Support from a TPT Spouse or Partner

Kirsten 0:04

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hi, there, welcome to another episode of the creative teacher podcast, this one's going to be a good one. And if you have a spouse or a partner, and you listen to the show, I highly recommend you send them this episode. Because I have my husband on the podcast today, we are going to talk about a lot of things related to being a spouse of a TPT seller, and how they can support you in your business, even if they're not actively involved. I've known my husband for almost 11 years now. And I actually started my TPT store may be Oh goodness, maybe one or two weeks before I met my husband. And we've been married for almost six years. So we've been together for a while. And he is not a teacher, he was not like he did not go to school and education or anything like that he works in a completely different industry. And I just kind of wanted to have him on the podcast is something that I've been wanting for like two years, we just haven't done it. And now he's here. We're going to just kind of chat about like, you know, his perspective on things. And I'll ask him some serious questions, some fun questions. And so I thought this would be a really fun conversation for you to listen to. You can listen with your spouse if you'd like or you can just listen to him just kind of if you're a little nosy to see what things are like in our life and how things work, then I think you'll enjoy this episode as well. So let's go ahead and listen in.

All right, so we've got a special guest on the podcast, my husband, Colton, welcome to the show.

Colton 2:26

Hey,

Kirsten 2:27

glad you're here. See, I know, right? Yeah, I have been wanting to do this for probably a couple years now. We just haven't had the chance. And so now we're here we are. So I'm glad you're here entertaining me. And just let me interview. So set the background for us. Do you have any specific role in my TPT business at this time?

Colton 2:56

I guess fly on the wall would be about right. The person you sometimes bounce ideas off of or maybe often bounce ideas off of the no real direct involvement. You know, I don't get into making the resources or you know, a whole lot of the other stuff. But maybe a little talk about strategy sometimes. And definitely a lot of ideas, though.

Kirsten 3:22

Yeah, yeah, I will. I have enjoyed hearing your thoughts about some of the things that have been going on as far as like, in my business directly, and also just in TPT as a whole. So it's always nice to have that perspective there. But speaking of perspective, what is your perspective on my journey as a TPT seller, based off of what you remember, like when I first kind of picked my store up and where it is today?

Colton 3:52

Well, it was looking back on it, it was kind of a hot start. But kind of a cold start also, because you had the store for a long time but weren't really active. And then the moment you really got more into it, all of a sudden, you were, you know, having a lot more success there and enjoying yourself. And it's really gone from, you know, not not really anything to you've even talked about very much to more of, you know, either full time business almost or definitely at least a part time serious business. And, you know, I think you if you did tally up all the hours it basically is full times.

Kirsten 4:45

Yeah. Depends on the week, right? Yeah, I there have been some days where I was working way more than I probably should have, but I appreciate you for letting me do that. But yeah, I would definitely concur. With that, as far as, like, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I mean, you've I'm glad that you're kind of keeping tabs on that. So what are what are your thoughts on like, the positives of watching me grow my business like financially, personally, what are some positives you've seen from it

Colton 4:49

, I'd say the biggest thing is sort of seeing you grow in your own career, because you enjoyed teaching in a lot of ways. But seeing this other side of you with more of a creative element, I think you're a naturally pretty driven person. So having this store that really you have complete creative control, and really all aspects of control over it, pushing yourself to learn new things and consistently put out resources and really just drive the business forward, has been sort of a different side of you, as time has gone on.

Kirsten 6:06

I guess also, I would add that I have because of my success, I've been able to kind of stay home instead of go back to work. I guess that's another main thing that's been really helpful.

Colton 6:22

Yeah, I think that, you know, we we never really had any idea of what level of success you would reach. There's certainly plenty of other things to come but going from, I think, was it just a few 100 bucks a month or even a year for years? And then all of a sudden, you know, doing quite a bit better and seeing that continue to grow? Yeah, it's been been an interesting journey.

Kirsten 6:54

Yeah. It's been cool to see like, all, you know, it's been nice to also just kind of do what I feel is passionate to me. I mean, teaching was of course, as you said, I was like, super into it. Like I did all the laminating. I don't know if you remember that time in our, one of our tiny apartments, where I was like, laminating tons and tons of stations. And then I think not even a year later, it was all flooded in Harvey, but like,

Colton 7:22

I repressed that memory. Yeah.

