Starting or Joining a TPT Mastermind: Behind-the-Scenes

Kirsten 0:00

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

ially the last episode of the: 2023

Today's a really fun episode because I have members of my mastermind here. And we're all going to chat with you about a variety of things just related to a mastermind and what it's like. So this is exciting because you're going to be able to come behind the scenes over my shoulder and listen in on my mastermind and we are going to just share out some advice and tips for you guys. So I will go ahead and start with let's just introduce ourselves. Just to make it known like who you are you tell a little bit about yourself your TPT store your niche however you want to go. And I'll just let whoever wants to go first go first.

Tanya 3:33

I love Hello, I am Tanya G Marshall, the butterfly teacher. I primarily serve second through sixth grade teachers with language arts and math resources. So excited to be in this mastermind and to have this conversation with everyone. Thank you so much.

Cassi 3:54

Hi, my name is Cassie no act and I am partners with Rachel Annette and mines in bloom. And we make resources primarily for third through fifth graders. And we focus on math and ELA and I love this group so much. It's my favorite time of the week when we meet.

Mary 4:13

I'm Mary Pat from justice students and my door is geared geared toward middle school ELA teachers, and I also love the group, but maybe not as much as Cassie.

Caroline 4:27

Hey, I'm Caroline Kaler. My store name is Caroline Kaler and I pray predominantly make special education materials along with some early childhood things as well. And I also am starting a membership for special education teachers on my website california.com.

Claire 4:46

I'm Claire I have of personal potholes with my husband Terry and we are Ontario curriculum and mostly grade four to eight and a lot of math but some language and assessment and things too.

Kirsten 4:59

All right. Well that A little bit about my mastermind and who's all in it. I know I we were going to do it kind of like casual. But Cassie, because since you're the one who joined us, tell us about the whole background of why we even started this mastermind mind.

Cassi 5:13

Well, I was in an awesome mastermind for a couple of years. And that started right around the time COVID did. And after a couple of years of the members sort of went in different directions. And we just kind of slowly did away with a mastermind and I went about a year or maybe a year and a half without being in a mastermind. And I just missed it a lot. And Rachel kept encouraging me to start another one. But I was a little bit nervous to start one because I didn't know who to ask or I didn't know if people would want to be in it. And so I just kept an open mind about about it. And I just was patient. So two years ago, when I went to the TPT conference, I was listening to Tanya give her speech, and I just felt like she is the one. So when I left the conference, I just emailed her I didn't really know her very well, and just said, Hey, are you interested in a mastermind? I had already been thinking about Kiersten. And ever since Rachel had, Rachel told me that I should start a new one. I was just kind of looking out and just keeping my eyes open and my ears perked up for someone I thought might be a good fit. And Kiersten had actually signed up to be a guest blogger for mine's in bloom. And that is how I first discovered her. And I followed her on Instagram because I wanted to be able to give her a shout out for the blog post and tag her and all of that. And so then for like about a year, I think I just followed her on Instagram and saw what she was doing. I saw that she was doing things in her business that were similar to what I wanted to do in our business. And so I kept her kind of in in mind for quite a long time. And Rachel and I had a meet up in Austin. One time Rachel lives in Seattle, and I live in Houston. So we met up in Austin just to spend some time together and do some work. And while we were there, we thought it would be fun to have a meet up with other TPT sellers in the area. So we just put out like a message like anyone in Austin want to meet up and we had several people meet up. And I saw that KEARSON signed up for it. And I was so excited because I had been spying on her for so long. And thinking about her as she was the only person I had in mind at that time to be in a mastermind with this was before I met Tanya at the conference. And we had lunch, we had dinner together and I thought she was so smart and so sweet. And I thought she would be a great fit. So after that conference, and after I had emailed Tanya and she really thought about it and spent some time we decided to go for it. And KEARSON was the first person that we asked, and we asked a couple of other people in mind. One really cool story about it was Caroline had listened to both mine and Tanya's conference session on the virtual one. And she reached out to both of us just private messaged us and just said, you know, thanks for your conference. I'm looking for a mastermind. And we were like, why not? We looked at Caroline's site and everything that she was doing, we could tell she was a go getter and heading in directions that we also wanted to go. So I think that's one of the most amazing stories is that she reached out to us and ended up being a part of our mastermind, and we probably wouldn't have known her. So I think we have an amazing group. And I just love the story of how each person came into our group. It happened kind of organically, but it was something that was in the works for a long time before it actually happened. And we actually started meeting every week. So I love you guys. And I'm so so grateful that each of you said yes.

