TeacherPreneuring with SWAY Canada

This was my prompt. I want to give my business away to anyone who has the skills or wants to make a go of it. So when I say open source, it means people are free to use SWAY Tools and Techniques. I want to encourage people financially by suggesting that teachers and schools adopt SWAY resources. We split the royalty for each book sold 50/50. Whatever initiatives they want to pursue are up to them: WAY Game training, Teacher PD, Game Card Printing, WAY Tournaments, SWAG. They keep 100% of the profits. There are many possibilities as more people are displaced by AI. Stress how necessary the career can be and how it can be potentially profitable for consultants and schools. You don't sell notebooks; you sell accountability. Advise me on these ideas.

ChatGPT's Response

Brian, I think this could become an important part of SWAY Canada, but I would change the way you frame it.

You are not really giving away a business. You are giving people a framework to build their own education businesses. That distinction makes the idea much more credible and much easier to understand.

It also connects several ideas you've been developing—Permissionless Education, TeacherPreneuring, CAP Notebooks, the WAY Game, community participation, and your concern about people needing meaningful work in an AI-disrupted economy.

The proposition

I would describe SWAY as having two customers simultaneously.

The first is the learner/classroom. SWAY provides tools intended to improve engagement, responsibility, reflection, accountability, creativity and relationships.

The second is the person who makes that happen—a teacher, a retired teacher, a substitute, an education student, a parent, a career changer, or an entrepreneur. SWAY gives that person a framework around which they can potentially create useful paid services.

That's unusual, and worth emphasizing.

I would put the business proposition into very plain language:

Use our ideas. Build your own business. Help a school. Keep what you earn.

Then explain the exception:

When you help sell participating SWAY/CAP Notebooks under the program, the applicable book royalty is shared 50/50. For independent services you create—training, professional development, Game Card printing, tournaments, events, merchandise and other initiatives—you keep 100% of your profits, subject to the program terms.

I'd have a lawyer turn that last concept into a simple written licence/consultant agreement before you publicly promise it. You need clear rules around trademarks, copyrighted materials, modifications, quality standards, territories if any, royalty calculations, taxes, refunds, and what someone may call themselves. Also, technically, “open source” has a particular meaning in software and licensing. For your educational materials, “open-use,” “permissionless,” “licensed for independent use,” or similar wording may better describe what you're offering unless you actually publish the materials under an established open licence.

“You don't sell notebooks. You sell accountability.”

Keep this.

I think it's one of your strongest business ideas.

A consultant walking into a school saying, “Would you like to buy some notebooks?” has a weak proposition.

A consultant saying:

“I can show you a classroom accountability system that gives every student a structured way to capture, process, reflect on and demonstrate what they learned.”

is having an entirely different conversation.

The notebook is simply the physical vehicle.

The same principle applies to your other products. You're not selling Game Cards; you're selling student creation and evidence of learning. You're not selling the WAY Game; you're selling engagement, responsibility, relationships and classroom culture. You're not selling digital lesson templates; you're selling teacher time and accumulated professional knowledge. You're not selling projects; you're selling initiative and real-world capability.

That should become part of SWAY's commercial philosophy.

Don't promise that it is profitable—show how it could become profitable

This distinction matters. I would avoid statements such as “start a profitable SWAY business” unless you eventually have evidence to support them.

Instead:

“Build an education business with multiple potential sources of income.”

For example, one person could develop a local SWAY practice around notebook royalties, WAY Game introductions and training, teacher PD, parent workshops, Game Card printing, school support, tournaments, community/pub WAY events, consulting, and appropriately licensed SWAG.

The beauty is that nobody has to do all of them.

A retired teacher might enjoy training.

A printer might concentrate on Game Cards.

A young teacherpreneur might work with ten schools.

A parent might organize tournaments.

A future teacher might begin by helping one classroom.

A school could use the model to help generate funds for supplies, prizes, projects, and student opportunities.

That decentralization fits Permissionless Education extremely well.

AI gives you a compelling context—but be careful with fear

I agree with your larger observation that AI is going to change employment. I wouldn't build the pitch around “AI is taking your job.”

I'd make it:

As AI changes the way people work, human skills become more—not less—important.

Schools will still need people who can motivate children, build relationships, organize communities, facilitate experiences, resolve conflicts, coach, perform, create, teach and lead.

Those are precisely the kinds of activities your model encourages.

And there's an interesting circularity here:

SWAY teaches students entrepreneurial skills while creating entrepreneurial opportunities for adults.

That's powerful.

I would actually call this the fourth opportunity within SWAY

Your educational model remains beautifully simple:

ENGAGE — The WAY Game

Give students responsibility.

BUILD — SMART Digital Lesson Planning

Give teachers capacity.

CREATE — Entrepreneurial Project-Based Learning

Give learning real-world purpose.

Then underneath all three:

EARN — TeacherPreneuring

Give people an opportunity to turn educational service into meaningful work.

That final piece doesn't need to become another pillar of the classroom curriculum. It is the economic engine surrounding the three educational pillars.

The website needs a page called something like “Build Your Own SWAY”

I would make it quite personal:

Take What I've Built and Build Something of Your Own

I'm retired. I'm not trying to build an educational empire. I'd rather help other people build theirs. I've spent years developing the WAY Game, CAP Notebooks, SMART Digital Lesson Planning and Entrepreneurial Project-Based Learning. Now I want teachers, retired teachers, future teachers, parents, career changers and entrepreneurs to take these ideas into their own communities.

Start with one school. One classroom. One service.

Help teachers solve real problems. Help students become more accountable for their learning. Then decide where you want to take it. Train teachers. Print Game Cards. Run tournaments. Provide professional development. Organize community events. Develop services I haven't even thought of yet.

You build the business. You decide how far you want to go.

SWAY Canada provides the framework. You provide the initiative. Then I'd put your line prominently underneath:

Don't sell notebooks. Sell accountability.

And beneath that:

Don't sell games. Sell engagement.

Don't sell lesson plans. Sell teachers time.

Don't sell projects. Sell opportunity.

One small correction there: grammatically, I'd make the third line “Sell teachers time back” or “Give teachers their time back.”

There is one larger strategic opportunity

I wouldn't require someone to become a “SWAY Consultant” before they can begin.

That creates another gatekeeper—and you've built an entire philosophy around removing gatekeepers. Let someone download the "Start a SWAY Business " guide for free. Give them a first micro-course. Let them try the WAY Game. Let them introduce CAP Notebooks to one teacher. Give them sample presentations, pricing worksheets, Game Card printing specifications, school introduction letters, PD outlines and basic business models.

Then they can decide:

“I could actually do this.” That makes your business model itself permissionless.

And I think your personal message at the top of that page could be only three sentences:

I spent 33 years making a living as a teacher. Now I'd like to help others make a living helping teachers. I've built the tools. You bring the ideas, relationships and initiative.

Let's see what you can build.

That sounds much more like the Brian you've been trying to introduce on the homepage than a conventional franchise pitch.

I've been chatting with GPT for some time now about my project. I can honestly say it knows my program very well and gives excellent advice, but AI did not come up with the ideas here; it helped refine them. Use AI to help create your own plans and business model.