Grow With Angie And April: A Podcast For Teacherpreneurs

In this episode, Angie and April speak with Katie and Chynell from Routine Your Reels to help teacher sellers navigate how to use Instagram Reels in their marketing. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. We’re excited to have a couple guests on the podcast with us to dive into another one of those topics that push us out of our comfort zones—Instagram Reels. Chynell and Katie built the Routine Your Reels membership program. I was part of the beta group and am excited to share this resource with other TpTers. Katie Brockmeyer is a photographer and videographer for teacher sellers. Chynelle Moore is a marketing strategist and business coach for “teachers turned accidental entrepreneurs” at Routine Your Dream. The two met on Instagram and eventually created the membership program Routine Your Reels. As they were learning Reels, they knew they wanted to help make it easier for teacher sellers. The Basics of Instagram Reels Reels is the new kid on the Inst

In this episode, Angie and April are speaking with Chrissie Rissmiller from Undercover Classroom. She recently transitioned to become a full-time TpTer. Together, they’re answering the commonly asked questions TpTers have about the transition to going full time. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. We have been hearing from a lot of TpTers with questions about going full time. With the difficulty of the past two years and how teachers have been treated, it’s easy to see why. Previously we did a podcast episode for people thinking of making the transition, however, we were still new to being full time TpTers ourselves and were still figuring things out. We decided to do a new episode answering the commonly asked questions. Here to join us on the episode is Chrissie Rissmiller from Undercover Classroom. She has been full time in her TpT business for just over a year now. Between the three of us, we’re able to cover a wide range of experiences and are happy t

In this episode, Angie and April are speaking with guest Susan Jones about how to leverage YouTube for your TpT business. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. We’re excited to dive into talking about YouTube because we’ve been committed to using it but coming up with excuses for years. We’ve always seen YouTuber teachers who were in the classroom during their videos. That was kind of discouraging to us since we’re no longer in the classroom. So, we’re excited to have Susan Jones as a podcast guest to help get us motivated and moving! Susan Jones started her YouTube channel, Susan Jones Teaching, in 2019 when she decided to start working on brand awareness. Social media wasn’t something that she enjoyed doing, and she wasn’t great at putting her face out there even though she had a successful TpT store. Much like us, she had kind of written off YouTube because most of the TpTers on the platform were in the classroom and she wanted to create videos where

In this episode, Angie and April are speaking with guest Chloe Tascoff about how to create and use preview videos for your TpT resources. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. We’re excited to have Chloe Tascoff on the podcast to talk about all things video previews. Along with creating her own TpT resources, she specializes in creating preview videos for her clients. She’s going to share some of her tips and tricks about how to make video creation faster and easier along with the best way to use the videos. Chloe got started creating video previews when a friend asked her to try filming a product for her. She played around with it and found she really enjoyed the process. Word started spreading and people started reaching out to her for help on their videos and things grew from there. What is the purpose of a preview video? PDF previews and photographs are helpful at showcasing your resources, but video previews help bring them to life. Chloe shar

In this episode, Angie and April are reflecting on 2021 and setting goals for 2022. They’re going to dive into the things they want to do more and what surprising thing they’re letting go of in the new year. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. This year was a blur! It flew by. We felt like last year was one of the longest years of our lives and we’re thankful that this year was different. However, that also meant things were different in our TpT store and businesses as well. We’re sharing what business looked like in 2021 and what we’re planning for 2022. Reflecting on 2021 in our TpT business I don’t usually set specific monetary goals for my TpT store. I typically see a 20-30% increase in sales from year to year but because of how unique 2020 was, I really just wanted to hit the same earnings from last year. Both April and I created a lot of new resources when everything went digital in March 2020. Teachers needed those resources. That ended up r

In this episode, Angie and April are talking about the secret weapon for sales – promotions. They like to shake things up with their promos so they’re covering a lot of different options in this episode. Join in on the conversation in the mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. It’s always nice to chat with others about what they’re doing in the TpT world, so we have a special guest today, Ciera Harris of Ciera Harris Teaching (formerly known as Adventures of Room 129). She has been on TpT for 10 years and specializes in creating reading comprehension resources for grades 2-4. Together, we’re going to answer some of the commonly asked questions about running promotions. How often should you run sales and promotions? The more you have a promotion, the more people will start to expect it and wait for you to have it. Ciera tries to do one huge promotion each quarter outside of TpT sales. In addition to those, she’ll do little promotions and sales but they aren’t planned out the way the la

