Helping Teacherpreneurs Upgrade Their TpT Stores with Kirsten Hammond | 60
This week’s inspiring teacherpreneur journey is with Kirsten Hammond from The Southern Teach. I loved chatting with her about her business and how she has been able to grow to now support other teacherpreneurs upgrade their stores to make consistent incomes. Listen all the way to the end to hear from a special guest, Kirsten's 3 month old!
About Our Guest
Kirsten Hammond, also known as The Southern Teach, is a Texas teacher who creates engaging and minimal-prep educational resources for upper elementary teachers.
She also helps teacher sellers as well! She shares tips and strategies on her podcast on how to start, build, and grow a well-designed Teachers pay Teachers store that draws attention and brings in more sales each month. She also offers visual branding services for teacher sellers looking to give their TpT stores a fresh look!
Besides working as a teacherpreneur, Kirsten enjoys the finer things in life. Coffee is her BFF. Wine and cheese are her jam. British baking competitions, TLC reality shows, and barre class bring her joy. Her taste in music ranges from 70's light rock, 00's hip-hop, and everything in between!
Connect with Kirsten:
Website: thesouthernteach.com
The Creative Teacher Podcast with Kirsten Hammond
Don’t Forget To SUBSCRIBE
&
REVIEW the podcast!
Thanks for listening to this week’s Inspiring Story! If you would like to share your story on the podcast head to www.marketscalegrow.com/journey to apply today. We would love for you to join us and can’t wait to hear about your journey as a teacher business owner.
Episode Transcript:
Jenzaia: Welcome to market scale grow today. I'm talking with Kirsten from the Southern teach. We are going to hear all about her journey in teacherpreneurship. And I'm so excited. So welcome Kirsten.
Kirsten: Thank you so much for having me today.
Jenzaia: Do you want to just get started by letting everyone know where you're from and if you're still teaching what you teach, how long you've been a teacher?
Kirsten: For sure.
So I am from Texas. I've moved recently to the Austin area, but I lived in Houston for seven, eight years and I am in my eighth year of teaching. So I am actually currently on maternity leave technically. I extended it to the end of the year. I was going to go back in January, but chose to just kind of stay till the end.
But I've been teaching for eight years. I've taught kindergarten, third grade, fifth grade. My specialty is ELA social studies, but I've taught all subjects and I really enjoy [00:01:00] upper elementary. The most, definitely a lot of fun to be with those older kids.
Jenzaia: Oh, that's so nice. And it's cool that you've had a bit of experience in everything.
So you really know what you like and what you're like. I don't want anymore of this.
Kirsten: And I would have, like, I know like people are like, oh, fifth grade. I don't know. They're too old, but they're probably one of my favorite grades to teach just because of that like age group and where they're at and you know how they're transitioning to middle school.
So just having. Group of kids is really fun. And that's actually what I was teaching before I went on maternity leave was fifth grade math. Oh, nice.
Jenzaia: I co-teach a fourth grade class science with the intermediate sign. So I'm in Canada. So we have our upper elementary, we call it intermediate. So he teaches most of the grade seven and eight science.
And I mostly teach grade ones and twos, but we co-teach this grade four class together. And I think that they're so old and he thinks that they're so young. It's just [00:02:00] interesting to hear different people's perspective of like where they fall on the age range.
Kirsten: They're an interesting group.
Jenzaia: Yeah. And they're that definitely going through that transition from little, little to older kids and starting to understand the school world and that they have rights and they can do things.
Kirsten: And that's what makes it really fun. Like we have a lot of really fun conversations and we can get a little bit more in depth, especially like. With social studies and, you know, we went in Texas where us, or yeah, us history. And it's been really cool to have those types of in-depth discussions. While also keeping it, you know, we're not going to get too in depth, but we still can kind of go a little deeper than they have probably done in the previous grades.
Jenzaia: And they're old enough to actually understand these things and to actually like really get it. And so yeah, that conversation would be more fulfilling and more. I don't know, [00:03:00] just bigger than it would have been in previous years. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So how did you start your teacher business? What is your teacher business?
Kirsten: So it's kind of evolved. It started off in 2013, I was a student teaching and I had just kind of looked up ways to make extra money. And I decided, I looked at teachers, pay teachers. Oh, this looks pretty interesting. I could probably make some money from this. I have some resources that I could upload.
