The Rebranded Teacher
The Rebranded Teacher
Time Management Tips
Just a few time management tips I've learned juggling multiple businesses with kids at home.
You guys are in for a little bit of a treat today because I'm going to give you sort of a prequel, if you will, to an upcoming workshop that we have. It's going to be free for RTA members. So if you're in Rebranded Teacher Academy, you're not going to want to buy the workshop. You're going to get it for free. It's going to be on December 30th and it's called the TPT Profit Plan how to Build the Business of your Dreams in 2025. And we're going to set you up for success in 2025. And we're going to plan everything together. This is not a sales pitch, because if you're listening, chances are you're already in Rebranded Teacher Academy and you are already going to attend for free. So this is just to tell you that I'm going to be covering some of the principles, maybe even in a little bit more depth than I will at the upcoming workshop. So a couple of you guys asked me to do a private podcast on time management, like how to manage your time, how to split up your time and your focus in order to make the best use of your time in your business, and this is going to kind of go back to a phenomenal mindset shift.
Speaker 0:Back in September I attended. Stu McLaren has a mastermind group for six-figure membership owners and I attended this mastermind meeting and he had a special guest speaker, jay Papasan, who co-authored the One Thing. If you've never read the book, the title is pretty self-explanatory it's just about focusing on the one thing in your business that's going to provide the most growth for you. But within this workshop, within this sort of TED talk, if you will, that he presented, he was talking about how to decide what the one thing is going to be for your business, or how to decide what to focus on in your business so that you're able to split your time up accordingly. Also, side note, one of the things that Stu McLaren talks about a lot is your three main revenue drivers in your business, which are traffic, conversion and retention, and with those three revenue drivers, you have to decide what are you going to focus on and when are you going to focus on those things? Because those are going to be the big three that are going to bring more revenue into your business traffic, conversion and retention, so kind of combining these two ideas here.
Speaker 0:When it comes to managing your time, I would sit down and make a list of all the things that you currently have to do within the traffic category driving traffic to your TPT store, the things that you have to do in order to increase or maintain a high conversion rate for your products. And then retention what keeps your customers coming back and or how can you keep your customers coming back. And so, really looking at those three categories and from that, looking at what is currently working for you in each of those categories and what's currently not so, kind of taking some inventory. So, for example, you might look at the traffic category and say, well, I'm doing really well at driving traffic from Pinterest, but email marketing is not going so well. Or maybe I'm doing great at driving traffic through email marketing, but I'm not getting as many views as I would like from TPT search. So then, really prioritizing what is going to be my main focus for, say, the next month or for the next two months or quarter when it comes to traffic driving and choosing one thing.
Speaker 0:Then taking a look at conversion what is going really well for me, what is currently converting really well for me, why do I believe it's converting really well for me, and how do I get other products to convert in the same way? Maybe it has to do with the way that product is being marketed, maybe it has to do with the previews, maybe it has to do with just the product itself and something about that resource is converting better than other resources in your store. How do I get whatever is making those high converting products? How do I get that quality and apply it to other resources within my store in order to increase my overall conversion rate? And choosing what that one thing is going to be whether that's updating previews or maybe updating product descriptions, utilizing upsells or downsells within your business, and choosing what that one thing is going to be for conversion.
Speaker 0:And then, finally, looking at retention what resources are buyers purchasing more than one of? So when a buyer comes to my store, like, go through your sales details and when you're looking at your sales details, find the people who have a number greater than one next to their name. So once they purchased a product, it'll have in parentheses it'll say like four or 12 or 37 or one, and you can click on their name from sales details and you can see what products did they purchase. When did they purchase them? Did they purchase them when did they purchase them? Did they purchase them all at the same time, do they continue to come back and see if you notice any trends? If they purchase one particular resource from you, are they more likely to come back and purchase other resources?
Speaker 0:If they purchase a single resource in your store like if you have a bestseller but it's not necessarily leading to other sales meaning like a lot of people are purchasing this Christmas resource but they're not coming back and ever purchasing anything again from you then take a look at how can I increase retention for that product. If they're purchasing a lot of this product but they're not coming back, how do I change that? What is one thing that I can do to increase customer retention and get them to continue to come back, whether that is cross-selling and providing links to other products within that resource after they've purchased it. Maybe it's making sure that that product has a high quality lead magnet or email opt-in within that resource so you can get them on your email list and sell to them later on. Whatever that is, you pick one thing that you can do to increase conversion and you're going to focus on that one thing. So you're picking one thing in each category traffic, conversion and retention and then split your time up so that you are focused on that one thing for the entirety of a month. So if we've got a quarter and I can split it up and I can focus on traffic one month, conversion the next month and retention the following month.
Speaker 0:So when we're talking about an increase in traffic could mean that I'm creating new resources in order to increase exposure or have more avenues or ways for people to come to my store to find my products right by increasing the number of products that I'm creating. But I'm really focusing and keeping the main thing for that month on whatever that one task is, and then I'm gonna make a sub list. I'm gonna make a list of things that I just have to do just to maintain the rest of my business, whether that's customer support, posting on social media, sending out emails, creating podcasts, whatever it is. I'm going to make a list of all of the things that I have to do, like bare minimum things that I have to do just to keep everything going, and I would set aside the time to do those bare minimum things and then all of the rest of my time would go to focusing on that one thing, that one goal for the month of increasing retention, increasing conversion rates or increasing traffic. So that's how I would split up my time.
Speaker 0:Beyond this, if you are no longer a one-man show, I would focus on what are those tasks that have to be done in order to just keep the business afloat, and how can I outsource those tasks. So how can I outsource the things that have to be done routinely to keep the business afloat and how can I outsource those tasks? So how can I outsource the things that have to be done routinely to keep the business going? How can I outsource those things so that I can focus on these three big things that are really going to be the biggest revenue drivers for my business and that, again, that would be the first thing that I would look to outsource. So one of the things that I'm doing right now is I'm looking at all of those across the board, and you guys know I have a lot of businesses.
Speaker 0:One could say, in fact I could say, I have too many businesses, there are too many things going. There are many days where I step back and I go, okay, something's got to shut down because can't keep all of these up. And then there are other days where I step back and I go, okay, what else can I add to my plate? This is getting to be a little boring. What else can I do, right? So I kind of go back and forth on that, but one of the things that I've had to do here recently is somebody who's been working on my team for a while.
Speaker 0:They've taken on the role of project manager and we've had to put everything in a sauna. We've had to get a project management system. We've had to become a little bit more legit and every task goes into a song, so that I'm not having to constantly communicate with different team members, with different contractors, and try to keep everything going. We have a system. It's organized and tasks get auto assigned. As you know, one person completes their part, it auto assigns a task to the next part, so that I'm not having to do all of that and the project manager is able to oversee many, many steps of this and to take on the role of making sure that everything is getting done. All of the day-to-day things, customer support is handled, all of the things that have to be done, from scheduling emails to telling me what I need to be doing so that I'm sure that I get things done on time sourcing, clip art all of those things that have to be done in order to make sure that everybody is able to do their job and no one is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for me or making sure that things don't go stagnant in my business or emails aren't going out all that kind of stuff, all the things that have to be taken care of on a regular basis. Those things are being overseen or in the process of transitioning to them being overseen by the project manager and I'm able to focus on the really big parts of my business.
Speaker 0:So, for me, recently I've decided that this is going to be creating content, so, like this podcast, creating content within my memberships. This is going to be creating content, so, like this podcast, creating content within my memberships. This is going to be cultivating community, which is going to be the next piece. Right now I'm in the thick of content, making lots and lots of content. Then the next step will be really cultivating community and kind of taking a break from the content creation wheel and finding ways to improve the community within my memberships. And then also coaching. I want to do more coaching, ultimately, because I feel like it helps me know what sellers want, need most, and kind of keeps me sharp, but it also provides something that a lot of people within the rebranded teacher community are asking for, and so it allows me to build relationships with members inside of the community and it also allows me to kind of stay sharp and continue to learn and to grow in that area.
Speaker 0:So content, community and coaching those are the three things that are on my list that I get to focus on, and everything else I have decided I'm just not going to do. So if it doesn't fall under that category, I'm not going to do it. Somebody else has to do it, and I have to figure out a way to outsource that or to just get rid of it altogether. And I think, when you start to really diversify and expand your business, that this piece is really important. When you're growing your team, you're outsourcing, you really have to look at what are the things that I'm going to do, and I find it easiest to just put them in categories, because then I can't just choose to do something because I want to do it right. I can't just decide well, I want to do that or that's easy for me, so I'm going to do it, or it's easier for me to do it than to teach somebody else Like I can't make that choice. It has to fit into the categories that I've created and allowed for myself and then, if it doesn't, then I have to figure out an alternate way to get it done or decide that it's not going to be a part of my business structure. So, when it comes to splitting your time, I think the most important thing is understanding what your biggest revenue drivers are going to be and really focusing on those big revenue drivers traffic conversion retention inside of your TPT business and then, as you expand, allow other people to focus on different areas of that traffic conversion retention and you choose the places where you are going to be most effective and outsource or remove anything else that's on your to-do list, apart from those things that you are best at and you've decided to keep inside your real house.
Speaker 0:Now, splitting my time on a practical basis, like how to split your time on a practical basis in terms of, like, what do you do each day? I really love the method of on Mondays I do this, on Tuesdays I do that, so for me this looks like on Mondays my main focus is the math membership. I will do other things, like, as I'm recording this. Right now it's a Monday and I do have a few other things that I need to do, but I also needed to get this to my podcast editor and it kind of felt like doing it today, so I went ahead and did it, but I'll stay up a little bit later tonight and complete the tasks that I have to complete for the math membership. So, mondays the math membership, because we're really in this growing phase. Right now it gets a full day.
Speaker 0:Tuesday through Thursday. I'm really focusing on creating content, primarily for the memberships, and I'm also as much as I would love for it to just not be part of my job. It still is part of my job to answer questions for team members. That takes up more of my day than I would like to admit, so hopefully that changes in the near future, but for right now that still is part of my job and so I end up doing that and creating content in some form or fashion. Fridays is usually my wrap-up day. So anything that I have on my to-do list or anything that I need for my project manager to be aware of in the coming weeks, or any tasks that I want somebody on my team to do I'm usually focusing on outsourcing those tasks, getting those tasks to them or finishing up the small items that are on my to-do list.
Speaker 0:Saturday is my big day and this is my main content creation day. This is when I film the vast majority of my podcasts. This is when I film the vast majority of content for the inside of my membership, and during the week I'm really doing small pieces of content, so like, for example, this week I'm doing these shorter podcasts. Later tonight I'm really doing small pieces of content, so like, for example, this week I'm doing these shorter podcasts. Later tonight I'm gonna send out a couple of emails that I have to send out, touch base with a few people, and then, tuesday through Thursday, I have a few short videos and tutorials that I'm going to film, and then I'm also going to be working on sales pages, email opt-ins, tweaking sequences, all of those little necessary evils. I say evils, but it really is important and it is still content. Like, creating a sales page is still creating content. Although I do have someone who is going to be helping me with the majority of that, I still kind of have to do the bulk of it myself. So I'll be working on some of those things this week and then on Saturday I'm going to finish all the rest of my filming for my new front end membership selling 101. I'm going to be finishing that up on Saturday, so, and then all of that will be getting uploaded next week. So I'll oversee the upload of that next week, kind of like finalize that project and get some information out to potential affiliate and lots of little things still.
Speaker 0:But I try to segment my week so that I know like on Tuesday I'm not going to be working on math membership stuff, I'm not going to be sidetracked by that. I'm really solely focused on creating content for RTA or overseeing the creation of content for my math brand or for the homeschool brand. So one of those two things. But yeah, that's kind of what it looks like on a practical basis.
Speaker 0:I love being able to split up my days. I feel like it makes it a lot easier to not get sidetracked and if you can do something like that, if you can get on that kind of schedule, I feel like that is one of the most productive ways because you're kind of forced to batch at that point so that you don't get behind. Hopefully this was helpful If you have tips that have helped you out. Be sure and share. If you're in Rebranded Teacher Academy, share instead of Rebranded Teacher Academy, so others can learn from you. In the next episode, I'll be back and I'll give you an update with where my new TPT store is at right now, what the month of October looked like, what I'm planning for cyber sales all of that good stuff right back here in the next episode.