On this episode, I Zoom in Mandy Froelich, and we chat about her journey to becoming a speaker, finding her lane, and tips for other educators who want to pursue edupreneurship.
Mandy Froelich spends much of her time consulting with school districts and post-secondary institutions in the effective use of technology to support great teaching, mental health support for educators, and how to create organizational change in education. Her first book, The Fire Within: Lessons from defeat that have ignited a passion for learning, discusses mental health awareness for teachers. Her second book, Divergent EDU, is based on an organizational structure she developed to support teachers in innovative and divergent thinking. Her third book, based on educator engagement and mental health, is titled Reignite the Flames which has a companion guide/workbook titled The Educator’s Matchbook.
Mandy is passionate about learning and her profession in general, but her two favorite components of her position are being able to provide professional learning opportunities and present/keynote conferences. She believes that by providing these opportunities to teachers, she is in turn able to reach many more students and ultimately affect their learning experiences. Also, on a personal side note, Mandy was insanely afraid of public speaking throughout her life until she reached college. At that time she took multiple public speaking courses to try to get over her fear of speaking in front of people to the point where it was silly for her not to declare it as her minor because she had so many credits. The ability to get up in front of adults (which is not the same as getting up in front of kids) and not bawl like a baby is one of Mandy’s accomplishments that she’s most proud of. Just another reason she likes providing professional learning opportunities, presenting, and keynoting.
At home you’ll usually find her talking to her family or spending copious amounts of time telling her dog she’s pretty. Mandy loves coffee and has a hard time being friends with people who don’t. Mostly, she has devoted her life to finding what makes her happy…and seeing others happy fills her cup.