Welcome to Sleight School

Thanks for joining Sleight School! This page is your end-to-end reference for how the platform works — from the public homepage students see, to every feature inside your tutor dashboard. You can come back to this walkthrough at any time from the link in your dashboard header.

Sleight School is a platform where students can:

• Book private 1-on-1 magic lessons with tutors like you (our core offering)
• Buy on-demand video tutorials in the shop
• Enroll in live group classes (cohorts) and seminars
• Engage with the broader Sleight School community (which includes its own Student Lounge for community members)

Your role: teach lessons, share resources, and (optionally) sell your own video tutorials and lead classes. The platform handles bookings, payments, payouts, scheduling, recordings, transcripts, and email reminders for you.

The homepage (/) is what every visitor sees first. From top to bottom:

• Hero collage — a curated set of magic photography that introduces the brand. Admins can swap the images.
• Specialty filter — visitors pick their interest (Card Magic, Mentalism, Stage, Coin, Comedy Magic, Kids Shows, etc.) and skill level. The tutor list reorders instantly to show the best matches.
• Featured tutors — your tutor card appears here, sorted by display order (admin-controlled). Each card shows your photo, hourly rate, specialties, accepted skill levels, and a short bio.
• How It Works — a 3-step explainer for first-time visitors.
• Featured products — top tutorials from the shop.
• Group classes — upcoming cohort sessions.
• Community panel — a live feed of recent posts from the Sleight School community.
• Testimonials — a carousel of approved student reviews.
• FAQ — common questions answered.
• Gift card promo — links to /gift-card.
• Footer — newsletter signup, privacy, guidelines, support.

The tutor grid lives directly on the homepage — that's where students browse and pick a tutor. Each tutor bio card in the grid shows:

• Your photo (or teaser video preview)
• Your name and hourly rate
• Your specialty badges (Card Magic, Mentalism, Stage, etc.)
• The skill levels you accept (Newbie, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)
• A short "best for" line and your bio snippet

Above the grid, students filter by specialty and skill level. The grid reorders instantly to surface the best matches for what they're looking for.

When a student clicks a tutor's bio card, it opens that tutor's full booking page — walked through in the next section.

Clicking a bio card on the homepage opens the full tutor booking page. This is the most important page on the platform for you — it's where students decide to book lessons with you. Here's exactly what they see and how it flows.

Left column — your full profile

• Your full bio and "best for" line
• Your photo or teaser video (Vimeo) at the top
• Your hourly rate and timezone
• Specialty badges and accepted skill levels
• "What you can work on" — bullet list of topics
• "What to expect in a lesson" — your session details
• Approved student reviews
• Tutor product shelf at the bottom — every tutorial you've published to the shop, so a student browsing your page can also buy your on-demand content

Right column — the booking flow

The right-hand column is the booking column. It changes depending on whether the student is logged in.

Once logged in, the right column walks them through booking step by step:

1. The 5-for-4 lesson package

At the top of the booking column, students see the 5-for-4 lesson package offer — buy 4 lessons up front and get the 5th free. Great for anyone planning to take more than a one-off lesson with you. The 5-for-4 package is exempt from all discounts — it cannot be combined with coupon codes or the Academy member 10% off.

2. Timezone & calendar

Next, the student picks their timezone (auto-detected from their browser, but they can change it). Every time slot on the calendar is then displayed in their local time — even though your availability is stored in your timezone. The platform handles the conversion automatically so neither of you has to do timezone math.

They then pick a date and time from your live availability calendar (pulls your weekly schedule + custom slots + blocked time). Only genuinely-open slots are shown.

Don't see a time that works? Right under the time slot picker there's a "Request a custom time" link. If a student doesn't see a slot that fits their schedule, they can pick a date and time in their own timezone and send it to you as a request. You get notified, add the slot to your calendar if you can accommodate it, and the student completes the booking from there — so you never lose a student just because your open slots didn't line up. See the Availability Requests section for the tutor side.