And so I decided to start a teachers pay teachers store. So it's kind of, that's kinda how it started was like, is making some extra cash on the side. And, but the only thing is I didn't really keep up with it as much as I probably could have. I uploaded those resources and then it kind of stayed there.
Like I didn't do anything to grow it as much. I just kinda threw in some resources here and there over the years, and mainly just focused on my teaching. And then [00:04:00] it wasn't until 2020, you know, when we were all like quarantined and to slow the spread and all, all of that kind of stuff, that's kind of, when it kind of clicked.
And I decided, you know, I can probably really take this. I mean, I'm going to try to take this as far as I can and actually give this my TPT store a chance and give it a whirl and like, make it grow into how it. As much as I'm able to. And so that's when I took all of what was already in my store and I updated the product covers and the previews, and I gave my resources a little extra, so I updated everything.
And then I added more resources and that's kind of where I saw a lot of growth being an active seller and really taking it seriously. Is what helped my store to be like this flat line, like making a couple dollars, five, 10, you know, here and there to really making consistent income [00:05:00] with it. So that's where it started
Then at that time you could probably get away with it. It was like where it was, you know, the portrait cover like your port, your first page on your resource. That was your product cover. Nobody would say no one would be the wiser, but now it's changed so much.
Jenzaia: So in 2019, when I had my son, I decided, okay, I'm going to go in similar to what you did in 2020.
I'm like, go in, update my products, change my cover pages and all of that. And I remember being so afraid. Of the terms of use and like, not knowing if I put terms of use, not knowing if I credited fonts and, and clip artists and those kinds of things. Right. And I was so proud of 2013 Jenzaia. I was like, you did it, you had them.
But because it was just such a totally different world. I was like, I don't, I don't, I don't remember if I, and it was also six years later. Of course. So how could I remember? But, but it was totally, totally different world, so [00:06:00] it's nice to hear someone else who went through that whole, like, okay, let's give it actual previews and like let's create actual cover pages for these things and the, the thumbnails and all of that. So I totally understand what you mean. And it did totally made a difference in my store. I went from like change every month to consistent, consistent money. So since you kind of re kicked off your store, have you had any like major milestones or major challenges that you've faced and how did those.
Kirsten: Yeah. I mean, I've definitely had a little bit of both. One of the big ones that happened recently in October is I was able to hit the first milestone. Yay. So that was really exciting for me. And it was kind of crazy to see how it was like between. 2013. And right before I started being an active seller, it was like, not even, it was just about $200.
And then the rest of that from then to [00:07:00] October was that it was basically what made me hit 20,000. And I was teaching in the classroom that whole time. So it was definitely, I was not like just sitting there every day, turning out products and all of that. It really wasn't products. I didn't, I still had less than 150 products when I hit the first milestone.
It was just really, um, just the product listings, just making sure they're optimized and they're, you know, SEO friendly and hitting the top of the search results. And also just the fact that one of my resources went really viral, I guess it was like, like it like sales every day, all year. Um, and it was, it's like an Enneagram test for grades three through five.
That's so fun. Yeah, I think, I guess just like the popularity and the timing of the India gram and then the fact that it's geared for kids. So I guess that's why [00:08:00] it's, it's a hit for a lot of teachers. So, um, so that's like basically a lot of, you know, it's a lot of the sales that I get, but then of course there's some product lines that I've come out with.
Yeah. I have also done really well. And I'm starting to add onto that this year, I'm focusing on growing product lines that sell really well. And then as far as anything, you know, some, I guess learning experiences, I definitely, you know, I'm trying not to get too sad over some of those resources that I'm like, oh, this is going to be so good.
And the teachers are going to love it. And then nobody, like it doesn't matter how nice the product listings look, it's just, there's not a market for them. And that's just the nature of things. Sometimes. It's like, if, you know, even if it looks it, you might have to, maybe you might have. How it's marketed and like, you know who it's for, but it's just that the fact that people may not, there's not a need for it.
So [00:09:00] that's, you know, that's the downside of, you know, putting out more products is like, but it's also a way to just see what works for your store and what teachers really like, and which ones you probably should stop making more of. And so, yeah, that's kind of one of them. Things I'm learning as I am continuing on as an activity and your products are like your baby.