Kirsten 9:04

Yes, we love you too. Yes. I love that. How are we? It's been over a year now I guess. Themes. So like there's so much that has gone by in a year. And one of the things that I love about our mastermind is that I feel super comfortable with y'all. I can hash things out. I can rant something I had I had something on my heart I wanted to rant about and you guys listen to me. And I feel just really grateful that I can share ideas and also get ideas and inspiration from you guys, because you have you all have different strengths that you bring to the table. So yeah, we meet twice a month every Tuesday or not every Tuesday but on Tuesdays twice a month. And I guess does it need Do you want to share like our structure? Like how we organize our like, decide on topics?

Mary: 10:06

Okay, I'll go next.

Kirsten: 10:08

Yay, Mary. Okay.

Mary: 10:10

Okay. So, um, at the beginning, we had plant we took top, we each took a topic to talk about each month. So for our two meetings, we kind of decided that one meeting would be on a structured topic that somebody presents like somebody talked about Pinterest, and somebody talked about email and, and then the next week, we are the next time we met, we talked just kind of had like an open, open agenda, no agenda, talking about whatever you want. And we started out doing that. But we've kind of moved away from that, because that's very structured. And that was kind of rigid, and it also put pressure on people to have something to present to the group. So now we just sort of say, okay, what are we going to talk about, and maybe, like, Kiersten, you had your your webinar that you did, or Caroline was working on her her project. One time we did that the cover review, which was so, so helpful, we just shared covers and gave feedback on different things. And that was really helpful. And coming into today's meeting, I always try to think you know, what I want to talk about? So I have a question that I want to kind of brainstorm or workshop with the group. So that's kind of how we pick the agenda. So I think, but I think the most important thing is that it's been organic, but it's not so structured that we have to do it this way. It's sort of like, what the members are interested in.

Kirsten: 11:51

Yeah, I do love how I did like, I like the mix that we have where, you know, if especially depending on the time of year, where we might be thinking ahead for like, let's say, q4, q1 or Black Friday, or I know we in the summer talked a lot about how we could get ready for back to school sales. So and like, there is no topic that we don't discuss pretty much. It's like email marketing, social media memberships, like pretty much anything, we want to learn more about something that we want to put on the agenda. That's what we do. That's what we talk about. So yeah, that's pretty much kind of what kind of how it's structured. And every mastermind is different. I know some of you have been in other masterminds. But it's really kind of, however you make it if you are starting your mastermind, or you're in a mastermind, you can always have it more structured, you can have it less structured, depending on what the people in the mastermind want.

Let's go around and just talk about like takeaways, or favorite moments, fun moments, not so fun moments, if you want to share that. I'll go first and just say like, I know, our mastermind has gone through a lot in the last year. We've got we've had, you know, family, you know, come in the world family leave the world. And I know, we've all been supportive, regardless of the situation. And so that's something I really appreciate is that we're kind of like doing TPT together and doing life together. And just something that makes me really happy.

Caroline: 13:30

Yeah, I'll go next. Caroline Kaler again. And so I think like, what, you know, like, Cassie said, I kind of sought out people. I just saw two amazing women give two separate presentations. And I was like, gosh, I just love them. And I only want to be around nice people. Like, I don't like meeting people they upset me. So you know, I just reached out randomly separately to both of them no idea. They had been talking about a mastermind. But you know, the main thing I was looking for was kindness and support. We kind of have unusual jobs and our family members sometimes understand what we do and sometimes don't. And some of them are super supportive, but it's still just different. So I vividly remember when TPT was being bought, and we were all kind of panicking a little bit. And then we heard what had really happened and so I went to our Facebook group for our mastermind, mastermind and I was like, going to post on there does anybody want to have an emergency meeting but Kiersten beat me to it because she'd already she'd already posted can we have an emergency meeting and I was like, see these are my these are my people they get me they see me they know my knees. They and we for the record solves no problems I'm pretty sure during that emergency meeting, but it was just nice to have camaraderie and and happiness and be like, You know what, we? We could get through this. Maybe it's going Are you better? Maybe it's not. So I think that's the big thing for me is, I know that there are other people out there that get what I'm doing. And it's even super more fun because they are in this marketplace with me. But we don't really compete. So we can help each other without feeling threatened by our income as well. So that's, that's also really, it's just really unique, but it's really fun at the same time. And it's nice to be like, Oh, my gosh, this feedback was whatever, because my husband doesn't seem to get those feedbacks. But everybody in this group does so. So that's, that's what I absolutely love about the mastermind.