3. Optional Pro Consult add-on

If you've enabled Pro Consult tiers in your tutor settings, students see them here as an optional add-on. Pro Consult is for magicians who want a deeper, more-prepared consultation than a standard lesson:

• The student can upload performance videos, scripts, or PDFs in advance
• You review their material before the lesson starts
• The lesson itself becomes a focused critique / coaching session built around their actual work, instead of a cold start
• Each tier you've configured has its own price and time commitment (some are flat-rate, some are per-day for travel consults)

Pro Consult is opt-in only — students can skip it entirely and just book a standard lesson. If they do select a tier, the add-on price is added to the lesson cost at checkout. Pro Consult tiers are configured in your tutor profile settings (each tier has a name, price, description, and active toggle).

4. Intake form

Below the calendar, every student fills out a short intake form before they can book. This is for you — it gives you context so you can tailor the lesson:

• Age (required)
• Whether they currently perform for the public
• Experience level (1 = beginner, 10 = advanced, with intermediate at 5)
• How they got started and how long they've been practicing
• What they hope to get out of the lesson
• Anything else they'd like you to know

Returning students don't have to fill it out every time — only on their first booking with you. You'll see their full intake when you open the lesson in your dashboard.

5. Terms, guidelines & parent agreement

Before payment, every student must agree to the Sleight School Lesson Guidelines and the booking terms:

• 24-hour notice to cancel or reschedule
• Payment confirms the booking
• They've read and agreed to the platform's lesson guidelines (linked at /classroom/guidelines)

If the student is under 18 (based on the age they entered in the intake form), an additional Parent/Guardian Agreement appears. A parent or guardian must open and complete that agreement before the student can pay. There's a dedicated checkbox confirming the parent has agreed — both checkboxes are required for minors.

6. Discounts & payment

Right above the credit card field, students can apply:

• A coupon code (admin-managed)
• A Sleight School gift card balance
• An automatic 10% Academy member discount — applied automatically if their email matches an active Academy member. Non-members see a small "Join here →" link encouraging them to sign up

Once everything is filled in and agreed to, the student enters their card and clicks "Confirm & Pay." Payment is processed via Stripe with the 80/20 split applied automatically (you keep 80%, the platform keeps 20%). The booking lands in your Lessons tab instantly, and both of you get confirmation emails with the join link.

Sleight School offers two kinds of live group teaching, and you can propose both right from your dashboard — no need to email the admin first.

Drop-in Classes

The /classes page lists upcoming single-session live classes. A drop-in class is a one-off, ~45-minute live session (plus Q&A) on a single topic or trick:

• One session on a set date and time (runs on Daily.co, camera-on encouraged)
• Has a minimum enrollment to confirm — if it's not met, reservations are released and nobody is charged
• Every session is recorded; the replay becomes a purchasable recording afterward

Multi-week Courses

Courses are structured, multi-week programs (a cohort of students moving through a week-by-week curriculum together):

• A fixed start date and a set number of weekly sessions
• A week-by-week curriculum (each week has its own goal, teaching points, and effect taught)
• Runs on Daily.co, with every session recorded for enrolled students

Seminars

The /seminars page lists upcoming live seminars. A seminar is a one-off, standalone live event (typically longer than a drop-in class) hosted by a tutor:

• A single live session on a set date and time (runs on Daily.co)
• Students register and pay in advance; every session is recorded
• The replay can become a purchasable product after the event

Unlike Classes and Courses, seminars are admin-created (not tutor-submitted). If you'd like to host a seminar, reach out to admin with your concept and they'll set it up.

The /shop page is where students buy on-demand video tutorials. Tutorials are created by tutors (you!) and reviewed/approved by admin before going live.

Students can browse the shop in three views:

• By tutor — see everything from one creator
• By category — Card Magic, Mentalism, etc.
• By skill level — Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Each product shows a hero image (or teaser video), short description, price, skill level, and tutor. Clicking opens a modal where students can apply coupons or gift cards and check out securely. After purchase, students get instant streaming access via their dashboard and a personal email link.

The shop also has a Merch shelf at the bottom (Sleight School branded apparel — handled separately by admin via Shopify) and a FAQ section.

Here's exactly how money flows on the platform:

What students see at checkout:

• Your hourly rate (lessons) or product price (shop) — set by you
• Optional add-ons: Pro Consult tiers if you've enabled them
• Coupon codes (admin-managed) and Sleight School gift cards
• Automatic 10% Academy member discount (if the buyer is an Academy member)

The split applies to whatever the student actually pays — so if an Academy discount or coupon was used, your percentage is calculated on the discounted total.

