Samantha Heil from Samantha in Secondary is sharing her win-win teacher business story today. When the TPT dashboard showed signs of change, she saw the opportunity to be creative and serve the market in new ways that felt like a win-win.
Today’s episode talks about listening to what customers need (as their needs naturally change and evolve over time). Samantha shares advice about networking, leveraging data, and managing her capacity over time to make the most of what is working (which also caring for her creativity so she doesn’t burn out).
Connect with today’s guest:
https://www.samanthainsecondary.com
https://www.instagram.com/samanthainsecondary
Samantha Heil is the founder of Samantha in Secondary, a resource hub for secondary ELA teachers and media specialists. Since 2012, she’s been dedicated to helping educators save time and spark a love of reading in their classrooms through engaging, standards-aligned materials. A former classroom teacher herself, Samantha brings over a decade of experience into every resource she creates. She’s also the host of the Creating Joyful Readers podcast, where she shares practical tips, literacy strategies, and book recommendations to help educators foster lifelong readers.
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Read the transcript:
[00:00:01] Janice: Joining us today for a guest conversation is Samantha. Samantha is the founder of Samantha in secondary, a resource hub for secondary ELA teachers and media specialists. Since 2012, she’s been dedicated to helping educators save time and spark a love of reading in their classrooms through engaging standards aligned materials.
[00:00:22] A former classroom teacher herself, Samantha brings over a decade of experience into every resource she creates. She’s also the host of the Creating Joyful Readers Podcast, where she shares practical tips, literacy strategies, and book recommendations to help educators foster lifelong readers.
[00:00:42] Today we’ll talk about not having all your eggs in the TPT dashboard basket, and how following the data can help us decide what to lean into and what to lean away from.
[00:01:20] Welcome to
[00:01:21] the podcast
[00:01:22] Samantha.
[00:01:22] Samantha: Thank you, Janice. I’m so glad to be
[00:01:24] here.
[00:01:25] Janice: I am excited to talk, teacher business today and dig into your story, but I’d love to go all the way back to the beginning. Why the heck did you get into the world of teacher business? You know, it’s a funny story. I, like most other TPTers, started in 2012. I saw Deanna Jump on TV, again most like other TPTers. We seem to all have the same story. We saw Deanna jump on TV and went, you know what? I can do that. I was teaching social studies at the time and I had to write all of my own curriculum anyway, so I just started posting things sort of randomly. and I didn’t really take it seriously. I’d make a few dollars here, a few dollars there. And then, um, later in 2019, I had my daughter. And I had this just biological urge to want to stay home with her. I just very much wanted to be home with my kid, and in order to make that happen, I needed to have another stream of income. So I took the Shelly Rees course, I really leaned into it. I had a really good friend, her name is Ashley, and she’s a TPT seller. And she kind of gave me some advice and some guidance as to, you know, where to go, what to do, how to get started, and the rest is really history. I started learning and then that was it.
[00:02:39] Samantha: I fell in love and I was consuming anything I
[00:02:42] could.
[00:02:43] Janice: So many of us apologize for those early days when we weren’t making Deanna jump amounts of money. But I think that moment is so special to me when you go from just being boxed into your W2 salary that the district already determined and realizing that you actually could have some other options on the menu.
[00:03:05] So even if it’s just the first dollar you make doing something outside of that structure, I think that moment is so empowering because it’s not the path we were told about in college. You went to school, you got your teacher degree, and I don’t know, my teacher degree didn’t mention anything like TPT or the World of Business, did Yours?
[00:03:24] Samantha: Absolutely not. Had no idea what it
[00:03:26] was.
[00:03:27] Janice: So I think there’s something exciting. There are people who hear a story like Deanna Jump’s and are like, well, that’s good for her, And there’s other people who that little twinkle in their eye just never goes away, and we can’t stop learning about what comes next.
[00:03:42] I got my start with Shelly Rees’ course too. So shout out to Shelly. She gave so many of us a rock solid foundation that saved us so much backtracking, and I’ll be
[00:03:54] forever grateful.
[00:03:56] Samantha: Absolutely. I was so scared to just spend that first, you know, to make that first investment into the course because, you know, at the time, $300 is a lot of money. I really didn’t wanna put out $300 to take that course, but man, that course has paid in dividends
[00:04:10] over the years.
