Miss M Online Classes is an online project for children 8-12, developed by Julie Medeiros – an Australian teacher, mother and business professional.
Its objective is to equip kids early with essential life skills that will benefit them well into adulthood.
The project offers self-paced, kids-focused online courses which educate children about entrepreneurship, key marketing concepts, critical thinking through analysing advertising and other marketing effects, as well as time management basics.
Julie successfully combines her teaching background and extensive marketing career, to ignite a spark of learning and encourage children to pursue self-education beyond the classroom.
Thank you for joining us here at The Corporate Escapists. Please introduce yourself to our reader. They love to know about you, your passion, and how you came to find and follow your passion.
I’ll admit that when I graduated from a teaching university about 20 years ago, life took me on an amazing journey. I was invited to join the pharmaceutical world where I successfully started my new career as a marketer. My passion for business brought me to Australia where I successfully completed Master of Marketing degree at Monash University and dedicated almost two decades to marketing and sales.
When my elder daughter was born, I used my maternity leave to start an online business which focused on retail of high end beauty products. This was fantastic experience in many ways. Not only I satisfied my long-standing thirst for digital marketing, but also I tasted the freedom of being my own boss and perfect life balance while caring for my young family.
The pandemic presented an opportunity to become a teacher for my own kids during remote learning. And this is when I re-discovered my passion for teaching, as well as the gaps in school education and how far it was from teaching skills kids need in today’s world. I had to honestly answer the question: is the academic knowledge my children learn at school relevant to what I want them to know? Sadly, the answer was no. So, I decided to fill these gaps by combining my teaching degree and marketing experience through online classes for kids that connect academic knowledge to real life. And thus, the project Miss M Online Classes was born.
Bob Proctor once quoted ‘To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is both a trimuph and a blessing”. How important is it to you to have the belief within ones self?
It took me many years to recognise my inner callings and learn to trust myself. Today, I know my strengths and I know I am capable of doing amazing things that benefit others. By being able to accept myself, including my mistakes, I’ve learnt that the pathway to “I can” goes through many ‘I can’t” stops. And trust in myself is paramount to setting the direction and keeping within the chosen path of my life journey.
Tell us what the word “Trust” means to you?
Trust for your own self is when you know deep inside that you’re doing the right thing. And you don’t need any validation from people around. You know that you are being true to yourself and even of you find out later you’ve made a mistake, you know it was the absolute best thing to do in that moment, under those circumstances. You learn from it and move on.
What has been one of the biggest business ideas you have had and how did you have the trust and hope within yourself to implement it?
I had a moment of truth when my idea of educating children through business was born. I felt that if I didn’t do it, I’d regret for the remaining for my life.
There were many barriers to overcome. One of them – online education. I am an old-school person who grew up and studied through reading paper books and interacting with real teachers. The idea of virtual engagement was something I did not know how to approach, although I did take a number of online classes myself. But the realisation of benefits of such education well outweighed my fears My hope and trust of creating something great for other people were bigger than the fear of failure.
Step by step, I built a plan to develop a great source of knowledge parents and their children just love. I trusted myself as a parent and a professional that this type of education was something that would definitely equip our children with valuable skills.
Running your own business can be scary. Success requires moments of trust and hope to push through to the next level. Tell us one of the moments you have had to push through to take your business to the next level?
Even though with a university degree and significant career in marketing, there was one area where I lacked confidence. It’s PR experience. When I decided to engage with journalists, the first question that stroke my mind was how am I going to do this if I don’t know how to write a press release?
But this is the beauty of life – there are always testing points and it is up to us whether we take them as opportunities or barriers. Trusting this was the right thing to bring my business to the next level, I’ve decided to dedicate time and learn about PR and best practices from experts. And soon after I had journalists contacting me for an interview.
What is your favourite quote about trust and hope?
This quote by Helen Keller has been my favourite for the past 18 years: “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start their own business?
Don’t start business for the sake of earning money. Start it because you have a big idea that will benefit other people or the world. Do what you are passionate about. It will give you great energy to go through challenges and rise when you fall.
In my project Miss M Online Classes I guide children how to find business ideas based on their talents, draw on something that comes to them naturally and what makes their heart tick.
And I’d give the same advice to adults considering to start their own business: do something you’d be proud of telling your children and remember that money will eventually flow. Not vice versa.