You can download a CSV file of all your financial transactions from your Tutor Dashboard.

After the year is over, tax forms are handled through Stripe. If Stripe issues a 1099 for your account, you'll be able to find it at stripe.com in your account settings.

Payouts run automatically via Stripe Connect — every tutor on the platform is required to set one up. Details in the Payouts section.

Your dashboard lives at /TutorDashboard. At the top of the page, you'll see your welcome banner with your photo, and a header row with quick stats and links:

• Upcoming lessons — how many you have coming up
• Total lessons — all-time lesson count
• Messages — link to your inbox
• Teachers Lounge — 24/7 drop-in room for tutors
• Academy — button to access Academy membership features
• Schedule — mobile-only shortcut to the AI Schedule Assistant

The agreement banner: if you haven't signed your independent tutor agreement yet, a pink "Sign Your Tutor Agreement" button appears below the header. Click it, fill in the form, and submit — you'll get a signed PDF emailed to you and the platform. Once submitted, the button switches to a green "✓ Agreement signed" badge.

Connect Your Stripe Account: right next to the agreement button, you'll find a pink "Connect Your Stripe Account" button. Click it to jump straight to the Payouts tab and complete Stripe Connect onboarding. Stripe Connect is required for every tutor — it's how the platform pays you. Once your Stripe account is connected, the button turns into a green "✓ Stripe account connected" badge. More detail in the Payouts section.

Edit My Booking Page, Blog, and Affiliate Code: directly below the two pink buttons you'll find a row of secondary buttons — "Edit My Booking Page," "Blog," and "Affiliate Code." Each is covered in its own section below.

Below these buttons are your dashboard tabs. Each major area is covered in detail below.

The Affiliate Program lets tutors invite students to join the Sleight School community using a personal affiliate code. It is designed to help you point students toward community membership while giving both the student and the tutor a clear benefit.

Your affiliate code is accessible via the "Affiliate Code" button in your dashboard header (below the Agreement and Stripe buttons). Click it to open a modal where you can view your code and send referral invites. Your code is generated from your name and ends with AFFILIATE. If a student joins a paid tier of the community with your code, that code is saved with their community subscription so the referral can be tracked properly.

Inside the modal you'll find a simple referral form. Enter the student's first name, last name, and email address, then send the Academy invite. The email includes your affiliate link, so the student can click through and join with your code already attached.

The modal also shows your affiliate stats:

• Referrals sent — how many Academy invite emails you've sent
• Conversions — students who joined Academy through your code
• Earned — affiliate payouts that have already been paid
• Pending — eligible payouts still inside the 30-day waiting period

Affiliate payouts require your Stripe Connect account to be set up, just like lesson, product, and class payouts. If Stripe Connect is not complete, the payout cannot be sent until your account is ready.

The Edit My Booking Page button (in your dashboard header) opens a form where you can propose updates to your public booking page — the page students see when they click your tutor card on the homepage.

You can edit:

• Your full name
• The student skill levels you accept (Newbie, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)
• Your specialties (Card Magic, Mentalism, Stage, etc.)
• Mailing address, phone number, and website
• WhatsApp number (optional) — used by admin for tutor WhatsApp notifications (new bookings, reschedule requests, and the like). Never shown publicly. Include country code (e.g. +15551234567). Leave blank if you don't use WhatsApp. Note: your number is not what students see — student-facing availability alerts are sent from the platform's WhatsApp, not from your personal number.
• Your "Best for" line
• "What you can work on" (one item per line)
• Short bio (the snippet on your tutor card)
• Full bio (the longer version on your booking page)
• Your time zone
• Pro Consult tiers — enable/disable, add new tiers, edit pricing, descriptions, and prep/session hours

How approval works: changes don't go live immediately. When you submit, your edits are sent to admin as a pending update. Once approved, they're applied to your live profile. If you have a pending request, a banner appears at the top of the editor showing the submission date — you can cancel it from there if you want to make different changes instead.