[00:04:11] Janice: I can’t imagine how much backtracking I would’ve done You just don’t know what you don’t know at the beginning and $300 later you knew a lot
[00:04:19] more.
[00:04:20] Samantha: Yes. And she’s just such a great teacher, so detailed and specific, and I don’t think the course exists anymore,
[00:04:26] Janice: you can’t buy it new if you don’t already have access to it. Yeah.
[00:04:29] Samantha: so yeah, I think it’s a great way to get started, to find a course, to find somebody who can teach you, because so many people already know how to, you know, work the system and why spend all of your time learning when you could have this opportunity to be able to learn from somebody else who’s
[00:04:46] already been there.
[00:04:47] Janice: You can spend your time creating resources that can help teachers in the classroom and get to that transformation a lot faster if you get a strong foundation at the beginning. I totally agree. So you were in the classroom making resources and then you had your daughter. Were you able to shift and leverage TPT to make that stay at home dream happen? Did it meet you halfway? How
[00:05:09] close did you get to your target?
[00:05:11] Samantha: Yeah, so in Maryland, teachers are actually paid really well. I am not yet to what my teaching salary was, but I am home full-time, so I make enough to where I was able to make it happen, to make my schedule much more flexible. but I do other things now to sort of make up that gap and I actually really enjoy just
[00:05:30] sort of finding new things to do, finding things to get myself into, learning about new skills and things that’ll benefit my business and allow me to support other people’s businesses in a lot of ways. yeah, so I did make it happen, but in a very roundabout
[00:05:46] way.
[00:05:47] Janice: And I think that people need to hear about that and talk about that more often. I’m in the same situation where we made great money in Connecticut as a teacher. I had no complaints. I was not one of the teachers who left teaching because my salary felt insufficient. but it has been a big challenge out in the world of teacher business.
[00:06:03] To get back to that salary because we were making good money in Connecticut when I left the classroom. So my story is very similar where I won in that I got this flexible lifestyle where I could be more present with my kids and have some more control. It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you enjoy all the tasks that are on your desk for the day.
[00:06:24] I think that the Deanna jump story and beyond brought us into this whole world of making money online where we realized there were a ton more options on the menu than we had any idea. And I think there are people that are working like a little bit of an in-person part-time situation, and then a little bit of time with an online
[00:06:43] avenue, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it as long as your bills are paid and your heart is happy. I think that permission slip needs to be shared more often, that there’s so many different ways to get your ultimate goal, which was staying home with your daughter and not missing
[00:06:59] out on that time.
[00:07:01] Samantha: And that flexibility is really invaluable. It’s hard now because I’m just so used to being able to, you know, go on a field trip if I want, or go to a doctor’s appointment if I want, or, you know use the restroom whenever I want for that matter and I just can’t imagine going backwards. So as much as I loved teaching and I loved, you know, lots of things about the classroom, being able to now have that flexibility is just so important to me that I’m willing to do different things and figure out different ways to be able to keep
[00:07:30] that in my life.
[00:07:31] Janice: Absolutely. It definitely brings a new dose of creativity. If you ever look at job postings online too, they’ll say like, you need to have access to some mornings, some nights, and some weekends. I’m like, so you want access to my whole schedule? I just have to jump whenever? No, we won’t be doing that. Or they’ll say like, you have to be in person every Wednesday.
[00:07:52] I’m like, why? If I could do my work at home the other four days of the week, why am I dressing up and driving somewhere else? And so it’s amazing once you’ve had a taste of freedom and flexibility, you get a lot pickier with some of the more traditional things
[00:08:07] Samantha: Yeah, I look all the time. I’m always looking for new opportunities and new things to do because you just never know what’s gonna be a good fit within your schedule. And so I do a lot of. Freelance work, look at a lot of job postings, things like that, and sometimes I just think the expectations have gotten really demanding on our time, on our lives, on, our capacity. to the point where I’ll look at a listing and, you know, I am so grateful that now I can say no to things. And TPT has really given me that. I have a solid enough foundation to be able to pick and choose what I do otherwise. And that’s just been a huge blessing in my
[00:08:43] life.
[00:08:44] Janice: Yeah, and I think that mindset serves you really well when you step into the office in the morning. That stability and that creativity is invaluable when you’re sitting down to solve problems for teachers or solve problems as a support provider inside someone’s business. I love that you mentioned using the restroom and eating on your own time.
