Maximizing Growth for Teacher Entrepreneurs: Content Strategy, Partnerships, and Funding Insights with Brittany Verlenich

Unlock the secrets to business growth without breaking the bank as Brittany Verlinich, a maestro of content strategy and social media, joins us to reveal how teacher entrepreneurs can boost their Teachers Pay Teachers ventures. Brittany brings her unique blend of creativity and practical marketing wisdom, illuminating the path to leveraging community resources and building powerful email lists. Our conversation is rich with nuggets of wisdom for those facing the common hurdles of limited time, money, and energy, ensuring your business can thrive with the right strategies in place.

Strapped for cash but rich in ideas? This episode is a goldmine, exploring how educators can transform their grant-writing prowess into business funding, and how internships offer a sustainable solution for growth. We share insights from the FinCon conference, dissect the advantages of educational internships, and highlight the significance of networking for securing grants. If you're an educator turned entrepreneur, Brittany and I lay out a roadmap for nurturing your business without dipping into personal savings, fostering symbiotic partnerships, and providing real-world experience for interns.

Looking to amplify your marketing efforts? We dissect the art of collaboration and delve into the world of business partnerships. This episode isn't just about going solo; it's about harnessing the collective power of shared goals and resources. From Facebook group collaborations to Instagram swap strategies, we cover it all. And don't miss our final note, where Brittany extends an open invitation to connect through her 'Social Media Magic' podcast, her Instagram, and at the Teacher Seller Summit, promising to make the daunting world of social media marketing not just bearable but downright enjoyable.

Get Your Tickets to Teacher Seller's Summit!
https://rebrandedteacher.kartra.com/page/hM1199

Brittany's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/BRITTANYVERLENICH/

Brittany's Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/audienceandauthority/?ref=share_group_link

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teachers, pay Teachers and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Speaker 1: 0:29

This episode was by far one of the best conversations that I think we've ever had on the podcast, and this was with Brittany Verlinich. She shares ideas for how to get help without spending money. She also talks about ways to partner with people when you don't have a lot of time in order to save on time, and I love everything about this conversation. So if you've been feeling like you're kind of stuck in a rut in your business because you don't have the resources, the time, the money, the energy in order to push your business where it needs to go, then this episode is absolutely for you, because she's going to be talking about ways that you can get the help that you need in your business even if you're short on resources, so you're going to love this episode.

Speaker 1: 1:06

I want you guys to go ahead and meet Brittany. Hey, brittany, how are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself? I'm fantastic and I'm so glad to have you on the podcast again. I know we're going to be talking about a lot of incredible ways to build your business, grow your business by partnering with other people for free or collaborating with other people for free. But before we get started with that whole conversation, would you mind sharing with everyone a little bit about you, for those who don't know you, because you wear a lot of hats.

Speaker 2: 1:32

You do a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 1:33

you have a lot going on, so tell us a little bit about you.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Well, yeah, nice to meet you. If this is your first time seeing or hearing me. My name is Brittany Verlenich. I'm a content strategist, social media manager, total marketing nerd, and that is true across everything I really do. So, as far as how I got here, so I own a marketing agency now, but in 2018, I was a lowly travel blogger. I still am a travel blogger. I'm very much entrenched in the travel space.

Speaker 2: 1:57

But what's funny is, even though I would say blogger and I still say that my social media is actually where I have more of my footprint and that is where I have, like, built audiences, where I built communities and, as I was learning all these skills, as you are right now, right as you will at the teacher seller summit, which we'll be talking about soon I realized I was pretty good at this stuff and I thought at the time I was just having fun and making some money and traveling, which I was but I realized that people were asking me well, how did you grow your Facebook group and how do you have people so engaged, and how are you doing this, how are you doing that? And so I said, okay, so I'll start offering my services to other people. Flash forward to 2021,. Covid made the classroom very unbearable I'm sure many of you can relate to that and I was like, okay, I am going to go all in with this for at least a while, partially selfishly, because I wanted out of the classroom like, let's be real. And two, I also was like, okay, well, I can legitimately help people doing this and I feel good about this because I can help them use social media to grow their email list, which I know is a really, really important asset to have, no matter what your niche is.