This keeps the platform consistent and lets admin sanity-check anything that affects pricing, bios, or how you appear publicly.

The Sleight School Tutors WhatsApp group is a private back-channel just for the teaching team — a casual space to stay in the loop on updates, ask questions, swap teaching tips, and coordinate with fellow tutors.

Note: the direct "Join Tutors WhatsApp Group" button is no longer on the main dashboard, but you can still request an invite from admin or reach out directly to David. Tutors and admin only — students don't have access.

The Blog button at the top of your dashboard opens your personal blog editor. From there you can write, save drafts, and submit articles for the public Sleight School blog at /blog — visible to every visitor on the platform.

Great topics to write about:

• Stories from performances — what worked, what didn't, what you learned in the moment
• Insights from teaching — patterns you see in students, advice you wish you'd been given
• Thoughts on technique, theory, scripting, or the craft itself
• Behind-the-scenes from your magical career — gigs, rehearsals, creative process

How it works: Save drafts as often as you like. When a post is ready, click Submit for Review — an admin reads it and either publishes it to the public blog or sends it back with notes. Once published, it appears on/blog and on the homepage's "From the Blog" section, with your name as the author.

Why it matters: the more you contribute, the higher your profile rises on the platform. Active bloggers get more visibility, more bookings, and they help build the value of Sleight School for everyone — students, fellow tutors, and the wider magic community. Your voice is part of what makes this place worth showing up to.

This is your home base — every booked lesson lives here. Four sub-tabs:

• List View — every upcoming and past lesson as a card. Click a lesson to expand it and view details: student info, intake form, Daily link, recording, AI summary, session notes, action items, homework, and message-the-student button.
• Calendar View — a master calendar with all your bookings, color-coded by status. Great visual overview.
• Student View — every student grouped together so you can see their full history with you (lessons, notes, feedback, resources shared).
• Reschedules — when a student requests to reschedule a lesson, the request shows up here. Approve, reject, or counter-propose a time. You can add a note if further explanation is warranted. The student will get a notification on their dashboard as well as an email.

About session recordings: every lesson is auto-recorded via Daily.co. After the lesson ends, the platform fetches the transcript, generates an AI summary and action items, and attaches everything to the booking. You and the student both get an email with a link.

This is where you control when students can book you. Three layers:

• Weekly schedule — your recurring availability (e.g., "Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am-2pm"). This is the base layer.
• Custom slots — add one-off available times for specific dates that aren't part of your weekly schedule (e.g., "I can do Saturday at 6pm next week only").
• Blocked time — manually block specific dates or time ranges (vacations, appointments, etc.). You can use the AI Blocked Time Input — type "block out next Friday afternoon" and it figures out the dates and times.

Together these define what students see on your booking calendar. The platform handles timezone conversion automatically — students always see times in their own timezone.

The Availability Requests tab is where custom time requests from students land. When a student doesn't see a slot that works on your booking calendar, they can request a specific date and time in their own timezone — and that request shows up here.

For each request you can:

• Add the slot — if you can accommodate the requested time, click to add it to your calendar. The slot is reserved exclusively for that student (no one else can book it), and they're notified to complete the booking. You can include an optional note.
• Decline — if the time doesn't work for you, decline the request. The student is notified so they're not left waiting.
• Message the student — if you want to propose an alternative time or ask a clarifying question, you can message them directly from the request.

You'll get an email and a WhatsApp notification (if you've opted in) whenever a new request comes in. Requests are converted to the tutor's local timezone automatically, so the date and time you see matches your calendar convention.

Your earnings dashboard shows everything you've made and everything you're owed. You'll see:

• Total earnings — your combined take across lessons, products, classes, courses, and seminars
• Monthly earnings chart — a bar chart of your earnings over time
• Lesson earnings — per-lesson breakdown (80% of each lesson payment)
• Product sales — per-product performance: sales count, gross, and your 70% payout
• Class payouts — $10 per paid student per class (minimum $50 per class); pending until the class runs
• Course revenue share — 70% of each paid enrollment; pending until the cohort confirms
• Seminar revenue — 70% of each paid registration (adjustable per seminar)
• Academy affiliate earnings — earned and pending referral payouts
• Pending vs. paid amounts — what's still awaiting payout vs. already sent
• Stripe payout history — every Stripe Connect payout, synced automatically, with dates and status

All numbers reflect your share of each transaction — the platform's cut (20% on lessons, 30% on tutorials, classes, courses, and seminars) has already been deducted, so what you see is what you'll be paid.

