Empathy & Growth with Alexandra Baxter | 7

Being a TPT author can feel like such a lonely journey, which is why finding amazing and empowering communities is so important! This week's inspiring teacherpreneur journey is with Alexandra Baxter of The Terrific Teacherpreneur, and she’s on a mission to make this journey less lonely one day at a time.

Alex is a full-time teacher author, who runs her store 'Terrific Teaching Tactics' on Teachers Pay Teachers. She loves creating no prep resources for early elementary students. Alex also helps other teacher authors grow their businesses. She provides actionable tips and advice about selling on TPT through her Facebook group and podcast, 'The Terrific Teacherpreneur'. She loves helping teachers in any way she can!

We chat all about what it was like on TPT back in the day, how hard it can be as a teacherpreneur and how important it is to have empathy towards fellow teacher business owners.

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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 able your journey as a teacher business owner.

Episode Transcript:

Intro: Hey there, I'm Jenzaia and this is Market Scale Grow. A podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money with weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers. Just like you. My goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams. Okay. Before we get started, I'm really excited because I created a free quiz just for you. You can head to marketscalegrow.com/quiz to find out if Facebook ads are right for you and your business. This two minute quiz has a couple of questions that you can answer to find out if Facebook ads or something else are the next marketing strategy that you should be implementing in your business. So head to marketscalegrow.com/quiz to find out today.

Jenzaia: Welcome, welcome to episode number seven. Today, I'm talking to Alexandra from Terrific Teacherpreneur. She is a full-time teacher-author who runs her TPT store, Terrific teaching Tactics. She loves creating no prep resources for early elementary students. Alex also helps other teacher0authors grow their businesses. She provides actionable tips and advice about selling on TPT through her Facebook group and podcast, The Terrific Teacherpreneur. Alex loves helping teachers in any way she can. I had such a great conversation with Alex and we talked about tons and tons of great advice for teachers who are just starting out. So let's dive into that conversation.

Jenzaia: So, welcome to the podcast. How are you today, Alexandra?

Alexandra: Good. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast today. How are you today?

Jenzaia: I am doing wonderful. So, if you want to just start out by telling everyone where you're from and what your background in teaching is.

Alexandra: Awesome. So, I live in Queensland, Australia. I know you're probably hearing like an odd accent. I'm originally from the UK, so I'm originally British and, but I've been living in Australia for the last 10 years. So all my experiences teaching everything has been here in Australia. So I taught third grade or what we call year three over here for a couple of years. And I also did first grade. So I'm like early elementary kind of age level. And I did that for a few years. I also did a little bit of like, part-time substitute. We call it relief teaching, but that kind of thing as well. And I, now I'm actually out of the classroom and I do TPT full-time.

Jenzaia: How long have you been out of the classroom for?

Alexandra: Less than two years? Not, not actually that long, but 2020-2021 I've been doing this full time. So it's been kind of around the three year mark almost. It's kind of been like, it was scary at first and weird not being in teaching, but it's also been really amazing. So yeah, it's definitely crazy.

Jenzaia: Wow. Well, congratulations. When did you start your TPT journey or your teacherpreneur journey?

Alexandra: I actually started my store in 2015. So like the end of 2015 when I was still teaching and it was very much like a really small side hustle. I was so busy teaching, I didn't spend a lot of time on it for the first few years. And then I started taking it more seriously in about 2018 and it kind of took off a lot quicker because I sort of, I guess I changed my mindset a little bit and started treating it a bit more like a business and it took off a lot faster. Then I was able to sort of transition out of the classroom, you know, not long after that. So it was kind of exciting really. It's been, I've actually, it's like half a decade on TPT, but it doesn't really feel like actually that long of doing it really.

Jenzaia: Yeah. I know what you mean. It seems to go by really fast. What kind of stuff do you sell?

Alexandra: So, it's kind of a bit of a saturated niche. I have to admit that's the one thing that makes me kind of sad is that I'm in the sort of kindergarten, first grade, second grade, very early elementary kind of math literacy stuff. And that is a very popular area. Like when someone says, "Oh, I'm doing eighth grade social studies", or something I'm kind of jealous because I'm like, you've got this really, you know, smaller niche that's not so saturated. I do feel like it's very competitive what I do, but it was what I was teaching at the time. I was teaching first grade and I just, it was, you know, sometimes you just have to do what you enjoy and what suits you and makes sense and what you're good at. Even if it isn't necessarily the easiest in terms of TPT being competitive.