In this episode, Angie and April are talking about how they use Canva to save time while working with the design aspect of their TpT stores. Join in on the conversation in our mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. In the last podcast episode, we talked all about hiring for your TpT store. It was a pretty serious topic and covered a lot of information. This time, we’re jumping into a fun topic—playing around in Canva! We’re going to share with you the ways that we use Canva for our TpT stores, but we’d love for you to get in the Mastermind group and share how you’re using it. We’re always looking for new ideas. All about Canva If you’ve never heard of Canva, it’s a graphic design platform you can use to create pretty much any type of image you need. In the past, we used Photoshop or PowerPoint to create all our images, but it could be complicated and took a lot of work to make it look just right. Canva makes it simple and easy. I tried Canva when it first came out and didn’t like i

In this episode, Angie and April are answering frequently asked questions about hiring for your TpT store. They cover everything from VAs to full-time employees. You can join in on the conversation in our mastermind group at www.growwithusmastermind.com. A couple of years ago we did an episode on how to hire help to grow your TpT store, but a lot has changed in our businesses over time. So, we’re excited to have Caitlin Mitchell from EB Academics join us on the podcast to talk about all things hiring. Disclaimer: We are not accountants. We are sharing our personal experiences. We encourage you to talk to your accountant or a tax professional before hiring employees or contractors for your TpT business. The rules and restrictions vary from state to state. Please make sure you cover your bases. With that disclaimer out of the way, we get a lot of questions in our group about hiring help. Caitlin, Angie, and I all have employees working in our businesses but it looks a little different for each of u

No show notes for this episode, but we’re excited to be back with a full episode in two weeks!

Digital learning is on everyone's minds these days. So, today we’re talking about what you can do to make digital learning interactive and tips for converting your existing resources. And, we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. Now that teachers everywhere are dabbling in digital learning, it doesn't look like this is something that's just going to go away once everyone is back in the classroom. So, digital products will be something we can continue to focus on more than just converting our existing print resources. It's something April and I have been wanting to talk about, but it just wasn't that popular. Obviously, things have changed. So, we are excited to have Erin Flanagan from Erintegration as our guest on the Grow With Us Podcast.  Erin is an expert in interactive digital training. Most of her store has a technology focus and she's familiar with making resources that can

We'll be completely honest with you. We spent the first few weeks of this pandemic in a bit of panic mode which has the tendency to paralyze people from taking action. But we're coming out of that now and we want to share what we're doing to have some movement in our TpT business during this time. Don't worry, we're not going to tell you to shift everything to digital products. And, we're not going to just focus on the coronavirus. The 3 things that we're going to share are things that can benefit your business right now in the midst of the pandemic but also at any other time. 1. Survey your audience This is a tool that we've talked about before. This is a great time to be surveying your audience. A month ago, teachers felt like they needed everything. There was no plan at that time. Everyone was in panic mode. Now, they have a better understanding of what's expected of them and what they need. So, it's a great time to survey your audience. Here are some questions you could ask your audience:

We've been hearing from a lot of Tpters lately reporting that their traffic and views are dropping in Pinterest. So, today we’re talking about what you can do to combat that and increase your Pinterest activity. And, we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. On this episode of the Grow With Us Podcast, we have Sara from the Stellar Teacher Company joining our conversation on Pinterest. When we saw the concerns around the current struggle with Pinterest, we put out a call in our group for new Pinterest strategies and someone recommended Sara. Her account has 4.4 million monthly viewers. Sara creates and sells resources for upper elementary and launched her website earlier this year. We had a long list of questions and discussed the following Pinterest strategies: The use of video pins Sara shared with us that she noticed a big increase in her Pinterest views when she started using video

Last month we stepped out of our comfort zone to talk about selling on our websites. Today we invited someone who knows way more about the topic than we do to share more information. And, we're continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. A few podcast episodes ago, Angie and I shared our own experiences with selling directly from our websites. And, now we are really excited to bring Melissa Tallman from Teacher Thrive onto the podcast. She has been running her own store for about eight months and can speak to some of the things that we can't, like WooCommerce. What made Melissa decide to sell on her website Like Angie and I, Melissa is grateful for TpT. It's a great way for teacher sellers to really get started. But, Melissa is no longer teaching in the classroom and has turned her business into her full-time income. Because of that, she doesn't want to keep all of her eggs in one basket. Just