Kirsten 7:24

So yeah, I was super like, into teaching when i That was the season I was in. And then after our kids, it's like, now this is I'm super injured TPT stuff. So what have you noticed are some of the challenges that we've faced as we work as I work in my TPT business? What do you think are probably like, the top that comes to mind?

Colton 7:49

I've never brought any problems with, you know, the timing or the schedule up to you right? Now, it's kind of, it's kind of both sides of it, that you, you know, you do have that complete control over it. And you do choose how much you act to push the business forward. The flip side of that is finding the right scheduling. And, you know, we have three kids. So there's, even when we draw out a detailed schedule or a plan, life doesn't always really allow that.

Kirsten 8:23

So and then somebody wakes up at 5am saying, they're ready to eat. I'm like, What? No, this is this is my work time.

Colton 8:32

Yeah. So there's both sides of it, there's, you know, the finding the balance of how much work actually needs to get done or or just wants to get done. Yeah, and, you know, making sure that there's, there's a appropriate level of effort being made for different activities. And, you know, there's there has been times where we've had disagreements about I have to get this done right now. And oh, shoot, like, I need help right now. It's, it's not gonna work. I'm sorry, but I need your help right now. So just finding how to balance that with kids and and work the New Age version of, you know, not becoming a workaholic.

Kirsten 9:15

So yeah, I know. And if you let me I will literally work for hours because I love it so much. That's just I don't know, I'm super driven. I think it'll be easier though, when, like, all of our kids are at a certain age, and they're at school more consistently, and I have more time to actually work without them being there at all. I think I feel like I will be much more efficient. Right. I hope I may. I may. I don't know. We'll see how that goes. But I feel like it'll be a lot easier. It's already a lot easier than like a year ago, when we had two kids under two.

Colton 9:53

Yeah, I would say so. At least we're getting a full night's sleep. Yeah.

Kirsten 9:58

Yeah. It makes things a little bit easier. So, what tips or advice do you have for spouses and partners? Who like you may not be a part of the TPT business for their spouse, but they might want to support their significant other in some way? What tips do you have for that?

Colton: 10:18

Well, I guess to the, the big one would be working out that kind of schedule. And at least doing the best planning, you can even though life not, you know, may not always allow the ideal schedule you have worked out. But staying on top of that, and having a clear plan, at least. And just being interested in general that if you know, somebody is talking about something they're really interested in, and you love them, and, you know, even if that might not be the first thing you think of as a fun time, or something cool to talk about just listening and, and being as involved as they want you to be sort of, and then bringing any kind of skill set, you do have to advise when you know when that's needed. You know, I think a few times I've looked over some of the emails you've sent, and now I have more of a sales background. So some of the wording and you know, when the emails are meant to sort of engage people in your business and generate interest, I think sometimes that can come into play, or even just taking a second set of eyes to look over things that have been put out whether it's a website or a resource, or what have you. Just staying as involved as as it makes sense to be and staying interested and scheduling, I guess it'd be the things.

Kirsten: 11:48

Those are really great tips that you have there. I think it's really important to support your spouse as much as possible, even if you're not actively involved. And even if you don't necessarily understand all the terminology and lingo being there for them and helping them out. And you know, just being a good supporting spouse, good or bad, whatever is happening, you're like always on your side. That's something that I've really, really appreciated having from you. And maybe you do need to, like take over my email marketing or something. You're pretty good writer.

Colton: 12:24

I do it sometimes.

Kirsten: 12:26

Just not, you know, not at all every day or anything like that. But okay, let's go into this fun segment. How well do you know T P T? So I'm going to answer I'm going to ask you some questions, and we'll see what your responses. So the first one, what does TPT stand for?

Colton: 12:49

Teachers Pay teacher's

Kirsten: 12:51

so now it doesn't stand for anything I believe. But yes, it did. Took a tough. Yes. But yeah, they changed it recently to just be TPT. But it is originally teacherspayteachers. When did TPT start? What year?

Colton: 13:06

I have no idea. I'm gonna guess though. Okay. 2011

Kirsten: 13:12

2006. Okay, five years off. That's too bad. That's good. Okay, what is the purpose of TPT?

Colton: 13:21

To give teachers access to beautiful resources and an income stream? Of making those? I don't know. Yeah. creative outlet.

