Hi, I’m Jack.
If you’re a teacher-author who feels like you’re working incredibly hard but not seeing the results you hoped for, you’re not alone.
I’ve spent years in teacher-author Facebook groups and online communities watching talented educators pour hundreds of hours into their stores. They are creating products. They are learning new skills and trying different marketing strategies. Even so, they are still struggling to gain meaningful traction.
Over time, those conversations got me thinking:
“We struggled with many of those same challenges. If only we knew then what we know now.”
Or …
“We’ve been fortunate to have a different experience. Maybe I should do more to share what we’ve learned so more teacher-sellers can benefit from it, too.”
That realization eventually led to the creation of Grow Your Teacher Biz.
I’m a former first-grade teacher, husband, teacher-author, and the founder of Grow Your Teacher Biz.
For 17 years, I taught first grade in the classroom. My wife spent more than 20 years working as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, and intervention teacher. Like many educators, we cared deeply about helping our students succeed, but we also wanted to create something of our own.
In 2020, my wife had the idea to open a Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Neither of us knew exactly where that journey would lead.
That store eventually became PhonoLovable Literacy.
What started as a side project quickly grew into something much bigger. Since opening our store, we’ve consistently generated four figures per month and grown into a Top 1% TPT seller in one of the most competitive niches on the platform, despite having a relatively small number of followers compared to many well-known sellers.
But our success story isn’t one of overnight riches or perfect execution!
In many ways, we were fortunate.
We launched during a time when teachers desperately needed digital resources for distance learning. Looking back, we unknowingly stepped into a market with tremendous demand and limited supply. We happened to create resources that solved an urgent problem at exactly the right time.
At the same time, I’ve come to realize that there were lessons hidden inside that success.
We learned the importance of understanding what teachers truly need.
We learned how beneficial it can be to focus on solving real problems.
And we learned that many of the things people think they need to grow a successful TPT business often aren’t the things that matter most.
Over the years, I’ve seen countless sellers become overwhelmed by too many competing priorities, conflicting advice, and the belief that they need to do everything at once.
I know because we’ve made plenty of those mistakes ourselves.
We’ve spent money on things that didn’t move the needle nearly as much as we expected. We’ve chased ideas that sounded important at the time. We’ve experimented with branding projects, mockups, photography, videos, social media efforts, and countless other initiatives.
Some worked.
Many didn’t.
One of the biggest lessons we learned is that growing a teacher business doesn’t require doing everything.
It requires identifying the few things that matter most and focusing your energy there.
In our own business, the biggest breakthroughs didn’t come from trying to be everywhere at once. They came from creating products teachers actually needed, putting those products in front of buyers, paying attention to what was working, and doing more of it.
That’s why I created Grow Your Teacher Biz.
My goal isn’t to position myself as a guru with all the answers.
I’m simply a teacher who figured a few things out. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I want to help others avoid similar, unnecessary mistakes.
I believe teacher-authors deserve better than random advice and strategies that leave them feeling overwhelmed.
I believe teachers are capable of building meaningful businesses.
I believe it’s possible to create resources that genuinely help other educators while also creating a comfortable supplemental income for yourself and your family!
Most of all, I believe a successful teacher business creates something far more valuable than money.
It creates choices.
Choices about your career.
Choices about your time.
Choices about your future.
Whether you want to stay in the classroom, reduce your workload, create an additional source of income, or eventually build something much larger, my hope is that your business gives you options you may not have thought were possible before.
I want you to feel confident in your ability to create, market, and grow something meaningful.
I want you to experience the fulfillment that comes from helping fellow educators and their students through the resources you create.
I want you to feel the security that comes from knowing you have another source of income and another path available to you if you ever need it.
I want you to feel hopeful about what’s possible.
And I want you to realize that there may be a hidden entrepreneurial side of you that you haven’t fully discovered yet.
Because that’s what happened to me.
And if I can help you save a little time, avoid a few costly mistakes, and move toward those goals a little faster than we did, then Grow Your Teacher Biz is doing exactly what it was created to do.
I’m glad you’re here.
Let’s build a teacher business that lasts!