Episode Summary
It sounds too good to be true, but there are some seriously passive ways you can grow your business and expand your business mind without even lifting a finger (well, maybe JUST lifting one finger—literally). Other than that, I offer you 3 surefire ways to learn new tips, find the experts you need, and take in top-notch information that is sure to grow your TpT business.
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Simple Ways to Grow Your TpT Business
Today’s topic is interesting because here’s the thing: I am naturally opposed to change. I don’t typically like new things. I’m very much a creature of habit and I would be happy doing pretty much the same thing again and again. But on the flip side, I also love new things that have the promise to distract me from real work. So it’s kind of like an ugly vicious cycle. I hate change but I’m very easily distracted by new things that probably aren’t going to do much for my business.
However, today I’m here with some new things that aren’t really going to take any work from you but they will help you grow your TpT business or at least expand your business brain at the very least. And you’ll understand here more in a minute. I’m going to tell you about a couple things that might seem or feel new to you but they’re not shiny objects. They’re not something that’s going to take a lot of your time or creative energy. These are very much passive ways that you can grow your TpT business. And I’ll get to those things here in just a moment.
Give Your Business Mind a Break
Permission to Take a Break
First, let’s just quickly talk about something for a second. You guys know that I am all about working. I love my business. It’s like my third child and I could do it all day every day. I love working. And some might say that I’m a workaholic. I don’t intend to ever work to an unhealthy extreme. Nine times out of ten I work a lot because I love my job and I love my business. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have days or even weeks where I just wasn’t feeling it. I even just recently had like a week or two where I just felt like I was in a slump. I really had to make myself get up in the morning and go through the motions of my business. And that’s not very common for me but it does happen.
I think we’re lying to ourselves if we say that we don’t have those days where we’re just not into it. Even on my most productive days, there will be afternoons where I want to keep working but my brain just won’t allow it. On those afternoons, I’ve discovered some passive activities that I can do in the meantime that give me a break from work-work but still feel proactive enough to give myself permission to take that break. And I know it’s crazy that we need to do that to give ourselves permission to take a break. But we teacher sellers are a different breed. We are hardcore we are serious about our jobs whether it’s teaching or TPT or both. So you know exactly what I’m talking about here when I mention giving ourselves permission to take a break.
3 Ways to Passively Engage with Business
Anyway, I’m going to briefly give you an overview of three things that I think are great passive ways to grow your TpT business. And I hope to keep it short and sweet and get right to the point and I will give you my honest opinion of all three. Then I will send you on your way to hopefully give yourself a break and tune into some of these passive, easy, simple ways to grow your business brain and beyond.
And here’s what I hope you get out of this episode. I don’t expect you to turn this off and go running to all three things that I talk about. My goal for you is to take at least one of these recommendations even if it’s a super teeny tiny one and follow up on that one recommendation. All it takes in my experience is one great source to fall in love with. You can ask me about the time I fell in love with Amy Porterfield. That was a whole era in my life and I hope for many of you that this is the podcast. I hope that you come to this podcast because you love it as a source for all things TPT.
Grow Your TpT Business with Clubhouse
Today we are going to expand those horizons a bit. I’m going to share with you some of the things that I enjoy that you can start doing in between School of Sellers episodes. The first of these is an app called Clubhouse. Clubhouse is relatively new and in a very, very quick nutshell, it’s kind of like listening to podcasts live. And it’s almost like you are eavesdropping on someone’s coffee date with their friends. It’s very casual, it’s conversational, it’s very community based. And for those reasons, I love it.
If you have the Clubhouse app on your phone, you will get alerted when there is an event happening that might be of interest to you. I’ve been doing live store audits on the Clubhouse app with Kristen Doyle and Farrah Henley. Farrah, Kristen and I are the hosts and then people join in and can listen. Or they can raise their hand which means that they can also speak on the app as well so that they are also part of the conversation. And in this case, they are sharing their store. And we are looking at it live and giving feedback in real time. So that has been really cool.
