How I Made a Career Change From Teaching Without Taking a Pay Cut
Are you a teacher considering a career change but worried about how this transition will affect your income?
In this post, I'm going to walk you through the exact decision I use with educators who are done with the classroom but not done with the work, how to pick what you're moving toward, run the real math on it, and have the conversation at home without it turning into a fight.👇
Table of Contents
Why this decision matters
Search "jobs for former teachers" and you'll get the same five answers every time:
instructional designer
corporate trainer
project manager
HR coordinator
curriculum developer
They're real jobs. But every one of them means starting at the bottom of someone else's ladder, in a field where your twenty years in a classroom count as "transferable skills" rather than expertise.
There's a sixth option those lists never mention, and it's the one where your actual expertise is the product.
I've written the long version of that path in A Guide to Transitioning From Teaching to Starting an Executive Function Coaching Business — this article is the decision that comes before it.
Here's why the option exists.
Schools are structured to teach content and then hold students accountable for skills nobody ever taught them — planning, initiating, managing time, keeping track of their own materials.
We test the outcome and skip the instruction.
You have watched this happen to specific kids whose names you still remember.
Families have watched it too, and they are now paying out of pocket for the thing school never delivered.
That gap is the market.
You already know how to do the work.
What's usually missing is a framework for deciding whether to go get it.
Why most educators fail to make a career change without taking a pay cut
Most educators who want out never actually leave, and it isn't a skills problem.
Primary reason — They shop for a job title instead of deciding what they want their week and their rate to look like, then working backward.
A title tells you what you'd be called. It doesn't tell you what Tuesday feels like or what you'd earn.
Here are the other things that stall people:
They've been burned before. A past course, franchise, or side venture didn't deliver, so every new investment feels like the last one.
I've talked to people who ended up taking my certification program that spent tens of thousands on ventures that had nothing to do with their actual skills, then hesitated over the one investment that would have leveraged twenty years of teaching.
They wait for the perfect time. A move, a school year starting, a family situation. There is no season of life without something in it.
They dread the conversation at home, so they avoid it, go quiet, and let the decision die by default instead of preparing for it.
They compare training programs on price alone, weighing a cheap self-paced content course against a full certification plus business system plus community as though those are the same product.
Worth knowing before you compare anything: in executive function coaching there is no legal governing body and no legally required certification.
What you are actually buying is a method, a business system, and the people who answer the phone when you get stuck. I break down how to evaluate the options in The 6 Best Executive Function Coaching Certification Programs.
And if you want to compare further, check out this video:
They assume word of mouth will bring the clients. Word of mouth is not a strategy. It's what happens after a strategy works. Every practice I've seen get off the ground had a deliberate plan for building a professional network — not a hope that the right parent would mention them at a soccer game.
The good news: every one of these has a step you can actually take. Here they are.👇
A 4-step guide to leaving teaching without taking a pay cut
Step 1: Decide what you're moving toward, not just what you're leaving
Before anything else, answer one question in writing:
What do I want my working week to look like in two years?Â
Not the job title. The week.
How many hours, how much control over the schedule, whether you're managing people or working directly with students.
This step matters because it turns everything downstream into a solvable problem.
If the answer is
"I want to work directly with kids, remotely, and set my own rate,"
the corporate paths drop off the list on their own and you stop agonizing over them.
The people I watch succeed say some version of I'm sure about the what, I just need to figure out the how.Â
The ones who stall let the "how" convince them the "what" was wrong.
If that's where you're stuck, this piece on mindset and identity deals with it directly.
Step 2: Run the payback math against your unfair advantage
Now put numbers on it. Two calculations, both simple.
Your target monthly income divided by your package price gives you the number of clients you need.
Any training investment divided by your package price gives you the number of clients to break even.
For coaches charging semester-length packages, a certification investment typically pays back with one to two clients.
The common mistake here is comparing this to whatever failed before.
