When I first started selling on Teachers Pay Teachers, I was pretty clueless. It was my first time ever setting up an online store and I had no idea what I was doing. 

Thankfully, there are so many amazing digital courses out there (both inside and outside of the TPT world) that can help you start and run your business like a pro! 

After taking a few of these courses, my business flourished. In this episode, I'll share with you a couple of courses that helped me the most and explain how courses can benefit your own business. 

In this episode, you will learn:

• My experience with digital courses as a consumer
• Why digital courses are beneficial
• Some tips and advice on buying a digital course
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Resources and Links

The Product Listing Lab (open to enrollment for a limited time)! 

Submit a question for the CTP Q&A!

Let's connect!

• TPT Store: ⁠The Southern Teach⁠
• Website: ⁠thesouthernteachdesigns.com⁠
• Instagram: ⁠@thesouthernteach⁠⁠.designs⁠
• Facebook: ⁠The Southern Teach Design and Branding
• 
  

Mentioned in this episode:

Branding and Product Listing TPT Templates!

Done-for-you templates that are completely editable for TPT sellers and teacherpreneurs to make their own? Say no more! I have ready-to-use Canva and PPT templates that are designed in a way that make it EASY to plug in screenshots, photos, or square images, type what you need, change the colors, fonts, and more!

Learn more about TPT Templates!

FREE TPT Store Audit for Teacher Sellers!

Have you checked out the free self-guided TPT store audit? Use this free tool to help you self-assess your TPT store! This audit will help you see what’s working well for you on TPT- and what can be improved. Take the brief quiz with questions to ask yourself in 5 key areas, analyze and reflect on your results, and get clarity on your next steps to improving your TPT store!

Download the free TPT Store Audit!

Kirsten 0:46

Today's episode is all about how digital courses helped grow my teacher business and how they can be really beneficial to yours. I'm just going to go into a brief overview of my experience with the digital courses in past years and in recent years. And then four things to think about as you are using digital courses and ways that I used digital courses to help grow my business because it's definitely something that I highly recommend it it's totally worth it.

So I'm just gonna go into digital courses. And my very first digital course I remember was way back when I was in college, and it was a course on honeybees actually got credit for it and all of that kind of stuff. It was entirely on line. And it was through a platform that my university had, but it was something that was pretty cool. I mean, I was able to go through the course and answer you know, take quizzes and tests and all that kind of stuff. And it was just a great way to actually learn about honeybees of all things of course, but that was kind of the beginning of my experience with digital courses. or online learning, I guess, if you could say.

And then from there, I had experienced professional development, of course, you always have those annual PD courses that you have to take online that you have to complete. And they're not exactly the most fun. It's those type of PD courses that you want to just click through all the slides, so that you can take the quiz or test and pass it and get credit. And, of course, those are not something that I always enjoy, it's not really worthwhile, it feels like it's just a waste of time, to be honest, and, you know, coming into utilizing digital courses, in my teacher business, I wanted to make sure to stay away from that I wanted to make sure that courses are something that I can actually get through and actually enjoy, without just like it going over my head. And then I'm just trying to pass it so it can get on to the next thing.

So that was something that I was really hesitant about at first was the quality of the digital courses. And so there were a few online marketing courses that I decided to take in the past year. And it was a course on email marketing and a course on how to create digital courses by Amy Porterfield. And they were absolutely beneficial, like it was super in depth. And I learned so much out of it, I was able to meet new people through the course. And it was great because I was able to complete it at my own pace as they were coming out. And it was just really great way to learn more about online marketing, because of course, I didn't go to school and marketing or business or anything like that. And so it was all new to me. But I wanted to do it because I'm a lifelong learner, I've always loved learning, especially when the course is actually fun and engaging and all that kind of stuff. So of course, it was no brainer for me to you know, if this is something I'm really taking seriously, I want to make sure I invest my time and just different ways to grow my business. And that was one way I chose to do it. And then there were also some other TPT courses that I took specifically for teacher sellers that were really helpful in terms of Pinterest, and you know, all that kind of stuff. So definitely love taking courses to help better myself professionally. And in especially my business because I want to learn as much as I can from people. So definitely worthwhile, I want to encourage you to do the same.

