← The CEO Teacher Podcast
The CEO Teacher Podcast
How This Special Education Teacher Uses Her Expertise to Diversify Her Income Online
00:32:07
Been Thinking About Ways To Diversify Your Income As A Full-Time Teacher? In today's episode, Dawn Ellis, teacher business expert, is breaking down her systems and processes as a full-time special education teacher + full-time business owner. She...
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- [00:11]
Kasey Morris
Welcome to the CEO Teacher where educators turn what they already know and love into a successful and sustainable online business with actionable strategies, simple business tips and mindset shifts. It's a weekly lesson plan for teacher business owners whether you're teaching full time in the classroom or rocking the small business from home life. I'm your host Kasey Morris, a former former Georgia English teacher, mom at a four turned seven figure online teacher, business owner and founder of the CEO Teacher Movement. Three teaching degrees got me a few extra bucks each year, but what I will show you will help you make that every single month. If you have a heart for education and a passion to use your experience to help more teachers and families, you belong here.
- [01:01]
Dawn
I don't know about you, but was.
- [01:03]
Kasey Morris
The CEO teacher your coaching directory on your 2024 bingo card? Because it was sure on ours. We have been teasing this monumental occasion for a long while now and it has been a hope and a dream of ours for so long and the time has finally come. Introducing the CEO Teacher Directory, your one stop coaching shop for coaches, teachers and teacher business owners to connect. 90% of coaching clients are word of mouth referrals and the same goes for quality coaches and mentors. I was tired of thinking how could teachers be able to help people from all over the world, teachers, students, parents and districts. So we found a solution to the problem. We have trained and certified the top teacher coaches from all over the world and our Coaching directory is filled with the best teacher coaches to up level not only your teacher business but any and everything you can think of related to the classroom or related to education in general. And the best part is these are educators and they understand the unique and often overwhelming demand on your daylight hours. Being a new teacher, business owner or a classroom teacher that's looking for help or a school district that needs a specialist in any area of education. We have the one Stop shop for you. The CEO Teacher Coaching Directory is your lesson plan shortcut. You can now hire a teacher business coach. No matter what path or journey you may be on, no matter how unique you think your circumstances might be, we have it all here for you. Head on over to Casey morris.com askacoach and connect with local to you teacher coaches or search by subject area and niche. It's friendly support with a teacher twist. Find a trusted teacher coach whether you are part of the CEO Teacher membership or not. Any teacher, any parent, any school district in the world can use this. This is your playground. Again, head on over to Casey morris.com askacoach to find your coach or mentor Today, that's K A Y S E M O r r I s.com askacoach hello CEO teachers.
- [03:12]
Dawn
Welcome back to the show. Today we are going to be talking with a special education teacher who uses her expertise to diversify her income online. She has been a student of ours for years and years. And what's crazy is that we didn't even realize that we had like this connection between two friends and we saw each other on Facebook one day. We're like, how do you know her? So dawn and I go like way back and we didn't even realize it.
- [03:35]
Kasey Morris
But dawn, welcome to the show.
- [03:37]
Dawn
Hi. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and to share some of my knowledge that I've started from you many years ago. So I'm excited to be here.
- [03:47]
Kasey Morris
And how long ago was it when.
- [03:48]
Dawn
We all met and you started the program? Was that six years ago?
- [03:52]
Yeah, we were like the og so the original, like transform your resources the first round. So is that 1918?
- [04:01]
It was 2018.
- [04:02]
Okay.
- [04:03]
Yeah.
- [04:03]
Six years.
- [04:04]
And November will be six years.
- [04:05]
Wow. Yep. Yes. Towards the end of the year. So, yeah, 18 going into 19.
- [04:10]
And watching your journey has been so inspiring. You do so many amazing things. But what blows my mind is that you're still a full time classroom teacher.
- [04:19]
I am, yeah. So I entered into year 16 this year of teaching special education. I've done a variety of different kinds of settings in special ed. Right now I'm doing self contained in an elementary setting. I do that by day and then by night. I have my business that I run and do that on the weekends too, but still have to have my eight hours of sleep, so. But we make it happen.
- [04:45]
Yes. So tell us a little bit about your business and kind of how it started and what it has evolved into today.
