The day I quit my job

Leaving my “real” job has been one of the most difficult decisions I ever took.

I had studied for years to get there, and “there” was not that bad at all. I had a great and well-paid position in London. An amazingly international team to work with. A company that took good care of its employees.

I lived in Notting Hill, in London. I couldn’t care less about the movie, but Notting Hill was indeed a good place to live.

However… I also had a very young baby and I wanted to raise my baby myself. In fact, it was more than that …

I had a vision

I finally knew what I wanted to do in my life, and what I really wanted had nothing to do with big corporations.

I wanted to work with children, to give my child and many more children the tools to confidently face to world. I wanted to share the fun and pleasure I felt every time I spoke with people coming from different cultures and walks of life.

I also wanted to work from home. I was fed up of endless and useless meetings and I was totally done with high testosterone environments.

Bang. I finally knew it! Once I knew it, it all came together effortlessly.

Sort of… In reality, I had some very vague idea of how I could make a living on my vision.

Then insomnia kicked in

Every night, for about 2 weeks, I would roll over in my bed with visions of horror and insecurity. I would crawl out of bed drenched in fear-induced sweat, bend over my peacefully sleeping baby and whisper: “What am I doing to you? Is this right?”

But I knew it was right. So eventually I wrote that letter. I resigned from my job. I said goodbye to Notting Hill, London and a smooth monthly payment into my bank account.

Finally, my sleeping pattern became normal again. I had taken my decision. That was the most difficult bit. Now I JUST had to make it work.

Fast-forward a few years

I have a waiting list of people who’d like to enroll in my playgroups and the Learn with Mummy playgroups are spreading across Italy. I didn’t just survive, I thrived.

I work from home. I raise my child. I know, because they tell me, that I am making an impact on thousands of families’ lives.

I have developed a methodology to train others to take this very step. I welcome people coming from all sorts of experiences, I ask them 5 questions and if the answers are (a convincing) YES, they become Learn with Mummy teachers and create their own job too.

What are these questions?

1) Do you love children? Can you work with children and their parents? Play and sing with them?
2) Are you a Native or Near Native English speaker?
3) Are you willing to learn and challenge your assumptions?
4) Do you have good organizational skills?
5) Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit? The desire to own and manage your time and your future?

What would you answer to these question?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, and are looking for a new challenge, please get in touch immediately and let’s talk about! ( write to letizia AT bilinguepergioco DOT com”).

If you are not sure on where you stand on a couple of these skills, please do get in touch nonetheless. Explain in your email your reasoning and your doubts and let’s take it from there.

If you know your answer to at least one of the points above is a firm and doubtless No, then this is not the right opportunity for you. But then again, why would you have read this far?

Does it work?

Here’s what parents told us when they answered our feedback exercise in February this year:

97% said they would recommend Learn with Mummy to their friends

76% said they would STRONGLY recommend Learn with Mummy to their friends

We can still get better. As a team we are working to get better by joining efforts and sharing experiences. But frankly, that looks like a good starting point to me. How did we achieve that?

Here’s the secret

When we sit on the floor with children and parents we are warm, engaged and engaging. (Let me stress again that this is not an opportunity for anybody who doesn’t genuinely love children.) Yet, when we plan our activities we are also smart, focused, organized.

The success of the project is in the balance between true relationships and professionalism. Parents recognize this over and over, they tell us in their feedback forms. Or, in their own words:

L’entusiasmo e la gioia che ho visto negli occhi di mio figlio fin dalla lezione di prova sono la motivazione principale! Il metodo è semplice e coinvolgente, grazie soprattutto alla competenza e estrema sensibilità della fantastica teacher! Manuela da Lecce

I bambini imparano meglio condividendole con i genitori: l’esempio dei genitori vale molto più di qualsiasi altra cosa. Inoltre la nostra teacher è davvero fantastica, ha una incredibile capacità di gestione e di coinvolgimento dei bambini!!! Simona da Milano

Perchè è un bel progetto, portato avanti da una persona che ci crede con tutta se stessa. E’ un ottimo inizio per i bambini e un metodo molto valido. Massimiliano da Verona

Join now and start your new life by September

Join Learn with Mummy now and you’ll dive into the training straightaway. The training is scheduled to give you time to absorb all the knowledge and the techniques you need, to schedule some practice and to start enrolling children as early as June.

This way when the new school year starts you’ll be fully organized; you’ll fill your groups and start working. And there goes your new life.

Let’s be clear here

We are not talking about running one playgroup in your spare time. I invest too much time in training teachers, and I invest this time and resources only on people who are very professional.

We are also not talking about you working for me. That doesn’t work. You’ll need to be your own boss. You’ll manage your own life and work balance and you’ll get the rewards of your work. This is a franchising opportunity.

We can get into the practical details when we’ll talk, but in essence it works like this: You’ll pay an entry fee to enter the franchising, same fee for everybody. You’ll pay a yearly fee once a year (after you have started working), the amount depends on the exclusivity area you choose but it is not percentage based.

In return you get training, support, the exclusivity area, and of course the brand and the lesson plans (i.e., you won’t need to waste time figuring out how to structure your next playgroup). Some teachers have had more than 60 children enrolled on their very first year of teaching. The model has sure worked for them!

Act now

Time is running. Next training is starting soon. The training will teach you how to run and grow your business, how to engage and teach kids, how to inform parents. In short, it will spare you the insomnia bits. You will learn:

How does the natural approach try to replicate first language acquisition? How do the different activities that compose a playgroup tap into these mechanisms?

How can you share your knowledge with parents and be super professional while at the same time warm, caring and engaging?

How to promote and grow your activity? Which kind of marketing channels can you use, and how?

How does early language acquisition work? What makes infancy a key period for language acquisition? How do children learn to speak?

How can you structure your activities to maximize your earning potential?

The training has also a strong practical approach. Practical parts include:

Practice of teaching, with individual feedback

Observing a live playgroup

Observing a presentation and practice on how to deliver one

Drafting communications for parents and schools

Answer this email and get in touch

Write me an email now (letizia AT bilinguepergioco DOT com), attach your CV, tell me your story, show me how you fit the requirements of the job (go back and read them again if needed).
Don’t forget to tell me where you live and where you’d like to work.

We’ll then schedule a video call on Skype and discuss the details. Again, act now, because time is running and September, believe it or not, is just around the corner.

Talk soon, Letizia

letizia AT bilinguepergioco DOT com