Cassi: 15:42

I'll add to what she's saying. And one of the things that I love the most about it, is how we are all driven to move our businesses forward in different ways. So none of us are solely focused on TPT. A lot of us are building memberships, or building WooCommerce stores, or trying to have other income streams. And so because we're all in that place, we can learn so much from each other. I also love that we are pretty much all in a little bit different of a niche, some of us are overlapping a little bit here and there. But it does make it to where we can all come up with the same idea and all sort of implement that same idea because we're not competing with each other. But mostly, I love just the friendship getting to see each other I know this is a lonely job, as you know, especially if you're a full time TPT creator, you're probably sitting at home, in your office by yourself every single day. And you know, you don't have a lot of people to interact with or to talk with joke with. And this is a time that we can get together and just laugh. One of my favorite things that we did was have a surprise baby shower for KEARSON. And Tanya was in charge of that meeting that time. And so she had her whole PowerPoint presentation ready to go and she's leading the meeting. And then all of a sudden, the next slide was like, gotcha, this is your baby shower. And it was just so fun to get to do that together with her even though we all live in different cities, and we don't normally get to see each other and in real life. So I think having a mastermind is not only good for your business and your your business growth, but just for yourself personally to have people that support you and that are on your side and that will listen to you when you're sad, or when you're happy or celebrate with you. This is the group that I always want to text when something good happens or text when something bad happens. They're the ones that I know, get it and understand it.

Caroline: 17:51

And Kathy even had a piece of cake delivered to Kiersten for her baby shower with DoorDash and I was beyond impressed.

Kirsten: 17:58

I feel like I do it was in the middle of me opening the presents. I think I heard the doorbell ring. Like it's delivered. Okay. Wow. I was completely caught off. Like that was not expected at all. I was like, prepared to like, I don't even remember what the topic was. But I was like, Alright, we're gonna learn about I think it was like product orunit.

Tanya: 18:22

I never we never did go back to that topic. Like, it seems like a really good topic. We need to revisit that actually.

Cassi: 18:33

I remember your PowerPoint being really, really good. I was like, dang, she spent so much time like making this look so professional.

Tanya: 18:40

I'll add it to what has already been said. This, okay, so I love the friendship. I love the connection, the laughter We can cry together we can. I mean, like we text each other, even outside of meetings to encourage one another and communicate like stay encourage, stick it out, you know, like all the things that you need to have longevity in this business. But I think my favorite is the accountability. Because I know even though these aren't my bosses, I guess I'm so used to having the experience of being a teacher and having co teachers and my administration that I kind of miss certain elements of that work environment where I know somebody's going to be expecting me to show up at a certain time and have my stuff together. And I love that because it does get lonely and you can get distracted easily easily when you're working by yourself all the time. So I love that when we have topics. There's accountability later. It's like Hey, how is that going in your business? Or have you been seeing improvement in that area? Are you being consistent? I also love it when we have had our Power Hour work sessions, like those are so motivating for me because we have it silent, you're showing up to get your work done. But you know that on the other side of that screen, there's about four other people who, when the timer goes off, we're going to turn our screens on, and you're gonna have to show what you did. It sounds like that could produce a lot of anxiety. But for me, it lights a fire under me. And I'm like, see, this is what I need. Because there are times when I'm just dragging and lazy or distracted. So I think that's my favorite aspect of this kind of mastermind, having people who are like minded, motivated, driven, we're not just here to complain and whine about the problems in our business, we're here to find solutions to make things better and hold each other accountable, while also being great friends. So love that.

Mary: 20:54

So I'm going to disappear cat again. So I agree with everything that everyone has said so far. Um, I do really love the working sessions that we've had the times that I've been able to participate in them, you know, just like Caroline's really good about saying, is anybody anybody available to have a working lunch? And it's I love stuff like that, because it does keep you accountable and it gives me energy. And Kathy and I have done like make it take it we call make it take it but you know, like challenges to, can you get this product done for one hour? Can you do something with what you know, have some kind of challenge, because of course with a group, there's so much more energy and enthusiasm. And, and then other things that I think that I was just jotting down some notes listening, you know, the collective knowledge of the group like, or classes that people took that they would recommend to each other, or not recommend. But you know why that's so important, because you were shelling out a lot of money for courses are you going to get a lot from that the technology that we you know, people know, share, and the authority and experience that everybody has in whatever areas of expertise, even if it's just like looking at something and giving an opinion. And the other thing that I think is that I really appreciate. And since we're on debt, we all live in different places is the we have that Facebook group. And I'm really not on Facebook very much. But I go on Facebook and look at our Facebook group. And if I get an email, I think it's interesting for the group, or if somebody sees something or something happens, we post in there. And so in between our meetings, we're still communicating and sharing information. So I think that that's, that's really good, you know, that's been really beneficial for me. And, and it has been a really positive thing because like everybody said, this can be a lonely, a lonely business. And it's really nice to have other people who understand what what you're going through and what you're doing. And people that challenge challenge you right or challenge me.

