We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tiphany Kane. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tiphany below.

Tiphany, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

I love this question! I spent 20 years as a teacher in California’s public education system and I definitely have strong feelings on this topic!

Public School was created as a way to both educate children and train a workforce. The workforce that was needed when public education was born were factory workers & office workers. Our society needed people that could follow directions, remain loyal to a company for the duration of their career, and work within a structured system. However, in today’s society we are shifting to needing a workforce that is made up of creative problem solvers, visionaries, and collaborative teammates. We need people to be flexible

Students are growing up in a time where they are savvy and aware of current events. These students have been impacted by a global pandemic, are aware of social issues, and are so much more inclusive in their thinking. They are instantly connected via multiple social media channels and feel more isolated than any other generation. They have access to all the information they need in their pockets with smartphones, tablets & laptops and need guidance on how to properly use that information. AI (artificial intelligence) is helping them to create art and write essays and they learn coding as a second language.

Our education system needs to be responsive to this reality. We need schools that have project based learning which taps into students problem solving and collaboration skills. While teaching the basics of reading, writing, and math are vital- we need to do it in a way that is more inclusive of different learning modalities. For example, a company I am working with is developing software to allow students to create audio stories that can then be transcribed into writing. This inclusive style of learning allows young students to learn the art of story and story structure without being hindered by any challenges they have with writing or reading.

Education systems need to rethink old, dated ways of teaching and learning and embrace a new way engaging students, building creative problem solving skills, inter & intrapersonal skills, and celebrating diverse thinking.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I came to entrepreneurship late in my life and career. I had been a classroom teacher in an urban school district with high poverty rates. I loved my job as a teacher and truly felt is was my calling. However, I began to see that there were sweeping changes and reforms that needed to be made to help the students in the community I served. So, as a newly divorced single mom, I went back to school to get my Masters degree and administrative credential. I was ready to move up in school district administration and make a difference! I was going to be a change-maker!!!

However, leaving the classroom and moving up to the district office opened my eyes to a different world full of politics, rules, and red tape. I began to feel frustrated with the system. Over the course of a few years, I applied for different administrative positions and kept hitting brick walls in my advancement. Eventually I had a sit down conversation with my supervisor and asked her why I was not advancing more in my career. Her answer shocked me and opened my eyes- in fact- to this day I feel her answer was the greatest gift I have ever received. My supervisor looked at me and said, “Tiphany, you are just too passionate. You want to make changes and have so much passion about those changes. Not everyone can keep up with you.”

Did your jaw just drop? I know my jaw dropped hearing those words…too passionate. Heck Yes! I’m passionate about kids and education! Heck Yes I am passionate about making a difference! Her words made me realize that I had an important choice to make. Do I stay in that system and dim my light? Do I stay and become a rule-follower while I let the change-maker side of me slowly fade away and die? Or do I make a big change in my life?

I truly thought that I would be in public education until I retired…until that moment when my supervisor told me I was too passionate. In that moment, it felt as if I was reborn and realized that I could no longer dim my light. I had to create my own path. I finished up that school year and gave my notice. After 20 years in public education, I quit and co-founded a media production business. I was determined to be too passionate, too interested, too inquisitive, too engaged, and too curious!!! I was determined to let my personality shine and see it as a strength rather than a hinderance.

With both of our skills combined, our media productions company is the bridge between companies that create amazing products and the consumers who use their products. Many companies create amazing products, but are not sure how to teach people to use their products. We create the video training courses to introduce people to the products, as well as developing certification programs, and holding VIP course recording days for other entrepreneurs.

As the CEO, it is so exciting to have an idea and then get to run with it!!! We are currently in the planning stages of developing our own unique software! It is a dream come true to be able to welcome big, seemingly crazy ideas and see them come to fruition!!

Have you ever had to pivot?

I love this question so much! Being able to pivot is essential to surviving as an entrepreneur! When I think of pivoting, I think of that hilarious scene in Friends when Ross is trying to get a giant couch down a small staircase. He is sweating, shouting “PIVOT” and is totally stuck! I think many of us make the same mistake as Ross. We wait until we are totally stuck, sweating, and unable to pivot before we realize we need to pivot.

My strategy has always been to listen closely to both my intuition, my interests, and to what the people I am working with are asking for. When I first began my entrepreneurial path, I thought I was going to be a relationship coach for women after divorce. I started a podcast, built a website, and was ready to start working with clients….however, people were not asking me for relationship advice. Instead, they were asking me about my podcast! You see in a very short amount of time I had terrific success with my podcast and I was having so much fun!

So I turned to my partner, who was handling most of the technical aspects of the podcast and said, “Would you want to teach a podcasting workshop with me?” He was IN and we taught our first workshop. It was 2 hours long, we charged $25 and had about 40 people attend. We had a blast and so did the people that attended….but then they asked for more. So we offered them a 4 week podcasting course for $99 and about 80% of them took the course. They loved it and asked for more…so we started a membership group.

Our media production business grew from that! It has been an amazing journey of constantly pivoting! My partner and I make a practice of sitting down together and analyzing the direction of the business. We look at the projects we are working on and truly ask the following questions; 1) Are we enjoying working on this project? 2) Is the project profitable? 3) What other avenues can this project open?

EVERY SINGLE time we sit down and have that conversation, new doors of opportunity open up for us! Each conversation gets us more and more focused on our areas of passion and strength. We realized that our strengths really come from knowing how to create courses and knowing how to properly record & produce those courses. Now we specialize in video course creation for large companies and entrepreneurs.

Often, entrepreneurs do not have the funds to purchase their own expensive cameras and lighting. So we do VIP course creation days where an entrepreneur comes to a location we have set up with cameras, lights and other recording equipment and we get their course recorded! It is so exciting!

Our most recent pivot is happening now as we speak. We are in the brainstorming and development phase for software that will help course creators and build a learning community. The beauty of being willing to pivot regularly is that your business stays fun, flexible, and you never get stuck like Ross in the stairway!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My reputation is built so much upon the relationships I have fostered within the community. One of the most impactful benefits of having a podcast is being able to create relationships with the guests you have on the podcast and the community that surrounds the podcast. My partner and I made a conscious effort to build those relationships in an authentic and real way.

For example, we were at an industry conference where my partner, David was speaking on a panel. We arrived at the conference location the day before the conference began and sat in one of the hotel restaurants to have dinner. We noticed a man sitting alone and my partner recognized him as another speaker at the conference. We invited him to eat dinner with us and had a terrific conversation about his projects and skills. He then asked us about our business. It turns out- he was looking for someone that understands both podcasting and video production to work on a large, commercial podcast he was producing. That authentic interest in another person led to a great business collaboration.

These kinds of interactions and connections happen often for us because we show up. We speak at conferences, volunteer at those conferences, get involved with the community and show genuine interest in the people. Every time we show up and make a genuine effort to engage with the community- new opportunities arise.

People know us as genuine, honest, helpful and collaborative! We engage in the community with genuine interest and from a heart-felt place. People can feel the genuine effort and connect with it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kasamediapro.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiphanykane/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tiphany.k/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiphany-kane-514264175/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tiphanykane

Image Credits
Greg Sais David Sais Lee Uhara Photography