Jenzaia: And so when you put all this time and energy into creating something, And then nothing happens. It can be a little devastating. Okay.
Kirsten: Yes, exactly. Yes. And it's like, oh, all of that for nothing and no, you know, so, or it's, it's not even that it's, you know, it could you speak, it's not making as much as you think it's going to, and you never know if you do, you know, sometimes if you make little tweaks, it might make a difference.
It might change, but. At least the positive side is that you, you know, finding those best sellers that are selling in your store and just keep keeping on the path [00:10:00] to making more of those types of products, because that's clearly what's working. And so it always helps to make more of those types.
Jenzaia: I talk all the time about following the data and just like listening to the data, the numbers do not lie. They are very clear of this is working and this isn't working. And in a lot of cases you can narrow it down to specifically part isn't working like in a TPT store, is it getting traffic, but no sales, is it not getting any traffic? Right. So there's a lot of different data pieces that you can look at to help you figure out and to tweak.
But if it isn't working, if something else that is working then leaning into what is working is what makes the most sense for your time and your energy and ultimately your bank account balance, right?
Kirsten: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I I'm pretty like even the big brands, like McDonald's and pretty sure. Don't quote me on this, but I think they like tried to do pizza, like McDonald's pizza at one point, obviously that was a total flop.
And so they're like, [00:11:00] okay, well we'll just keep going on with our burgers and fries and chicken nuggets and all of that kind of stuff.
Jenzaia: Fish filet also, there was, yes, they had the fish filet and a pineapple burger of some sort that they release at the same time. And they basically let the buyers decide which one would keep it. And we still have the fish filet. You're one of their best sellers. I don't know why I'm allergic to shellfish. So I've never had one, but there's just too much cross contamination between fish and shellfish. Um, so I, I don't, I may be a little bit biased saying, I don't know why people buy it, but it's one of the best sellers and they still have it like 50, 60, whatever years later. And so yeah, big companies do the same thing of we're going to put it. And see what happens.
Kirsten: Exactly. And that's just part of being in business. It's just like taking those risks and sometimes it does really well. Sometimes it flops and either way you have to adjust accordingly.
Jenzaia: So it sounds like you've kind of figured [00:12:00] out. The listing and how to revamp your listings and help others is something that you've started to do, right? Like you're starting to help other people to optimize their TPT listings. Can you talk a little bit more about the transition into helping others with that?
Kirsten: So it kind of started in DMS, like on Instagram, a lot of people would ask me questions about how to do certain things in PowerPoint and like, Their logo to get like, you know, certain little tweaks and tricks that you can do.
Um, and then that's when I thought, well, you know, maybe there isn't a lot of TPT sellers out there really talking about, you know, designing product listings and making it attractive to your ideal, what I call your ideal teacher customer. And so that's kind of where I decided to. You know, put myself out there as a thought leader and share information that I know and my experience in branding my own store and just helping others brand their [00:13:00] stores so that it attracts a certain niche and ideal target audience so that they can utilize.
Different strategies and graphic design and branding so that you can really get buyers to click on your products. Cause that's really most of what it is, is like you're typing in a few keywords and teachers pay teachers. And I mean, as far as for me as a buyer, I'm always looking for the product. I'm looking at the pictures 99% of the time.
I'm looking at the pictures. If it looks like it's been out there for. Like if it's one of my resources from 2013 and I, it's not updated, I'm not going to pick. So I wouldn't pick my own resource from 2013, but I'm just looking in the search results and seeing like, if it attracts me whether it's the colors or the fonts, or it looks like it's something that would be really fun for my kids.
That's what I'm going to click on. I'm going to ignore anything. Like [00:14:00] if it's just a word document it's not going to, it's not going to convert as well. So I share a lot of. Just in general on product listing and marketing outside of teachers pay teachers and a little bit of branding. So I do a little bit of everything through my podcast and the blog that I've had over the past year.
Jenzaia: And what's your pockets. I'm going to ask you this at the end, but you just mentioned it. So what is your podcast?
Kirsten: It's the creative teacher podcast.
Jenzaia: Okay. And I'll make sure that's linked. So if people want to, because it sounds like you're pulling different all these different pieces and there's a little bit of this year and a little bit of this year and other places, but you're pulling the branding and the searching and all of the pieces together in a way.