- [04:52]
Sure. So as a special education teacher, there were times the first five or six years that I found that I needed things in my classroom. And so there was nothing that I could find that particularly pertained to the standards that were in the state that I live in, which is Alabama. And I started creating things for me to use in my classroom. And word got out in my district that I had these things and they were like, we're willing to pay you. Do you mind sharing? And so I was like, I'm not sure how to do all this. And so then I found teachers, pay teachers, and put it on there like, you know, all the, the wrong things you're not supposed to do. I'm pretty sure that's how I uploaded my first few products. But, like, when you know better, you do better. And it kind of grew from there. So I had a need. I found solutions and resources that I could create, and then others needed them too. And so what started as helping some Alabama teachers close by grew to a lot of Alabama teachers. And then I started creating resources that any teacher in the US and beyond could also use in their special education classrooms, from full lines of curriculum for science and social studies, as well as like social, emotional and beyond. So it's kind of started small and it's grown into other avenues as well. Beyond the resources, I've also started a podcast to help special education teachers as well as like an Etsy shop with tangible things. And last year I launched a membership as well.
- [06:23]
You got so much going on. Like, the full time teacher part is stressful enough. But I love that you started small and you kind of started a little bit differently than most people because you said you sold them locally, like your resources locally to your district. Is that right?
- [06:38]
So other teachers in my district wanted them and I just needed to figure out a way to sell it to them. And really like the Google Drive, I feel like it's kind of popular right now. It was not as popular or really a thing, say almost 10 years ago. So that's kind of where it started. And I was just trying to find somewhere to sell them, to link the resources to people so that they could get access to them. And yeah, so I kind of started on a smaller scale and then have grown from there. But I've continued to update those Alabama standards to continue to help teachers in Alabama as things have grown throughout the years.
- [07:16]
So if you were talking about your specific niche and what you do in particular, you said you help special education teachers. But if you were to go like sub genres and talk about like the pillars of content and all the things, do you have things that do really well for you? I know you talked about Alabama teachers, but how did you decide which specific areas within special education that you would go after?
- [07:41]
I think that some of it was things that I needed in my classroom and things that as I mentored teachers and worked with other teachers, as I connected with them on social media and through different presentation opportunities, I kind of found needs and niches to help them and like reoccurring things. So beyond just having curriculum for teaching self contained or preschool special education, there was a lot of reoccurring, like, hey, I need help with IEPs. And IEPs were something that was something that I felt very confident in doing and I can do in my sleep. And so you don't have to be a master at something. I think that's one takeaway that it took me a long time to learn is like you just have to be a few steps ahead and then just share your knowledge. And so trying to take that but then putting those things into processes and systems I think has been the biggest pivot that I've done and seen. So I feel like behavior and academics and then with IEPs, we're kind of where I started. And then we've branched off from there as there's been more needs.
- [08:52]
Okay. My teacher heart was so happy when you said systems and processes. So as your business has grown and I want to get into. The reason we're chatting today is like how we can diversify our income more so than just selling our resources. But what I want to chat about is you said that's been the biggest change is that you've created systems and processes and a listener that's listening has no idea what you're talking about. Can you. Can you tell us a little bit more detail?
- [09:18]
Sure. So being in the classroom, I have to be very particular with my time and I have to have a plan. And so when I started several Years ago in 2018 and 2019, there was a lot to learn and there's lots of like business things to do. And as an educator, we don't necessarily know all of them. And one thing that I really learned along the way through your course and membership and other podcast and other things that I learned along the way is to kind of build it brick by brick so you can't do it all well. So I usually have tried over the last five years in particular to do one thing well, add on one thing well every year. So a few Years ago in 21, I set up systems for. It sounds really silly, but I set up systems for just my Google Drive to where I have folders for in subfolders and sub subfolders for all of my emails by month. And my social media is all on a grid on airtable to where we're working smarter, not harder each month that comes and we can see what works and didn't work. And then when I got that mastered the next year, I moved on to email marketing. And that can be a beast in and of itself. But learning how to set that up and be intentional with that shifted my business in a totally different trajectory as far as financial earnings, because you could segment your audience and so then mastering that and emailing regularly. Having those offers then linked to bigger paid products has made a huge impact. And then from there we moved on to Facebook ads and trying to have those run frequently to a freebie and, and to a paid product. And then I had mentioned I started a membership. I have a course, but I have a membership running now too. And so building that out too, and really nurturing and loving on those teachers, seeing what else they need so that I can improve and pivot to continue to grow. That.
- [11:21]
So much good stuff there. And for someone listening that has never encountered all of those things, it can be overwhelming. Like even me listening to you talk about all of those things, I did all of that myself to begin with, and now I have a team and.
- [11:36]
Kasey Morris
Like, if I had to take all.
- [11:37]
Dawn
That back on, like, I don't know that I could do it. I don't know that I could do it now. Right. It's. It's one of those things where if you're in the groove and you've got the systems and you've got it figured out, but the most important thing that you said was that you didn't try to do it all overnight. Not you. You added one thing a year. Is that what you said?