Starting this week, every Thursday evening at 8 o’clock PM EST, me and Team SOS (Katie and Ashley), and anyone in the School of Sellers community can join us for Clubhouse at 8 PM. It’s going to be a series called Sellers After Dark. It’s definitely a conversation that you can hang out for maybe once you put the kids to bed or when you get a second after dinner. We are going to sit down and talk openly and honestly about things that we go through as teacher sellers. Some of them are light-hearted issues. Some of them are more serious mindset issues that we struggle with. So our main goal here is just to get open and honest and also to invite you all in to share in those conversations.
If you are not yet on Clubhouse, please go to the School of Sellers group and request an invite to Clubhouse. The biggest con at this moment is that it is only for iOS users. So if you are an Android friend of mine, I apologize. But this is not an option for you currently. I hope that they change it sometime soon. But in the event that they don’t, we are also going to be offering some other audio things that you can take part in and that we’ll have more information about that later.
But if you are interested in Clubhouse and you are an iPhone user, feel free to post in our groups for invites and make sure to tune in at 8 PM Thursdays EST for Sellers After Dark. And the best thing about Clubhouse is that it’s not something you have to get ready for. There’s no video. So you don’t have to worry about anyone seeing you. You don’t have to run into the bathroom and like throw makeup on or whatever. You literally can lay in bed and just listen and chime in when you want, if you want to. Or you don’t even have to talk at all.
I really like Clubhouse because it’s one of those situations where you can listen in on any chat and you just never know when someone’s going to drop one of those gems that’s going to stick with you forever and ever and ever. This could be the place where you hear that one thing that changes the trajectory of your entire business. I know that sounds crazy but I’ve had it happen before with podcasts. And I truly think that Clubhouse has the power to do this also.
Grow Your TpT Business with TikTok
The second thing that I wanted to talk to you about that I think is a great passive way to grow your TpT business is TikTok. I know. I literally, I cannot believe I’m saying that right now. Like I just never thought those words would roll off my tongue. However, here I am in public on air saying that I think you should be on TikTok. And before you turn this off, please listen just for a moment. I don’t think you should be on TikTok for your business in the sense that you think I’m saying. I think you should be on TikTok as a viewer and as a consumer of TikTok.
I’m not encouraging you to run out and start dancing to all the trendy songs or even show your face a single time. I’m going to talk to you about TikTok purely from a viewing standpoint. And this is kind of two-sided. Just to give you a little rundown of what TikTok is if you are unfamiliar is it’s a video app. And if you were around for the time of Vine videos, those were 6-second funny videos. It’s kind of like that but a little more involved. So you have videos that are hilarious, videos that are inspirational, videos that are educational. You can watch cooking videos. It’s just a feed that is like any other social media feed. However, they are all videos and they are very tailored to your personal interests and taste. So you get some really cool things coming across your feed.
Now I will be the first to admit when I first heard about TikTok, I was like, hell no, this is not for me. I am way too old for this. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still feel like that a little bit. However, I have come across so many entertaining accounts and informational places not only for my business but also for teaching related things that I never would have come across if I hadn’t explored TikTok.
So what I would recommend for you is to get the TikTok app. Just try it out. All you have to do is go and find School of Sellers. You can check out all of the accounts that we’re following. That way you can get a good taste of if you think this app is right for you. And if you do give it a try, I recommend having it for at least a couple weeks so that the app can really get to know your preferences just because it gets really good when things start getting personal. So I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
While I really recommend this app from an educational and growth mindset, I also think it’s just as good for mindless scrolling. And this is probably the only time that you’ll ever hear me say this out loud on air. But if you want something that is totally mindless and pretty much a waste of your time but is going to totally give you a break from reality, I would go on TikTok for a couple minutes each night. It is the one social media app at this point that doesn’t leave me feeling worse about myself once I log off. It always entertains me, it uplifts me, it makes me laugh, and it’s a great escape. So if you’ve been resisting TikTok, I highly recommend giving it a shot and letting us know how it goes.
School of Sellers is also creating content for TikTok. And again, never thought I’d say that. Katie, Ashley, and I have been filming videos for you that are both entertaining and educational. So you can definitely head on over and find us at School of Sellers. And if you are on TikTok, please follow us back so that we can also follow you if you are a content creator on TikTok. If not, feel free to just be a lurker and just watch us and sit back and enjoy. That’s all you got to do. Although this is a good time to point out that if you are on TikTok and you are seeing our videos, the more you like them or comment on them, the more they’ll show up in your feed. So it’s kind of like any other social media algorithm.