You can download two CSV exports from this tab: a full earnings CSV (every transaction across all revenue types) and a lessons-only CSV. The full export includes a summary section at the top, then line-by-line rows for every lesson, product sale, class sign-up, course enrollment, seminar registration, affiliate payout, and Stripe payout.

The Payouts tab is where you connect your bank account so the platform can pay you. Stripe Connect is required for every tutor on Sleight School — you'll need to set up a Stripe account before you can start teaching and getting paid.

Two ways to get there: click the pink 🏦 Connect Your Stripe Account button at the top of your dashboard, or open the Payoutstab from the dashboard menu. Both land you in the same place.

How to connect: Click "Connect with Stripe," follow the onboarding flow (takes about 5 minutes), and your account is linked. During signup, you can choose to connect either a bank account or a debit card — select whichever works best for you. Stripe Connect is supported in 40+ countries. Payouts arrive directly to your connected account on Stripe's schedule (usually 2-7 days). Once your Stripe account is connected, the pink hero button turns into a green "✓ Stripe account connected" badge.

Once your Stripe Connect account is verified, every transaction automatically splits at checkout — your share goes straight to your Stripe account, no invoicing needed:

• Lessons: 80% to you, 20% to the platform
• Tutorial products, cohort classes & seminars: 70% to you, 30% to the platform

Important: until you complete Stripe onboarding, payouts are held. You won't lose any money — they'll be released once your account is verified.

The Products tab has two sub-tabs:

• My Products — every tutorial you've created and its status (draft, pending review, approved, rejected)
• Create Product — the form to publish a new tutorial

How to create a tutorial:

1. Click "Create Product"
2. Fill in the title, short description (one-liner), and full description (the sales pitch)
3. Set your price in USD
4. Pick categories, performance context (Close-up, Stage, Walk-around, etc.) and skill level
5. Add tags (max 10) for filtering
6. Upload a hero image (16:9 landscape) and optionally a teaser video URL (Vimeo)
7. Upload your tutorial files — video (MP4/MOV) and/or PDF
8. Submit for admin review

Admin reviews each product before it goes live to keep the shop quality high. Once approved, your product appears in the shop and on your tutor profile. You'll get an email when it's approved (or rejected with a reason).

When someone buys your tutorial, you earn 70% (the platform keeps 30%). The student gets instant streaming access; you get notified by email.

The Resources tab lets you share files, links, and notes with your students between lessons. Two sharing modes:

• Send to specific students — pick one or more students from your roster. Only they will see this resource in their Student Resources tab.
• Share with all students — every student you've ever taught (current and future) will see this resource. Great for foundational material.

Each resource can be:

• An uploaded file (PDF, image, etc.)
• An external link (YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, anything)

You add a title, description, and subject (Card Magic, Mentalism, etc.) so students can filter their resource library easily.

The Promotion Toolkit tab gives you ready-made assets to help you market your lessons and grow your student base — all formatted to match the Sleight School brand.

Inside the toolkit you'll find:

• Booking widgets — embeddable widgets you can place on your own website or share via link. A visitor clicks through and lands right on your booking page. There's a compact list view and a full tutor grid view.
• Social copy — pre-written posts for social media, sized for each platform. Grab the text, drop in your booking link, and post.
• Visual assets — branded images and graphics you can use in your own promotions, sized for social posts and stories.
• Community call-to-action — copy and a button you can share to point students toward the broader Sleight School community.
• Promotion tips — short guidance on when and how to post for maximum reach, so you're not guessing.

Everything in the toolkit is designed to be copy-paste easy — you don't need design tools or a marketing background to use it.

The Messages tab is your inbox for student communication. Every conversation with a student is threaded — you can scroll back through the full history.