- [11:56]
Yeah. So I knew there were things that I had to improve on, and I felt like everybody was doing everything well, but I had to take. I had to put those blinders on and just focus on what I could do. And I needed to move my business just one step forward every day. And so when I stopped like competing or what I felt like was competing with other people, I just worked on my business. I was able just to incrementally get better each and every day.
- [12:27]
And that's the secret to life, right? Is the comparison is the thief of joy. And it's in the beginning, we look to people for inspiration, and then somewhere along the way that inspiration turns into competition or envy or jealousy, and then we lose track of why we started in the first place. And some people never get out of that. I think. I think a lot of people, they never get out of it. They're always like, it's like this rat race and you are staying in your own lane. You know what you want, you know where you're going. And I think that that's so important for people to hear. And I think it's also why you've had so much success, especially lately, too. We've loved watching your social media and just how much things have grown for you. Let's talk about your membership now. We recently had someone on the podcast chatting about her membership and she gave so many good like nuggets of advice. So I think our listeners are a little bit more prepped and primed on what a membership looks like and all of that. But I always like to ask what your membership looks like because it. Every single membership looks different and there are different models. And as a special education teacher, you. When did you make this decision to start your membership?
- [13:39]
So I started working on the membership March before last. So in, in 2023. But then I, I did like a founding members launch last September and then I did a hard launch and then in January and then again in April into May and then again this summer. And so what I did was what I started and what I thought would work. We've had to pivot and that's okay. And we probably are going to pivot again in 25 only because we're hearing what else people need and how the world of special education is changing. But the way that we currently have it set up is every single month there is content that is inside the membership for special education teachers, particularly those that have kids that are maybe on the alternate standards like a self contained classroom or even preschool. And there is monthly resources for them to use, there is templates for them to use for their IEP paperwork. There is a monthly training that is specific to what teachers have asked for up to this point. And then there's also office hours once a month to where they can come and ask me and kind of get questions answered of things that they are working through currently. And so every month there's new content, new trainings that are added to help them spend less time prepping and looking for materials and more time teaching and doing things that they enjoy.
- [15:12]
I love that. So you have four, like main components of your membership.
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Yeah.
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Which it's so important. And when we were chatting with a recent guest, that's what we were talking about is like that sticky factor of like making sure people stay. It's not just your resources now. Can they come in and download all of your resources at one time?
- [15:29]
No. So every month new things get released. So what was available in August is no longer available. And then. But on the 20th of every month, the new month for the next month becomes available. So you still have time to prep it for a few days or a couple of weeks before the month starts so that you have access to what you need currently and then coming up as well.
- [15:54]
So do you do that seasonally or like, are most of the things that you do seasonal or how do you know like what special education teachers need for each month? Because this, I love this model the most what you're sharing here because it's scary for people to come in and download all of your resources or something like that if you give them access to your entire library. So how do you manage knowing what special education teachers need each month?
- [16:21]
Well, I think that's where you just kind of gauge it inside of like a Facebook group and have people make sure to communicate with you. But I do try to give it a well rounded base of activities. So there's always a science unit, always a social studies unit. There's always math and reading activities and they typically are seasonal. So August was back to school. Right now we're kind of in a pumpkin Halloween theme and then we go into like fall leaves, but they compound on each other. And the math and reading skills are. And the science and social studies are like different units every month. So you're not necessarily repeating it. But the activities are similar so that there is routine and expectations. But they include adapted books, file folders, worksheets and task cards. So no matter what your learners are needing at that point you have access to them.
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So good. So good. So what's your price point for your membership?
- [17:17]
So it's a monthly fee of $27 for it or 247 for the year. And on the offer page it has a place where you can also send it to your principal so that the school can do a PO as well. So it's not necessarily all out of pocket. You can also have your schools purchase it for you as well as a curriculum and professional development for you to make sure that you are getting the support that you need in the environment that you're in.
- [17:47]
And because you have monthly trainings and office hours as you chatted about, that's a perfect way to pitch it to districts. So with our membership, I can't pitch my membership to a district currently at this time, maybe eventually, but they're not going to encourage what we do, you know, inside of that. But I'm so intrigued. Some of our other students do this as well. You said you have on your membership where they can send it and the district can do a po. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I don't think that a lot of people understand like how important and how awesome this opportunity is for teachers.
