In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, Jeff welcomes writer, author, and entrepreneur Shane DeRolf from BigWordClub on the program to talk about how teachers can start with a single idea and turn it into a profitable business concept.
If you have an idea that you would like to turn into something special, please visit www.BuildYourEDUBrand.com to learn how we can work together this year to help you on your entrepreneurial journey.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Big word club
- What is an entrepreneur?
- How to create value for your target audience?
- Book: From Good to Great – Jim Collins
- What can you be the best in the world at?
- What are you passionate about?
- How can these two things make you money?
- Organizing your thoughts to begin your entrepreneurial journey
- Creating a proof of concept
- Finding funding for your passions
- Marketing and promotions of your ideas and concepts
- Finding the balance between work, family, and being an entrepreneur
- Creating collaborations and sharing your visions for others to support
- Improving your product one step at a time
- How to create better interactions and conversations between parents and children
About Shane DeRolf
Shane DeRolf brings more than 30 years of children’s publishing, television production, and executive management to his role as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Big Word Club. His unique talent for molding ideas into successful ventures has led to a powerful track record in creating and building successful start-ups in children’s media, toys, and games. Shane’s latest venture, Big Word Club, is an evidence-based, award-winning digital learning program that uses books, songs, animation, and dance to improve preschool and early elementary school children’s vocabularies in an attempt to help close the Word Gao in America. Big Word Club was recently the focus of 12-month MIT-funded randomized control trial that was implemented by the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto. The results were excellent.
Prior to Big Word Club, Shane was the founder and CEO of Big Green Rabbit, a four-time Emmy award-winning children’s preschool television series that aired on PBS in 2008-10. Prior to Big Green Rabbit, Shane served as the president of Random House Entertainment, where he wrote the best-selling children’s book, “The Crayon Box That Talked,” which has sold close to two million copies to date. While at Random House Entertainment, Shane created and produced “The Crayon Box,” a preschool children’s television series in national syndication. Prior to that, Shane served as co-founder and Partner of World POG™ Federation, the marketing company that transformed an idea into an international toy phenomenon with sales of more than $175 million in two years.
Shane began his career in children’s television by creating the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed “Zazoo U” for Fox Kid’s Network in 1991. As a result of his work on Zazoo U, Shane was asked to conceive and lead the branding effort for the young network that helped it become the #1 children’s television network in the world.
In addition to his passion for building successful companies, Shane's zeal for social justice and education has led him to produce award-winning children's television programming and PSA's for the Ad Council, including the Emmy nominated “Watts On Your Mind,” the largest national children's communications campaign in the history of the Ad Council and the EPA. His extensive body of work has caught the attention of such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and U.S. News and World Report, which wrote that with Shane DeRolf, “a single, eccentric imagination is clearly at work.”
Shane is the author of six children's books, including “The Crayon Box That Talked” and is a recipient of the Partners in Public Service Award of Excellence from the National Broadcast Association. Shane’s is an 11-time Emmy award-winning writer, producer, director, and composer.
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