance writing, how small habits like writing down each purchase he makes have led to him being able to travel around the world, and how his books have even outsold Stephen King in some countries. Andrew Hallam 0:21 I did, I wrote up a story about Warren Buffett, and I printed it out and put it in a brown envelope and mailed it off to Canada's biggest Finance magazine at the time. And then it got an email back from Ian McGuigan, who is the editor of magazine. And he was written he was like, Who's this guy? We were talking and he's like, where you work for dank or what's your background? He thought it was really quite unusual that I was the Singlish teachers and ended up writing this piece. And then he paused and he said, Hey, would you mind writing be particularly interested in writing this feature stories for next month's edition of the magazine? Sean McCormick 1:05 This is Earn More Tutoring, the ultimate crowdsource education entrepreneurship show. Welcome to the show. Andrew, I'm thinking we should just jump into it. Because I know you've got a lot to share. I know, I know, your book isn't being released till you know, December. Did you say? Andrew Hallam 1:20 Yeah, that will be mid January, early mid January for that one. And then pre sales come on November. So mid November for the pre sales. Okay. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that one, actually, because it's, I think it represents a bit more of, of, of who I am. And what I felt was the, the important premise to share rather than just, you know, the acquisition of money. It's the It answers the why question. So like, I look at success overall. And to me, success has four general pillars to it. So one is obviously enough money, right? We need enough money, to have shelter to be able to feed ourselves to be able to enjoy certain experiences. But relationships are key. Like our friendships are key, or health is another. That's the third pillar. And then the fourth pillar is a sense of purpose. So you know, what I found really interesting challenge, you get all these people who would say things like, Oh, you see that guy over there? He's really successful. And I would say, Oh, cool. What makes him successful, or he's got this ceilings, his own law firm. He's got his own law firm. And he's got this big house on the hill, and he's got a BMW. I go, okay, cool. So he's got money. But is he successful? So I looked at success as something really holistic. So to me, if somebody is a social Trainwreck, holistically, are they successful, if they don't really have a lot of friends, people that they that they love, or that love them, if they let their body go to total pot, like they don't care, they just let themselves they work themselves to the point where, you know, they're not getting asleep, they're, they're unhealthy. They're eating garbage food. Is that person successful? Wow. I don't know. I mean, they might have a billion dollars. But if you don't have that hold that other component is that person holistically successful. And so holistic success is actually pretty easy. Because there's always a diminishing return on the upper end, like people who pursue money, don't need often don't need as much money as so many people think you need to actually fulfill your life satisfaction to be happy. So you know, whatever you give to yourself and access in one given area, you often end up taking from another area. So that balance is, to me that balance is key. So yeah, I'm really proud of that book. So I'll be really happy when that gets released. Sean McCormick 3:41 So I want to take it back. And I want to, you know, I want to, because I think a lot of our listeners are still in the classroom, or you know, maybe just have a few clients or whatever it may be. And I want to hear from the beginning, like when did you step into teaching? Or how did that journey begin where you're like, I want to teach, and obviously, it's grown to such a kind of international level is the only one of the better ways to describe it. But where did it begin for for you? Andrew Hallam 4:08 Well, I didn't, I didn't really like school all that much. And I took a year off after high school just scraped through high school just barely got through, and didn't even deserve to get through actually in the US I wouldn't have got through because in the US a passing score is 60%. Right. And a given course in Canada, it was 50. So I think I got through high school with probably about a 51% average. And I was I was really into bike racing. Like I thought I'm gonna go and I'm gonna race the tutor France. So I went to Europe and tried my hand at that found that wasn't as good at that as I thought I was. But it was while I was there. I was in Wales, and I was staying with a guy who was actually...
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