Speaker 2: 2:58

And by then I'd also developed some resources for using social media as a seller. So I had been dabbling in selling myself and I realized like, oh, my success was kind of non-traditional, it wasn't coming just from SEO, it was because I built this community and I was listening to the problems they had. I made resources for them. I was really good at that the market research, making sure that I had things that they needed. So that is what I'm doing now. I do marketing resources for people and yeah. So that's why I'm here and also I'll just say preface to our conversation I love creative ways to solve problems, so I think that's a good setup for what we're going to be talking about today.

Speaker 1: 3:32

I love that and I love that about you. I think you know, when it comes to you don't have to be a creative person to be a creative problem solver. I think teachers are naturally creative problem solvers, but a lot of us don't see ourselves as being creative, and so, when it comes to watching what other people are doing and the ideas that they have inside the business world, a lot of times we think, wow, that person is so creative. But it's really just a transference of skills, like taking that skill set that you have in the classroom to think on your feet and problem solve creatively, and moving that on into your business, which is exactly what you've done. It fascinates me, in fact.

Speaker 1: 4:11

You mentioned a few things. We have a form that people fill out before they come on the podcast and it's like, hey, what are some things that you would like to talk about? And a few of the things that we're going to talk about today were things that I had not even thought of before. So, and they all center around what you said before was creative working creatively, but also working with other people in a way that's creative and a way to benefit your business. It doesn't cost you a lot of money out of pocket. So a few of the things that we're going to talk about first are how to get help in your business without spending any money. So can you talk to me about like a couple of ways, just like very brief, and then we can get into each one. What are a few ways that you can get help in your business without actually spending money?

Speaker 2: 4:57

Yes, Thank you for saying that like that, because that's a really good way to put it. I also want to put this preface that you can be resourceful without resources. Right, it's about being scrappy and it's about some kind of exchange. There are other exchanges aside from money. You can exchange time, you can exchange skills. So one way is work exchange, skill exchange. I've done that. I do that now. You can work with interns. You can work with volunteers or brand ambassadors, and I have heard a little bit like on your podcast too people saying like that they work with teachers and ambassadors.

Speaker 2: 5:27

There's different ways to do that. As far as marketing, I mean, you could even have them. Well, I won't go too deep, but there's there's many ways that you can work with your audience. You can even partner with brands. I know that a lot of people will hear that and think, oh, that's influencer stuff. But I want to challenge you and say you are an influencer, even if you don't think you're an influencer in the way that we think about it. We're not Kim Kardashian, I get that but you have influence over your community, over the niche of people in your audience, and you are helping them make buying decisions. So you are an influencer, even if you're not a true influencer quote, unquote. So those are a few ways is partnering with your audience and also partnering with your friends and family. Actually, I believe I spoke about that last year when I talked about creative ways to use Facebook and kind of getting your street team together when you're launching something. But anyway, I'll let you pick where you want to go next from there.

Speaker 1: 6:14

No, I love that. So, and another thing that you had mentioned in the form that you filled out were grants. You had mentioned grants.

Speaker 2: 6:20

Can you talk to us a little bit?

Speaker 1: 6:21

about grants as well.

Speaker 2: 6:22

Yes, so with grants, the funny thing is I got my start in grants while I also worked in the nonprofit world before going into teaching, so I already knew a little bit about grants and in the teacher travel world, that is my whole thing. I talk about ways that you can travel for free and on a budget without credit cards. Right, not to pitch that here, but just to give you an idea. So I had had grants in the background running and I started thinking like, could I do that for my business, even though it's a for-profit LLC, it's not a 501c3 or anything like that, cause I know that's a big question that comes up. So I started dabbling a little bit into it. I actually went to FinCon, which is a conference for personal finance creators, in 2021 or 2022. I can't remember and I started finding it.

Speaker 2: 7:00

There are loads of business grants out there, not only government ones, but there are companies that will give smaller brands and creators money. I'm just putting it out there and I don't want to make it sound like it's super easy, because it is a skill that you have to develop. But the great thing is, if you've been in the classroom, you've probably written a grant before. You've probably done something like donors choose, or you're at least aware of it no-transcript. Maybe you need a new laptop and yours is just not cutting it anymore. Maybe you need to buy some expensive software or what you feel is expensive. Really, grants can kind of be anything and I mean it's. It's really exciting what we're seeing. I can't say that I've made like loads and loads for my business yet I'm still newer into that. But I just again want you to kind of expand your mind to like I don't have to just pay dollars out of my teacher income on my full-time job to be able to hire help.