[00:09:02] Man, it’s the little things.
[00:09:03] I don’t think teachers ever take in common as former teachers. I don’t know if we’ll ever shake that trauma.
[00:09:09] ever shake that trauma
[00:09:10] Samantha: No, absolutely not. No. Even to this day, I am like, oh, I gotta pee. But like, I don’t have to let 30 kids and one adult know that this needs to happen right now. So it really, it’s just
[00:09:19] freeing it Sincerely.
[00:09:21] Janice: things in life. What are you looking for in a job? I’d like to be able to use the bathroom.
[00:09:26] Samantha: Yeah, I think even outside of teaching, I don’t think a lot of people realize just how restrictive, you know, teaching is. You’re in person, you know the schedule is rigid, and you’re responsible for everybody in that room, and so there’s not a lot of flexibility, there’s not a lot of room to move. And I was in the classroom for 15 years, so I think that towards the end of it, I really started craving that flexibility so much because my whole life, I mean my entire working life had been bell to bell.
[00:09:54] I had never been off of a schedule, like that. And so knowing that there’s a whole other world out there where I can use my teaching knowledge, use my creativity, use the skills that I have, and still be able to serve teachers in a way that feels really meaningful, is just powerful knowledge to have. while when my kids were really small and you know, they go to bed really early at those early ages and I was a band director, so I had like performances at night from time time and there was just nothing you could do about that. They were at seven, they were at seven 30,
[00:10:22] Janice: that was just when they were, and you didn’t really have the option to go.
[00:10:25] Samantha: Yeah,
[00:10:25] Janice: if you were like,
[00:10:26] not
[00:10:27] Samantha: the band director.
[00:10:28] Janice: But, um, but that would mean that there I didn’t see my little ones all because obviously they weren’t going to be awake when I got home. And by the time you pick them up from daycare and someone feeds them dinner, it doesn’t make sense to come home during that time period.
[00:10:41] That’s probably when you’re setting up the stage and getting students ready. And I feel like that only had to happen to me like one or two times where I was like, really, I have no levers I can pull here? I have no options to see my own children for the day? Um, yeah, that was like
[00:10:56] Samantha: I luckily did not have that experience too many times because by the time I had my daughter, I was not doing as many things as extracurriculars, but there were still, you know, parent nights and whatever, where that would happen and would just break my heart because I was already sad that I was gone all day
[00:11:13] and then you’re even more sad that the day is longer. perspective shift that happens. So there are so many wins in your business. You have some of the most creative language arts resources that I’ve seen out there, and it must be such a big creative project and outlet to create those for teachers. Your business is definitely a win for the customers that you serve.
[00:11:34] Janice: Was there ever a moment running your business that you can think of where it didn’t feel like a win-win, like you were winning as much as the teachers who were using your resources?
[00:11:45] Samantha: Sure. Well first thank you for saying that. That’s very kind. And second, absolutely. Every time I’ve gone through a different phase of this business, there’s been something that’s felt sticky or hard or that I couldn’t figure out. And I think it’s different. for every stage of business that you’re in.
[00:12:02] When I was originally scaling, I was time poor, so I didn’t have the time to really make the resources, put things up. And so I was putting things up, but it wasn’t always an example of my best work, it was an example of what I was able to get done in that amount of time. And so now I’m at a different place and a different economy, a different cultural landscape. Everything is just so different now. And so I try really hard to still be grateful for what I get to do. but the day-to-day now can be much harder as far as mindset goes. I would say I am a pretty medium fish in the TPT And for the past.
[00:12:36] Probably a year or so I’ve been fighting to keep them stable. Feels very much like a hamster wheel a lot of days where you are just spinning and spinning and you’re not really getting a ton of results. You’re lucky if you break even that month. so that’s been really hard as a business owner and as someone who is trying to serve
[00:12:54] the teacher population to continue to want to do the work, when you’re not seeing the same kind of rewards you were seeing when you started. so that’s definitely a huge sticky part right now.
[00:13:07] Janice: sometimes, trying to guess what teachers need, what teachers want, what the price point is that they feel comfortable with, what their cultural landscape is in their school right now, like so that you can really, truly their problems in a way that they will compensate you for.
