The Rebranded Teacher
The Rebranded Teacher
TpT Blinders On: 5 Things You Should NEVER Give Your Energy To
Finding yourself wasting precious hours scrolling through Facebook groups, comparing your TPT store to others, or stressing about platform changes that are completely outside your control? You're not alone. The TPT seller community is filled with noise that can easily derail your focus and drain your limited energy reserves.
In this no-nonsense episode, I tackle the five most common distractions that prevent teacher-entrepreneurs from making meaningful progress in their businesses. From the dangerous trap of fixating on other sellers' earnings to the false promise of "quick hacks" that claim to transform your business overnight, I break down why these distractions are so harmful and how to put your blinders on to stay focused on what truly matters.
We dive deep into why copying someone else's successful strategy rarely works (hint: it's like being that awkward kid repeating jokes at the lunch table hoping for the same laughs), how comparing business expenses with other sellers can lead to poor financial decisions, and why engaging in negative conversations about TPT platform issues only wastes your valuable time and mental energy.
As teachers juggling classrooms, families, and side businesses, our energy is our most precious resource. This episode provides practical guidance for protecting that energy and channeling it into activities that will actually move your business forward in meaningful ways. Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale your existing TPT business, these insights will help you build a more purposeful and sustainable teacher business without the distractions.
What area of your TPT business do you need to put blinders on for? Share your thoughts and join our community of focused, purpose-driven teacher-entrepreneurs!
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Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teachers, Pay Teachers, and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT 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:Let's face it, it's easy to waste hours scrolling, comparing or stressing about things that aren't going to move the needle in your TPT business, and if you've ever felt distracted, overwhelmed or drained, then today's episode is for you. We're going to be talking about five things in the TPT world that you should just put your blinders on to. Five things that are talked about a lot, discussed a lot within the TPT community, and a lot of it has more to do with keeping up with the Joneses or trying to discover some sort of miracle hack that's going to get you to the top, versus focusing on things that are within your control that are actually going to get you where you want to be in your business. So let's talk about that. There are so many podcasts, youtube videos, blog posts and Lord knows there are even more TikTok and Instagram people who claim to be TPT gurus. Even beyond that, there are people within the seller community who are offering their own advice, sharing things that have worked for them, and I see a lot of things that sellers are paying attention to that they really don't need to, and the first thing is other people's earnings how much money other people make. Now I understand that it can be very inspirational and it can like help keep you going a lot of times to find out that this person that you follow just made $5,000 on TPT last month, or they made $10,000 last month, or 20, 30, however much right. It can be really inspirational. It could be like, oh my gosh, that could be me. And it could really kind of spur you on and keep you going. And I love a good inspo story, do not get me wrong. I think it's also kind of nice to sometimes, when you're taking advice from someone, to know how much money that they're making.
Speaker 2:Now, this is obviously a really personal decision. I have people ask me all the time how much I make and I don't tell them. You know that's, for me, not really interested in sharing all the nitty gritty of my business finances for many, many reasons. But this is why I think you should put a lot less stock and energy into how much other people are making, and this is where I see it being most dangerous. I'm not necessarily talking about the occasional YouTube video where somebody shares an income or an earnings report or anything like that, where you get to choose a lot of times. You may even look it up right, just to kind of see what's possible. It's really not about that. I really see it more on like the occasional Facebook post where somebody says, oh my gosh, I just hit a milestone, like I just had my first thousand dollar month, or I just made my first $500 or I just hit a hundred thousand dollars. Whatever the case may be Right, one of the first things that I see when I jumped down into the comments is a bunch of new sellers were saying what kind of products do you make?
Speaker 2:What's your store name? Where, would you say, the majority of your sales come from? And these questions in and of themselves are not bad and I understand why people want to know, but I think they're really focused on the wrong thing. Rather than maybe asking that person like, hey, what is one piece of advice that you would give someone who wants to be in your shoes, which I think is a much better question to ask someone to congratulate them this is really incredible Congratulations. If you have time and you don't mind sharing, what's one piece of advice that you would give to someone who wants to be in that same position one day? I think that's much better advice versus focusing on, I think, a lot of times like which product brought in the most sales, or I want to go see their store so I can see what's selling for them or what they're creating, things like that.