Speaker 1: 7:53

I love that because, especially in the family setting, you know, when I first started my TPUD business I was single and I was also extremely, like beyond, frugal. I was scared to spend money in my business. But I know that it was a lot different than if I had started after I was married and you know the money was going towards family and you're like, okay, having to prioritize, like do I put my kids in this sport that they really want to be enrolled in, or do I buy myself a new laptop? Like we're usually going to pick our kids or we're going to pick our family over our business. And I think that that's where it kind of becomes sort of a mental challenge and mental hurdle to get over making that initial investment, investment sometime in your business when you feel like it's taking money away from your family.

Speaker 1: 8:34

So the grant idea really appeals to me from that perspective of like, oh, if I were just starting my business and I needed a new laptop or I needed to invest in a software, like what you're saying, that would be a really incredible resource to at least try to help maybe supplement some of those expenses. But with the other two things that you mentioned, I feel like, you get more of a guaranteed return on your investment. So let's talk about those. Let's talk about one of the first things, which is interns Talk to me about what that looks like in this space.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Okay. So it can really look as formal or as informal as you'd like for it to Okay. An intern. It can be as simple as working with your high school and saying like, hey, do you have a graphic design department? Do you have a multimedia club? Do you have anybody with Canva skills? I will tell you, I had a young entrepreneurs club at the school I was working at. I had nine-year-olds in Canva designing logos, designing Pinterest pins. So if these young kids and they're very bright, so I don't want to diminish that, but anyone is capable of doing that right? So if a young kid can do that, obviously in high school you have so many more opportunities there. Same thing with community college and universities.

Speaker 2: 9:45

Now, when you start getting into universities, typically they have a formal program that you would go through a department, right? So you would maybe go to the graphic design department and you would work with the department head and you would and I'm making this sound like a lot right now. I'm just kind of giving some examples and I'll break down some steps and ideas later, but basically you're just reaching out to people and just kind of pitching. Honestly, that's like the overall theme is like with grants, with this, with partnerships is you're really just networking and reaching out to people and saying, hey, how can we work together? And I think you might be surprised because you're one of the few who's actually asking how much more is available to you and how they're willing to work with you. So you would just go to those different departments, you would reach out to them and see if you want to do a more formal internship.

Speaker 2: 10:26

Usually there has to be some kind of educational component included. When I worked at my educational job in nonprofit, when I worked at a community center, we had interns there and I had to develop a program for them. When I say develop the program, quote, unquote, I actually had them develop their own program. So that's another thing. I was like look, you know what you need to learn. You tell me what you need, I'll look at it and then give you feedback. So I feel like that's honestly the best approach, because the student has the best idea of what skills they actually need to acquire. And then I'll maybe look it over and say this is feasible, this isn't, this is what I can have you do.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:56

So that's what you want to do for a formal internship approach, and then informal, like I kind of mentioned, is do you have any personal relationships with young people who need experience, especially now more than ever? Young people are coming out of college and high school and companies are being more and more demanding of them. Right, you have to have two summers of full-time internships, you have to have so many references and when you're a 2021 year old, you're like I just got out of school, I don't have any way to go build these relationships. So you being able to work with them is actually doing them a really awesome service, because your teacher, you know how to coach and mentor, you know how to show them what you need and, honestly, it's going to make you a better entrepreneur, because now you're going to practice more clearly articulating what your wants and needs are and you're not going to have as much frustration because you're not feeling like you have to coach them and pay them Right, cause I know that a lot of resentment can build in there very quickly.

Speaker 2: 11:43

So I feel like that is good. And then also, what that does as a side benefit to you is it helps you develop an SOP, and I don't know if you've talked about that much on your show before, so I'll just give a really quick definition of that. It's not my expertise, but basically it just helps you figure out what is a specific role doing in the future. When you do expand to a big business like you, can hire someone out for that.

Speaker 1: 12:03

So one of the things that immediately comes to mind is hiring somebody who's in college for education right, yes? And asking them like, hey, I need some help creating resources. I will teach you how to do this Immediately. On their resume they've got this internship of curriculum and design, which is incredible. To walk into Schools, see that they say, oh, this person has experience creating their own resources and designing their own curriculum and they haven't even, you know, been a teacher yet. So I think that that's also like a massive benefit to them, but also something that they can take into like their own, build their own TPT store out of, if they want to after they graduate. Just kind of learning. I know I didn't know that that was a possibility when I was in school. Of course I was in school back, you know, when TPT was barely a thing you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 12:52

So that was a while back, but yeah, that hits me as something that is beneficial for both parties, very sustainable, and you're not having to necessarily work with a high school student, although you could, you could work with a college student and just be a few hours a week. Or if you're local, like what I'm thinking is like, oh, we've got a university literally just a few miles down the road, that would be something where they could even meet me at the office, you know, and sit down and we could go over things together, like even work in person or meet at the local Starbucks or something like that, and you're not necessarily having to work with someone who lives across the country. So internships, I think that's fantastic. Lives across the country, so internships, I think that's fantastic. Talk to me about exchanges within your audience. What are some ideas of some things that you could have your audience or other teachers help you with for a fair exchange?