Kirsten: 23:23

Definitely love that. And I was just thinking, as you guys were all talking because we're all out of the classroom right now, working from home full time in our business, but it kind of reminds me of, you know, having being on a team, like the third grade level team and all of that and how you had to do your PLC meetings weekly, or however often you might have done it. But it's, it's nice, because it's like less pressure. As far as you know, you don't have any students to be accountable for but we're accountable for ourselves, collectively, and just being able to share ideas and get ideas just for our take away into our businesses. So that's kind of what it looked like. I was like, kind of reminded of like being on a team, a grade level team and without all the drama, you know, but yeah, I really, really have enjoyed this mastermind.

Mary: 24:22

When you were talking about that, I wanted to say maybe you reminded me of something and that is there's we don't really have a leader. I mean, everybody kind of floats up and you know kind of come rises up and everybody kind of so it's not really like it's one person's response. Uh, Cassie started the group and set up the Facebook group and set up, you know, the parameters, but she's not in charge of the meetings. We all just kind of take turns doing that. And I think that's really important because that could be really intimidating for somebody who wants to start a mastermind, but thinks well Now I'm in charge of one more thing, and I have to prepare all this stuff. And I think that's a real plus to our group is nobody's really, you know, and responsible for the content of what happens in the meetings.

Kirsten: 25:14

Yeah, that's a great thing to point out. Because it is, like, you know, you don't want because if you are thinking about starting a mastermind, don't ever think that you have to be like, you're the leader of that mastermind. You want to have people in your mastermind that are equal to you, so that we, you know, you all can contribute ideas. And it's not like just one person doing all the sharing and scheduling everything. And everybody else is just following along it. That's definitely not how our mastermind runs. So the last thing I guess we can just share is, if anybody's listening, and they're probably thinking, I want to start a mastermind, or I want to join a mastermind, what are your best tips on joining or starting a mastermind?

Cassi: 26:02

I'll talk about that, just since I remember going through this, I think you just first, you have to have the idea that you want to do it. And then you just need to be open. And paying attention constantly for people that you think would be a good fit. So look for people maybe that are going in similar directions as you want to go, but maybe that are in a different niche. So maybe you want to find someone that has a membership or wants to start a membership, but they have high school and you have elementary, or something like that, that makes a good combination. But I think just don't rush it too much. You know, also don't stall out and never make anything of it. But just for a while be okay to be patient and to be looking and listening and putting feelers out there. And that's exactly what I did with Tanya, the firt. When I had that strong feeling of like, I think this is I think the she's the one like I'm, I think we can start this together. There's been a few people that said, you know, Cassie kind of started this group, but really I didn't, it was Tanya and me together. Because if she wasn't going to do it, I wasn't gonna do it either. So I'm so glad that she she spent some time thinking about it. And she felt like she wanted to kind of move in that same direction that I wanted to move in. So we did it together. And then we just, we just had ideas of people that we wanted to invite, and they were people that we've been watching and kind of stalking like Kiersten. And we had people that we'd worked with, like Courtney Roberts is in our group, too. And we watched her do lots of things with easel. So I think just be open and ready to ask people, not everybody will say yes, some people don't have time, they don't have the energy, maybe they're already in one. And that's okay. But you will have people that want to work with you. And maybe, you know, you'll start off with more than you ended up with. And that's okay, because you're going to pare down to the exact people that that will make a meaningful group for you.

Caroline: 28:15

And I'll add to that a little bit since I was one that was kind of hunting for a group, but um, you know, be Be true to yourself. So I knew what I wanted, in that I wanted people that were kind first of all, and then I wanted people that were driven. And I wanted people that were successful. So I put out all of those things about myself. So, you know, when I solicited emails and you know, contacts to other people, I said, you know, hey, this is who I am. Here's my website, you know, I'm a I'm a tiered milestone to seller on TPT. I have these accomplishments. I love this about what you did I love this about you, you know, it was it was it wasn't a generic copy and paste. Well AI really wasn't a thing yet. But AI generated whatever. You know, it was it was truly something that I wrote and something that came from my heart and that I meant, so you know, you do have to be willing to put yourself out there. I think Tanya responded first to me. And she was like, Yeah, Cassie and I are gonna start a group together. And I was like, oh. And then I messaged me back and I was like, Okay, now I'm freaking out. Because I don't know anything. I know nothing. I am so sorry. I wasted your time. I will not be able to teach you anything. And I probably didn't sleep much the next couple of nights. And you know, I'm just that that typical thing that we all do. We're so excited. And we're like, oh great. What have I done? But I did a great thing. And I'm so so happy that I'm here. So just if you are looking for a group, make sure that you are true to yourself that you are advertising yourself as you are and that you are looking for people that you're like yeah, those are those are people that I want to share my life with, not just my business goals with Though that's, that's the way I would go about it.

