Full Time Freedom? Part II

This is Part 2 of our conversation about leaving the classroom. In this segment, Amanda and Jess shift gears to talk about building a sustainable business outside of TPT. Jess has been working with Claude AI to create a backup plan, and shares what that looks like - including the membership website idea she's been debating. They talk about pricing strategies, passive income myths, and why it's so hard to build a business while teaching full-time. Plus, Amanda shares her experience running a membership that hit 120 members at its peak. If you're thinking about diversifying your income or wondering what comes next after TPT, stick around - this one's packed with real talk and practical insights.

• Jess shares Claude AI's recommendation: build a membership website as a TPT backup plan
• Debate over pricing: Claude suggests $15/month, but Jess wants it lower (under $10)
• Examples of successful low-cost memberships ($1-$5) with high subscriber counts
• Two membership concepts: Teacher health & wellness vs. picture book library resources
• The challenge of being a full-time teacher while building a business
• Why the "wake up at 3:30 AM" advice from a TPT millionaire didn't work
• The importance of not relying solely on TPT or Instagram
• Passive income myth: TPT spoiled us, but constant marketing is needed for memberships
• Amanda's past membership experience: $25/month, 120 members at peak, years to build
• The motivation factor: memberships create accountability for consistent content creation
• Dad's wisdom on getting rich: marry it, inherit it, or get really lucky

