I moved from California to Arizona in 2008, where I began teaching 5th grade at a charter school. I originally wanted to teach 1st grade, but it was quickly apparent that 5th grade was the year for me.
I loved my students and what I was teaching, but I hated the way that teachers were treated at the school. I actually stopped teaching after my second year, and I took up a job renting apartments and making just about the same amount of money. I learned a lot about sales from that job. My main takeaway was that if you get people to experience both excitement and urgency, you will sell them on your product.
After a year of that job, I was really missing teaching. I thought about trying it again, and I had a new teaching job as an interventionist within a week of looking.
The next year, I started at the same school as a 5th grade teacher again. I really hit my stride, and I started creating more and more lessons to use in my classroom. We had zero curriculum.
On a whim, I began uploading my resources to a website called Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT). I didn’t sell much until I started uploading truly unique lessons on something new I was trying out called project-based learning. After I started making a little bit of money, I did a deep dive into sales. I learned everything I could about selling my resources. I collaborated with some amazing sellers who taught me so much about selling on TpT.
Fast forward to 2016. I had been making more than my teaching income by selling digital downloads on Teachers Pay Teachers for the prior two years. I was very pregnant with twins and loved the job I had (4-6 language arts for advanced learners), but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to give my all to my classroom, my “side” business, and two babies. Something had to give, and it ended up being my teaching job.
I had my twins and we had the luxury of spending the first year together without the financial stress. My Teachers Pay Teachers income still came in steadily and I did a few projects here and there.
After the first year, we started them in daycare part-time, and I started to focus on my business more. My Teachers Pay Teachers business continued to grow. In 2018, I doubled my sales from 2017 on TpT, wrote a book, and started a course. I listened to every marketing podcast, went to every conference, and started putting full time work into my business. The amount of strategies I learned that year from conferences and collaborations alone is remarkable.
Angela Yorgey and I started a podcast called Grow with Angie and April, to continue the conversations we were having at conferences. The podcast allowed us access to some amazing teacher authors and expert marketers. It also gave us a platform to teach other sellers what we knew.
In 2019, I ran my first workshop for
My business now consists of my TpT store, membership site, course for teachers, and workshops for
Thank you for being a part of this wonderful journey!