You're right. I don't feel like I've seen it done this way before. And I feel like it could be really valuable for helping people to market their TPT products.
Kirsten: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's, it's, it's something that like, I even, I even, I didn't think about as far as just having some type [00:15:00] of consistency with your brand colors and, um, the types of resources you put out there.
So it kind of all goes together. Not just visually, it's just like. It's how you come to your audience with, you know, the wording that you use, the vibes you give off. I mean, if you think of any, you know, if you're on Instagram, any type of brand that you might follow, there's a reason you're following them.
And it doesn't necessarily have to do with, if you've even bought their resources, maybe you really like their reels or they have a lot of funny or connecting, you know, graphics. You resonate with, I mean, I can, I can list off a whole name of like brands that I really love, but one of my favorites is, um, Frieda baby or the they have got like stuff for moms and for babies, but like the snot sucker it's sounds so gross, but it's the best thing ever. It's like you get, you get those, those boogers out. It's great. [00:16:00] And just the, just even on there. How they market and on their actual products, just like they have these fun, little nuances of like the word I can't, you know, I can't totally quote, but it's like just their play on words that they use.
It it's kind of fun. And I didn't even know they had a freedom online, but they had, like, I had a whole postpartum kit and all of that stuff and just like, I don't know. I just, every time I see it at target, I just want to buy everything there. But it's, it's just those type of brands that you resonate with doesn't necessarily have to do with, uh, the colors or anything, but just like the wording that they use and just, there's so many different ways to branding, to connect with others, but that's just something right in the feeling that they exactly.
Jenzaia: Yeah. So going back to like McDonald's too, if you like were to think of the first memory of McDonald's that you have. And maybe it's going to be the golden arches, but [00:17:00] it probably is more like sitting there with your family playing with the happy meal toy or something like that. Think about the last one, like what was the most recent, my most recent memory of McDonald's that I can remember.
It was going there after a wedding and like sitting there and like fancy gown. At like three o'clock in the morning because they didn't have a midnight bar and I was hungry. Like you six months pregnant. I was like starving, but you have these memories that have nothing to do with their brand color or, or their logo of just like the feeling that they give you and that the emotions and the times that you've had there or interacting with them.
Kirsten: So, yeah. And so that's why, like, that's exactly why, you know, I talk a lot. Marketing, not just on teachers, pay teachers with product listings, but marketing outside, connecting with your audience or customers outside of TPT. Just for those very reasons. It's just like making those connections in that way can really help by, you know, and maybe if they don't [00:18:00] buy now, They're going to think of you.
You're going to be top of mind when they are ready to buy, or if somebody that they know another teacher needs, you know, has a problem that they need solved or fulfilled, they can always think of you and refer them over. So it's just, there's just so many different ways to, um, market outside of TPT and brand your store outside of TPT.
And so there's a whole bunch of connections you can make with. So going
that direction, how do you most frequently market your business? Like what's your, a little bit of your strategy? You don't have to give it all away. Cause I know that this is genius inside your brain deletes.
Well, just a little bit, just a little pace.
Yeah. So my favorite that I have seen the most success with, not just with my team, you know, not just with TPT sellers, but also with. Teachers cause I have, you know, I have to separate, I segment my email lists and all of that is with email marketing and, [00:19:00] um, I find myself, you know, I've always been a really strong writer.
Like my sat scores, like. It held my out. It held my weight, like with the writing portion, when it was, you know, they had math, verbal, and writing and DACA, that time writing was still a part of your whole sat score. And like, every time I writing was my strongest. So I, I pride myself in being a really strong writer.
And so copy comes naturally to me. And so just like, I'll get responses, like, you know, I love that, you know, not just, I love that email that was, you know, so I just, I connect with my, um, customers and ideal customers through email marketing. And that's kind of really, I've seen a lot of, I mean, the data doesn't lie, so I've seen a lot of like traffic through there to my store.
I've seen a lot of, um, conversions through there. [00:20:00] Just, and it's also fun for me. Like I love sending weekly emails and I'm pretty like consistent on it, like sending weekly emails and it's not always just like, Let's buy this resource every week. It's not like that. You know, it's sometimes I'm sharing information, giving them, you know, directing them to a blog post or a podcast episode.