Key Takeaway: Building a sustainable business requires strategic planning, consistent marketing, and finding what truly serves your audience - while accepting that luck and timing play a role.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello everyone. This is an introduction before the introduction because this episode is a two-parter. This episode is part two. So if you haven't listened to part one, go back and listen to part one first or not, whatever you want to do. You're a wacky teacherpreneur, too. You can do whatever you want. So part two is we we seem to constantly devolve into what happens if TPT disappears. So we do we do talk more about that and just sort of strategies for using your time in the most effective, efficient way possible after leaving the classroom. And so let's get to this uh episode, which is part two.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Welcome to the Wacky Teacher Preneurs Podcast. Your hosts, Jess and Amanda, have been friends and teacher preneurs for years. Along with their successes, they've had lots of failures, foibles, and fumbles. And now they're here to share it all with you. Stay tuned for some funny times and awesome business insights. Let's go behind the scenes of their teacher businesses now. Raw. Unfiltered. Real. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Well, yeah, and you're gonna. I I hate telling you because you're gonna judge me.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Oh, why do you think I'm gonna it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Well, according to Claude, the best thing I could do is a membership website. I'm not judging you. I thought that was a great idea. Yeah, I've already told you it. But I mean, I feel like every time we talk membership websites because you had your own and it was very successful and you decide to close it. I do feel like maybe you're gonna judge me a little bit for like, but but that is something that Claude is like, listen, having a membership website is like building your own, you know, your own posse of subscribers to that. There's so many things you can do with it, and it doesn't have to be like this horrible grind. And I talked to Claude about all of your struggles with your membership website and just how it was like such a grind and like so hard to keep coming up with new content. And Claude was like, listen, it doesn't have to be that way. I mean, this is what you could do using your expertise as a teacher, and this is approximately how long it would take you to do each of these things each month. Like you would be surprised on how little you could put out and still want have people wanting to join the membership website because it's you and your expertise that you're sharing. And it gave me all these ideas, and some of them I'm a little bit like, do I want to do that? So I just haven't really nailed down exactly like what I want it to look like. And I'm also kind of stuck between two ideas right now of a membership website. So you can't no, I can't. What is it?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Oh, okay. So this is this guy, right? I think this guy's brilliant. Okay, what's his name? He just popped up, he's on Instagram, and he popped up just as someone recommended to follow, right? Because the algorithm is giving me what it thinks I want. And his name is Nat Berman, real Nat Berman on Instagram. He has 130k followers. And when I clicked the link, because Instagram allows you to have a link, right, in your profile. When I clicked it, and all his Instagram is just talking head videos, right? He's just talking. Um, and when I clicked his link, it took me to his website, which is guess what? It's a membership member website. It's called the BeBetterMovement.com. Join be better for one dollar a month. And you're a big Instagrammer, right? And so is this what you're talking about? Like a dollar a month club or something, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Like something well, I mean, I'd love to have a dollar a month, but I mean shlaud recommended a different price point. And I I actually keep arguing with it to go lower. Claude was like, listen, for 15 years of experience in teaching, and everything that you've done and all of the things you can offer people, it should be like$15 a month. You should never go lower than that. And I've argued with it because I I mean, I feel like it should be less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, right? And a cup of coffee now is like eight or nine dollars. So I feel like it should be like something I can say, like, listen, this is less than going to Starbucks every month, and you're gonna get so much cool stuff, you know, because for me, it isn't just necessarily about generating like huge amounts of profit. It's about like building my base outside of Teachers Pay Teachers off of Instagram. So I keep arguing with Claude over the price, and Claude keeps arguing back about like you're undervaluing yourself. But like I don't know if Claude is aware of like all these things out there. Like I know a guy, he's really popular on Instagram, and he has all of his lessons on a Google Drive and he frequently will sell it for a dollar. He'll just be like, All my, I have like 200 lessons in this Google Drive. If you want access, it's a buck, right? He does this all the time. And he makes a lot of money from it. Yeah, a lot. I kind of don't want to say his name because then if I'm misquoting, then it's only a dollar, I don't want people to go to his site. But he's just an Instagrammer dude. He has like 90,000 followers, and he's just like, yeah, all my stuff is on my Google Drive. It's like a dollar. I know another lady on Instagram who has a Patreon and all of her lessons are in her Patreon, five dollars, and she has over a thousand subscribers. So that's five thousand dollars a month she's making off of five bucks. And so I just I don't know if Claude is really understanding, like in our profession, how like a really good deal could bring in more money. And that's where I'm sitting at right now is like, I don't want to charge$15 a month. I think that's way too much money for digital products, you know. Like, I don't like it. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah, well, and I sometimes I wonder like, is digital products like is that really what people need right now? Do you know what I mean? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Well, I mean, some of the products it's come up with kind of good for me. I mean, one of them is like doing, I mean, obviously, I'm doing like picture book lessons, right? Yeah, all my picture books lessons. I mean, that's pretty important. People need to know, like, what are the greatest picture books to read? What will entertain a hundred kids at a time? Because that's what I've been working on this year, is I do this thing called story and a snack, and I'm reading a story to a hundred kids. Some of the stories flop and some of the stories hit. I feel like that's worth money to have to read a book by yourself in front of a hundred kids and have every kid pay attention to you. That's really, really challenging to find books that fit in that category. That would be a membership. Well, that's one of my ideas. So Claude is like, Claude is like, I have two ideas and I don't know which to go with. Maybe that should be a different episode. One of them is like, my podcast is about teacher health and wellness. Yeah. So it would be like the whimsy well, where I would provide all of my, you know, everything that I provided on my podcast all these like seven or eight years. I would have these like little nuggets in there, um, and a and a really cool downloadable book and meditations, pep talks, like all kinds of really cool things.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Would you meet with them? Because I feel like people pay for memberships when because they want to be part of a community.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yeah, I would definitely do that. Well, right now I'm torn between I have these two sides of my whimsical persona. I have like this teacher health and wellness, where I'm very involved with the teacher community and just like how hard it is being a teacher after making it for 15 years and and just all the struggles that teachers go through and helping them through those. But then I have this other part of my personality where now I've been a librarian for four years and I've read hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of picture books, and I have all this knowledge about picture books and the best lessons for kids. So I am kind of torn right now, like which one is better? Do I go the teacher health and wellness route? Do I have the picture book route? Claude thinks I can do both, just have like a differentiating kind of like there's choose your own adventure, right? It literally would say choose your own adventure.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Remember when I said what do people need now? I feel like the health is what people need, especially teachers.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I do, but like when I'm getting feedback on my Instagram, you know, it's just I think because I'm not like a licensed therapist, I don't have a master's degree in health and wellness. I'm a big fat teacher lady, you know. Like, yeah, I've made it through 15 years of teaching. That's all I got. I also got about 10 diseases from that time, you know? So, like, I mean, I just I I do that's where I struggle, is I'm like, I I I would love to give teacher pep talks and get people excited and and find out ways to cope through teaching, but I also like the teachers are not screenshotting that so much. They're talking to me a lot and they need that kind of communication, but they're more like, you know, screenshotting and talking about like picture books to use in the classroom because that makes your life easier. If someone says, I just read this book to a hundred kids and they loved it and this will make your day go by easier, they really like that, you know. So it's sort of like I have these two sides, I don't know which to go for. Claude thinks I should kind of try to do both, but that's a lot, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