Cassi: 30:04

I'm going to add one more thing kind of what Carolyn said. And that was when Tanya and I started, like putting feelers out for other people and inviting other people into the mastermind, we did have a list of character qualities that we were looking for. And they did include things like supportive kind, I don't remember what was all on there. But we did make an outline of what we wanted our group to be. And we wanted people that would fall in line with that, personally, and work ethic wise, and all of that,

Tanya: 30:35

um, this is Tanya, again, I was a part of a mastermind group before this one. And the leaders of that group did everything just right. I mean, that was a new experience for me. But I absolutely loved that group. I couldn't stay in it because of scheduling. So I'm going to start with that as the tip. If you are going to have a mastermind group, where you have a variety of different people in different time zones, then it's very important for you to know like, what kind of parameters do we want here. If you have people in your group that are still in the classroom full time, then they can't meet during the daytime. But if everyone is doing this business full time, then obviously, you can start talking about having weekday, daytime hours versus having to meet on the weekends are in the evenings, which is why I had to leave that first group, I would also say, the size of the group also matters a lot. If you have a group that's too small, like two or three people, you should expect that as you go along, there are going to be absences, because things come up in life. So if you have three people in your group, and somebody is absent, it's not really a knot, not to say that that can't be a productive meeting with just two people. But it really helps if you can have, I would say six to 10 people in your group. So then that means always be thinking about the possibility of adding new people as time goes on. Because somebody might leave the group or somebody might can't be consistently active. So then you have to be thinking about, Okay, what if we go to a conference or meet up or we have other people in mind, then they can come into the group later, like, and be superstars in the group with you. So think about that to organization is really helpful when you have something like this because you're learning together. But I would say, again, having people who are all committed to being involved, that takes the pressure off of one person's shoulders, and you just lean on your different strengths together, I'm really type a like, I usually am thinking ahead, oh, for the next quarter, let's go ahead and think about every topic you want to have for or whatever. And then I have to lean back because I have people in my group are like, Girl, please, I can't even think about what I want to eat later today. And you're already planning out topics for the next quarter. Just respecting your strengths and weaknesses and personalities. Because as you work together in the group, you know, those things are going to happen. And then finally, I would say, Do not be afraid to be in a group with somebody that might challenge you. That's actually a really good thing. I don't have a business background. So I really like being in a group with somebody who's going to challenge my business mindset, or my mindset about trying new things. I love that this group, like somebody's always showing up at a meeting like Oh, have you all seen this new tool or new AI or this new idea? And it challenges me so like, that's how you grow. Think about people who are different from you a different niche, but if they have a similar niche, do they have a strength where you're weak? Can they teach you something new are challenging you in a way to grow? Those are also things Cassie and I talked about like wait, this seller over here seems really good at blank. They could really help us grow in that area. Oh, that she's a spirit. She has a spirit background. Oh, this person is amazing at email marketing, or whatever these collection of strengths challenge you and that's a good thing. You want that in a mastermind group. That's how you grow.

Kirsten: 34:40

Yes, I love all of your answers because it is I think important to make sure that whatever you however you want to go about joining your mastermind you have similar qualities and values with other people who might want to join. So while yes, it's definitely okay to like post an application or Google Form for people to join a mastermind and you can go through that process like a selection process. You don't, you're not obligated to have to, you know, post something like officially application style in a Facebook group, you can just DM people, email people that you might be interested in joining a group with and just somebody you really admire somebody you look up to, or somebody who is in a similar niche as you and you want to just kind of, you know, Riff ideas off each other. And also, probably thinking about somebody you might have already connected with in person at a conference or somebody you may be deemed back and forth and stories on Instagram. So there's all kinds of ways you can go about it. There's really no set way, just making sure, just as they've said, make sure you know, it aligns with all the qualities you want and aligns with your schedule and all of that. So if you if you're a part time seller, you might want to or not part time, but if you are still full time in the classroom and are working on TPT part time, you might want to find other sellers who are kind of the same way where they're working on TPT on the weekends, and they work at school during the weekday. So that's another extra tip there. But yeah, thank you guys for letting me record this. I am so happy though, to be it with you guys in this mastermind. And I know that my listeners are going to really love this episode. So thank you guys

thanks for listening to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also follow me on Instagram at the southern teach dot designs. Have an amazing day.