The TpT Seller Challenge!

For the past two weeks now, I have been working with over 900 (whoa! that's a lot!) other TpT sellers to better ourselves, our stores, our products, and our following through 4 weeks of challenges!

As soon as I saw it, I said "Challenge Accepted!" in my best Barney Stinson voice, and got to work!

The first thing we had to do was collect some data for comparisons... I will tell you, I am SO glad I had to do this. I am terrible about collecting data. I can record grades and keep track of things in the classroom, but as for my business and blog here, I am terrible at it. I try, but I just don't keep up enough. Hopefully, this will help me do a better job of keeping track of stats a long the way.... we'll see.

So, here are my beginning stats from when the challenge started....

I'm excited because just looking at it now, I have already made so many gains! How cool is that!?


Next, our first challenge was to makeover a product in our TpT stores. We could makeover covers, entire products themselves, whatever we felt we needed to do. This was perfect because making over all of my embarrassing old products has been on my list.

So, I quickly got to work and started to improve my products. Something Jen Jones of Hello Literacy said at a conference I attended in May echoed in my mind.... how can I make my store more appealing on first appearance?   So that's where I focused. When a customer comes to my store, I want them to see bright covers that attract their attention. Of course, one can never judge a book by its cover.. but first impressions are important too and customers decide within 6 seconds if they will purchase something or not. My store needs to be prepared.

I started making a cover for my top-selling product and revamped a few other too. Here's what that best-seller makeover looks like..

It is much more eye-catching this way. The color draws your eyes in better, and the product itself is still featured on the cover. I updated the fonts just a tad and left it the same. Now, as the first product customers see.. it's so much nicer. I updated a few others and will take time all summer to make over all the products I can! Excellent challenge.

On Monday came challenge #2 for us... the tell about our dreams... our BIG dreams with TpT. It took me some time to really think about this (hence I am blogging on Thursday and not Monday)... but if I was going to write down my dreams, I wanted them to really be my dreams and not just something I wrote down on my blog to complete a challenge. So, here they are...

1. become a presenter.... I have always wanted to be someone who presents and shares ideas with others in professional developments, conferences, wherever. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but it's something that has been on my heart for a while now, and I think with TpT and all that is has and will continue to equip me with, I could very well be speaking and presenting somewhere, someday.

2.  travel to Europe.... I have ALWAYS wanted to see Europe. Specifically, Italy. My dad's mother is from Italy, as is her entire family, and it is a place I have always wanted to see. Recently, I began using a free app on my phone to teach myself how to speak Italian, and I can never eat enough pasta or seafood.. or cheese! It's a dream and I want to make it happen someday! Even if I don't see the rest of Europe (though how could I not being that close!?) if I just make it to Italy someday, my dream will be fulfilled.

3. adopt a child.... This is something that begins to become difficult for me to talk about. So, for the most part, what I can say about this right now is that God has put on my heart that I need to be a mother.. but to whom I am a mother and how I become a mother is different for me that the world's point of view. My dream is to adopt a child because there are so many children in the world who have absolutely no one. They are God's most precious gift and I know that I have to save these little ones and give them love, safety, and hope in knowing Jesus Christ. I have been so blessed in life and I need to give back and God as shown me that this is exactly His plan and purpose for me and my family.

4. let my husband retire early.... My husband works so incredibly hard every day. He is a plumber/pipefitter by trade and has recently begun to experience a mini "mid-life crisis." [Though, at 32, it's more of a quarter-life crisis! haha] He is tired. He went to college for a year and knew it wasn't for him. He joined the union at age 19 and has been working hard ever since. He completed his apprenticeship and became a journeyman after 5 years and now spends at least 40 hours a week doing hard labor in construction/industrial settings. I am so proud of his work ethic and the Godly example he is to his coworkers, but if I could somehow make it happen that he could retire early, I would. I'd gladly continue to work full-time if it meant he could stay home and do something he enjoys every day. I am already so blessed to truly LOVE what I do when I go to school every day. I don't really "work" a day in my life. But he does, and that is my biggest dream of all with TpT.

What are your dreams? You don't have to be a TpT seller to write down your dreams for your life! What has God put on your heart? I am praying that you find those dreams and lean on our Lord to fulfill them!