“Those who can’t do, teach.”
It’s a line that’s been tossed around for generations, usually as a cheap shot at teachers. I started teaching marketing in 2022 while working full time as a marketer, and I’ve come to believe the saying has it exactly backwards. The people who do the work often make the best teachers—not because they have all the answers, but because they know what happens when the plan meets reality.
I learned that in my own classroom faster than I expected.
The class that ended early
My first course was built for online, and online teaching has a quiet safety net. When a student asks a question, you can take a second, think, and craft a response the way you want it to be received. Work has a safety net, too. In most of my professional meetings, I have a good idea of what’s coming and the answers ready before anyone asks. When my course moved to a hybrid format, both safety nets disappeared. In person, you never know what you’ll be asked—on topic or off.
I’ll admit it: I had nerves for that first in-person session. I’d prepared a course overview and the first week’s lecture, and I expected questions to fill out the rest. Between the nerves, moving faster than I meant to, and a room of students who didn’t know each other yet—and weren’t about to ask questions in front of their new peers—I’d covered everything in about half the time.
That first class ended early. And it sent me back to rethink my delivery.
Treating it like a test
In marketing, a result that misses the plan isn’t a failure. It’s data. So I treated that first session the way I’d treat a campaign that underperformed: figure out why, change something, and try again.
For the next session, I broke the class into groups and had each one redesign a website using the best practices we’d covered so far, then present their findings to the class. The room came alive. I actually had to ask them to wrap up so we’d have time for the presentations and the lecture. I joked that it was a relief to know they could talk after all.
A group activity built around the prior or coming week’s content has been part of my classes ever since. It does what a lecture alone can’t: it brings the theory to life.
That’s the advantage of teaching from practice. I didn’t fix that class with a teaching theory. I fixed it with the same instinct I use at work—read the results, adjust, and keep the audience at the center.
Human beats perfect
Looking back, I walked into that first in-person class worried about being perfect, as if that was how I’d earn my students’ respect. What I found was that being human mattered more to them. The nerves, the early finish, the joke about finally hearing them talk—none of it cost me credibility. If anything, it built it.
The best practitioner-teachers don’t stand on pedestals. They remember what it felt like to be new, they’re honest about what they got wrong, and they show students how to navigate it.
So I’d rewrite the old saying. Those who do bring insight. Those who teach turn it into growth. Those who do both multiply it.
Teaching isn’t what happens when ability runs out. It’s what happens when experience becomes worth passing on.