- [18:22]
Yeah. So PO is a purchase order and this is where the district sets aside funds and typically has funds for professional development and also curriculum to where they can pay for subscriptions for teachers to use. Think about Starfall or ixl. The same applies for this kind of membership model as well. But instead of getting maybe an online program, they're getting digital resources, printable resources, a type of coaching of sorts, as well as trainings that they can apply in their classrooms as well. And so providing a letter to the district to tell them what it is and why they need it definitely helps open up doors for the district to help pay for it as well. And typically they will then send you like a number to know that like that money is secured and then you will typically get a check. Sometimes they'll want to process it through stripe or something, but that way you have the funds but teachers aren't having to dig into their pockets for the support that they need.
- [19:31]
And this is a great like tiered strategy for you as a teacher whenever you go to sell things if, if you want to become a speaker. We had someone on the other day that does a lot of speaking opportunities. And so that could be your pitch after your professional development to the districts is hey, I have this membership and I can give you guys a discount for bringing me in as a speaker. And a lot of times districts like to specifically work with one person in particular. I've got a friend that has actually the whole like Atlanta Public School District I've got that's in New York City. And once you become that person their go to like you're their special education guide, then you can get, I mean I have, my friend of mine has like thousands of district subscriptions, kind of like Starfall and things like that because her programs are that good. So I love that this is just a stacking opportunity of income that you do. So if you were going to like though talk about your income and say like which one is the most meaningful, like which one makes the most revenue, would it still be your resources or would it be your membership?
- [20:38]
Right now it's still my resources, but hope the goal is by next year that the membership surpasses that to where that's the recurring revenue that's the biggest. And but yeah, so I think that having multiple streams of income is huge as an entrepreneur and so not just relying on selling your resources on a plot, a third party platform ultimately. So like I have teachers, pay teachers. I also have stickers and teacher tees on Etsy, I have my membership and then I have some promotion on my podcast as well as other things like Amazon affiliate or Instagram getting paid for like reels and things. So one revenue increase that I've seen this year was adding a upsell onto my freebies inside of my email. And ultimately, once they sign up for a freebie, it takes them to an exclusive offer in my checkout page on my email. And if they purchase that, that's just easy money that is going into my bank account. And then that then nurtures them even more into other products that they may need, as well as a welcome sequence. And that has really added another layer of income for me each and every month. And I'm not really having to do anything for that except have that system in place.
- [22:15]
So let's talk the system. So a user gets on your email list for a freebie. And are we talking like a free resource? Are we talking like a guide or something like that?
- [22:24]
Yeah, so I have both. I have some freebies. I have like seasonal freebies that are like a resource, but then that links to a unit bundle. And then I have, for example, for back to school season, I had a paraprofessional checklist that was the freebie, you know, I talked about earlier. I set up my Google Drive and then my email and then my Facebook ad. So I have a Facebook ad running to my freebie. And so they get on my email list, they get that freebie. Once they sign up for the freebie, they're immediately sent an exclusive offer like a checkout page. And that is for paraprofessional handbook and training videos that if they want to take it one step further than the freebie, and if they buy that, they, you know, get access to something and it's for a discounted price than what's in maybe my TPT store. And then I can nurture them of how to use that freebie. If they don't buy it, that's okay. I still send them down at a funnel to continue to give them tips and then offer it again on the back end before sending them into my welcome series of Getting to know Me. But that has just been very successful for me to have just another layer of income.
- [23:43]
That's such good advice. And what are you. You, you mentioned that you're sending people to a checkout page. And I think that people get like, it's overwhelming to figure out, like, who to use and how to use it. So who do you use for your checkout pages?
- [23:57]
So I currently use Flodesk. I used Kajabi with everything for a while, but moved to Flodesk because for like $32, you can have unlimited subscribers and you have. They have landing pages and checkout. So all of it's integrated into their sequences. It's easy to tag people, it's not them like convertkit has it as well, as well as Kajabi has it. You can just do it as offers. So it doesn't matter which platform you're on. However, I am currently using Flodesk for.
- [24:31]
It, and I know a lot of our students did that because it is a much more affordable option. And you're really just looking for a place for people to be able to buy instantly. That's not necessarily a third party. It's kind of hard for people to understand that. But if you're sending them to your TPT store, there's so many opportunities for them to click off and go other places. But if you're sending them to a checkout page for a product specifically for one, that money goes directly into your pocket and you don't have to make an 8020 split. But for two, it just allows less room for them to go and explore other places and other avenues because you have them right where you want them.
- [25:06]
Yep. And then you're able to tag them as well, so you know what they're interested in to continue to kind of funnel them through other things as well.
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Yeah. And I remember when I first started my email list, I was like, tagging is not that big of a deal. And it is. Segmenting your list is one of the most important things that you can do because if you have the time and are able to, you can really write emails directly to that specific person rather than like a huge generic type person.