Speaker 2: 13:46

So I'll share seller to seller exchange first. When we talk about these things, sometimes it's hard because I don't know what stage you're at. So I'm going to give some beginner, some intermediate, some advanced, just so. If it doesn't make sense now, it's all good, you can come back and listen to this in the future when it applies. I'll start with advanced. If you are offering other revenue streams in addition to TPT, okay. Or even if you're offering like really high I might say really high product, like bundles, like 200, $300, right, you're getting into full year long curriculums, maybe you're writing books, you have series of different things, or you have a course for membership, you can have other sellers be JV affiliates for you. This means like, not only could they be an affiliate for your courses and programs, but you could actually get in front of their audience to have webinars. And, honestly, even if you're intermediate and you just have bundles you're selling, it could be this easy to where it's like yeah, sure, you can come in front of my audience, you can do webinar for them, I'll come and do one for yours. That's a really simple exchange and that's a really easy. I would say that's a collaboration and I'll remind me and I'll talk about the different sweet partnerships and collaborations. So that's one really easy exchange you could do. You could do an email list swap, and I think you've talked a little bit about that before.

Speaker 2: 14:47

So those work exchange. For example, if you need a logo done, you might have a seller friend who's really great with that stuff. Like, all of their things are beautiful and you're like I don't know how you do that. You are just a Canva wizard. Everything you make looks so pretty. Maybe they feel really confident about that skill, but they hate copywriting. They're like I don't like talking about myself or I don't want to sound salesy, but they have this other skill and you have that skill. Why don't you do work for each other, right, like why not? Why don't you just exchange that? And you'll have to like have a little bit of negotiation to figure out what feels fair to you, right, like a five minute project in exchange for two hours. That's not going to feel fair. But just talk about it and figure that out, because if this is something that you are good at, well one, maybe it'll lead you to launch your own service or something in the future. But even if it doesn't, it's something that you can offer in exchange and get that's like an in-kind donation is what we would call that right, so you're getting something in exchange.

Speaker 2: 15:42

So, okay, collaborating with your community and by community I mean this is your customers, or maybe it's followers, because not all of your followers buy right, we know that. So, with your community, I know some people have done like product in exchange for review and stuff. I don't know, that's one way you can do it. But you can also ask them to take pictures and to submit those. You can ask them to take resources and even if what's really interesting about that is even if it's not going to be professional level quality you can get a sense for like, how are they using it? So it's kind of like in-depth market research, because you can't be there watching them use it. So you're like, oh, that's interesting, you use this part, but not this part. So that's kind of a fun thing.

Speaker 2: 16:17

You can have a think tank, basically, where it's like hey, every month or every quarter, I meet with so many people and they're like a focus group, focus groups will think, and so then you're saying, hey, I'm thinking about like launching this resource, what do you think? And have some kind of incentive or referral for that that you know that's totally up to you what you want to do. So, yeah, this is your community or even just asking them to share I know that sounds so silly, but like you would be surprised and now I'm talking more about friends and family, but also your followers. If you launch a podcast, a YouTube channel, a blog, or even you have a new episode or you launch a new product, don't be afraid or ashamed to share that on your personal stuff and say, hey, I just launched this X, y, z. I know this might not be for you, but could you do me a favor please, as a free way to support me, mention that it's free way to support. Could you share this? Or could you tag a teacher that teaches the, the, the, the, down below in the comments? Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 17:07

I'm just trying to get the word out and I think that when you come across really humbly, like that, because you know, I think humility always wins when you're pitching, when you're working with anyone anyway, but I think like involving them in the process, I think is going to be a way to win and also that's a smart, like marketing content thing. If you're like I'm not creative, which you are. You're creating resources, right, you're creative. If you're like I don't know what to create or what to post, that building and public thing is fantastic content and you can make a series, you could say like, hey, go behind the scenes with me, I'm going to launch this new resource. Here's my process. Now you're also clarifying for yourself what your framework is. Okay, sorry, now I'm just getting really excited.