[00:13:23] And so it’s really hard. We do as much market research as we can, but times definitely shift and customer needs shift too. And it can be tough.
[00:13:31] Samantha: And the market now is, I know a lot of people say it’s not, but it is very much more saturated than it was. It’s very easy now to make a TPT store. It’s very easy to go out and find somebody. You can throw a stone and find somebody who will teach you how to do it. So the resources are there for anyone and in a way that’s really great.
[00:13:47] You know, teachers should have access to as many creative resources as humanly possible to make their teaching practice that much better. But for those of us who have been around a while, it has been a shift. I mean, you really do have to start. you know, putting your best foot forward, your resources have to be a little bit better,
[00:14:03] Your, creativity has to be a little bit more in depth. You have to just do a little bit more to get that edge so that people are still coming to you and, want your resources and wanna hear what you have to say. This is probably not true for everyone, but especially if you are new to the business and new to the game, I don’t think there’s anyone who can do this without having some sort of
[00:14:24] presence, whether it’s, some sort of marketing presence, whether it’s a blog or a social or email or whatever it might be, you really have to attract people with your voice and your vision because those are your people who are going to follow you and buy from you. Those are the people who are going to, want to hear what you have to say and want your resources to help them in the classroom.
[00:14:44] The days of the TPT post and go and, just making money ’cause you just threw something up there is really not a thing
[00:14:51] anymore.
[00:14:52] Janice: I remember when they were really pushing about using school dollars on TPT, accessing those funds rather than teachers spending their own money, they told us about the importance of making sure your teacher credentials were in your bio and that that principal could see that this resource was made by someone who has like a master’s degree in education
[00:15:10] and I think that it really speaks to, even though that wave has kind of moved on, how wary buyers are in 2025. There’s so many scam stores, there’s so many low quality rip off AI things floating out there. People don’t wanna spend money on something unless they’re really, really sure who created it, and what their philosophy is, and that they’re aligned, and that they can trust them, that it’s gonna be something safe to use with their students and put in their classroom.
[00:15:38] And I don’t blame them for being more cautious how to spend their money, but I like how you talked about like a solution to that. We can’t skip building our brand. We can’t skip showing our face. We can’t skip letting them get to know us because that trust is really extra important with each year.
[00:15:54] Samantha: Yeah, and I think as they run into these things that are not as high quality. they are more wary of us who are, you know, creating, who have the degrees and, have been doing this a very long time. And so your work really has to be solid, really has to be an example of the, you know, the best work you can create so that they will continue to come back to you, specifically follow you on social, email, whatever. But I think that personal connection is more important than ever, especially in 2025 when there are so many voices and so much skepticism about, what we do and how we do it. you know, schools are blocking TPT and, there can be some stigma around using TPT because teachers should do everything themselves.
[00:16:35] I mean, how dare you spend some money and get a unit plan to help you in your day to day and make your life easier. You know?
[00:16:41] Janice: That was a big shock to me when I was a teacher. I’ve been so grateful to meet other teachers and find out that unfortunately they are also stranded up a creek without a paddle. ’cause I wondered for years as a new teacher, if that was just me, if it was just the district I was in.
[00:16:54] And I always think of that at back to school time with my children and their own teachers. I’m like, I wonder if this classroom, they just got dropped in, like I wonder if their teacher has anything. I wonder if they have a math curriculum. I wonder if they have access to literally
[00:17:09] anything.
[00:17:10] Samantha: My first school had nothing. It had no curriculum. It had no technology. I mean, we were fighting over paper. That’s how destitute this poor school was, I was in the inner city in Philadelphia, and so I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum. I’ve been at a school that did not have a lot of money, and I’ve been at a school that did.
[00:17:28] And the problems are very similar, in that the resources aren’t there to support the kids that are in front of you. They just aren’t. If TPT had been more popular, I think when I started, I feel like I would have used it a lot more and it could have helped me as a new teacher to find someone who was teaching what I was teaching. I have people all the time reach out to me and email and DM and ask me questions I really wish I had had something like that to be able to connect with someone even just like, you know, on a camaraderie level someone who’s been there and understands. Districts don’t have the same instructional resources that they had even a couple of years ago.
[00:18:08] I mean, instructional coaches are getting bumped back to the classroom, so teacher support is at an all time low. So if we can find ways to provide it in a really meaningful way, I think not only are we serving teachers really well, but we’re also doing, a service to our business that it will help it have
[00:18:27] longevity.