• Send text messages and attach files (PDFs, images, videos)
• Get a pink dot on the Messages tab when you have unread messages
• Compose a new message to any past or current student
• Admin can also message you directly through the same system

Students see your messages in their Student Dashboard's Messages tab, and they get an email notification when you send something.

The Classes tab is where you propose drop-in Classes — single-session live classes — and track the ones you've submitted.

To propose a drop-in Class:

1. Click Create Class
2. Add a title, description, and what students will learn / the trick taught
3. Pick a date and time (check the Master Calendar first to avoid conflicts — a button is built into the form)
4. Submit for review

Your submission lands with the admin as "Awaiting Review." The admin sets final pricing, minimum enrollment, and recording details, then publishes it to the public /classes page. You can see the status of everything you've submitted right in this tab.

Once a class is published and runs, every session is recorded on Daily.co, and the recording, transcript, and AI summary are attached automatically afterward.

The Courses tab is where you propose multi-week Courses — structured programs where a cohort of students moves through a week-by-week curriculum together.

To propose a Course:

1. Click Create Course
2. Add a title and a rich course description (you can include images and video)
3. Set the number of weeks
4. Fill in the Weekly Details — each week needs a date, time, and title. Set Week 1's date/time and the later weeks auto-fill (you can override any of them). The other per-week fields (learning goal, teaching points, effect taught, homework) are optional, but if you use one, fill it in for every week so the agenda stays consistent.
5. Submit for review (you can't submit until every week has a date, time, and title)

Like Classes, your Course submission lands with the admin as "Awaiting Review." The admin sets final pricing and details and publishes it to the public Courses page. This tab shows the status of every Course you've submitted.

Before choosing dates, use the built-in Master Calendar button to make sure your sessions don't clash with other classes, courses, or seminars.

The Teachers Lounge button opens a private 24/7 drop-in video room (powered by Daily.co), reserved for tutors and admin only. There's no schedule — pop in any time to meet up, chat, swap ideas, and connect with your fellow Sleight School teachers.

Clicking the button in your tutor dashboard opens the lounge in a new tab. Students do not have access to this room — it's a space just for the teaching team.

The Academy button (in your dashboard header, next to Teachers Lounge) opens a modal that gives you the same Academy access an Academy member has — tucked behind a button so your tutor workspace stays focused.

From inside the Academy modal you can:

• Enter the Back Room — a private drop-in video room reserved for Academy members (and tutors). Pop in whenever you'd like to jam, hang out, or talk shop with members of the Academy.
• Toggle Back Room WhatsApp alerts on or off — when on, you'll get a WhatsApp ping any time another Academy member enters the Back Room, so you know someone's around to connect with.
• Set quiet hours — define a daily window (in your local timezone) where Back Room alerts won't fire, so they don't reach you overnight or during lessons. Windows that cross midnight are supported.
• Toggle new-class alerts — opt in (or out) of the WhatsApp broadcast Academy members receive when a new group class opens for enrollment. Off by default for tutors.

All settings inside the modal use the same WhatsApp number you've saved to your profile. Update it once, and it applies to every WhatsApp feature on the platform.

The AI Schedule Assistant helps you manage your availability using plain language instead of clicking through forms.

Reach it from the Schedule button in your dashboard header (on mobile) or directly at /schedule-assistant (on desktop). Then just type what you want, for example:

• "I'm free Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am–2pm starting next week"
• "Block out next Friday afternoon"
• "Add a one-off slot Saturday at 6pm"

It interprets your request, figures out the dates and times, and updates your schedule for you — so you don't have to set each slot by hand.

Before you start teaching, you need to sign the Independent Contractor Agreement. The link is on your dashboard ("Sign & Download Your Tutor Agreement"). It opens an interactive form where you:

1. Review the terms (payment split, IP, confidentiality, etc.)
2. Fill in your legal name, address, and date
3. Type your signature
4. Submit — a signed PDF is generated and emailed to you and the platform

Once submitted, the banner switches to a green "Agreement signed" badge. You only need to do this once.

If anything's unclear or you hit a snag, here's how to get help:

• Internal messaging — admin is reachable in your Messages tab.
• Email David directly — david@davidwilliamson.com
• Text or WhatsApp David — 937-232-0613

Welcome aboard. I'm glad you're teaching with us.