Speaker 1: 17:42

But anyway, there's all these different ways that you can just partner with people.

Speaker 1: 17:45

I love this because I feel like, like you said, there's so many ways to creatively partner with other sellers or with members of your personal community or teacher seller, teacher author community to help build and grow your business.

Speaker 1: 17:59

But it all comes down to asking, and you mentioned this earlier that most of us are really scared to ask. The asking is the scariest part, right, and I've gotten to where, over the years, I feel less worried about asking, asking. But even now I'm like, yeah, that person's gonna have no clue who I am. They're not going to be interested in partnering with me. Right, and to this day, like my partnership that I have with Brooklyn McCarley, which I've talked about often, she does the vast majority of our recruiting because she gets like an adrenaline rush from it, like she loves asking people where I'm just like you know, if you want to, if you feel led by the spirit, you know like the stars align and you would like to do this thing with me. You know I tend to be a little bit more on the timid side. What would you say to those people who are, like I'm a little scared to ask? Like, what do you say to them?

Speaker 2: 18:53

Well, one I would say and I totally understand. Now I can't. I guess I can't say I totally understand, because I do love to ask. That's why I kind of giggle, cause I'm like oh yeah, we're the same. By the way, I just had Brooklyn on my podcast, social media magic. So if you want to hear us more talk about this stuff, I am always happy when people ask me something. Right, like, even if I can't do it and that's the worst feeling. When someone asks me and I'm like I wish I could. I can't make that date, but I appreciate it. It feels good to be invited to the party, right? So, like, no, ask people, invite them.

Speaker 2: 19:29

I think you'd be surprised who says yes to same exact thing. I'm like I am, but a measly lowly travel bloggers, social media manager, whatever. But then I get surprised when I work with somebody like oh, I've heard of yourself, which, by the way, like doesn't that make your chest drop? You're like you're doing all this work to be visible. But then you get surprised when someone knows what you are. I don't know why we do that, but so scared to ask for you. That's another thing you can do. And ask people to ask on your behalf, not saying everybody's going to say yes, but again, just like asking your friends and family, like there's nothing like word of mouth, referral marketing for anything. It will always be the golden standard. So don't be afraid to just ask around. And I will also say, actually in my TPT store I didn't even think of it until just now for Brittany Verlennich, you can find some pitching templates in there. So there's some really like like simple ones. If you're like scared of like what do I say, and you just don't want the blank cursor, you can just copy and paste those. But it really can be just as simple as asking.

Speaker 2: 20:27

And the nice thing is, if you've already been building relationships with people, right, it kind of all comes under the same guise of like, are you networking and collaborating with people? Collaborating is what I consider short-term. Are you partnering with people? Long-term, like I would say, brooklyn and Lauren are partners, right, they've built a partnership, mutual trust and understanding. Are you building relationships? This is another thing. I don't know if everybody agrees with me. Maybe this is why I like social media. I consider everyone who's following me and talking to me they're my friends, right, that's how I see it. And why wouldn't I ask a friend hey, would you mind doing this thing for me? You're helping and the worst thing you're going to do is say no or I can't, and then I go oh, okay. But I feel like it's just like a regular friendship, like why wouldn't you ask your friend for help or why wouldn't you offer your help to a friend? I just think of it like that.

Speaker 1: 21:07

I love that. You're do you know anything about this collaboration that's going on over here? I didn't get invited and it a lot of times it's something that I didn't get invited to either. You know, and they're like do you know anything about that? Am I missing something? Like people want to be invited even if they can't participate. Like they want to be invited because they want to know what's going on, particularly sellers. They want to know what's going on, they want to be in the know and they want to at least be asked. It's kind of like, you know when, when I was growing up, after church on Sundays, a lot of people would go out to lunch, right, and you weren't necessarily always going to go out to eat every Sunday for lunch, but you always wanted people to ask if you wanted to be included. Right and no one had their feelings hurt.