And if this isn't convincing enough, I do have four things that I got out of digital courses, and just four aha moments, I guess, four big main aha moments.

The first aha moment is that the investment can be steep, but it is worth it. So just depending on the course, it could be pretty hefty, you might be doing a payment plan or something like that, or it's a one time payment. I've done both ways. As long as you're getting the course from it's not just some random person that you've never heard from before, it's definitely something that can be worth it, especially if it's something that is going to help better yourself, the second aha moment is just making sure to have time to set aside it to learn. So that was really important to me, if I'm investing my money in this course, I want to be able to actually soak in as much as I can and watch all of the lessons, watch all of the video trainings, all of that kind of stuff. And so I made sure to really set aside some time to actually watch the lessons and be present and focused during those lessons doing the activities going through the course as thoroughly as possible. And it's something that, you know, I was able to take in so much in through it. And these courses I still have access to so the best part is that I'm able to go back and revisit a module or revisit a lesson or go back to an activity and revise or even just look through it, do it through a fresh lens. And so that's kind of really the cool thing is that you're able to set some time to learn. It's not the same as a live face to face class. You can do it from anywhere. And the third aha moment that I had was the implementation. So really thinking about how I can implement what I learned in my business and implement the strategies that were taught. So if you know the courses that I took on online marketing, I really wanted to make sure I was doing my best to implement it to the best of my ability. And of course it was you know, I'm never doing I'm the type of person And who likes to do things my own way. And so sometimes I'll do some little tweaks and just do things that fit me and you know, my style. But definitely, you know, taking those strategies and using the ones that I really, really want to try and implement, or ones that are highly suggested, is something that has helped grow my teacher business in ways that I don't think I would have been able to do at all, if I didn't take any of the courses.

And then the fourth aha moment, are just having that patience, because the reward there, you will reap the rewards, it will come through, and it takes time, and not everybody's going to have the same journey. And I'm still experiencing some patience, I'm still also experiencing some rewards for my work, I can see what I'm doing is working. And I can actually see that, you know, it's helping my business. And so it's just really, it's some things to remember is that, you know, as much as even if you're implementing it to a tee, everybody's different, everybody's business is different, and you just don't know how it's going to work for you. So it just takes a lot of patience, and even a lot of trial and error, because sometimes you're just gonna mess up and you're like, things are a total flop. And you just have to pivot. I mean, that's something that has been the word of the whole year, pivoting and just flying by the seat of our pants, at least that's how I feel like this year, it's just it's so different. But it's just adjusting as much as possible, taking that patience to revise revamp what you need, and then the rewards will pay off.

And so all of these four aha moments that I've experienced the investment that can be steep, but worth it time set aside to learn the implementation process. And then just having that patience, going through trial and error, and then the rewards that can come through it is something that I wish for you if you also may be a lifelong learner, or you want to think about ways to grow your own business, or just something that you want to learn a digital course may be the best thing for you. Whether it is just for business in general, maybe you're trying to learn how to design websites, maybe you're trying to really amp up your Pinterest game or your Instagram game, whatever you feel like you need to strengthen or whatever you feel like you want to learn. That is definitely something that I highly recommend that you go through and see what you like and see what you want. Alright, so here's my action tip for you today.

If you are thinking, oh my gosh, I would love to invest in a divorce. And I specifically want to invest in a course for TPT. I am so excited to announce that my digital course the product listing lab is open. And the product listing lab is all about how to create and design cohesive and appealing TPT product listings in order to convert customers and generate more revenue. So thinking about product listings, those different parts of a product listing the product cover the product thumbnails, previews, titles, descriptions, I'm teaching you in this course, ways to revamp all five of those components so that they help benefit your store, they're more cohesive, there's a more identifiable brand that goes through it, and it all appeals to your ideal teacher customer. I teach you step by step how you can go from unsure of how your product listings are supposed to even look in order to get more conversion rates and get more sales all the way through creating your own templates and having a set game plan. And it doesn't have to be a complete redesign. You can always pick and choose what you really need to focus on. The digital course that I do have opened the product listing lab is open for a limited time, you can check out the link at the Southern teach.com forward slash enroll.

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.