Unlock the potential of your Teacher Pay Teachers store with these resources that are meant to help sellers grow!
We'll discuss how Your Data Playbook can help with data analysis and skyrocket product sales, share the profound benefits of engaging with the TPT community at conferences, and show you why strategic investments in growth tools can catapult your business to new heights. I'll also take you give you more information about the Rebranded Teacher Academy, where monthly challenges and on-demand courses are tailored to power-boost your entrepreneurial journey.
Join me as we delve into the nuances of email marketing, keyword optimization, and the personalized guidance that coaching and paid masterminds offer. These aren't just buzzwords—they are the keystones of your success on TPT. Plus, we'll navigate through the sensitive, often-overlooked topic of estate planning for TPT sellers, with a nod to Angie Kratzer's invaluable business organization planner. It's an episode packed with practical advice aimed at helping you leave a lasting legacy with your TPT store.
Unlock the potential of your Teacher Pay Teachers store with these resources that are meant to help sellers grow!
We'll discuss how Your Data Playbook can help with data analysis and skyrocket product sales, share the profound benefits of engaging with the TPT community at conferences, and show you why strategic investments in growth tools can catapult your business to new heights. I'll also take you give you more information about the Rebranded Teacher Academy, where monthly challenges and on-demand courses are tailored to power-boost your entrepreneurial journey.
Join me as we delve into the nuances of email marketing, keyword optimization, and the personalized guidance that coaching and paid masterminds offer. These aren't just buzzwords—they are the keystones of your success on TPT. Plus, we'll navigate through the sensitive, often-overlooked topic of estate planning for TPT sellers, with a nod to Angie Kratzer's invaluable business organization planner. It's an episode packed with practical advice aimed at helping you leave a lasting legacy with your TPT store.
Welcome to the rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teacher's Pay teachers, and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPD businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:
In this final worth it episode, we're going to be talking about growth tools that I believe are absolutely worth it. So I think that I can pretty well definitively say that every single one of the things that we're going to talk about today would be beneficial, or could be beneficial, for your business and would be worth the investment, whether that's a time investment or a money investment. We're going to be talking about your data playbook. We're going to be talking about the TPD conference and other conferences. We'll be talking about coaching and rebranded Teacher Academy. There will be a shameless plug yes for my membership. I'm not even embarrassed about that, because I think it's a really great tool, and so we're going to go ahead and get started. We're going to dive right in.
Speaker 2:
Let's start with number one your data playbook. So this is actually one of the biggest ones, and I get a lot of questions every time your data playbook opens up. I'm not an affiliate for them. I've been a member for quite a long time I want to say about two years now, a little over two years and I continue to pay for it because I continue to think that it's absolutely worth the investment. Say upfront that I'm one of the members that pay for it. I enjoy its offerings, I enjoy everything that it has to offer, but I definitely do not utilize it to its fullest potential. Okay, so I am definitely one of those members that said, what I do utilize I really love, and when I'm able to sit down and to really look at everything, I really love it. It's been beneficial for my business. So your data playbook is essentially a VA data service. It's a subscription. It's on the pricey side. The last I looked and I'm just going to give a ballpark range here because then it was a good change at any time, but the last I looked, I think it's around $50 a month for their lowest membership tier. You still get a ton of incredible value within the membership. So the basis of the membership, or the basics of it, is that it takes if you're not familiar, it takes your sales data on TPT, so all of your product statistics, basically any piece of data that you can get from TPT either from your dashboard, your product statistics, et cetera and they go in and they will download that data on a regular basis. So, depending on what tier you're paying for, we'll determine how often they'll go in and download that data for you and then they enter it into. They use Tableau, but it's this software where they've taken the data and it'll configure it for you. They've come up with their own ways to configure that data within Tableau to give you specific information about your store and your products. So, for example, I can take a look.