So there's all kinds of ways, you know, that I mark it, but, um, definitely enjoy that the most out of all of the avenues that I'm currently working with.
Jenzaia: Awesome. Enjoy email marketing too. I wouldn't necessarily say that writing would have held my way. I'm definitely a math nerd. I love spreadsheets and numbers and data.
Jenzaia: Okay. I have a few rapid-fire questions for you. And the first one may surprise you. favorite book that you would recommend.
Kirsten: This is a good one. My favorite book that I've it. Actually, I first read it in ninth grade. It was required in our pre-AP English class.
And it's called Rebecca by Daphne du Maria. It's like this romantic suspense novel. And it's all about like this girl who, or, you know, this woman, she meets this widower and it's all about like finding her voice and her place because the first wife that he was married to was everybody loved her.
She was so, you know, she was so intelligent and gifted and had all of the everything together. And it's just like, she's trying to fill those footsteps or, you know, fill in these shoes. It doesn't she feels like the opposite of it. So it goes, if there's a whole bunch of, it's a whole ton of plots and it's been the, um, like the most consistent book, I've read that like, out of all the required books we had to read, it's one of the ones that I go back to over the past 15 [00:22:00] years that I just really want to create.
Yeah. So I would recommend that one, Rebecca. Okay.
Jenzaia: Next question is your favorite tool or software that you use in your business.
Kirsten: My favorite would have to be a sauna. And basically like, it's, it keeps me on track. Like every, like I have all of my tasks that I do and I plan it out quarterly. So it's. Super helpful to have it every day, like knowing what I need to work on.
And it just helps me stay on track. So, um, but it's basically like a project management tool, very similar to Trello, click up like those type of software programs, but I use Asana and it's really great.
Jenzaia: Asana is the first tab that opens in my like default tabs. I couldn't live without it, so I'm totally team was on it here.
Um, and then the last question is what advice would you give for someone just starting out on their teacherpreneur journey?
Kirsten: I would [00:23:00] say to not compare your journey to others, I think that's the big. Thing to remember is you see, oh my gosh, all these TPT sellers are making so much money. They've got thousands of followers, tens of thousands of followers on their TPT store.
And I'm just like, I've got two followers. How am I supposed to, you know, make money or, or even just like stand out. Between all of those out there, but I would just say that you are your only competitor. You don't need to worry or focus on what other people are doing or because it's all like all T I've I've heard this somewhere.
And I think it's an amazing analogy. Think of like an iceberg, like the tip of the iceberg. You that's all you see when you see all of those TPT sellers. You don't know how many team members they have working behind the scenes, or if they even like, you know, how they may not be [00:24:00] feeling great about their business.
And they, you know, you don't know any buddy's journey except your own in its entirety. And so I would just say not to get tripped up or fall privy to like comparing yourself against other people, especially those that, you know, you don't know if they have tons of workers. Working for them and turning out products.
There's always another side to the story. So, yeah.
Jenzaia: And they also started exactly where you started with no followers and no money, no products. And so give yourself time to
Kirsten: get. Yeah. And that's actually something really, always a good reminder to think about us, everybody. At some point when they opened their store had zero followers, they uploaded that one free and one paid recent.
And they've made, you know, their first resource that they uploaded was not like a hundred percent perfect. Like, you know, everybody learns when you're on TPT,
Jenzaia: they probably would print [00:25:00] looking at it. Now the original version of that original resource is cringe-worthy for, I think everybody of like,
oh, that was me now.
Kirsten: Right? So that's what I, that's my biggest tip. If you're just starting.
Jenzaia: And it's so good. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on. If people would like to find you, where should they go?
Kirsten: So I have an Instagram account and you can just go to @thesouthernteach. So the Southern teach you'll find me pretty much on every platform.
Jenzaia: Awesome. Well, thank you again, and it's been a pleasure chatting.
Kirsten: It's great to be here. So thank you so much.
Thank you for listening to this. Week's inspiring story. If you'd like to share your story with us, then head to marketscalegrow.com/journey [00:26:00] and complete the quick application form. Then head to our community at marketscalegrow.com/community. So you can join our group of inspiring teacher preneurs who are working on growing and scaling their businesses to see you soon.