It is a lot, especially because you're gonna be going overseas this summer. You're not gonna have the whole summer to work on this, but I I I think the more evergreen option is the mental health. And I really don't think you need to be a therapist or anything to go into that realm because a lot of people can't afford, can't afford therapy. And there's people that are like coaches, and I don't even think you need to be a certified coach. I think that just being the person who is gathering all the teachers together to vent and to like calm their nervous systems. I don't know, everyone loves Jess. And and also I do want to say you should you said you're trying to build something where you don't rely on Instagram, where you don't rely on TPT, so you're gonna have your own website. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Like yes, okay, I have been building and working on that website.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Cool. Because I'm just saying because I think the human touch is what people need, um, and they need help with their mental health, like and they're gonna continue to need that.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

So I I did pair with a life coach back in the fall, and we did this whole series together, and I got a hundred people to sign up for it, but then she offered like services and nobody bought any services, but you gotta keep trying it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

You can't just have a webinar and then be done.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Like that's like you have zero sales from a hundred-person webinar, you gotta tweak it.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

I remember I told you like if you're marketing is ongoing, you have to market. Remember, we were gonna do an episode about is passive income a myth? Yes, it's a myth.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

You gotta work your butt off to make money and you gotta market TPT has spoiled me because 10 years ago I started the store and I just make money from it every month doing nothing, so it's spoiled me. Do you know what I mean? Which is why I'm like, why am I even thinking about anything but TPT? TPT is the only thing that makes me passive income because I literally do nothing and I get a check every month.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, so it is it is not a myth when it comes to the platform TPT, but it's not gonna things are changing. It's I know you can't rely on it.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

That's why I want to build my own, you know, my own spot. And Claude really thinks it should be something called like the whimsy well, where teachers come for a little bit of whimsy, but also kind of to fix their mental health, you know, like a hangout spot for teachers to, you know, and and gave me a lot of ideas on what to use for that. But the other part of me is just like, uh, this isn't why would people pay for this? And what they really need are lessons to use in the classroom to, you know, make their time like their time again.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Because people need friends, they need humor. What if it was just five dollars a month and we get on a call once a month to just vent and talk? So you don't have to make anything. Do you know what I mean? Like sometimes I feel like we overcomplicate these things.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

I know. I just feel like every time I try something, like it just doesn't work. But you gotta try like more than once. I know, but like if you put your heart like I like this webinar thing I did in in the fall, I mean, oh my gosh, like I really put a lot of work and hours into that. There were no sales, and I do think people were interested, but I mean, maybe the price point was wrong. Maybe, and really what Claude says, they're like, they didn't buy it because it wasn't from you. You're the reason they showed up. They're not gonna buy someone else's life coaching because they're there for the whimsical teacher. That's what Claude thought. But then I thought, is Claude just floating my butt up with smoke? You know?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Maybe, but I do kind of agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

What?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

You're like, yeah, maybe. I just running a membership. I mean, I you said it was. There you go. You're starting up on the membership again. Well, no, I'm just saying it takes a lot of marketing. Like, people don't want to sign up for subscriptions during this economy. Like, subscription, everyone's canceling their subscriptions and memberships.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

I feel like if it was really low, and this is what I keep arguing with Claude about. I feel like if it was really low, then they would. But then that Claude's like, if it's too low, you know, you're not going, you're not gonna make any money. So why would you do it?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Well, okay, mine was what was mine? It was like I had different, I had you could sign up for a whole year, or you could sign up month to month. So I had a month to month option and I had a whole year option. And I I mean, at its peak, I had it was like 120 members. Some of them were yearly, some of them were month to month, and it was$25 a month. Um, and getting 120 members took me years.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

It took me years a month is so high to me. Like I would never pay that for lessons.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

But you got an entire year of curriculum. Every month you got a new unit, right? But and that's the other thing that's really cool about memberships. If you are gonna create digital products, and I had meetings every month too, which were hard because sometimes no one would come. Um, but with the digital products, if you're creating Evergreen, like having a membership actually, it's like someone is counting on you to create this thing, and so it motivates you. And so now I have all these things I created during that time of hustle.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Well, the thing I'm learning about myself is I'm very good at showing up every day for things, yeah. You know, for others, yes, because someone's I don't have a problem with that at all. I'm very consistent, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