Jenzaia: Absolutely. My niche is the same, so I'm also in like that early elementary, but I have the slight added benefit of doing French immersion products. So that kind of helps a little bit, but I also get that jealousy when people are like, "Oh, I do high school algebra" or like you said, grade eight social studies. You're like, "Ah, so lucky of you." So how has your store changed over the years?

Alexandra: It's crazy. I know you've been on TPT awhile. I don't know if you remember back then, but when we had like the rectangle shaped covers and I didn't have terms of use or credit pages. And I had ugly fonts and no heart and I had no nice clipart or anything. I mean, I could cringe so much from what it was like back then, I don't know if that's the same with you.

Jenzaia: Wild, Wild West I always call it.

Alexandra: Yeah, it was different back then. I was talking to someone I know who's been on even longer. So 2009 she joined and she said, you just kind of threw up a product like as it was. There was no making it "TPT ready". And now, I have to spend all this time like taking these photos and doing all this marketing and making it all pretty. It's just so different. It's come such a long way, but my stuff looks a lot better now because of it. So I guess it's worth it.

Jenzaia: Yeah. I totally agree. It's definitely a different world. I remember putting up products. One of my first products was a word document. So it was editable to the person. I think the font was Comic Sans, if you will. So I know what you mean about that era of TPT. Things have definitely changed. What would you say are major milestones in your TPT journey that you can look back on and say, "this was an awesome success"?

Alexandra: That's so hard to say. So many things like when you first start, you just get excited when you first make a set amount of money or you get a certain amount of reviews or followers. I think we will have those little mini milestones of our own way. Like, "Oh, I sold 10 of this" or "I got a thousand reviews" or something like that. But I don't actually, I try not to focus on that stuff so much nowadays, because I can't control my sales or my reviews and my followers and stuff. So I tend to do just kind of bigger, exciting things like this year I got accepted to present at TPT Forward. I was just jumping up and down and screaming with joy. I was like, "that's the kind of win I'm going to celebrate now" because I had to apply for that and work hard to get that. It wasn't something that was like, if you get a review, you get a review. It's not something you can really control. So I'm trying to celebrate things that I have achieved that I can control now. So I was excited about that. Or I'm excited when certain people reach out and connect with me and say, "Oh, I really enjoy listening to your podcast" and stuff now. I'm taking the wins that are things that are in my control now. So that's really exciting.

Jenzaia: That's amazing that you got accepted to the conference. Congratulations! Huge milestone for sure. And definitely, definitely a lot of work goes into that. So congrats. Has your business grown beyond Teachers Pay Teachers?

Alexandra: Yeah, it started off as, "Oh, I'm throwing a few products onto there" and then before you know it, overnight, you've got all these marketing platforms and you have a blog and a website and all this stuff and it becomes this mammoth thing. Now, I help other teacherpreneurs. So it's crazy. I feel like I've got to have everything. Two Instagrams and two Facebook accounts and all this different stuff because I've now kind of got two businesses. It's sort of like it's grown an extra head. It's expanding into this new thing and I'm trying to struggle to manage both, but I am enjoying it though. It's just a lot of work.

Jenzaia: As a follower of yours, you're physically, you're helping of teacherpreneurs or teacher business owners- it's such a great account. I would highly recommend it to anybody. I've got so many tips and tricks from it. You're doing a great job there.

Alexandra: Oh, thank you. That's what I mean. I'm celebrating the small things, even if I feel a bit burned out, because I'm trying to do too much. When someone says something like, "Oh, I learned something from that" so thank you. It makes my day. That's awesome. So I'm really glad you like the page.

Jenzaia: Yeah, it's so helpful. Where would you say your business is at, in growth at this point? Are you still in that startup phase or do you think you're more in like the grow or are you starting to scale? Where would you be at, do you think?

Alexandra: Well, maybe somewhere in the middle between growth and scale because obviously my store's been doing really well and everything, but I'm just not one of those millionaires yet that has like a team of 10 virtual assistants or team members or anything like that. So I'm not at that really huge stage. I mean, that's the dream, I guess one day when you have all these people helping you and you're like a millionaire. But I'm kind of also glad that I'm not at that stage, which is crazy, but I feel like I'm a bit more relatable where I feel like I can understand what it's like to be the trenches because I'm doing it all myself, I guess. So that's kind of nice. It also doesn't feel like you've got so much pressure. When you listen to the people that have the scaling and have all these big teams. There's so many extra things involved in working with other people and running a team and I will one day start that, but for now I'm kind of just enjoying doing my own and it's kind of nice.