Speaker 1: 21:50

If you were like no, I'm so sorry, like I can't today. I've already got plans. And it's the same way with reaching out to people for business, for business purposes, like, usually people are very grateful that you included them. Even if they're not interested or if they don't have the time to do it, they're usually really grateful to have been asked. And if they're not grateful to have been asked, truly I think I've only had one person and this is out of the, at this point, probably thousands combined that my partner and I have reached out to like a lot of people. I think we've only ever had one person be rude and of course, I will remember that person forever. Like I will remember that person. But the worst that they, that they do, is just not answer you and that's so not a big deal. Do you know what I mean? I think, like the more you do it, the more you start to see like, oh, people appreciate being asked, they're grateful that I asked them, they feel honored that I asked them, even if they don't know who I am. So I love that.

Speaker 1: 22:41

So you kind of briefly mentioned before there's a difference between partnerships and collaborations. Can we talk about that for a second. But the difference between partnering with someone because I think there's a time and place for each one versus collaborating with someone. Can we talk about the difference between those for a minute?

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah. So I would say I kind of broke it down, like I have like a little Venn die I need to actually make an infographic for y'all but basically, if you think about it, partnerships are long-term. They have mutual goals. Okay, like a marriage is a partnership. Right, you have things you're building together. You are on the same page, you are communicating daily. There's no one person doing like more and the other person's doing less. It's like no, we are leaning on each other, we're relying on each other to make this, whatever effort work.

Speaker 2: 23:28

And a lot of times when people hear partnerships in business, they kind of assume like, oh, okay, so we have to open up a store together or we have to start another company together. That could be one way, but it's not the only way, right. Like I have certain brands, like in the travel space I've been working with for four to six years. I consider them partners with me because I have chosen some of them, even exclusively. Like I'm only going to promote this company for this one thing. Right, because I trust that company. And also the audience saying I again, they're my friends. Right, I am not going to tell my friends I use something when I don't or I don't, that's good when I don't agree with that. So I think it's like that. It's like a partnership I'm committing to you, you're committing to me, right, there's a commitment there and you have like some value, alignment, right. So those are Like you want to see each other win.

Speaker 2: 24:10

A collaboration is something that's much shorter term and there's usually a defined objective for a finite period of time. So bundles, summits these are things that we usually think of when we think of collaborations, because I'm saying, okay, so in this collaboration agreement, I'm going to send two emails, I'm going to post once on my Instagram, I'm going to do X Y Z and though, by the way, collaboration is a great way to build relationships Like that's kind of a way to flex the muscle of pitching, to like, hey, I'm hosting this thing, and it doesn't even have to be a big thing, like the list swap. I love that idea because it's so low lift, right. If you can just like message someone and say, hey, I love your work, I loved your freebie about X Y Z, and it's really complimentary to my niche. I would love to do a freebie swap. Are you up for that? It can really be as simple as that.

Speaker 2: 25:00

That's a collaboration, and I think collaborations can lead to partnerships, right, like when you see, especially if you've done multiple collaborations with someone and you've shown that you are a person of integrity and also professionalism, and this is an I get it like turning things in on time. I get it like deadlines oh man, I have to cut myself like 60 reminders. So I get it. But if this is something you struggle with, I just want to say really quickly asterisk here. Definitely get this nailed down before you start doing more collaborations, because, how she Lauren just said, she's always going to remember that one person who was rude. It's the same thing if you're not professional and I'm saying this from experience like you have to be on it with your stuff If you're going to do collaborations, and then if you're not quite there yet, you probably aren't in the place to partner with someone yet, cause that person's going to be relying on you.

Speaker 2: 25:43

So I want you to just kind of think about that. I'm not saying that partnerships aren't something you should strive for. I think there's so many amazing ways to partner with people that don't involve necessarily a marriage, right, like it could be. You're running a marathon together, right? You're going to egg each other on for this one area that you're going to partner with in your business. So I just again want you to expand your mind and think about are there areas in my business? Do I really have to be doing this? If I have to be doing this, does it have to be me and do I have to pay? Is there someone else out there who would get joy or also a benefit from doing this work? And I would say, if it's longer term, then I would call it a partnership.

Speaker 1: 26:15

I love the whole overall theme of just thinking outside the box to figure out ways to get what you need with what you have or with what you're willing to spend. Right. So, on that note, let's talk a little bit about your TSS session and what that's going to be about, because it falls into the same category of partnerships, collaborations and using those to grow your business. Tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 26:38

Yeah. So if marketing specifically is a thing and I'm sure it is, cause I talked to many of y'all and I hear that like, oh, marketing is the one thing Like if I could just sit in my office and create resources and never write a sales page or never write an email or never post on Instagram again, like I would be so happy. If that's you, then we should collaborate, because I am the person who likes to do all that stuff. But yeah, so that's like. That's one thing is like I really love talking about this stuff and exploring ways to do that, and so in my session I talk about ways to collaborate. I talk about some of the higher level stuff too, like I just mentioned, but I also talk about ways to do that specifically with social media and how you can collaborate on marketing efforts. So, like one way that's really simple, like a really good way to get your feet wet into collaboration. That's maybe not as stressful, because I get with bundles or summits especially if you've got a busy household, you've got kids and they have activities, it can be really hard to stay on those deadlines, right. So something that's more ongoing, that is verge on the partnership, but still not as high risk as like kind of collaboration. Partnership.