[00:18:28] Janice: That’s definitely a win-win. It always feels good to help and support teachers. It’s also keeping your pulse on what they’re actually struggling with day to day. And I think it fills our cup too, to stay connected to teachers who are in the classroom and in the
[00:18:40] trenches.
[00:18:40] Samantha: I love talking to teachers when they pop into my inbox and have questions like that’s one of my favorite things to be able to do,
[00:18:46] Janice: So in the beginning, in the Deanna Jump days, TPT is like the only way you know how to make business happen. Um, so we pour all of our eggs into that one basket, but I’m getting a vibe that you’ve probably branched out a little bit since then. Is that the win-win of TPT sales dipping? Was there a moment where you were like, I don’t think I wanna have all my eggs in
[00:19:07] this basket?
[00:19:09] Samantha: Yeah, this year was very eyeopening because before that I had been doubling, tripling my month to month, my year over year for many years since I started, and last year was the first year where it started to level out and I was like, oh my goodness, this isn’t just gonna continue to trend upward for the rest of forever.
[00:19:27] Janice: And I wonder if that’s
[00:19:28] an unrealistic expectation
[00:19:30] Samantha: I dunno.
[00:19:30] Janice: many of
[00:19:31] us
[00:19:31] have. Right?
[00:19:32] Samantha: Well, it had been happening, so, you know, you’re like, okay, well this is just gonna keep going up. Great. I forecasted what I was gonna make this year. That was not what I made last year. It was not. Last year was the first year I leveled out and I only grew by like a, couple percent, like three or 4%.
[00:19:48] It was very small and I was working full-time for the first time, really ever. Last year was my first full-time year. Before that, I had been part-time and home with my daughter. So while I was really grateful for that time, I was not putting a hundred percent into my TPT. So within the past year, we’ve really had to get creative about making up the gap of, the money that we need to live.
[00:20:09] Like, I love being able to do this. I love being able to support teachers, really does fill up my cup, but also I have bills. So it’s kind of like, you know, a double-edged sword. I would love to give you everything for free. I would love to just sit here and chat with you for free, but I actually can’t do that.
[00:20:23] So we need to find really creative ways where people are, getting, value for their money and really feel like they are putting their money, somewhere where they’re going to get something out of it. I’ve done a couple of things. Some of these things are pretty popular across the TPT board. but I’ve just kind of started putting my own spin on things. We’ve started doing some bundle sales in the secondary ELA niche, which have been pretty popular because people love a whole bunch of resources for a little bit of money. So that’s been a pretty popular thing. And then I’m gonna do my first, summit this summer, which
[00:20:57] I’ve never done, so it’s a whole new experience for me. but I feel like I have a little bit of a different angle because I’m so book oriented. and so my, my content isn’t necessarily just secondary ELA, I’m talking to authors. I’m talking, To, other people who are in the book industry who can kind of give some guidance for teachers, um, not just curriculum wise, but you know, also, you know, what books should you be bringing into your library? Why is reading important? And that’s been a really big guiding question for my work, is just to help teachers, relay that message. Why is reading important and why should we be doing it? And so I’ve been kind of, taking all of those buckets that I’m currently working in, and I’ve branched out even more than that.
[00:21:40] I am, making some KDP resources right now with some workbooks on Amazon kind of a thing. I actually run a book fair in person, which is fairly large and a lot of time and effort, but I love doing it. So it sort of marries a lot of things that I love to do. I do freelance writing, but then I also do fiction writing.
[00:21:58] So there’s just a lot of, there’s a lot of stuff going on here all day, every
[00:22:03] day,
[00:22:03] Janice: We don’t know what we like until we try
[00:22:06] it and we don’t
[00:22:06] know what’s consistent revenue unless we go for it. You can only forecast so far. So I think you’re incredibly brave in all the best ways. The summit is so exciting to me because as a busy teacher, they want to keep track of every author and every new title and every book.
[00:22:23] But man, you talked about being time poor as a TPT seller. Time poor as a teacher is like a whole different thing. And so you curating those authors and helping them access them is incredible, but it’s also a win-win for the authors. Of course, they wanna get tapped into the teachers that they serve and that they write for, and the teachers who are connecting students and readers with their books.