Jenzaia: It's a good place to be and get comfortable there and kind of baby step into the next phase of your business when you're ready, for sure. How do you mainly market your business?

Alexandra: This kind of goes against everything I tell people not to do because I always say to them you should focus on your store and maybe start a Pinterest account or something. And that's what I did do at first, but now I do literally everything, which is insane. I have Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, blog, and email. I have literally two of each of those things because my two businesses, but I think I'm only able to do that because I'm doing this full time. That kind of makes it possible. So, if you are listening and you were like a new teacherpreneur, don't do all those things at once. It's insane. Start off gradually, and I did do that. I gradually took on each thing, but I kind of literally do everything at the moment.

Jenzaia: I was going to say that, what you already said, but putting one piece on at a time is really important and you're not at that starter phase. So I think it's makes sense that you have these different layers to your marketing so that it is hitting all of the different audiences because you're at a level where you can. Like you said, you are doing this full time. You're no longer in the classroom, which gives you a bit of a leg up on side hustlers who are still in the classroom. So, definitely great advice there to just do one piece at a time.

Alexandra: Yeah. I started my store and I started my Pinterest account around the same time and I just did that for a few years and then gradually started Instagram because it's impossible to do it all, especially if you're in the classroom. 100% I don't recommend doing too much at once. You'll just burn out.

Jenzaia: You want it to still be fun and enjoyable.

Alexandra: Exactly.

Jenzaia: You're trying to do all of the things because somebody else is doing all the things. Then it isn't fun anymore. That's when you're like, "Oh, I'm done. It's impossible."

Alexandra: Disclaimer, as well, even when you have the whole full time thing that gives you a sort of leg up because you've got more time. You're still a human. Even for me, it's still impossible to do all five of those things all well, and I feel like if you are doing them all well, you probably have some virtual assistants to help you because you can't be good at everything. Even if you are really good at Instagram, you might not be good at blogging. Or if you love Pinterest, you might hate Facebook, but you can't be good at it all. So don't have that pressure, I guess, to love everything and be good at everything because it's literally not possible. And if you see someone else who does seem to do everything really well, they're not. Trust me, they're not doing it all well. They're having someone help them or they've had years to get to that point or they secretly do hate parts of it. That's the real talk, I think.

Jenzaia: Absolutely. Yeah. Amy Porterfield's always my go-to when I have these conversations with people. She's doing all of the things, but really, she's not doing much of it herself. She's built up an amazing team that supports her so well. And she's such a huge idol to many of us and you want to be her, but if you look back on her journey, she didn't start where she is now. Just like we can't start where she is. Are there any big challenges (this might be a bit of a curve ball question) but are there any big challenges that you face that you have almost quit over or that have made you really rethink the direction of your business or caused you to change what you're doing?

Alexandra: I don't think I've done anything that's a big change, but I've definitely had those moments. Not like "I want to quit" moments, but those kind of burnout moments. And I think that was whenever I started something new. So like when you first start TPT, that's crazy and it's an intense learning curve. Then you kind of get used to it and then you're like, "Oh, I guess I'm ready to start a Facebook page." And then it feels like you're starting from scratch again because you have no idea what you're doing and you have no one following you. And you just feel like you're in the dark and you get used to it. And then you start the next platform and then you're starting from day one again. And it feels like it just goes over and over and over of starting something new and just being at the bottom of the ladder kind of thing. So each time I started something, I would just feel exhausted and kind of burn out and like, "I hate Facebook. Nobody likes me on there. I want to give up" kind of thing. Then you get used to and start the next one. "Oh, blogging is so hard." That's normal. So if you're listening and feel frustrated with a platform and you want to give up, that's totally normal.

Jenzaia: I've definitely had those exact same feelings. Every time I started something new. And it seems like when you do that, when I first started my Instagram page, all I saw was people with 10, 20, 30,000 followers. I didn't see the people who also had 10 followers, 100 followers. Then I started to see more of them and be like, "okay, I'm not the only one" but you feel like you're the only one for awhile because the big ones stick out to you. These people with these perfectly curated feeds that have everything together. But you're only looking at that one piece of their business. Again, they're at a different phase. So I've definitely had those comparison moments where I'm like, "well, I'm just going to delete my Instagram", which will never happen. I love Instagram way too much.