So maybe creating a membership with your library resources will motivate you to create more library resources, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:43

And you want to do that. Which do you think is better? Do you think the mental health and wellness is better, or do you think library resources are better?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I think it depends on the audience and the market place, right? Like, yeah, it does. It depends on like the time period that you're selling, it depends on what people are buying.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Like what I need is a rinse and repeat strategy where I'm putting content into something, and then I have that as an offer all the time. Yeah, but I don't know, I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I don't have a rinse and repeat strategy for like lesson plans or what I would put out. I mean, that's something that I talked to Clot about. Yeah, but you're also teaching full-time and I know, and that that really takes precedence right now because my job is so demanding. And that's like the last thing on my mind is doing this membership website. I just know that I mean I have seen my TPT sales go down the last year by half.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Well, what's the what's the link in your profile on Instagram?

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Oh, I haven't looked at it in a long time. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Because I feel like that link in your profile, you have so many followers.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Like, I'm nobody ever clicks that link. I'm telling you right now, nobody ever clicks.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

But what does it go to?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Well, uh right now it's a milkshake website. Have you heard of that before? No, like a Linky Tree, but Linky Tree got banned. So I got my teacher podcast, two wacky teacherpreneur podcasts, saving a hundred dollars to book bag tour and my donors choose projects with no one has ever donated to.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Oh, whoa. I just clicked the professional dashboard on Instagram. I I think that Linktree is dumb. I think I got banned for using LinkTree. Well, whatever. Having a bunch of links, like one link that links to a book.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

That's why that's why I do want my own website. I did buy, I think I told you I bought a lot um a URL on Super Bowl Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Well, yeah, and I think just one website is really important, but I just noticed that there's in the professional dashboard and Instagram, it says next step, set up subscriptions. Like you can set up subscriptions through Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Wow. If you click professional the subscriptions on Instagram are dumb. Oh, yeah. It's like um someone subscribes to like get it, they subscribe money per month and they get in this private chat with you. Oh, and every person that does it, they just hackle them. Oh, that's mean. So it's not like what you it's not a it's not a good, it's not a good one. Okay, what you're thinking. It's kind of like more for like naked people to be like, subscribe and I'll take my panties off.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

On Instagram?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yes, weird.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Okay. Um it's like a porn thing, okay? Oh, I'm so naive. Okay, well, we'll have to revisit this topic because Yeah, this was good.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

I mean, it started with you moving and you leaving the classroom, and it ended with all of my business dilemmas.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Well, because you're a teacher who wants to someday leave the classroom and have income to support you, but I that's not why I left. Like, I the money I make on TPT, like I'm I think in the future you need it to count, right? I do need it to count, but like the most I've ever made like on TPT in a year is poverty level. Like, I can't like it's 20,000 a year or something. Like you can't. And that's when you were hustling hard. Yeah, and you and you can't live on that. Um, and and so well, maybe in Uruguay you can. I maybe, but I just think that it's it's like that is so much pressure to be a full-time teacher and then also working to try and um to replace your teaching income. Like I used to think it was possible, and I do think it's possible if you're lucky, like if you pick the right time to get in on a you know, some sort of big movement, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, or you're you know, the marketplace is ripe for what you have to offer. Like, I feel like those there's so many parts of business ownership that are out of your control, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

It reminds me, can we end on this story that my dad told me? Like, this is one of his favorite stories.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yes, let's end it.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

So he he was in his 20s, he got this job at this place called the Athletic Club. It was like this really fancy like bar for rich people. And um, he asked the owner one day, the owner was super rich, and he's like, My dad's like 20 years old, right? And he's like, How do I get rich? How can I get rich? Yeah, and the owner was like, Mark, that's my dad's name, Mark. There's only Three ways to get rich in life. One, you marry it. Two, you inherit it. Or three, you get really effing lucky. I really I do I do like that. Like, and that's I mean it is a little bit true because like I do know a lot of really rich people. They have worked really, really hard, but they also got really lucky at the right time getting into something right when they should get into it.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah, I love that story.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah, it's his favorite story to tell.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

You're so fruity, Mark. Okay. Okay, not a mistake. Okay, let me just stop there.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

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