- [25:35]
Yeah. I'll even tell you one thing that I did this fall was some people who didn't purchase and just signed up for the freebie. I had this other sale that came up and I targeted them directly and said, hey, I noticed that you haven't bought this. Here's how it would be beneficial and here's how you could get it again. And so I was able to just speak to them and know that they'd already gotten the freebie, see how that was working out for them and how they could, you know, kind of retarget them again. So don't be afraid to. Even if you just set up one or two target audiences, and then you can always grow from there. And you can also delete them as you learn more about them too. Because, like, I have some random ones from the beginning and you're just like, oh, man. But just start, do it messy and then learn. I feel like it's okay to make mistakes along the way, it's how you get better.
- [26:33]
Yes. Well, you talked about having physical products through Etsy, like stickers and T shirts. Do you have any? Okay, how do you sell those? First of all, before I ask more questions.
- [26:44]
So the stickers I have all in my home office and I pack from home and my sticker T shirts are all print on demand. So I have it linked up with a third party provider that has all of my designs and the T shirt colors. And as orders come in, they print them and send them. So there's no stock that I have to keep at my house.
- [27:10]
That's amazing. And so how do you get the word out to sell? Like are you just selling on Etsy through search engine optimization? Are you doing little launches on your Instagram? Like, how are you selling these things?
- [27:23]
Sure. So I mean there's definitely SEO on Etsy, but it's ever changing and honestly the competition has increased significantly the last few years. But yes, having email launches and social media launches, whether that's on Instagram, Facebook, inside Facebook groups or even on TikTok, having different kinds of reels and carousels to show off the designs is definitely how to get the word out there. And having it easily linked in your link in bio so that they can access it.
- [27:59]
So with your stickers and launches and things like that, you sell it. Do you sell like a large portion usually at one time and then the rest just kind of come trickles in?
- [28:06]
Yeah. So I would say like whenever we have the, the launches every two months, there's different like seasonal designs. That's definitely when the bulk of the comes through of like orders. But I will say that there are still weekly orders off of Etsy every single week that we are managing and fulfilling as well. So whether that's reoccurring purchases for other stickers or other T shirts for other people, or it's people that have just waited, but having that sense of urgency for the launches have def. Has definitely helped.
- [28:42]
So at the beginning of the show you mentioned that you mastered airtable and I'm listening to you talk about all of these things and I'm overwhelmed with like how you manage it all. Are you still using a system like airtable to help you keep track of all of these different streams of revenue and, and like your process behind it?
- [29:00]
So I, I have a command center in Airtable and it definitely helps keep me on track. It's where kind of I have my brain dumps of different upcoming ideas. All of like my social media content for the different months Especially the last three years. And that includes the images, the captions, the hashtags, the autoresponders, that kind of thing. But also having links to like your monthly emails. But ultimately it's just a, it's a hub that has other like Google Docs and stuff linked into it. Yes. To help keep track of. Hey, this worked really well. This, you know, this One carousel on TikTok did amazing last year and had, you know, 90,000 views. We want to make sure and use that again this year. But these three videos did not do well. We probably don't want to try that again. But yeah, so just trying to keep up with the ideas and I know right now I'm kind of in my season of like planning for 25 and so inside of Airtable we're building that out right now for the different themes and what we're targeting each month so that we, we as in I do have subcontractors that work with me from the podcast pieces to social media and other aspects and so that we can all kind of align and make sure that we're all working towards the same goals, which is to, to grow and reach a bigger audience.
- [30:27]
Yeah, I was going to ask about people on your team, things like that. So I'm glad that you have some help to kind of help you manage it all. And then we didn't even have a chance to talk about your podcast, but I mean that in itself is almost a full time job when it comes to researching and editing and luckily I have someone that helps me. But graphics and all of that, that's a big part. But you mentioned. I just want to chat about it briefly about making money from your show. But are you using it mostly for like the awareness piece of what you do?
- [30:55]
Yeah, so it's, it is definitely brand awareness and sharing tips that then link to products. So I do my own commercials for products that are pertaining to that month or when I'm launching different products or the memberships open as well as I have sponsored posts or sponsored types of commercials so that assistive technology companies or different people can purchase those. And I have different 30 and 60 second spot. But we recently at the beginning of this year hit 100,000 downloads and so we are trying to in 2025 move towards that having other paid opportunities there too to where we can see even more growth with the podcast.
- [31:43]
I love it. Dawn, this has been so good. I, I am so grateful that you decided to come on the show and share your knowledge with everybody. Thank you again for joining us and I can't wait for everyone to hear this.
- [31:53]
Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.