Alexandra: I love that quote that I've seen on Instagram where it's like, "don't compare your chapter 2 to someone else's chapter 22." As you were talking, as well I was thinking, it's like a tip of an iceberg. You just see these few small people that are doing really well. They're in the minority. When it comes to TPT, there's this tiny amount of people that are millionaires. When it comes to Instagram, not everybody has a hundred thousand followers. They are in the minority, but we see them the most. So it warps our sense of reality. We think that everybody's getting success. Everybody's getting easier than us, quicker than us. That's so not true. We're actually all just like those ducks. We're just paddling underneath and feeling like that, but we don't know it. And I don't think we talk about it enough.

Jenzaia: That's so true. The other quote that I thought of just now when you were talking was the "don't compare someone else's highlight reel to your whole story or your whole life," because that's what Instagram is. It's a highlight reel. And I think many social medias, whether you're looking at Pinterest or you're looking at Facebook, it ends up being a highlight reel. People aren't putting, I mean, sometimes they do, but generally speaking, aren't putting them crying or sick or any of those really hard challenging times. When they do, too often it's like this pretty picture that's kind of masking it. So it still looks like this great, amazing pulled together situation when everyone has those peaks and valleys that you were talking about- the ups and downs, "it's going really well" and "Oh no, it's terrible again" and "it's going really well" and "it's terrible again". So I think that those are really important pieces to remember as entrepreneurs. So, do you want to talk a little bit more about the course side of your business and how you help people there and where that has started and where it's grown to?

Alexandra: Yeah, sure. So it's actually not been that long. It's actually only been in 2020 that I started. It just started with this Instagram account. That's all I did. I was like, "Hey guys, I'm starting another Instagram account and it's to help sellers" and you were one of the original people that knew me back then. It was just like, I'm going to do what is not on Instagram right now, what I don't see anyone else doing, which is just providing tips for TPT. I followed people that helped in that stuff, but they just put up selfies of themselves or their perfect lives or they were advertising their own teaching resources. It's like, "where can I like go and find a picture on Instagram that will give me advice about my business?" It didn't really exist. Like not in the actual TPT world. So I was like, I'm going to do it because it's something that I want. So I started creating these carousel posts with advice and all these different tips and advice and tricks and everything. And it started to do better than my other account was because it was something people actually needed help with instead of just pictures of my resources. So I've been doing that for a while and I've also got like a blog and a podcast and the Facebook group and everything just to help people in different ways because I know not everyone's on Instagram. The best thing about it, lhands down is connecting with people. The advice I want to give is if you were a seller or a new TPT seller, don't do it alone because I was so lonely back in 2015, sitting there on my computer on my own. I had no TPT friends, nobody really to give me advice, no one to talk to, or like podcasts listened to. I felt so lonely, and now I'm in this Facebook group where I can talk to people and you shouldn't be doing this alone. You need to connect with people. It's so important.

Jenzaia: First of all, I didn't even know that Facebook groups were really a thing. I don't think they were the same back then either. Same with Instagram, it wasn't the same back then. I was afraid to tell anyone I knew in my real life that I did this for fear that they would like laugh at me or tell me I was being silly or ridiculous. I don't think I took myself that seriously at the beginning, either. It was very much a "we'll see what happens." Right? So I like hit it, which just made me feel lonelier because I didn't even know where to go to look for it. So, it's definitely something that is very valuable for newbies to know that they're not alone and that there are people there helping and supporting them. Did the course just kind of come from there? Like, "well maybe people actually need this and let's go"?

Alexandra: A little bit. I think a little bit of it was caring about making things kind of affordable. I don't know. I knew that there were a few other courses out there, but I kept feeling like some things were just always so out of reach for new people because I remember so vividly when you first start TPT, you might literally only earn like $10 or $50 or this really small amount of money. So I'm doing the math in my head and I was like, how many months of earnings would you have to have in order to afford some of these courses, coaching programs, or even apps and programs and in general, your investments of clip art and stuff. I was like, it's just not possible to afford it. I kind of felt like there wasn't that many affordable options, so I kind of wanted to do it, but I just wanted to do it a little bit cheaper. I think it's hard because people look at the price of something and they think that that equates to the value and they're like, "I guess if they're charging a thousand dollars, then that must be like some amazing coaching program or something." But I just didn't, I know that wasn't a good marketing move, but I didn't care. I just thought, I don't know how people can afford these crazy things. And so that's kind of what drove me to make something that wasn't too expensive, which I know is just like a weird motivation. If I was in 2015, and I knew there were courses out there, what would I want and what would I need help with? And what could I manage to afford. Maybe $500 wasn't an option for me back then. It was a money-related motivation out of this empathy that I had for sellers and I don't know if anyone else ever has that. I think about it all the time. I'm just like, it's so hard to earn money on TPT. It's so hard and people don't talk about that enough.