As a teacherpreneuer there are so many things to focus on while growing your TpT business. It's easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus. Today we're talking about how to stay productive, and we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. April and I were excited to bring Shelly Rees back as a guest on the Grow With Us Podcast. She was a guest way back in episode 10 when we were live at the 2018 TpT conference. She's a teacher seller and a productivity guru. On this episode, she shared some incredibly valuable tips on how to stay productive and beat that feeling of overwhelm that we all experience at times. If you have been trying to figure out how to stay focused, this is the episode for you! There's always going to be a little overwhelm I describe my overwhelm as a sliding scale. Sometimes it's more and other times it's not as bad, but there's always a bit of it there. Remember, you may

While we aren't experts on the topic, today we’re sharing our experiences with setting up a website store to sell products from our own websites. And, we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share any tips or ask any of your hiring questions: www.growwithusmastermind.com. Some links are affiliate links. We pay for the podcast costs using revenue generated when people checkout using our links. This is a bit of a taboo topic that we are going to jump into today—selling on your website. Angie and I are in no way claiming to be experts on this topic, but we've received a lot of questions about it lately. Our stores are pretty new and we are still in the beginning phases, but we wanted to share our experiences, what we've experimented with and do our best to answer your questions. Please know that we are in no way encouraging everyone to start a store or to take resources off of TpT. It's a great platform that drives a lot of traffic to our resources and has been a huge bles

Whether you're back-to-school and short on time or simply have too much on your plate as a full-time TpTer, hiring help can be exactly what you need to grow your store. Today we’re talking everything you need to know as you get ready to make your first hire. And, we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share any tips or ask any of your hiring questions: www.growwithusmastermind.com. This is a topic that people are excited about! There have been tons of questions and inside the group regarding how to hire help. So, we are going to do our best to answer them all. Let's dive in. What you need to know before you make your first hire Here's a word of warning—it's hard to hire people. You have spent time and energy building your TpT business and it's hard to hand over tasks to others. Essentially, you have to trust them to be able to continue the work you have started. It can be tough. Not every person you hire is going to be the right fit. But before you even start looking f

The back-to-school rush has come and gone! Now it's time to figure out how to promote our resources for the rest of the year. Today we're talking about leveraging promotions. And, we’re continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. Happy back to school! It's that busy time of year where everyone's adjusting to new schedules. But, the back-to-school sales rush is over which leaves us TpTers asking "What now?" The back-to-school time is great for sales as teachers prepare for their classes, but it's also a time when it's easy to get lost in the crowd. There are tons of sales, giveaways, and promotions going on. This is one of the reasons why it's great to continue doing promotions throughout the year. Angie and I are working on creating our promotion schedule for the year. Teachers are really appreciative of fun giveaways and promotions throughout the year, so don't think you have to wait until t

You've heard about the importance of building an email list, but what are you supposed to do with it once you have it? We're discussing how to consistently use your list and the importance of growing it today on the podcast. And, we're continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com. Building an email list. It seems to be one of those things that's on every TpTers to-do list, but it's often not something that we focus on. April and I both admit that we haven't been real consistent with sending out emails to our lists over the summer either. That's why we brought Nicki from The Sprinkle Topped Teacher on the podcast to share how she grew her TpT store by focusing on building and using an email list. A little about Nicki Nicki started her store, The Sprinkle Topped Teacher, back in September of 2015. Her original focus was on K-3 products, but she has moved into creating resources for a broader audien

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This is the final week of our four-week blogging challenge and we are focusing on marketing blog posts. We took the information we covered in our workshop at the TpT Conference and turned it into a challenge. The goal is to help you set up a blogging plan that you can stick to. No big deal if you missed the conference workshop! This challenge will work for any TpTer. Join our mastermind group for blogging accountability as we work through the challenge: www.growwithusmastermind.com. In Week 4 we are going to focus on putting together everything we learned in the first week and start marketing our blog posts. In order to complete the tasks this week, you're going to need to work through the first 3 weeks. So, if you're just joining us, go back and check out what you missed: Plan Your Year: Week 1 - Learn how to set up a blogging plan for the year that's easy to follow. Blog Optimization & Prep: Week 2 - Focus on optimizing your website so you'll be ready when you start getting blog readers. Craft