5 Ways to Use AI to Grow Your TPT Business

Imagine turning AI into your most reliable team member—one that drafts standards-aligned problems, writes crystal-clear directions, spots bottlenecks, and even helps convert Google Sheets activities to Excel for schools with strict tech rules. That’s where we go today as we unpack five practical strategies TPT sellers can use to work faster, improve quality, and scale without burning out.

We start with the foundation: precise prompting and curated chats that “remember” your expectations. You’ll hear how we prime AI with state standards, difficulty bands, and real examples to generate unique math problems, short stories, and function tables that actually fit the classroom. Then we show how dedicated chats for specific tasks—elementary computation, upper-grade functions, ELAR passages, and social analytics—cut rework and create consistent outputs. You’ll also learn the simple trick for producing two sets of directions: short, student-friendly steps and detailed teacher guidance that reduces support questions and builds trust with buyers.

From there, we dig into efficiency. We map common SOPs for covers, previews, and listings, and ask AI to flag time-wasters, suggest automation, and design batch workflows. We outline how to build self-checking digital activities in Google Sheets or Excel and translate formulas between platforms so your resources work across different district ecosystems. We also add a powerful bonus: using AI to analyze TPT product insights and social metrics, propose weekly priorities, and justify recommendations so you can refine decisions with confidence. Along the way, we share real wins—learning Facebook ads with AI coaching, shipping more resources by pairing AI generation with human QA, and saving serious money by outsourcing only what humans must do.

Ready to turn curiosity into capability? Press play, steal the steps, and try one experiment this week. If these strategies help, subscribe, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a fellow TPT seller who’s ready to work smarter.

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Transcript

Welcome And Big Promise

SPEAKER_00 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. Let's talk about five ways that you can build a bigger, stronger, more efficient TPT business in 2026. We all know that AI is here to stay, and it's really a matter of whether or not you want to compete with the help of AI or if you want to compete against AI. And I'm gonna tell you that if you're in the latter camp, you're going to lose. So we're gonna talk about five ways that you can use AI very efficiently in your business. And we're gonna start off with number one. Now, this one is gonna seem pretty simple, and it's probably something that you've already thought of or used, but you can use AI to help you create problems, questions, answer banks, things like that. Now, most people are probably already doing this, already using it to write reading passages, to create short stories, or to write math problems, science problems, things like that. And if you're not, you need to, you absolutely need to. But what's really gonna help you is getting super specific with your prompts. So, for example, just starting a new chat and saying something to the effect of I need you to be a world-class curriculum developer in the United States, creating curriculum that aligns to X standards, or in the state of Texas, creating curriculum that aligns to TKS for English, okay, or ELAR TEAKS, creating curriculum that aligns to seventh through 12th grade ELAR teaks. Something really specific. That's what you want to get. You want to get really, really specific with that prompt and tell it exactly who it is that you want it to be. And then after that, you can give it examples. And this is where I found it works the best is to start to prime Chat GPT with those examples. Now, two things that I've learned that you might already know, but if you don't, I want to make sure that you know so that Chat GPT can work better for you. Like for example, if I want it to align to a specific Texas State standard, I'm gonna give it that standard and then I'm gonna give it an example of problems that align to that standard. I might even take screenshots from exams from release star test questions. I might type out or give it copy and paste in a reading passage that's been used on a star test before or that's been used on state exams before, or something similar to what I want it to create. I'm gonna say, I want you to create unique original work that meets the following criteria and then give it very, very specific criteria from those examples. So for example, I had ChatGPT create a hundred multiplication problems for me that aligned to third grade standards. And with those third grade standards, I want 20 of those to be easy, I want 40 of them to be medium difficulty, and I want 20 of them to be rigorous. And I gave it specific examples of what met that criteria. Also had ChatGPT create tables for different graphs of linear functions for me. I told it exactly what criteria it needed to meet in terms of slope, whether or not points on the graph needed to be integers, if they needed to fall within a certain range on that graph. And so get very, very specific with criteria that it needs to meet, and it will work so much better for you. Now, what happens a lot of times is when sellers realize, oh, I have to put all of this into Chat GPT in order to get something out, by the time I program it to create what I want, I could have already written it myself. For example, a short story passage or something like that. Or if you're wanting it to write paragraphs for you or create word problems for you, well, by the time you get it to give you what you want, you're like, well, now I've already spent so much time telling you how to give it to me, I could have written them myself. And that's true. If all you want is like five or eight problems and that's it forever, then that might be true. But here's what you need to know is that once you create a chat in Chat GPT, so you have the ability to create multiple chats. And what happens is within that chat window, ChatGPT will remember the entire conversation. So once you've programmed it to work that way one time, you've asked it to create a specific kind of curriculum that aligns to certain standards, all of that good stuff. Once you've done that one time, then it makes it so much easier. So I have a chat open just for creating math problems. And I have some for lower grades and I have some for upper grades, and I have one chat open that creates word problems and basic computation problems. And I have another chat going that creates tables for functions and works with some of that upper level stuff so that it can kind of think and be an expert at one thing at a time. Where I think this gets really discouraging, and where you kind of start to get mixed results with um getting Chat GPT to give you some really great story problems or equations or whatever and to meet those certain criteria is when you come back and start from scratch every time. For a long time, I just thought that Chat GPT could have kept an overall record of things that I've written. Because, you know, you ask it to do things like describe the kind of house you think I live in, or you see all of those funny little reels or skits or whatever that people do, prompts that they give to Chat GPT, where they say, like, how would you describe me? What do you think my house looks like, or what do you think my home looks like based off our conversations, or what do you think my spouse needs to know about me based off my conversations, or how would you introduce you know, all of those kind of things, right? So you think that Chat GPT kind of keeps a running list in its AI head of every conversation that you've had. And to some extent that's true, but not on a lot of these specifics. So it can't really build on prior information. So I have a chat going right now about content strategy for my Instagram account. And I literally will send ChatGPT here's the video, here's the analytics for that video, and I'll send it to ChatGPT and I'll ask it questions based on those analytics. Well, when I ask it to then go ahead and help me come up with hooks for a new video, then it has all of the previous information and understanding of how previous hooks performed, what the video looks like, how those previous hooks performed according to analytics and data. And it can tell me and make suggestions for my next hook based off of that knowledge and information. But if I were to open a brand new chat, it's not gonna be able to do that for me because it's not looking back at that previous conversation, it's acting like it's starting a new conversation. So create curated conversations within Chat GPT that will help you get the end result that you want when creating short stories or problems or things like that. If you're in the ELAR niche or the history niche, maybe what you might want to do is have one chat that's specific for writing short stories and maybe another chat that's very specific for writing dictionary questions, something along those lines so that you can go back and you can revisit those specific chats and you're not having to reprompt it every time. Number two, use it to write directions. It took me a little while to figure this one out. And honestly, directions are not something that I in general have a hard time figuring out how to write. But I found that whenever I'm writing directions, I tend to get a little wordy. And so if I'm der writing directions for a game or an activity and I need it to be student friendly, then I can tell ChatGPT, I can explain to them this is how the game works. Write me a clear set of directions, a clear, simple, short set of directions that could be easily understood by a child of the age of 10, right? And so I'll have I'll tell it all about the game, I'll tell it all about the activity, how the game works, how the activity works, and so much detail. And then it will break that down into very clear, simple directions that a child can understand. You can also use this to write the teacher directions as well. So if you want it to give more detail to the teacher and give the teacher tips or things like that inside of the product itself for the teacher directions, you can have it write that. Number three, use Chat GPT to identify bottlenecks within your TPT business or your standard operating procedures. And by standard operating procedures, I mean the procedures that you utilize on a regular basis within your business to get something done, like getting a product uploaded. What are all of the tasks and items that you have on your to-do list in order to get that product uploaded? So if you find that you are regularly getting stuck with something or it's taking you too long to create a resource, then you can describe your product creation process to ChatGPT. You can describe whatever the process is. Maybe that is your process for creating covers and previews or writing product descriptions, whatever that may be. Describe that process to ChatGPT and ask it to identify areas where you are wasting time or you could be more efficient. Or if you have something in your business that you would like to streamline and update, ask ChatGPT if there's a way that you could automate that within your business without costing you any extra money. So you could even give it a list of all the things that you do to create a product or all of the things that you'd have on your to-do list on a weekly or monthly basis and ask it, what are some tasks here that I could outsource to AI? And then what are some tasks that have to be completed by a human? What are some opportunities where I could use AI or an online tool to help make my work week easier, to run my business more efficiently and to be more effective? And it's really great at making suggestions. Sometimes it's a little off the wall, or the suggestion that it makes doesn't quite land, but a lot of times it will be able to analyze everything and find little bottlenecks in your business. For example, I had to create a bunch of linear equations graphs. And so I asked AI, as I told you guys earlier, I had it make a bunch of tables for me, but before I had it do that, I told it, this is what I have to do. What is going to be the most efficient way to complete this task? And it was like, well, I'll write the function tables for you. And then all you have to do is copy and paste them in in order to create the graphs. So that made things a whole lot easier for me. And I got that idea from just asking ChatGPT. So sometimes you may not be aware of what Chat GPT or AI is capable of doing for you. So if you give them the problem that you have and say, like, I've got to create an Excel spreadsheet that does A, B, C, and D, it's going to be able to walk you through it. Which brings me to number four, using it to create digital resources. Now I can see this going two ways. It's really important to note that a lot of schools right now are either Microsoft schools or Google schools. And we talked about this in a previous episode not too long ago, but this is a really important distinction because so many teachers are not legally allowed to use, say, a Google Sheets resource in their classroom, or they're not allowed to use a Microsoft Excel resource in their classroom. So that really complicates things when it comes to selling a product. So if you have, say, Google Sheets activities, you could potentially give that template or that code or whatever you've coded inside of Google Sheets to Chat GPT and have it recode it for Microsoft Excel. That way your product could work both ways. So if you're more familiar with Google Sheets or more familiar with Excel, then you could use it to work like that. If you've seen other people create really incredible resources using Google Sheets and you want to create self-checking activities that do really cool things as well, ChatGPT can help you with that. If you explain to it what it is that you want it to do, and you might have a lot of going back and forth, but if you explain to Chat GPT what you're wanting to create, it can give you the exact steps. And if it shoots something out to you that seems way too complicated, all you have to do is say, Back up. I am brand new, and this seems really overwhelming. I need you to just give me one small step at a time that I can accomplish, and I'll come back to you when I've completed that small step. And that is how I have learned to do so many new and incredible things in my business. Which brings me to point number five, and that is you have to experiment. This is something that my husband and I were talking about not too long ago. And the real reason why some people thrive with AI or thrive with some sort of new technology, and other people really struggle, it really has a lot to do with perseverance. I promise you, there is not anything special about me or anyone else who is able to use AI to create incredible tools and resources and to utilize it efficiently and effectively. There's not some magic prompt that they have that you're not privy to that's gonna make the difference. There's just not. And while there are tools and there are prompts that can make it easier for you, the best thing to do is to practice, to go back and forth and have conversations and ask questions. I think some people think that unless they write it a certain way, you have to like write the perfect prompt in order to get exactly what you want. And that's not necessarily true. In fact, I almost never start with writing a really detailed prompt about make sure you're this, that, and the other and putting all this detail in. Almost never do that. I usually start with something really simple, like, hey, I have this idea for this thing that I want to do. Could you help me do that? Is something that's something you're capable of helping me doing? And it will say yes, and it will usually give me options for next steps. Would you like for me to do A, B, C, or D first? And I'll say, Oh, you know what? Option B sounds really good. But before we proceed with option B, here's some things that you need to know, or here's some things that I want you to keep in mind. And it is really phenomenal. Right now, I'm using AI to create a couple of apps that will make my business run more smooth and more efficiently. And I have zero coding ability. I'm not doing anything special. I don't have any kind of special skills or any kind of special knowledge. Last year I used AI to help me master Facebook ads. And by master, I mean honestly, master. Really stinking good at Facebook ads now. And that honestly was just by coming in and telling Chat GPT exactly what it was that I wanted to do, asking it to guide me to the very first step. And then whenever I ran into a snag, because you will, coming back and saying this is the snag that I ran into, walk me through it. And sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it's a really painful process to get to where you want to be. But I saved thousands and I mean thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars last year learning how to run Facebook ads myself and doing it effectively. And I'm currently saving thousands of dollars by having AI write a bunch of math problems for me. And there are still some things that it cannot do very effectively, or at least I've not found that it's able to do very effectively, but it's saving me so much money because I'm able to complete the portion that it cannot or outsource that portion at a fraction of the cost that it would have been for me to pay someone to write or create those problems from scratch. In fact, right now, my 12-year-old nephew is keying problems that Chat GPT created for me. And it is so much cheaper to pay him than it is to check to see if multiplying fractions problems or addition problems or whatever to make sure that those are correct than it is for me to pay a curriculum writer to create those problems. So I'm able to use AI to help me create the problems, but then I don't have to go line by line to make sure it hasn't repeated itself or made a mistake or done something really wonky. Like one time it gave me back a list of like 40 problems and the answer to all of them were 600. So obviously that's not gonna work, right? So you need a human to be able to check over those things, but it is so much more cost effective to have somebody else do that than it is to do it yourself and lose a bunch of time or to pay someone$30 to$50 an hour to do that for you. And then lastly, I'm gonna throw in a bonus sixth one. So for number six, use AI to analyze your data. TPT gives you so much data, and there's a lot that you can learn from that data. So if you tell ChatGPT, like, here's the data that I have, download your data from your product insights tab and say, what would you work on first? Or what do you think that this means? Or what questions do you have for me before you analyze this? And give me a to-do list for things that I need to update on my resources. See what it spits back at you and then ask it to justify why. Tell it to tell you why you should do those things. Sometimes when it explains why, you're gonna be like, eh, that's not true. But a lot of times you're gonna be like, oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense. And by asking it to justify itself, sometimes you're asking it to kind of think about things a little bit harder and not just throw back some pat answers. And if it does have a misunderstanding of some of the data, like maybe what a preview view is, you can go ahead and explain to it right then and there, and you can correct that so that the next time that you come to import your data in that same chat, it's gonna work a whole lot more effectively. So, biggest takeaways. Number one, use it to help you write your problems or short stories or things like that. Use it to help you create the content that you use inside of your TPT templates so that you can create resources faster and more efficiently. This is really gonna help you with stocking your store and keeping new items on the shelf for your repeat customers. Second, make sure that you're doing things like creating specific chats for specific tasks that you want ChatGPT to perform for you on a regular basis. Next, use it to identify problems or bottlenecks in your flow for the way that you conduct your business so that you can work more efficiently. And then challenge yourself to learn something new and to take on a new task and have ChatGPT walk you through the entire process and help you troubleshoot some of those things. And then finally, use it to analyze your data. You can even have it create like a weekly to-do list for you based off your product insights tab or other data that you give it. You can let it analyze your YouTube data, your Instagram data, your TikTok analytics. I will send it a screenshot of analytics from a reel and it will tell me exactly what that means and what we need to work on for the next reel, whether that is retention or drop-off or maybe a better hook. It's able to analyze that data and tell me exactly what we need to work on. If you have a way that you use ChatGPT to help you run your business more efficiently, I would love for you to drop it down in the comments so that we can all learn from each other. I am so excited to see where AI takes us in 2026. Even though it kind of scared me a little bit at first, I'm more excited about it than ever because it's opened up worlds of possibilities for me and my business. And I know that it can do the same for you. Thanks so much for being here, you guys. I'm gonna see you guys right back here next week.