Speaker 2:When you really start to hyper fixate on where someone's money is coming from, how they made that money and what products are selling, all of that, when you really start to focus on all of that, you really get into dangerous territory because you are not that person. How they made their money is not going to be how you make your money, because you're two different people and their strengths are not your strengths and your strengths are not their strengths. Which means that if I try to emulate the people, if I start to really focus on, like this person's making this much money and this person's making that much money, and I start to like really focus on what they're doing and how much money they have coming in and all of this stuff, not only does it make me feel less than, or can it make me feel less than, because I'm not seeing the same type of results, but it makes me really want to hyper fixate on how they got those results so that I can get them too. And that brings me to number two, which is chasing what's making other people money. So chasing the thing that's making other people money. So chasing the thing that's making other people money.
Speaker 2:So if I'm seeing that a seller is doing really well and they're making a certain type of product or they're doing a certain type of marketing or whatever, and if I try to emulate that, if I try to do what they're doing to get the results that they get, it's not going to work for me. Now I'm not saying that there's not some sort of strategy or technique that I could take and I could implement and utilize in my own way. That's not what I'm saying. So I'm not saying like oh, that person's doing email marketing, I should try email marketing too. Yeah, okay, that's totally valid, right? What I'm talking about is saying like oh, they're making a bunch of sales with task cards, I should start making task cards too. Or they're making these trendy videos on TikTok. I should start making trendy videos on TikTok too, and starting to try to do exactly what they're doing and copy them and I don't necessarily mean in a way that's infringing on their copyright or anything like that, but copy what they're doing so that I can get the results that they have.
Speaker 2:I'm really putting myself in a position to fail, because the truth is like bad form to start copying somebody else. But the truth is that I'm not going to get the results that they got because my personality is different, my strengths and what I have to bring to the table in the TPT space or in the education space is different than their strengths, and that's going to shine through. It's going to be a lot like that person, and this is kind of how I view it. You'll start being that awkward kid at the lunch table who starts copying the jokes that they're hearing. The popular funny kid get laughs at so that they can get laughs too, right, and it becomes obvious to everyone who's sitting at the table that that kid is not being authentically themselves and it's kind of annoying to everybody at the table too and it's not getting them the results that they want. So that's not what you want to do in the TPT space.
Speaker 2:If you see another seller who's having success, cheer them on, celebrate them, and if you want to feel free to ask them, what's one piece of advice that you would give to someone like me? Now, if this person is openly offering advice, like, say, on a YouTube channel or a podcast or on their social media, then they're already giving you the best advice that they have to give, and so you can continue to listen and enjoy and soak it in, and that is a really great practice. If it's somebody else in the TPT space and they're posting an open celebration, say inside of a Facebook group, feel free to ask for one piece of advice or scan the comments to see if they've already offered it. But asking them for specifics like where their money is coming from in terms of marketing or products or whatever, it's not going to do anything for you, it's not doing anything for them, and it's one of those things that you just kind of need to put your blinders on so that you can focus on what you need to focus on in your TPT business.
Speaker 2:The next one is negative. Talk about things that you cannot control. Deep breath. I know that a lot of us have a lot invested in TPT. We've invested a lot of time, we've invested a lot of our energy and there is a lot at stake when TPT does something wrong or when they do something right. But if you are getting sucked into the types of posts that you know, talk about errors on TPT or something that's messed up or you know whatever things that are outside of your control, or decisions that TPT makes that you don't agree with. That's when you need to start putting your blinders on, because if TPT is making a decision that you have no control over, or if a website malfunctions right, or if there's a glitch, like whatever, if other sellers are doing something that you don't like and you have no control over it, then it is going to do nothing but take away from the time that you should be spending growing your business and building your business. So when you start to see a bunch of like negative talk about TPT, about things that are happening in the seller space, whatever, if you're starting to notice a bunch of that, just start putting your blinders on and the instant you realize this is going to be a negative conversation, don't even go to the comments, don't even read the rest of the post, just scroll on. I promise your business will be in a lot better place if you do this.
Speaker 2:Number four how other people spend their money. This is another thing you really need to put the blinders on in your TPT business, because how other people spend their money in their business depends on how much money they're making, how much they need that money for their own personal household income, what their goals are for their business, their ultimate goals are for their business and where they're trying to move their business in the future. So how a business owner spends their money is extremely personal to the business itself and even personal to their own finances. So I say this because I think, like when I first started out, like nobody had VAs, nobody had writers, like nobody had people helping them. Everyone was doing it themselves and they might be making a million dollars a year, but they were doing it all themselves. You know what I mean, they weren't hiring anybody.