Kirsten: 13:32

There you go. I mean, yeah, that works. That's good. Okay. Here's another question. What do you think the best TPT strategy is, from an outsider's perspective, if somebody wanted to make more sales on TPT?

Colton: 13:48

I mean, I think the strategy has to change based on the goal, like if you're just starting out, the idea, I would think would be as much output as possible and marketing, whether that's ads or whatever type of AI driver, I guess, would work, but getting your name out there and getting the product started would be I would think the first stage of starting a successful TPT business, but when you get to be more, medium or even large, which, you know, I, I don't really know, where are those? Those lines are drawn, but making sure as time goes on, that your products don't get stale. If there's some kind of update on either the material or some kind of new tool to either revise or improve your existing resources that would come into play a lot more I would think and who knows maybe maybe the, you know, types of marketing and draw Bring people in would become more important, maybe less, not really sure how that would fall in. But that would maintain that would stay a factor. And no, I guess at some point, making it more self sufficient or more of a classical business or rather a digital business, where some of the services, maybe you've over time, either just lost interest in doing every day or suddenly have the funding to hire out. Making it more automated, eventually might be the goal, you know, everybody's most people's goal is to retire eventually. So yeah, if you could, eventually, you know, who knows what this will look like in 2030 years. But if you could eventually still maintain that maintain that income stream, even if you are sort of taking more hours off and not working as much, I guess that would be the end goal.

Kirsten: 16:01

I like how you mentioned that because it is kind of like the lifecycle from what I see or observe from a lot of TPT businesses and my own TPT businesses where when you're first starting out, it's really like product creation, and getting as much out there as you can and getting more people to see it, then as you can become more established medium to larger seller, you're really focusing on a lot of optimization for your resources, updating depending on how old your resources. And then I like how you also added in the fact that like thinking way long term, you probably aren't going to be thinking that, you know, you're continuing to churn out things, you're probably going to be hiring out a lot more. And maybe even eventually, like you're kind of seen as the founder of the business and completely hands off. So those are interesting points that you mentioned, because I think it could align with a lot of TPT businesses out there, whether it's right now or in the long run. Okay, last question. In this segment, if you are a TPT, seller, what would your store name be? And what type of resources would you sell?

Colton: 17:19

I would try to engage more with my original science background, maybe fall back on some of my, my science stuff from college and actually use that biology degree. I don't know what I'd name it, though, I would struggle over that I always struggle over over naming different things. So I'm gonna go very basic, just say Colton, science resources.

Kirsten: 17:47

There you go. That's possible. That's SEO friendly. Right there. Somebody will find it. All right. So now we have some fun questions to end this off. And these are questions I don't know the answer to. We've known each other for almost 11 years. And I literally am interested to hear what you will say to this. So first question, what is a TV show you think everyone should watch at least once?

Colton: 18:14

There's a lot of good ones. I guess for a bit of a nostalgia factor. There's, there's so many episodes of South Park that at least a few of them, I think resonate with everybody, or at least a few do with different people. It's probably a different view. It's certainly a different view with different people. I think Breaking Bad is a really good show. There's a lot of shows where there's a few really good seasons, and then it falls apart. That seems to happen too often. But yeah, if I if I could say everybody probably has at least three or four episodes of South Park that would would hit home. That'd be my first say.

Kirsten: 19:00

All right. I should have guessed that one. I didn't think. Yeah. Okay, second question. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Colton: 19:12

I don't know if I could do that. Probably die. If you had to pick something that would be like a really good something. Can I just say barbecue? Just? Yeah, any kind of barbecue meal. So so much variety. Yeah. can pick your choice from different towns in Texas to There we go. Number three, last one. What city would you live in if you could live anywhere in the world? Definitely somewhere warm or tropical. My first thought would be Hawaii. But I like beef a lot and it's expensive there so maybe a little harder to get what I like there. Maybe Miami, Miami Uh, yeah, I mean, I've got a big connection to the Pacific Northwest so it'd be hard to not choose like Oregon or Washington or something or even Idaho. But yeah, if I could just choose one place to live. You know, Miami's got a great cultural scene. You know, there's plenty of sports teams over there. I like the weather. Not too far from Disney World, either. That's a nice perk.

Kirsten: 20:27

Yeah. All right. Well, this has been fun chatting with you on the podcast. So thank you for being here. Good to be on. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for listening 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 follow me on Instagram at the southern teach dot designs. Have an amazing day.