Have you heard of TPT Forward? It's an annual conferences for premium TpT teacher-authors with tons of insight for creating resources, marketing, productivity, and so much more.

I had the opportunity to be a session presenter at this year's annual conference (TPT Forward 2021) and BOY, was it an amazing experience! 

As I listened to as many sessions as possible, there were some big takeaways that stood out to me overall... and I want to share them with you, fellow teacherpreneur!

In the episode, you will learn 4 of my biggest takeaways:

Find your inner voice

Do what works for you 

Stay current and relevant

It's just only the beginning

Let's connect!

• TPT Store: ⁠The Southern Teach⁠
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Website: ⁠thesouthernteachdesigns.com⁠

Instagram: ⁠@thesouthernteach⁠⁠.designs⁠

Facebook: ⁠The Southern Teach Design and Branding

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Kirsten 0:00

you're listening to the creative teacher podcast a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact inside and outside of the classrooms. I'm Kiersten, a full time classroom teacher and part time business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small, to in each week, as I give you my best advice on classroom teaching, and starting and growing a teacher business. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

And some of you may or may not know. But I was actually one of the speakers this year at the TPT conference. So I had a session, it was called a New Year New you redesigning your store for maximum impact. And I talked about redesigning your product covers and your product previews and your product thumbnails in a way that is cohesive and fits your brand style. So that was a really great experience to be able to share with other TPT sellers. I want to share with you today some conference takeaways, some things that I really internalized and have been thinking about, and I want to share those tips with you so that maybe you can think about and maybe as a highlight, if you were there at the conference, maybe you might agree with some of these takeaways. If you weren't, these are really great things to think about when you are a TPT seller, even if you're just starting on TPT, or you've been an experienced seller.

Alright, so the first takeaway that I have is to find your inner voice. And this was from this was from one of the keynote speakers from the One Stop teacher shop, Kristin Riviera, and she had a really great message and story that she shared with everybody. And one of the things she mentioned was about finding your inner voice, not relying on what other people are saying or just pulling you in different directions. If you feel like you're pulling yourself in different directions you feel like you're just not where you need to be or want to be just thinking about your inner voice inside you and think about what you truly want. Is it financial freedom? Is it more time with TPT? Is it scaling back on the time in TPT? So just thinking about what you truly are passionate about where you want your store to head where you want your business to head where you want your teaching career to head and find that inner voice and follow that inner voice take action with that inner voice. So that was a really powerful message.

The second conference takeaway was something that several people said, but just making sure to do what works for you, not trying to do it all. And that can be something that is a problem. Maybe in a lot of conferences, maybe a lot of professional development, that you experienced as a teacher, or a conference or a course or something, anything, there is going to be a lot of information thrown at you, like a firehose, and it may be overwhelming for a lot of people, especially if you're a newer TPT seller, and you're like writing down all the things, you're putting out all the handouts, and you're just writing everything down, and you're wanting to do everything, but you don't know where to start. What you want to do is always just making sure in anything, whether it's professional development or conferences, you pick one, two or three key things that you can implement that are the most important to you. And try not to do all of them at once, you can always make a list of the things you'd like to do circle 123 things that you could reasonably do in the time you want in the next month or so. And then when you're done with those going back and revisiting to see if there's anything else you may want to do. And sometimes you may see some of the things on the list, and you say I don't really need to do that, or Oh, yes, I can do that next. So just doing what works for you and your business. Sometimes, we are eager to take in all the information and do everything because they are saying this is going to help grow your business, it's going to help work, it's going to help work in your business. And it's going to help you make tons of money. But sometimes it's just really meeting where you're at. And just knowing that you don't have to do everything you can take little pieces and just do ultimately, what works for you and is manageable for you. So that was a really great takeaway that I really loved. And I always love having that reminder of I just need to do what works best for me.

The first two takeaways actually kind of combined into why I chose to start a podcast, it's something that I've been wanting to do for the longest time. And I was always telling myself, I'd really like to do it. But you know, it was during the middle of the year, or I don't think I'm gonna have the patience. Or maybe I'm not eloquent enough, I'm not really good at talking, I'm better at writing. But as the voice kind of started getting louder, I started thinking that this is something that I could do, I think this is something I can do to help impact not only TPT sellers, but also upper elementary teachers. And so I wanted to find a way to combine what I have with my TPT business and reaching upper elementary teachers with resources. And also the branding and designing with TPT sellers and seeing what I can do to marry the two, combine the two and give information and insight and inspiration to both sets of people. And so just following what works and something that I want to do what's one of what I want to continue. And that may change, you know, businesses always change. But I do enjoy being able to combine what I have with my TPT store, and helping other TPT sellers.

So those are my TPT conference takeaways, I hope you're able to resonate with one of them or, you know, also think of that, but I'm going to go ahead and share with you the creative action tip for this week. And this one is just a simple one. So you know, not too bad. I gave you my four takeaways, the four ones being finding your inner voice, doing what works for you, and not trying to do it all staying current and relevant, and how it's just the beginning of TPT. And it's going to be even better. I want you to internalize one of these takeaways and implement it in your classroom and or in your business. So whether you are just a TPT seller or you are just a classroom teacher or you are both see what you can do to implement those takeaways. If it's finding your inner voice, this could be really applicable to both the classroom and in your business. So just knowing if something is just not right with, you know how you're managing things or you know, how you're feeling about what they're learning and their content and all of that. And you just need, you know that there's a better way, just making those tweaks and changes go with what your gut is saying, Go with what your inner voice is saying. Same with your business, if you are not feeling a certain product line that you're making, try to find something that you are proud of making and are excited about making. So just those that's just a couple of examples that you can think about, but just internalize one of those and implement it in your own life. So that's all I have for this week. I cannot wait to see you again soon.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.