[00:22:44] What a cool opportunity for both parties. And I think that’s part of the magic of a summit. You are like, everyone can win here. And I have just enough margin to pull this together and be the facilitator of a win-win. I think that’s a
[00:22:57] super smart adventure.
[00:22:59] Samantha: I really hope it goes well. We already have a bunch of presenters. We have two keynotes and 16 presenters, so we have a lot. Hopefully we’ll get all 16 through the process and onto the page. And then I have a lineup of authors who are going to give book talks that, you know, are for teachers, but can also be used in the classroom.
[00:23:17] So you can actually, use them to show kids about the books too. That’s kind of the multi-use part of the author talks that I’m hoping work out and we’re gonna do a bunch of fun stuff. Partnering with publishers to do giveaways and all kinds and yeah, it absolutely is a win-win and it’s really marrying things that I like to do
[00:23:36] both in my business life and in my personal life. And so I’ve been able to make that connection, which I think is really fulfilling for me, because I get to take something that I’m so passionate about and, uh, be able to work with
[00:23:48] it.
[00:23:49] Janice: I think that’s so smart and certainly we’re grateful for the TPT sales that are consistent and roll in month after month after month. But I think there’s a bit of square peg in a round hole situation when people are trying to make that algorithm print a specific amount of money each and every month.
[00:24:07] I think having too many eggs in that basket is when it starts to feel really scary because you’re one, you know, wind gust of an algorithm change away from things feeling really, really rocky and spreading things out just a little bit more evenly, I think helps us weather the
[00:24:23] storm in an exciting way.
[00:24:25] Samantha: That’s been my focus this year is to really branch out and also to use data in a really specific way. As you grow as a business owner every year you learn more and more about what’s working, what isn’t working, and how to use your data to drive those decisions. I’ve always been a fly by the seat of your pants kind of a person.
[00:24:44] I am not a planner. I am a dreamer, and that’s just my personality. I’m not a super organized human being. So I try to find ways that I can, , learn and use this information in order to make decisions for my business that are smart and healthy and will help me grow and stabilize.
[00:25:04] And so there were things that I was doing in the past year or two that just weren’t working, that I had to put on pause. Some of them I loved and it broke my heart to put on pause, but it just is what it is right now. That’s what the data is saying to do. And even things I don’t like doing, like for instance,
[00:25:18] pinterest still drives traffic. At least in my numbers, Pinterest is still driving the traffic and so did I have to lean into that and figure out, you know, how to do all of that? Yes, I did. I don’t like Pinterest. I don’t want to do it, and yet
[00:25:30] here we are.
[00:25:30] Janice: I have some heavy hitting blog posts that got written really, really well a long, long time ago, and every time I log in, they’re at the top and I’m like, all right, we gotta keep doing this. It’s the same thing.
[00:25:43] And you’re like, here we go, feed the monster. Here’s another
[00:25:46] blog post. ’cause it works.
[00:25:47] Samantha: Yeah, no, it sure does. And do I wanna like research the keywords for those? No, that is boring, tedious work that I don’t enjoy doing, but I found in the past couple of years that I’m pretty good at it. And so not only do I do it for myself, but I’ve done it for a lot of other TPTers as well. And so that’s kind of given me a sidestream of income that’s, you know, floated me a lot of months.
[00:26:07] Especially, you know, we all know in the summer the TPT sales they dwindle quite a bit. And so you gotta make up a little bit of a gap, especially when you’re, you know, full-time. You just figure out what you’re good at, figure out what the data says to do, and try to lean into that as hard
[00:26:21] as possible.
[00:26:21] I.
[00:26:21] Janice: I think that’s what makes you such a smart business owner though, is that you’re willing to look at the data. It always tells us the truth. It’s not always the truth we want to hear. But I think so many people do run off vibes and just knock it up to being a creative person. But the data is there and we don’t often look at it quite often enough.
[00:26:41] And I don’t mean staring at the dashboard every morning and let it dictate your mood for the day. There’s so much data available to us, and there’s so many breadcrumbs that our customers are leaving about what they’re loving and hoping you do more of and what they really couldn’t care less of, in which case, you have to notice that too, so you don’t spin your wheels making things that
[00:27:01] nobody even asked you to make.
[00:27:03] Samantha: Yeah, and it’s interesting that the amount of data you can get from various places and compare, contrast. There is so much data.