So ask a sharper question:
did that thing use your actual expertise?
Gumball machines and dropshipping stores don't leverage two decades in a classroom.
Executive function coaching does.
That's your unfair advantage, and it changes the risk profile entirely.
One example: A tutor in South Dakota was charging by the hour at a rate most tutors would recognize as normal.
Within thirty days of finishing her training she enrolled a family in a package worth roughly thirty-five times that hourly rate. She didn't get lucky. She got a system on top of skills she already had.
Step 3: Decide how the first clients actually arrive
This is the step that separates a plan from a wish, and it's where most career-change advice goes quiet.
Write down the specific people who already know your work:
the school psychologist you sat with in IEP meetings
the pediatric OT down the hall
the parents whose kids you taught three years ago
the private tutor everyone in your district refers to
That list is your first marketing plan, and it should be a named section of the plan, not an afterthought.
Then decide what you'll do each week to add to it.
A conversation, an introduction, a talk at a parent group.
Two or three deliberate touches a week is enough.
What doesn't work is finishing a training program and waiting for the phone.
In my certification program, I offer a 90-day step by step challenge to get your first paid client, so you can feel confident that you'll book clients even after a training is finished.
Step 4: Bring your partner a plan, not a purchase
Don't ask your spouse whether you can spend the money.
Show them the week you're building toward, the payback math, the monthly payment option — for most programs it lands somewhere near a big-box grocery run — and two or three examples of people who made the same move like our graduates here.
Journal your reasons before the conversation so you walk in prepared instead of defensive.
When you've settled the what (Step 1) and done the math (Steps 2 and 3), this stops being a request for permission and becomes a shared decision about your family's future.
Either you move forward with everyone aligned, or you find out the real objection was never money — and now you know what it actually was.
P.S. If you want to test the fit before making any decision, start smaller:
Semester Success Blueprint — see how I structure and run executive function coaching sessions
Transition Toolkit — a short, practical introduction to building an executive function coaching business
From Educator to Executive Function Coach — free on Spotify, Audible, and YouTube
When you're ready to talk it through, book a call.
The bottom line
Leaving teaching isn't a question of finding the right job posting.
It's a question of deciding what you want your work to look like and then being honest about the arithmetic.
No decision is ever fully certain.
Fifty-one percent plus commitment beats a hundred percent certainty that never arrives.
Decide what you're moving toward, not just what you're leaving
Run the payback math against your unfair advantage
Decide how the first clients actually arrive
Bring your partner a plan, not a purchase
Hope this helps! 🤙🏻
FAQs
How do I know if executive function coaching could replace my teaching income?
Start with your target monthly income and divide it by the price of your coaching package to determine how many clients you would need. This gives you a concrete number to evaluate instead of guessing whether the career change could work financially.
How much do executive function coaches make?
Income varies based on experience, pricing, and client load. The most common hourly rate reported by EFCA graduates is $100–$149, while experienced coaches may charge $250 or more per hour. Or, many coaches sell student packages ranging in the thousands.
How do I become an executive function coach?
Becoming an executive function coach typically involves completing a specialized certification program like the one from EFCA (not required), developing practical coaching skills, choosing a niche, and building a client base.
This article is a part of the larger category of:
Related Articles:
How Sarah Zeilstra Built Her Executive Function Coaching Business While Teaching Full-Time
How To Find Your "Unfair Advantage" As An Executive Function Coach
How Alison Eber Went From Classroom Teacher to Starting Her Own Executive Function Coaching Business
5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Transitioning From Teaching
Want support in becoming an executive function coach?
Consider joining hundreds of educators and professionals who have completed our executive function coaching certification and are building profitable executive function coaching practices using their teaching experience.
You'll gain all the tools, templates, and techniques you'll need as a coach, plus you'll make new friends and have a community you can rely on to grow and learn. Learn more.Â
Here is one of our favorite reviews. You can read all recent reviews on this page.Â
About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and expanding my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.