Speaker 2:And then we kind of started to see this switch where more and more people started to hire, which is great, and they started to outsource, which is fantastic. And then we started to see we're like now, you know, you get people who are like now that I'm making $100 a month, I'm ready to start hiring someone, and I just kind of like okay, like I mean it's your money. If you want to take that $100 a month and you want to reinvest it, like that's fantastic, but I don't know that that's going to be the best choice for your business. But they feel like that's the next logical step Because, like, oh, now that I'm having a little bit of a profit, next logical step is I'm going to hire someone and that's going to just like, catapult my business. And that's usually not the thing we usually hire in order to streamline, in order to free up time, so that we can focus on things that will make us more money than the money that we're spending. So, not saying you should or shouldn't hire, not saying that there's a certain point, like it's very personal is what I'm saying Same for, like, what other people are spending their money on as far as, like, tools and subscriptions that are going to help them further their business.
Speaker 2:A lot of people will spend money on SEO tools and that's fantastic, but that's probably not going to be the thing that's going to catapult your business into success. Do you know what I mean? So just because other people are spending money on it doesn't mean that you need to be spending money on it too. And just because people are spending a certain amount of their money doesn't mean that you need to be spending that amount of your money too. It's just not the same.
Speaker 2:I know sellers who are extremely, extremely conservative with their finances and with their expenses. And, like every year, they're looking at like where finances and with their expenses? And, like every year, they're looking at like, where can I cut right? Like, where can I cut down on my expenses? What are things that I'm paying for that are not necessary? And we're talking about like $5 a month cuts for a business that makes $20,000 a month, right. So there are sellers who are extremely conservative with this and they do very well. And then there are other sellers who are like, you know, $5 is $5. I'm looking for where can I take this money and where can I invest it so that I can turn $500 into $5,000. And they're thinking differently. So every business has its own system based on its own goals, based on the business owner's comfort level and how other TPT sellers spend their money should not dictate or determine how you spend your money, because you have two completely different businesses.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, quick hacks. Now, I know we all use and I'm sure I've said hacks, I'm sure I've said quick hacks, quick whatever. I'm sure we've all said it. So I'm not attacking anybody who advertises having a quick hack, because some hacks are, in fact, quite genius and really incredible, but I think, when it comes to anything that someone is promising you, like this is going to change your business overnight, or this is going to be the thing that is going to turn your business your TPT business into an overnight success. It's gonna catapult you from $500 a month to $5,000 a month. Like this is going to be the big game changer for your business. And it's some sort of hack.
Speaker 2:Anytime you hear that, I would just put the blinders on 99.9 times out of 100, there's not gonna be one singular thing that's going to turn your business from a flop to a money-making machine overnight.
Speaker 2:Like it's just not gonna happen. So if you find yourself really drawn towards finding time-saving hacks, money-making hacks, profit-building hacks, marketing hacks, all that kind of stuff if you find yourself really drawn toward those things, I would encourage you to put your blinders on and really focus on long-term and really start trying to focus on thinking about your business as something that you want to be a long-term success and have a long-term, well thought out plan for, versus trying to stack a bunch of hacks on top of each other in order to make something work. And I'll close with this like energy is your most valuable resource as a teacher business owner. Most of us the vast majority of us are parents, teachers, business owners, spouses, daughters, friends, like. We have a whole life outside of TPT, and TPT is usually not our only job.
Speaker 2:We have people who depend on us, we have people who rely on us, and this is a small part of who we are and what we do, and so, as a business owner, one of the most important things that you can do for your business is really protect what's coming in and direct that energy into things that are actually going do for your business is really protect what's coming in and direct that energy into things that are actually going to help your business grow, and not distractions that are going to pull you away, make you worried, make you concerned or make you feel like you're not doing enough or make you feel like you're focusing on all the wrong things.
Speaker 2:If you have an area of your business where you've had to put the blinders on whether it's from Shiny Object Centrum, where you want to buy all the courses and all the templates and all the clip art, or you are someone who gets easily concerned by headlines that talk about how AI is gonna take over the education space, whatever it may be. Drop it down below and let us know where have you had to put the blinders on in your own business so that you can focus on the things that are actually going to move your business forward. As always, be sure to like this video and subscribe. I put out weekly content for TPT sellers to help you grow your business in a way that is purposeful and sustainable. I'm going to see you right back here next week.