[00:27:11] There’s, your blog data, your dash data, whatever you’re using, it’s all there. And a lot of my favorite things are the creative marketing things, the social media, the long form content, like those kinds of things are my favorite but in most cases, those are not the things that provide the ROI.
[00:27:29] And so I’ve had to really double down on things that I don’t like doing, which is very hard for me personally ’cause I thrive when I’m really passionate and interested in things. And so I’ve had to learn how to manage my schedule in a way that allows me time to do those things I don’t wanna do
[00:27:50] but also balancing with things I do want to do. . And the other thing I would say is you need to find yourself a buddy. Like this is a very lonely game, and you need to find yourself, someone that you can trust, that you can talk to day to day, who will keep you on track, who will, you know, give you a pep talk.
[00:28:07] Shout out to my biz bestie, Natalie. Every day we are just in each other’s dms. Like, hello, help. I need help. Like you need to find yourself a buddy, a mastermind.
[00:28:17] Janice: It’s so dangerous to do
[00:28:19] it in a vacuum by yourself,
[00:28:20] Samantha: Oh yeah , especially if you’re new and you’re just kind of seeing what can be done or, um, you’re still in the classroom maybe and you haven’t connected with other TPTers. Go to events, go to the conference, meet other people.
[00:28:32] I think that not only will you learn a lot, but you’ll form connections with people that you might not have otherwise. Because not a lot of people understand what this specific business is like, and when you can connect with people who do understand it’s just so
[00:28:46] invaluable.
[00:28:47] Janice: Someone you can share with on a regular basis, like daily is so valuable too. ’cause sometimes you’ll say things like, oh, I don’t want to, but I have to pin on Pinterest today. And they’ll be like. Pinterest who’s doing Pinterest? And then you get to actually have like a real life talk about it and you’ll be like, actually, uh, Pinterest is really working well for me.
[00:29:05] And they’re like, well, I’m so glad you told me. Or you say like, Hey, I’m doing this today. And they’re like, why? Why? Tell me why. Sell it to me. You don’t have time for that. That doesn’t sound aligned to your goals. Like we get that pushback from people when we let them in and we share our goals and we say them out loud.
[00:29:23] People can catch us when we’re heading off in the wrong direction, when we’re seeing something shiny, they’ll be like, wait a second. I thought you were supposed to be working on this. And as long as it’s a two-way street and it’s balanced and you’re providing the same service for them, it’s so amazing to see the takeaways that can happen in those little intimate spaces once you build those relationships.
[00:29:46] I think it’s really dangerous to just go on autopilot and be like, I am going to make more things. I am not going to chat with anyone else about it, and I’m going to hope for the best. You’re just missing on so much collaboration of what they’ve seen that’s worked and what hasn’t that could be saving you time going off in
[00:30:04] the wrong direction.
[00:30:06] Samantha: And I mean their wealth of knowledge as well. You know, my mastermind is full of people who are at different stages of the TPT game and so we have really great conversations because everyone has different experience. You know, we have one girl who actually works outside of TPT as well in a marketing position.
[00:30:22] And so she gets to see different things that we wouldn’t see, outside of the TPT world. It’s really cool to be able to get, you know, different insight into other e-commerce platforms and ways that people do things that could be beneficial to us as well. That, that would be
[00:30:38] my biggest advice is find somebody. And I’m super excited. This is gonna be my first conference this year, so I’m just so excited to be able to go and say hi to people and all of
[00:30:46] that.
[00:30:47] Janice: Get some of those real life vibes and shake things up a little bit. I love hearing voices outside the teacher business space too, because like you said, TPT is like a part of the a puzzle., It’s common in that it’s where we all started and we wanna support that community in some way, but there’s so much to gain by stepping out of it.
[00:31:05] I think very few of us identify just as like a TPT
[00:31:09] author in this season.
[00:31:11] Samantha: Yeah. A lot of people ask what I do and I just say that I run a small e-commerce operation. That’s usually like what I go with because it’s really hard to explain. And then I will probably say, you know, the bulk of my money comes from this, but I do lots of other things as well. So it’s just really hard to explain, you know, if you’re in this full-time and you’re sort of not doing TPT fully what that is and what that looks
[00:31:34] like.