Jenzaia: Especially with what you said at the very beginning- it's a different world now. You can't well, I mean, obviously you can, but if you were to start your store the same way I did, where just throwing up a word document without a cover page, without thumbnails, without a preview or anything, your store's not going to go anywhere. Right? So, whereas back when I started, because I started in 2013, so those products will never be million dollar products, but they made enough money and they sold enough times that there was a bit of traction behind them. But if you were to start that way today, it's such a different world that it's really hard. I think that without having a course or somebody there to help guide you, that people can be really easily defeated. I think that that empathy about price is a bit of the teacher side of you of wanting to help people and wanting to be there for people and wanting to support them. I feel like my body is screaming, "Teacher Vibes!" as you're saying that.

Alexandra: I think about it all the time. I think about how all of us are teachers at heart and we're not business people and marketers. All of us didn't go to university or whatever to study to be marketing experts or business managers. So everything we approach is from being a teacher. I think that's what makes our resources great and teachers love them, but when it comes to marketing on Pinterest or selling yourself in an email, it doesn't come natural to us. It certainly doesn't come natural to me. I struggle all the time and I do the same in my store. I'm terrible. I price things really low because of this teacher empathy of like "teachers aren't paid enough, it makes me so mad" and knowing that they can't afford things. Maybe that makes me a bad business woman some days, but it helps me sleep at night. It's just something I'm really passionate about. I don't talk about it very often though, but it's definitely something I'm passionate about.

Jenzaia: That's a balance I have a hard time with too of trying to figure out the right value for my products and my store, and also making them affordable for people, but not wanting to undervalue. There's so many things that go into it and talking to people who are outside of the TPT world, who sell products online, they just eyes bug out like, "you sell what for what?" "I would never sell that for less than $300" Well it's $20 in my store so you can go get it there, right? It's a very different world and I think that it's a good mindset to have. But then as you move your business forward of trying to find that balance becomes a little bit harder, even. Thank you for being so open about it.

Alexandra: That's okay. I felt like I went on a bit of a rant there. I was just getting all, I don't know, it makes me kind of passionate to talk about it. I think it's nice to talk about it because I feel like that's not something people talk about very often on podcasts. It's just like, "how do I start an email list?" It's hard- the pricing of things, valuing your work, that kind of stuff, it's really hard. Also being affordable, helping teachers- there's this real struggle.

Jenzaia: Yeah, definitely. Back last March, right at the beginning of the pandemic, I had a couple of products that were boom cards, so they're digital. And I knew that they'd be helpful for teachers. So I put them, I can't remember if I put them 50% off or 25% off or something, but I bumped the prices down. I got slack from a couple of people in Facebook groups, publicly shamed, basically saying "you choosing to put your prices down like this is hurting all of us." My heart hurt so bad because I was like, people are in such a terrible time right now. They are scrambling to find things to do. It said in my product description, "this is because of the pandemic." It wasn't me trying to undervalue or undercut anyone else. It was because of the pandemic, because life is hard enough already. I want to try and help you even more. Then people were saying that I was undervaluing everybody and I was a huge problem. I was in tears because of it and it hurt my heart so bad that people didn't have any empathy for the situation or they were so focused on making all the money for them that the idea of helping other people just completely went out the window.

Alexandra: I know what you mean. You have to strike a balance because you don't want to go too extreme. You don't want to be money greedy and just caring about your business and not caring about teachers because that's not who we are and that's probably not the right way to do things. Obviously we don't want to undervalue our work. We don't want do any of that stuff. It's so hard to find that middle ground. I had a similar thing. I remember on one of those Facebook groups getting into a little argument with someone, because I was saying that it's good to have a few freebies in your TPT store and in your boom store, like 10%, 5%, nothing too crazy. But it does actually help your business because people will try your stuff and then they buy stuff. It also helps the people, like when I first started teaching that couldn't afford stuff... And this person was just like, "no freebies hurt the business. They hurt the whole market. They're terrible. We shouldn't have them." I guess we all have different opinions, but the important thing is that you shouldn't tear someone down. That's really sad that people were tearing you down and you run your own business. You're allowed to price it whatever you feel comfortable in your heart pricing at. And that's not the important thing.