Grow Your TpT Business with Podcast
Last but not least, our third thing that you can do for passive simple business growth is listen to podcasts. And I know you’re probably like, wow, that was not what I was expecting. Number three, I thought there was going to be this huge bombshell. But here’s the thing. Podcasts are the one constant in my business that once I’ve started them, they have not shown any signs of stopping in terms of how much they help me grow my business and how much they help me advance not only in my business but also mindset wise, in my personal life, and beyond. I mean the impact that podcasts have had in my life in general is just remarkable. So that is something I will always, always, always recommend to new sellers, established sellers, even the most seasoned of sellers.
I think podcasts are for everyone. And the reason I wanted to mention it here today is because obviously if you’re listening to this. you listen to podcasts to some extent. Right? But I wanted to encourage you today to branch out beyond the TpT world when it comes to podcasts. And you don’t even necessarily have to stick to business ones. I found a lot of success earlier in my business when I started following people like Amy Porterfield because it really helps transport you from hobby mindset to business mindset. So if that’s something you’re struggling with, I highly recommend searching out other business names outside of the TpT community when it comes to listening to podcasts.
And something that I’ve started enjoying doing is listening to podcasts either for pleasure or for business purposes while I get some sort of physical activity in. Because God knows, I am really short on physical activity lately in my life. So I’ve been trying to either do the Peloton or go for a walk or walk on the treadmill. And while I’m doing that, I listen to something that I look forward to listening to. That way it’s kind of like a reward for myself for doing that exercise. I’m also more likely to do that exercise if I have something to look forward to. So I highly recommend finding a podcast that you love (beyond this one, of course) that you can look forward to on a weekly basis.
Business Podcast Recommendations
I’m just going to throw out two right now that are outside of the TPT realm but very, very good, relevant information for business and beyond. The first is Marie Forleo. I love her because she really gives it to you straight. She’s always super honest and super open about everything. And she also has MarieTV. So you should check that out as well.
And then my second recommendation for you is Brooke Castillo. She is the voice behind the Life Coach School podcast. While she does do a lot of like general life coaching type things, she also touches a lot on common business mindsets. If that’s something that interests you, I highly recommend trying those out. It’s not as woo-woo as it sounds. Some of it might be but I promise you it’s worth a listen.
Conclusion
Those are my three passive ways that you can grow your TpT business without a lot of creative energy and a lot of doing. If you’re in a slump or even if you have an extra 10 minutes at night and you find yourself wanting to do something but not like do-do something, these are really good alternatives. I wanted to leave you with a couple tips if you decide to explore any of these options.
The best way to get notified for anything is to subscribe or follow. So if you find a podcast that you enjoy, go ahead and subscribe to it. That way it automatically downloads every single week. So as soon as you open that podcast app on your phone, the newest episode is there waiting for you. So if you are not already subscribing to this podcast, this is a great time to do it because we’ll also be releasing some bonus episodes coming up here soon that you will only get if you are a subscriber to this podcast.
On the Clubhouse front, go ahead and look for the TPT Teacher Biz Lounge. It’s the only club right now for TpT sellers that I know of. If you join that club, you will get notified anytime there’s a new chat within that club. Remember that if you need an invite to Clubhouse, just ask in any of the School of Sellers Facebook groups or reach out to Ashley or Katie from Team SOS.
Like I mentioned earlier, go ahead and follow us on TikTok. Comment and like our stuff so that way you can get more and more of it across your feed. And then last but not least, just enjoy yourself. It’s really nice sometimes just to listen. Let others do the talking while you take it in. It’s exactly what I hope to accomplish actually with this podcast. So I hope that you have taken at least one thing away from this show. And I hope that you will join us on Clubhouse for Sellers After Dark at 8 PM EST every Thursday.
Looking for another way to get this episode? Download the transcript for Simple Ways to Grow Your TpT Business That Require No Work here!
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