Speaker 2:
No matter what tier you're in, you get access to a product conversion matrix and it basically tells you which products are underperforming, which products might be overperforming and what you need to do to fix it. So it'll give you a spreadsheet and it'll say these are your top products that need to be fixed. And here, specifically, what we recommend you do. We recommend, based on data, that you optimize your previews, or you optimize your thumbnails in your previews, or you need to optimize your coverage, thumbnails and previews, and it'll give you an idea of what your view to preview ratio, your preview to purchase ratio, your conversion is all of that stuff and it tells you specifically how your conversion is performing, whether that's above average so maybe in that case you might need to consider a price increase or if it's below average for your store, or what specific action you need to take for that product. They also include so many additional things like depending on what tier you're in depends on what all you get, but you get access to a lot of different insights for your business.
Speaker 2:
So, for example, in the month of January they just rolled out where they gave you like a year in review and they told you like here, specifically what category? And you land in this earnings bracket. And if you wanna make it to the next earnings bracket, here's what their data looks like. They're getting this many views compared to you. Their conversion rate is this compared to yours? They told you like you're getting this many views on your product. Next earning bracket is getting this many views. Your average price of a product sold in your store is this. The next tier has this average price.
Speaker 2:
And it kind of like goes back and forth between like here's what your conversion rate is and here's what the conversion rate is for the average person in the next tier up or earnings tier up from you, and so you're able to kind of look and compare and see like, oh okay, in order to make it to that next earning tier or in order to increase my revenue and get to that next place in my business, then I need to maybe increase the average price of my product or I need to really work on conversion rate compared to where I'm at with everybody else, and it gives you just a lot of insights.
Speaker 2:
They'll also tell you like, hey, you made this change to your product. We can tell you made a product title change, here's what has happened since then. And it'll tell you like how much, whether or not it was a good change, a bad change, and you get information like I'll get like an email once a month that says here's the change that you made to a title last month and here's how much more money that it generated for you. And so those kinds of insights are incredibly helpful. And I can't say definitively that they're open at the moment. They only open at certain times. But I know that, like, what's included in each membership tier is different, but there's so much information about you, your store, and there's plenty of data and plenty of things to work on, no matter which membership tier you're in.
Speaker 2:
So if you're looking to grow your business and you're at a place where you have some additional income that you can invest in your business, I think that this one is a no-brainer for anybody who's in the market to optimize their existing resources. Now, if you're specifically looking at product creation, for the next little while I would say, probably not gonna help you so much with product creation, but it will help you with existing resources and figuring out how to optimize the resources that you have. So the only groups of people that I would say that this is not for is if you're brand spanking new to TBT, you're still trying to put resources in your store or you have very little data to go off of, so you need to have a certain number of views on your products before they can give you data back that can definitively say oh, this is the problem or this is what you need to work on, and so I would say that your products, on average, need to have about 500 views on them Not every single product in your store, but a good bit. I think I heard the number 30,000 views, or 30,000 total views thrown around last time in order to be able to get some good data back, but you definitely need to have some data for them to work with In order for you to get some solid advice back or in order for the data to be able to definitively tell you something. So if you're at a place where you're just not earning very much money and you can't afford the $50 someone's YDP is not for you I would say that you need to be at a place where you can spend the $50 very confidently, that either you're okay with losing the $50 if you're not using the product or you feel really confident that you would be able to implement the changes every single month that you need to implement instead of your business in order to earn that $50 back. And I think for most people, they find that pretty easy to do because all you have to really do is improve a couple of products, or maybe even one product, and then it's paid for itself, just depending on again, depending on what membership tier you're in and how much it's costing you. But I think that your data playbook is definitely a no-brainer for a lot of people If you're at a place where you're ready to spend a little bit of money and you're ready to invest in your business and you're ready to optimize your existing resources, then I think your data playbook is a great, great move.
Speaker 2:
The next one would be the TPT conference and teacher-seller summit. I'm putting those two together for a couple of reasons. First, the TPT conference. I get asked about a lot Like is it worth it, should I pay for it, should I go? All that kind of stuff. Because obviously in like this year 2024, what they're currently saying is that there's not gonna be a virtual option in 2024. That's the last I heard. That could change. They could change their mind, but as of right now the last I heard there's no virtual option for 2024. What that means is that you've got to fly, you've got a hotel stay, you've got meals, you've got the ticket cost and all of that kind of wrapped up together.
Speaker 2:
I have been to one in-person like big TPT conference when it was down in Austin. I really loved it. I made a lot of great connections there and I enjoyed it. I felt like it was definitely worth the expense, even if I had had to fly. But I would say that the biggest part of attending the TPT conference is not so much the knowledge that you gain in the sessions although you do walk away with some knowledge in sessions, but we'll talk about that in a second. It's really more about the connections that you make. So I would say that if you are going to invest in going to the TPT conference, make sure that you're getting plugged in. Talk to other people, ask questions, invite people to go to lunch or to go to dinner or have breakfast or whatever. Participate in all of those things, because I feel like the biggest part of going to the TPT conference and it being worth it is making connections with other sellers, having conversations with them, and you learn a whole lot more that way, but also you kind of build some lifelong connections that you can take back with you, people that you can reach out to and ask questions or partner with later on. I think it's a really invaluable experience and I think that everybody should do it at least once. That said, if you're not at a place where you're able or where you're able to travel or willing to travel, it's just not a good time for you.
Speaker 2:
A really great option is going to be teacher-seller summit. Now, of course, I'm biased to this Myself and my business partner Brooklyn. She and I host the teacher-seller summit. This is going to be our second year it's a virtual conference but we do recognize the difference between this conference and other virtual conferences is that we recognize some of the most valuable information that you're going to get, or some of those valuable parts of attending a conference, is making those connections and having those conversations, versus just sitting down and listening to somebody talk because honestly, like at the TPT conference, the information that's being put out there you can probably find from somebody else. Last year, I want to say, at least half of the presenters, if not more, at the TPT conference were also presenters for teacher-seller summit. Presenters typically present at other places other than just TPT and they're sharing their expertise via other avenues as well. You don't necessarily have to attend the TPT conference to get that information. You're attending it for connections and for the experience, which is 100% worth it. But with teacher-seller summit, one of the things that we do and this happens in June it's going to be the last weekend in June this year, in 2024, you can find a link down inside of the description to sign up to get notified when tickets go on sale for that, because they'll open up, I believe, april 1st. So really excited about that.
Speaker 2:
But basically we have live panel discussions where you can ask experts and talk to experts about email marketing, social media marketing, growing your TPT store, seo, all of that kind of stuff and you can ask questions to a panel of experts and just listen to them bounce ideas off each other. We also have roundtable discussions where you can show up and just talk and bounce ideas off of other sellers. We have little breakout rooms that you can go into and you can chat with people live. We have co-working spaces where you can go in and you can meet other sellers. We have chats. We have all kinds of things. It's absolutely amazing. We try to make it as interactive as possible and we're going to be doing even more of that this year, so we're really excited about that.
Speaker 2:
So if you can't do the in-person TPT conference, 100% teacher seller summit was the most talked about virtual conference last year Like it is the best bang for your buck 100% You're going to get probably the best virtual experience at teacher seller summit. This is not to be confused with teacher sellers growth summit. That is something totally different that we don't have anything to do with. This is just TSS teacher seller summit and again, you can find the link to that down in the description if you want to sign up to get notified when that opens up. You'll also hear about it a lot right here and on the podcast because I'll have presenters and things like that here to chat with us before the conference ever starts. So investing in going to a conference is going to be absolutely invaluable.
Speaker 2:
Number three is rebranded teacher academy. Obviously, if you're a member of RTA, then you already know. You already know it's the place to be. But in rebranded teacher academy this is kind of a hybrid between. It houses all of my courses, every course I've ever created, from email marketing to selling on TPT 101 to strategic growth. It has a whole library of templates and courses and anything that you could possibly need on demand. But then we also have lots and lots of monthly support.
Speaker 2:
So every single month we do a challenge. So at the time that I'm recording this, it's in January and we are doing a self audit for your TPT business and you literally like, take a quiz and you go through and you say missing this or this is missing, or this is missing in my store or in my business, and then from that quiz you go over to a plan and you create a plan. It gives you like a specific height to do items based on what your quiz was and quiz results were, and then we help you put that into practice in the coming year. So we help you kind of organize that and get you set up to plan out all of your goals for the year. So we did that in the month of January. That's part of our challenge and then there's a lot of supports along the way. So some months we're focused on, like next month in February we're doing we have a guest expert, a guest host who's gonna be coming in, melissa Saitaman. She's gonna be talking about setting up an email marketing funnel and then and that's gonna be the challenge is to work on your email marketing. And then in March we're specifically looking at keywords. We're here just optimizing keywords on our resource listings, our product listings. I'm really excited about that. Sometimes we look at previews, covers, et cetera, or product creation or getting ready for a site-wide sale. But every single month is a different focus. It's gonna help you grow your business in that one area and we give you the tools and the support that you need in order to do that, with co-working, calls, audits, office hours, things like that, round table discussions lots of different help from the community and it's a really great place to be. So that's definitely, I think, for any seller at any stage, because there are so many different avenues for support, whether you're brand new and you're finding support inside of that existing course library or you're participating in some of the monthly challenges just to kind of help you give your business some focus for that month without feeling overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:
And then, finally, number four is coaching and paid masterminds. If I could have told myself this a long time ago, let me tell you guys, 2023 was the year of paying for coaching for me. Last year, I had never really paid for coaching before, like I just kind of done everything on my own, and then I was finally like no, like I'm tired of trying to do everything by myself, like I need experts to help me, and I absolutely believe in this. So, whether that's paying for coaching for a new business venture like maybe you wanna start a YouTube channel and paying somebody to help you get that started, or paying somebody to help you get your TPT store together, or paying someone to help you hone your core, or to fix your email marketing or create a funnel for you whatever, I absolutely think that that is the investment that is very much worth it. The only thing that I would say is, of course, there are experts in different areas and I would definitely ask around, but that is something that I would recommend.
Speaker 2:
Another thing would be a paid mastermind. There are a couple of people who are doing it right now like very hindliest one that comes to mind, but I think that there are probably other people who are doing them as well. Or you could just have a paid mastermind that you organize yourself and everyone puts in a certain amount of money each month to participate, even if it's just a small amount, like 20 bucks a month or $10 a month, and maybe you can have little challenges for each other within that month. And whoever does whatever, creates the most resources or optimizes the most resources, updates the most previews like whatever you wanna do gets to split the pot. So it could be that you just give the membership dues right back to each other. But having something where people are absolutely invested and you know they're invested because they're spending money to be there can be really, really helpful, because you're working, then, with people even if they're peers, even if they're on the same level as you. You're working with people who are very serious about growing their business, and you've got that accountability and support along the way. So highly recommend coaching and paid masterminds as well.
Speaker 2:
So these are four growth tools that I definitely recommend, and then there's a fifth one that isn't necessarily a growth tool I wasn't really sure where to put this one, but I thought it was so cool and I think it's really helpful for a lot of people. This is an estate planning document, like a business organization planner for, like, what happens after you die, right, what do I do with my tpt store? This is from Angie Kratzer. She's absolutely incredible and she's put together this really amazing planner for you to help you put together all of your business information, your tpt store information, like your practices, all the things that somebody might need, like.
Speaker 2:
Hopefully, one is going to need this anytime soon, but you know, if something were to happen to you and you were, you passed away or you were just like not able to work anymore and somebody had to take your store over, or your family had to figure out what to do with your business, this can really help you get all of that in order, and it's at a very, very reasonable price.
Speaker 2:
So I would say, if you're at any point in your tpt business where you're making more than five dollars a month and somebody's actually going to want to do something with your store like they need to know how to like access the money and like what to do to maintain things or do they need to pay anybody is there or are there any fees, like all that kind of stuff this would be a really great tool for you to have in your tool belt and just have it all planned out, ready to go filled out, so that after you're gone or if something happens to you and you're not able to work, then somebody else is able to access all of that information if you're not able to give it to them.
Speaker 2:
So that would be that's another tool. Again, I wasn't really quite sure where to fit that in. It's not SEO, it's not necessarily seller growth I mean it kind of is but I think it's a really great tool to have in your tool belt, no matter where you're at in your tpt business, and so I did want to mention that one. Thanks so much for being here. You guys, if you have a tool that's really helped you grow in your tpt business, make sure and leave a comment down below so that others can find out about it too. Thanks so much for being here, and I'm going to see you guys right back here next week.