[00:31:35] Janice: The elevator pitch is such a tricky dance ’cause sometimes I say I work on the e-commerce
[00:31:39] size of education,
[00:31:41] like online shopping, like Etsy for teachers, and they usually get that. But at the same time, when we minimize the variety of what it is that we do in an effort to keep an elevator pitch short, I think we miss out on networking like conversations and opportunities too, where you’re like
[00:31:58] oh, actually I also do in-person book fairs and they’re like, oh my goodness, I know someone who does that. So it’s hard, like the shorter I make the elevator pitch, the more I find out later that like, oh, there were connections that we had that we weren’t able to make.
[00:32:11] It’s such a tough dance.
[00:32:13] Samantha: It’s rare when my circles cross, but when it does, I just, I love it. There’s some people who get the different versions of things that I do and that we can really sit down and have a conversation that’s really meaty because, you know, they understand a lot of the different avenues
[00:32:29] that I’m going down as well and so when you can find that as well, that’s really cool.
[00:32:33] Janice: Yeah, I think this was such an uplifting conversation. I could chat with you all day every day. Um, you’re one of my favorite humans on the internet. But I think that we’re all like in a season where the TPT dashboard doesn’t always give us the feedback that we’re hoping, but there is room for a win-win sometimes that it’s an opportunity to get more creative. And I think about all these other things that you’re doing,
[00:32:55] if the TPT dashboard had continued to make year over year consistent growth and trend in that direction, you probably wouldn’t have gone into Amazon KDP. You probably wouldn’t be planning a summit. You might not have had the space to gamble on this in-person book fair. And you might not have been able to justify the time to do the writing
[00:33:15] that’s important on your heart for yourself. And so I think that’s the win-win in this story is that there’s so many creative ways to make the math math so you can pay your bills, but sometimes the TPT dashboard being a little moody, can actually open up that permission slip for us to look and see
[00:33:32] what else is out there.
[00:33:33] I.
[00:33:33] Samantha: Yeah, and I say this a lot of time, just so many TPTers. I do think that the people who are going to make it through this TPT wave are the ones who have found other ways to stabilize their income that are not just TPT. Because I don’t think that TPT is going anywhere,
[00:33:48] you know, some people are really doom and gloom about TPT and I don’t think it’s TPT. I think we have a world that is really struggling right now with a lot of things. The economy’s not great. People are afraid to spend money, and so we have to find other creative ways to keep ourselves afloat so that when they are ready to spend money on their classrooms and on their lessons, again, we have all of those resources
[00:34:08] there that are good and, and ready to go for them. So I think if you can keep yourself motivated and keep yourself encouraged to keep going, that that’s really important that you’ll be able to weather whatever the
[00:34:19] storm is.
[00:34:20] Janice: I think that networking piece that you mentioned is part of that too, just living life with your eyes wide open. This weekend I was actually helping out at a local small business where business is booming and they had a demand and a deadline that they couldn’t keep up with, and it was like all hands on deck.
[00:34:35] I. And so it’s a good reminder to me to look around. It’s not every business like doom and gloom in the economy. It’s not every industry that’s impacted right now, right? There are places that are in the opposite spectrum that are booming, and I think we just have to like open up our eyes to those and be like, okay, if this solution right now isn’t as in demand as it once was
[00:34:59] what is it that people need? And we just have to get a little bit more curious and a little bit more creative, but there are still many problems out there that people need solved. We just have to live life with our eyes wide open a little bit and see what is going well
[00:35:14] and what is in demand.
[00:35:16] Samantha: Yes, I totally agree with
[00:35:17] that.
[00:35:18] Janice: This was such a good conversation.
[00:35:20] Thank you so much for having coffee
[00:35:21] with me.
[00:35:21] Samantha: Thanks for having
[00:35:22] me.
[00:35:23] Janice: If people wanna connect with you, because I know that they will, where is the best way that they can catch up with you
[00:35:28] after our chat today?
[00:35:30] Samantha: Sure. I am most active on Instagram at Samantha in secondary, or you can find my website at samanthainsecondary.com.
[00:35:37] Janice: Amazing. I will make sure all of that information gets in the show notes and I hope
[00:35:42] you have a great
[00:35:42] day.
[00:35:43] Samantha: Thank you. You
[00:35:43] too.
Here is a playlist of other win-win teacher business stories that I think you’ll enjoy:
