Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
TRYH 177: Turning Pressure into Profit: Building Resilience and Achieving Success in Your TPT Store
Feeling the weight of managing your Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) store? You're not alone. This episode kicks off with an inspiring session from the Teacher Seller Summit, where we dive into how to turn pressure into profit. We discuss the necessity of diversifying your income streams and the importance of resilience, even when times are tough. Plus, there’s an invaluable opportunity to join a free masterclass with Amy Porterfield on digital course creation, equipping you with the tools to convert your business ideas into successful ventures.
Journey with me as I open up about my personal and professional hurdles from 2012 to 2024, highlighting the grit required to thrive amid adversity. From paying off student loans and enduring a trying divorce to grappling with financial instability and the demands of single parenthood, my story is a testament to perseverance. Moments of incorporating my business and creating online products provided glimmers of hope, but setbacks like returning to a lower-paying job and legal battles kept me grounded. By sharing these experiences, I aim to illuminate the resilience needed to navigate life's challenges, no matter how daunting.
In this episode, we also delve into actionable strategies for building both resilience and success. Prioritize your physical health with clean eating, regular workouts, and yoga for mental clarity. Set small, achievable goals to keep your motivation high and confidence intact. Surround yourself with a supportive network, including mastermind groups, to bolster your emotional and professional well-being. Learn to positively reframe obstacles as learning experiences while avoiding toxic positivity. Finally, we cover specific business strategies, from addressing traffic and conversion rates to utilizing the YDP for insightful analytics. To cap it all off, we explore embracing failure as a stepping stone to ultimate success, inspired by a heartfelt letter from my brother, who’s navigating his own challenges in the film industry. Tune in for an episode packed with inspiration, practical advice, and a reminder of your unyielding worth and resilience.
Welcome to Teacherpreneurs. Raise your Hand. Episode 177, from Pressure to Profit. So today I'm excited to share with you a session I did at the Teacher Seller Summit and I'd like to share it with you in case you are feeling the pressure and you are so overcome with the pressure and you need it to be profit. I know that it can be hard. I know that there have been hard times. I know there are still hard times for me. I've definitely had to spread my wings and diversify in my income streams because the thing that I have counted on is I'm having a hard time. I'm having a hard time. I know that some others are as well, and so I'm hoping that this session actually inspires you, helps you in some way. It's very vulnerable, I will say that, and kind of difficult, but I think if it helps anyone, I know that that's important. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Teacherpreneurs. Raise your Hand where bold teachers rise up and transform into successful teacherpreneurs who are destined for greatness. What exactly is a teacherpreneur, you might ask? Well, webster's Dictionary defines the term as um. Okay, it's not yet a word in the dictionary, but hear you me, it will be one day. In a nutshell, a teacherpreneur is both a teacher and a business person, and we're here to help you be better at both. So, without further ado, from One Tired Teacher and Trina Debery Teaching and Learning, here's your host, trina Debery, teaching and learning. Here's your host, trina Debery.
Speaker 1:Hey, so today I'm going to share with you the session that I created for the Teacher Seller Summit. But before we do that, I want to share something very important Now you may have missed. I want to share something very important Now you may have missed from our course confident with Amy Porterfield, which was a live boot camp experience where you kind of got solid on your course idea and your pricing and your audience and all those good things that are so important at the beginning of digital course creation. And you may be like kicking yourself. You may think I can't believe I missed this opportunity. I don't know what happened, but I would actually really love to attend a free, a free masterclass, a free webinar, and it is with my girl, amy Porterfield.
Speaker 1:It's all about course creation. So you know how you are always. You know when you're cleaning out your closet or you're cleaning out your garage that is the worst maybe an attic, a storage unit, any of those things, and you've got, you know, walls of milky plastic bins. Or you've got piles of indistinguishable cobwebby furniture or garbage bags with mysterious contents heaped into precarious piles. Or you know, maybe you're even cleaning out your teacher supplies and you're like I've got a mound of sticky notes. Or I've got all these papers or all these notes that my students used to give me all the things. Or I've got all these papers or all these notes that my students used to give me All the things. The dread is real, the sweat is building, the material arguments are loading, but a couple hours in and you have everything organized into piles. You've swept everything up. You've got everything sorted Things to keep, things to get rid of, things to pass on to another teacher, any of those things. You've sorted everything out and it feels so worth it. Well, we've been talking about digital courses for a few weeks now and it's probably feels like you've won a promising stall on storage wars. Storage wars there's some serious profit potential in there. But you're the one who has to make heads or tails of what to do with all this stuff.
Speaker 1:Until today, because my dear friend and partner, amy Porterfield well, I'm a proud affiliate partner with Amy. She's not really my partner partner, although I feel like she's part of my part. I'm a part of her partnership. Anyway, she's a 15 year course creator, a New York Times bestselling author and my personal digital course teacher. She is hosting a free masterclass to break the entire process of creating and marketing a digital course into five no fluff steps. Rejoice, so you don't have to start course creation from the jumbled, indistinguishable, overwhelming pile of to-dos. You get to start from the five tidy categories and start with this one first stage.
Speaker 1:This free masterclass is especially for you if you're a one-person show trying to get all of this done yourself and you don't have a ton of money to invest up front. But you're confident you could run with a five-point start to finish roadmap that takes you from where you are today to a digital course that serves as well as it sells. And my favorite thing about Amy is that she's a practical person and she is empowering. And she's going to tell you why you can do this. With so much proof and so many practical examples, you'll wonder how you ever doubted yourself. And then she's going to tell you how you can do this. Amy breaks the digital course elephant down into five easy bites. But you've got to sign up and you've got to show up. There are no replays. There's no replays, so you have to be there, be ready. But I'm telling you it is going to be an incredible experience. It's live, it's incredible. You're going to love it. I hope that you will join me. You can easily sign up through Trina Devery teachingandlearningcom forward slash AP masterclass. All one word AP masterclass. So, trina Devery, teachingandlearningcom AP Masterclass. Hope to see you inside. All right, let's get on with the show.
Speaker 1:Hi, welcome to Turning Pressure to Profit, navigating your TPT store when there is no plan B with Trina Devery, welcome, welcome, welcome. So do you have this situation? Are you feeling pressure and you're trying to turn that into profit? Maybe you are feeling like, okay, I've created this business, I have a store and you're taking it seriously and you need this to work, or me, and maybe you've quit your job already. You've quit your teaching job, or you're hoping to quit and you're really feeling the pressure to make TPT work. Maybe you have found yourself alone with zero support, or your husband is making less than you are. Let me just tell you it doesn't matter what your circumstances are. You have found yourself in this position. You need this to work. You don't have a plan B. So what do you do? Let me just say, first of all, all are welcome here. If you need it to work, or you just really want it to work, you are invited to this table.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Trina Devery. From Trina Devery Teaching and Learning and the podcast's One Tired Teacher and Teacherpreneurs, raise your Hand. Where I wanted this to work so that I could pay off my student loan debt, to where I had to make this work because I went through a brutal divorce in 2014, leaving a verbally abusive marriage after 17 years and my friend, I felt like I had no other option but to make this work. So let me start off by telling you I'm not an expert. I have found myself within this exact same situation that you may be in, and I found myself in this situation many times. Unfortunately, and while I have recovered before, it is not guaranteed that I will recover again and yes, in fact, I am currently in this situation.
Speaker 1:So I want to give you a little bit of context. I feel that I must share a little bit of my own story so that we can then forge ahead together, looking for solutions to turning pressure into profit. So let me start with a Facebook post that I posted in I think it was maybe 2000, 2022. Yeah, I posted it in Shelly Reese's focus success group and we were we. It was in response to other people that had posted their graph stories. We were sharing graph stories and people were giving all of their information around their graph story. It was very interesting and very motivating and also really scary. So I'm going to share mine with you so that you can kind of see where I'm coming from and then we will move on from there. So this was my graph story. This is the thing that I initially shared.
Speaker 1:So, starting in 2012, I started as a way to help me pay back my student loan for my master's degree. In 2013, my ex-husband liked the extra money that it gave me, but he didn't really want me to put in the extra work, so that was kind of difficult. In 2014, I went through a very hellish divorce and received $100 a month in child support, and that was it, and I quickly realized very quickly that I was going to have to figure out how to take care of my two children and myself, and TPT was an answer to my prayers. So this is the year that I also incorporated. I had to make this work. I was taking care of myself and, most importantly, I was taking care of my children, so I needed to make TPT work.
Speaker 1:In 2016, I took a job at a new school as a media specialist after I had been in my old school for 14 years, with my same principal for 20 years, and then I changed jobs in 2016 and I was miserable and overwhelmed. I had both kids full-time and I had no child support and I wanted my children, so I didn't care. I figured I would make it work. In 2017, I quit my job. I lost my tenure, my master's pay, I cashed in my retirement. I took a huge gamble on myself and I started two podcasts, created a course and worked like a dog.
Speaker 1:In 2019, I jumped at every shiny object syndrome. In August, I felt like a massive failure because I had to go back to the school system that I left. They didn't count my 20 years of experience that I had from them teaching for them. They gave me only credit. For seven years I took a $7,000 pay cut. I could barely pay my mortgage. I was riddled with fear and depression and debt. I went back to the worst job. I was a student support specialist, dealing with behaviors all day long, being called on the walkie all day long, sometimes multiple places at once. It was heartbreaking, it was hard and upon hindsight, it was only just a few months away from something major that would impact my life and others.
Speaker 1:In 2020, I felt like the quarantine was a gift. Now I did feel extremely guilty about this. Obviously, I don't want anything bad to happen to people, but instead of chasing kids, I got to meet with kids all day online, basically counseling them and helping teachers with technology. I helped parents. I created over 99 online products. I felt like I had a purpose. I also collaborated with other sellers and online conferences, and I continued podcasting and I saw a big jump.
Speaker 1:So in July of 2021, I quit again and I've decided that I'm not giving up. I'm making more than I was teaching, and so now I really just needed to gain that extra supplement that I had been making. So here's my original post from Shelly's group and the rest of the of that post, and I'm going to share this because I want to give you the full context of pressure to profit, and this is what I had to say in 2000. I think this was in 2021, actually. So this is what I wrote. Now some of these things have changed, so keep that in mind, but this is how I felt and what I wrote in 2021. So, if I can't make it work, I'll get a part-time job until I can. I've learned to fail fast and fail forward. Build a second course, this time for my ICA. Also, I paid off debt. I paid off all my debt that I'd acquired during the 2018-19.
Speaker 1:In 2022, my focus, thanks to courses like Shelley's, is to increase page views. My conversion rate is up significantly, but my page views are down. So that means data-driven decision Optimization first, then podcasting I felt like this had really helped. And email I was giving up Pinterest. I was giving up Facebook groups. I was doing Instagram because it felt fun, but if it didn't, I was giving up Facebook groups. I was doing Instagram because it felt fun, but if it didn't, I was going to be done. And I was going to. I planned on moving my courses to TPT. I planned on continuing both podcasts.
Speaker 1:Also, at that time, my ex-husband was suing me after seven years. Seven years later, he was suing me for half of my retirement. So that was really fun. Um, and then I went on to say that I can't imagine my life without tbt. It literally saved me from an emotionally abusive marriage, and the friends and people I've met on this journey have impacted my life greatly. Thank you for inspiring me each day. Now what really happened? You for inspiring me each day. Now, what really happened? I did get sued. I did have to pay him $20,000, which was just a fraction of what. So it ended up not being as bad as I thought, but it still was not fun.
Speaker 1:But here's how it's gone since that post, because things didn't go quite as planned. So, since that post, this is what my graph looks like today, and actually it's even worse if I added 2024. So today, my graph looks like this I'm going backwards. It is hard, it is demoralizing, it is infuriating. It is happening. So, as I said before, it is best to fail fast, although this failure feels slow and torturous. So, if you can resonate at all with my story, let's talk about what we can do to turn this pressure into profit.
Speaker 1:So what do we do? What can we do? Here are some choices. What do we do? What can we do? Here are some choices. We can give up and quit. We can go get a totally different job.
Speaker 1:Teaching is not an option for me. Teaching may be an option for you. That is a choice that we can make. Another option would be to keep going until you just can't go any further. Another option increase your revenue with new income streams. Start a course, start a membership, do an affiliate marketing. Those are just a few. Get a temporary job as a virtual assistant. People need them all the time. Get a temporary job. I may get another job. In fact, I might be at a different job. I might be at a job, regularly scheduled job, by the time this session comes out, but I'm going to hope for the best and I'm going to keep my eye on the prize. Another option is to pivot, and this is an option where we can use data to change our focus. So we do have some choices, although we don't feel like we do and some of the choices sound horrible, terrible.
Speaker 1:We are resilient, we are capable, we are determined. We are unbelievable. Think about it. Think of all the things that we've done in the time that we've done it. Think about all the things that you've learned, all the things that we've done in the time that we've done it. Think about all the things that you've learned, all the things that you've practiced, all the things it's really unbelievable to see. So remember I'm not an expert. I'm only a single person who lives alone with their golden doodle, kobe, who is my loving, supportive family. But no other desirable options, but the truth is I do have options we all do and that doesn't have to include going back to teaching. It can include that. It did include that for me for the first time, but I don't plan to make that an option moving forward.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk about five essential resilience techniques Quick, impactful methods to build a resilient mindset, crucial for overcoming current challenges. Yes, mindset is one of the essential resilience techniques. Mindset work is important, believe it or not. It's essential. When you function in fear, you cannot make logical decisions. Your brain won't physically let you. Your brain actually prevents you from making decisions when you're functioning in that fear scarcity, depression, mindset. So things that you can do to help your mindset is things like meditate, yoga, get a mindset coach I actually have two and I love them. Talk to a friend, read a book, listen to a podcast, take care of yourself. Get the I am app. The I am app is awesome. I talk about it a little later, but you can make it a widget on your phone, so it's a little bit bigger and it has positive affirmations that you see every time you open your phone. It's wonderful. It's so helpful.
Speaker 1:All right, another resilience technique is taking care of your physical health. Eat clean, work out, including cardio, weight training, yoga. You want to be at your best physically so you can logically think clearly this actually does matter. So if you think it's not important or you don't want to do it, try little steps like walking. Try something, move your body. It's so important it gets your brain going All right. Another resilience technique is setting small, manageable goals. Break down your larger goals into smaller, more manageable tasks. Achieving these smaller goals will provide a sense of accomplishment and boost your confidence, which is crucial for resilience. This method also keeps you engaged and moving forward, even when faced with setbacks. Read Atomic Habits by James Cleary. I think it's James Cleary. This is an excellent, must-read book just to get you started on setting small goals, all right.
Speaker 1:The fourth strategic or fourth resilience technique is establish a support network. Connect with friends, family or colleagues who encourage and uplift you have. A support network provides you with emotional comfort and practical advice during tough times. Knowing you have people to lean on can significantly enhance your resilience. This is where I want to talk about the power of a mastermind. I actually kind of three different ones. I have one that's very business focused. We focus on hot seats. We focus on training each other, we focus on strategies, we research, sometimes we do book studies. We're a very focused business mastermind and I'm so thankful for these women. They're smart, they're kind, they're good people, they're rock stars. And then I have another little group that is also a similar kind of thing, but we do talk about business. We do talk about if we're up or down, we talk about which I've been down lately, so it's been very discouraging, but they're really great. They're supportive emotionally. We we're we take care of each other kind of a mentally. We check in every week. So both of these groups meet once a week. Then I have another one where it's like I was invited to a data a little, a small little data meet group, and that has been so great. These people are so smart and I adore them and I am so thankful to have been asked to be included and it has been very, very helpful. It's helping me understand SEO and tools and YDP and things like that. So it's been really great. So my recommendation is to find some people and if you can't find them, then make one yourself, be the leader of it and start putting some people together. It does really make a difference, all right.
Speaker 1:Another strategic or helpful technique is positive reframing. When faced with challenges, try to reframe your thoughts positively Instead of thinking I can't handle this. Switch to what can I learn from this situation. This shift in perspective can transform obstacles into opportunities, fostering a more resilient and positive and proactive mindset. Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about positive toxicity, which I do believe is a real thing. When we take terrible situations and act like they're supposed to be great, we can always reframe things and think about how can I learn from this, what, if I can? I had a dear friend who sat down with me and was like we got to work on your energy, we got to work on your mindset. What, like? Start reframing it to what, if I can. And it had it really did make a difference. That one sentence really has made a difference and I really appreciate her. But I'm not talking about like I had my mom. She broke her ankle and she's like Well, now I have more time to read or more time to like what.
Speaker 1:You're allowed to be upset and mad when things don't go well. In fact, it's important for you to feel your feelings. I think when we push our feelings aside and pretend like they're fine when they're not. I don't think that's healthy either. I think we should give ourselves a little bit of time to vent, to get it out of our system, and then we need to reframe, then we need to move forward. You kind of want to give yourself a deadline to reframe. Then we need to move forward. You kind of want to give yourself a deadline. So it because it. I don't think we have to say everything is great, but I also think if we go on too long thinking everything is terrible, then it feels terrible and it is terrible. So we have to do some reframing. All right.
Speaker 1:Next let's talk about some targeted strategic insights. These are key strategies for immediate implementation to enhance your store's visibility and profitability. All right, so the first thing you need to do is know your problem. Is it traffic? Is it conversion? Is it units sold? Is it everything? Get to know why you are not growing. So my best response to this is your data playbook.
Speaker 1:I'm saying this as a person who's no longer an active affiliate partner because I stepped back because it's so busy, such a busy crowd. There's so many different people that are in favor of this, and I still am in favor. I highly promote it, but I think that if you join, you should join through my friend, angie Kratzer. She knows data and she offers a very good bonus, and if you take the time to learn YDP, you can figure out what your issue is. My issue is traffic and page views. It's been my issue from day one. So I have to focus on getting people to my store. I need to optimize my titles, my snippets, my descriptions. I have to do all the SEO work. I also need to focus on my email list, getting people to my store. I may need to blog. I may need to stop podcasting, I may need to who knows, do something else to get people to my store. You may have a different problem and, honestly, if you do, if you have a conversion problem, your problem is much easier to solve and that is the good news. So get YDP.
Speaker 1:Let's talk strategic insights, key strategies for immediate implementation to enhance your store's visibility and profitability. So we're gonna start with SEO. Optimize for SEO. Make sure your business is easily discoverable by those searching. This includes incorporating specific keywords into your website content and your resources. Encourage satisfied buyers to leave reviews, which can improve your search engine ranking and attract more traffic. People like Kristen Doyle. She knows a lot about SEO. She's an expert as well as YDP SEO tools. Neil Patel is another expert. Find someone that can help you with SEO All right, next expert. Find someone that can help you with SEO all right, next tart.
Speaker 1:The second targeted strategic insight is to leverage social media advertising. Use targeted social media advertising to reach. Put your potential customers in your niche. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer tools to target ads based on geographics, locations, demographics, interests and behaviors, creating engaging content that highlights special offers, new products or events at your store. You want people to see and want people to come. This not only boosts your visibility, but it can also drive conversion and foster community engagement.
Speaker 1:I've been working on Facebook ads. I've been working on lead ads. Lead ads is another very helpful thought. Like you're building your list, where you can nurture these people and get them to know, like and trust you, and then you know, providing them opportunities for things that will help them. So I recommend Zach Spunkler. I think Spunkler, spunkler, spunkler, I don't know how you say it. Anyway, he's very helpful. He's really great. He has like a $9.99 lead ad bootcamp. That's totally worth it and he's really, really great. I've also been trying my hand at Pinterest ads, and did you know that if you spend at least $10 a day on Pinterest, you get a what is it called? Like an account manager that helps you analyze your ads and helps you tweak things? It's so great, such a helpful thing, all right. So great, such a helpful thing, all right.
Speaker 1:The next strategic, targeted strategic insight is cross promotion. Partner with other sellers that complement your store. They may even be direct competition, but cross promotions lead to more eyes on your resources and the buyer having more options. When you collaborate on joint marketing campaigns, combining resources, you will enhance reach and visibility. This strategy taps into an existing customer base of the partnering stores, potentially driving traffic and increasing sales for both parties. I also appreciate cross promotions within my niche. That has made such a big difference if I find people in my niche. If I'm in those bigger ones where it's kind of like a big, large range, it don't do as well as I do when it's really focused.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, not everyone plays fair and people are constantly jumping into promotions in which they weren't invited. And can you imagine going to a party where you weren't invited, just showing up? I mean, it stinks not to be invited. I get that. It absolutely does, but you can control that with how you treat others. Barging in is not going to help you. It actually hurts you significantly. Your reputation is something that you can control. Make it what you want it to be. All right, I'll get off my soapbox. All right? So let's look at some effective tools.
Speaker 1:Here's a list of courses and apps and tools and experts that I have found to be very helpful. Now I want you to know right up front that most of these things I am not an affiliate partner, but I am for Digital Course Academy with Amy Porterfield. It's not currently open, so nothing that you can do about that right now. I do offer a very generous bonus if you join through me, and I do weekly coaching and I love it, and I love to work with groups of people that are interested in creating courses and I love to hold people's hand as they go through GCA, which can feel overwhelming. So I did want to tell you that up right, up front. But join through me, don't join through me. It's just a really wonderful experience. It teaches you more than just how to launch and how to create a digital course. It's like getting a marketing degree, so unbelievably helpful, and I have more than made up my invest, my initial investment, by at least 10 or 15 percent, not percent times times that. So it's been. It's definitely been great.
Speaker 1:But let's look at some of the of the tools. All right, so digital course Academy I think that is is such a is such a great one. I also love YDP your data playbook with Beth and Jarrett Boshea, not your average membership with Zach Spunkler. Jumpstart has been really helpful for me every year. It's a great planning tool with Erin Waters. So these are just some of the tools. Some other things to look at is the I Am app. Love this.
Speaker 1:Get a mindset coach. I have two Teresa Guthrie so unbelievably wonderful, and Emily Draelis, who is my daughter, who is also so good at this, oh my goodness. And money mindset books such a huge help. I definitely have mindset issues around this. I spoke about this at a TPT conference. Two of my favorites are you Are a Badass at Making Money by Jennifer Shapiro and Rich, as I won't finish that, that's also a really great one. And then another book that I love is Mind Shift by Erwin McManus. So these are just some of the things that I have found useful and helpful.
Speaker 1:There are so many tools. Don't get overwhelmed, though. Just take it one little bit at a time. If you need to focus on SEO, then find the SEO person for you. If you need to focus on money mindset, then find a few money mindset books that will help you Find one. Start there. Need a mindset coach? Pick a person. Start there. Just start somewhere, as I myself figure out what to do next. I currently am doing the following I'm reducing my expenses, I'm increasing my traffic, I'm taking on a temporary part job if I have to.
Speaker 1:I'm taking on additional income streams as I can. I'm focusing on specific audience. I'm going to keep going. I'm not going to give up, even if I have to pivot for a while. I'm not giving up. I'm doing mindset work, I'm working on my physical exercise routine and I'm focused on my mastermind All right, so those are just some ideas, and that about covers it.
Speaker 1:So one thing more that I want to share, and that is I found this upon searching for inspirational quotes and around failure and success, and I think it is an. It's excellent and I think it's relevant. The ironic part is it's written by my brother, who is a director and producer and who has been wildly successful but is currently on the struggle bus. But I have no doubt that he will rise a Phoenix once more, as will you, and I'm going to say it as well, I will too. I think that we, I think we can do it. So I'd like to share, to share that letter with you, um, and if you are um thinking, I don't want to listen to her read, I do have a link to it in your notes, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna try anyway.
Speaker 1:So I often post achievements and accomplishments, projects I've completed personally as an artist, projects and campaigns. My company has rocked awards, we've snagged lists, we've been placed on honors and flattering articles and all kinds of good news, accolades and wins. I'm so grateful for all the success and gifts I've been blessed to receive and be a part of, and for all the people I've had the pleasure of association, support and contribution. However, I realize that it paints a very one-sided picture of things, half of the story, overlooking or ignoring the other half, perhaps the most important half of all, when the success I've been fortunate enough to achieve there has, or, with the success I've been fortunate enough to achieve, there has been an equal, if not greater amount of losses and failures along the way. And while I share success publicly, I don't share the losses, the setbacks and the failures.
Speaker 1:In a world that works hard to create an image of success or at least the most flattering version of self possible, regardless of the degree of whole truth, I'm inspired to dig deeper, open up and share a version of myself that is closer to the truth, in hopes it may inspire others to know that their truth is not alone and success is likely. One more turn around the bend, one more decision to go and, yes, one more failure away. So this letter is one to say that I still lose, I still fail and I still make mistakes every day, all the time, and I'm as grateful for that as I am, for success is in fact those failures, those losses, those mistakes that have led to more success, perhaps, than the success itself. What I found is that when you fail, you learn the lessons you need to succeed and have the opportunity to grow stronger than you were before the failure, as long as you remain open to it. If you truly settle with the failure, let go of your wounded ego and the jilted sense of expectation that marries itself to the idea of succeeding. There lies the greatest opportunity to learn, to grow, to evolve. If you can truly divorce yourself from the perception of what success means, of the concept of where succeeding and even the smallest of tasks might lead you or how it might make you feel you might just become one with the experience the task was meant to deliver to you in the first place. If you can really let go of the ideal image of who the success might make you become or whatever image you feel will outwardly project for the world to see real growth, true evolution and the great keys to success can actually enter the space your open heart and mind are built to allow, actually enter the space your open heart and mind are built to allow.
Speaker 1:It is in these failures that I've come to learn that every single thing happens exactly as it should, filled with all kinds of profound purpose and deep reason. I believe your losses and your failures are always meant to be. If you can open up to that fact, allow it to be, trust that you have just been guided to where you were meant to go, not where you thought you should go, you can learn the real lesson in failure, and failure holds some of the greatest lessons life has to offer. If you can just be the loss and own it, move through it and not around it, over it or away from it, if you can truly accept it with the same openness and gratitude, you'd grant your success, you might see the true meaning behind your journey. You may perhaps realize the things you are meant to work on, the strengths you are meant to still gain or refine, and the ultimate path you're meant to be upon. If you can open up and be with every moment, especially the hardest ones that comes with your losses, you might just find that these failures build the blocks that lead to the ultimate success.
Speaker 1:So I share this with anyone who thinks shit, how does one succeed when I fail? Or how does one achieve the things I'm hoping to achieve, and why do I lose or fail when it seems easy, effortless or painless for others? The truth, at least for me, is that I fail. I fail small, I fail big and I fail all the time. And anyone who wins also fails, and likely fails often and hard. But those that truly win simply embrace, learn and grow from their failures. So I share this as a reminder that winners lose and successful people fail. Champions fall down on the road to the championship. However, I believe it is what you do with your losses and failures that truly lead to your ultimate success, and how you pick yourself back up. That prepares you to be a true champion, for whatever that's worth.
Speaker 1:I felt the need to share it, so I thought that was a really I thought it was an inspiring letter and I think it's one we need to remember. And I have one more little quote to share with you, and then I'll send you on your way, and it's a little blurry, so sorry about that. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person that walked in. That's what the storm is all about. So I hope that you got some ideas of things that you can do, some some maybe some specific little strategies, maybe some things that you might try. No matter what, I hope that you at least know that you're not alone and that you are worthy and that you are incredible and that you are capable, and if you have to pivot, you pivot, but you can pick yourself back up and you keep going. Thank you for letting me be a small part of your experience. I hope you're having a small part of your experience. I hope you're having a wonderful time, take care and thank you for joining me for this episode.
Speaker 1:I just want to remind you if you are feeling like I need a different track, I need something new, I need to add something. I really am thinking about courses, but I didn't want to commit to the bootcamp. I'm not sure I want to commit to DCA then check out this free website by Amy Porterfield and come join me. Trina Debery, teachingandlearningcom. Forward slash AP masterclass, even if you get nothing out of it, except for the fact that it's such an incredible experience because she does it live in this unbelievable way and you can see what it might look like down the line. Like I mean, this is shooting for the stars, my friend. So just come, take a peek and remember Teacherpreneurs, I am proud to stand among you and, if you're feeling it, I'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the show so you don't miss a thing. You can also catch me on Facebook at Teacherpreneurs Raise your Hand or on my website, trina Debery, teaching and Learning. Teacherpreneurs, raise your Hand. I'll catch you next time. Bye for now.