Speaker 2: 27:35

Gray zone area is like a collaborative Facebook group, and that's a really great one I recommend for sellers, because if you don't have a large audience yet, it's really hard to first gain that traction or get those first 2000 subscribers to your email list. So see if someone can go in with you. That way you're not alone building all the content right. You're not the one that is figuring out the whole strategy, like you can work with other people on things. So that is one really simple way that you can do that and, honestly, that's not the only example. I mean you could even you could even think about that like for for for anything, for Instagram, maybe you want to have a collaborative Instagram.

Speaker 2: 28:08

I've heard of people doing faceless accounts. I've helped people with that. I mean there's so much you can do so much. So I just want you to be thinking about with marketing, how could you collaborate with someone? And I love collaborative Facebook groups. That's an easy way and I talk a bit about that. But yeah, so I think like going to the session if you're interested on ways to collaborate and partner that don't necessarily involve money, that help you get things done, and also just to kind of lighten your load a little bit, because it is hard doing this stuff alone. No business is meant to be done alone, right? So I would say, yeah, if that all sounds good, then you should definitely go check out my session. Or even if you're just curious, right, like I'm so curious, I'm going to be checking out all the other sessions. Like what's she talking about?

Speaker 1: 28:53

Cause, why not? I love it. I think that there, because somebody else is doing the other half. That really appeals to me, because not only is it?

Speaker 1: 28:59

bringing in another creative perspective. It's bringing in potentially another audience and so we're combining hopefully combining audiences together, and it's bringing in more manpower. So that you know if I'm struggling to keep up with, you know, two social media posts a week. I've now cut it down to once a week, or I've cut it down to maybe doing it every other week or something like that. So I love it.

Speaker 2: 29:25

I love it.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Brittany. Where can listeners connect with you if they want to learn more from you?

Speaker 2: 29:29

Yeah, so I would love it if you would listen to my podcast or you can watch it on YouTube, social Media Magic. That's a great place for that. And I also just want to say, because I know some people are listening to this and you're like oh, social media. So my challenge is to make you love it. But if you can't love it, I at least want to make it doable for you. So I share all kinds of ideas like this on my show.

Speaker 2: 29:49

I'm also on Instagram, so you can find me there over at Brittany Verlinage. I know my name is hard to say and spell, I'm sorry, not much I can do about that. But yeah, but if you sell it out phonetically, you'll find it and Lauren will have all those links. And if you come to the session, that'll be really easy because I'll be right there for you and you can just click where you want to go. But if you search me, you'll find me. And, yeah, and hopefully also by how I act online, you can watch what I do. I'm a big fan of that, like the coaches and mentors and people you want to watch and listen to watch what they do, because you can learn even just from looking at the strategy, looking at what they do, looking at the hooks and calls to action. That's honestly what every good marketer does, by the way, is looking at what other people do, dissecting it and then figuring out the framework.

Speaker 1: 30:30

I love it. Well, thank you, brittany, so much for being here and for sharing your expertise and so many incredible ideas with us. We can't wait to see you at Teacher Seller Summit, so excited for your session. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much for being here. If you want to learn more from Brittany, you can find links down inside of the description for ways that you can connect with her. You can also attend her Teacher Seller Summit session.

Speaker 1: 30:51

You really do not want to miss this summit. If you are serious about growing your TPT business or growing your business off of TPT, then, as a teacher business owner, this is the place that you want to be. You want to come to Teacher Seller Summit. I'm telling you you don't want to miss it. The connections that you're going to make with other teacher entrepreneurs, the things that you're going to learn from experts and the conversations that are going to be had. It's going to be the best, guaranteed to be the best virtual conference experience you've ever had in your entire life. We want to make sure that you're attending. You can find links to join us for TSS down inside the description right now. You guys, I'm going to see you guys right back here next week.