Jenzaia: And another piece of really good advice that came from that experience is you can leave groups. If people are acting that way towards you in a group, it is not worth. Somebody else had to tell me this. I should have realized that on my own, right? But hindsight is 2020, but someone else was like "leave." If people are treating you that way, you don't need to be part of that community. So just remember that if you feel like you're making a good decision for your business and for yourself and for the world and people are tearing you down, those aren't your people. They're not the ones that you want in your community. You need to find your people that are gonna support you through those maybe questionable decisions that you're making, or maybe amazing decisions, but people that are going to be supportive and help you through it, not tear you down through it.

Alexandra: Yes, I so believe in that because I've left a few Facebook groups of people with really toxic ones that really mean spirited stuff comes out. And I honestly, I love my Facebook group. The people in there are like the most sweet kind people. I honestly have never once had to like moderate anything or delete any nastiness. They're the most sweet. I just love them, honestly love that group to death. I feel like I've made this big group of a family where I'm like, I don't actually know these people in real life, but they're so nice. So the advice here is to find your people and don't stick around for the negative, horrible people. There will always be people like that in this business. So find your people.

Jenzaia: Absolutely awesome. So we're just going to end quickly with my three rapid fire questions. Number one. Favourite social media?

Alexandra: Instagram.

Jenzaia: Yeah, me too.

Alexandra: If you're talking about, it was a trick question because I was gonna say Pinterest but I guess that's kind of a search engine, so I'm gonna go with Instagram.

Jenzaia: Yeah, no, I consider Pinterest a social media search engine. It's like a hybrid.

Alexandra: Okay. In that case, Pinterest, a hundred percent. But in case you were talking really social social, in terms of connecting with people and stuff I'd much prefer Instagram, but in terms of making money, Pinterest,

Jenzaia: I agree a hundred percent with that. Pinterest is way better because of the visual aspect and the searchability, because it lasts so much longer on Pinterest. Whereas Instagram, it's just gone. Five minutes later, basically it's gone. Number two, favourite tool or software or app that you use in your business?

Alexandra: PowerPoint. Definitely.

Jenzaia: Yeah. Then what advice, you've given tons of advice already, but one piece of advice you would give to somebody who's just starting on their journey?

Alexandra: I don't even know how to not talk for like an hour. One piece of advice, which I briefly talked about earlier when I mentioned that I started my store and I just did my store and Pinterest. I had the most breezy easy till time of it. I just made products. I made a few pins. I talk to so many people now who are new, who are like, "I'm just burnt out because I'm trying to make pins. I'm trying to learn Instagram and I'm trying to have a Facebook page. And how do I write my blog posts and how, when do I start an email list?" and their heads just explode. I never had that and I don't recommend that. So my biggest piece of advice is to focus on product creation and maybe just pick one platform. The reason I suggest that not just the burnout reasons, because you might be like a machine that can do it all, but if you went to like a big seller and looked to their business, like a super successful TPT store... They may be good at Instagram. They may be bad at Pinterest. They may love blogging. That can change person to person, but the one thing that seller will have, all the big successful sellers have, is good quality products. You know, they might not have an Instagram and they're still killing it because they have good quality products. They might hate Facebook and they're still a millionaire because they have good quality products. It's impossible to not have good quality products are the one thing you have to have. All the other stuff is like the icing on the cake. So, instead of stressing about all the different marketing platforms, focus on your products and maybe just one, that's my advice.

Jenzaia: You said something like three times in there that I just want to reiterate- high quality products. There's a lot of people who focus on high quantity, but I think that quality is way more important than quantity because if you make good quality products, people will come back in a lot more from you. So as the quantity increases, then having that quality is going to benefit you way more than if you're just pumping out tons and tons of products without quality. So I agree. High quality products is the first step for sure.

Alexandra: Awesome.

Jenzaia: Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. If people want to come and find you... I am part of that Facebook community and I will second to vouch how awesome it is. So where can they find you on Facebook and Instagram?

Alexandra: So on Facebook, the group called The Terrific Teacherpreneur and it's the same name that I use for my podcast as well. So it's all got the word terrific in it. I'm clearly obsessed with terrific. Terrific Teacherpreneur is the name of my Facebook group and podcasts. And then my Instagram is called @TerrificSellingTactics. So basically if you put the word terrific anywhere, I'm probably going to pop up somewhere.

Jenzaia: Perfect. I'll make sure it's all linked in the show notes below. Thanks again for coming on.

Alexandra: Thank you so much for having me.

Outro: 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 and complete the quick application form. Then, head to our community at marketscalegrow.com/community so you can join our group of inspiring teacherpreneurs who are working on growing and scaling their businesses, too. See you soon.