Chynell [00:00:00]: You’re listening to the Routine Your Dream podcast with your host, me, Chanel. I sincerely believe that success is hidden in your daily routine. So let’s routine that dream of yours and watch your life and business unfold exactly as you dreamed. Shall we? Let’s go. Is it worth it? That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? If you are a teacher teaching full time and you just started off, you’re in the very beginning stages of trying to build an online store and you are staying up late, you are waking up early, almost feeling like you’re a slave to this new business and you are wondering if, is it worth it? Because right now I don’t see the fruit of my labor. Why should I go all in? As a full time teacher who’s completely happy with her job and never necessarily wants to leave the classroom, is it worth it for that person? Are you that person? If so, I’m speaking directly to you today, girl. And I want you to come back to this episode. And every time you are feeling frustrated and wanting to just give up or abandon your business, let’s just be real. Chynell [00:01:33]: Every single one of you are teachers who graduated with a degree in teaching. Most of you, and this is, this is your expertise being an effective educator. But what we’re not is effective marketers and online store owners. There’s so much that goes into it at the very beginning. There is such a steep learning curve. If you are someone who wants to actually take this serious, build up to four, five figure months. That’s a big commitment. It takes a big commitment. Chynell [00:02:06]: You have to do a lot of work. And the more harder you go, the more all in you go. The more you commit yourself, the more you’re going to be questioning yourself of is it worth it? Should I have spent my money on that course that taught me how to grow my online business in some aspect, or should I have invested in a coach? These are the things that we think about when we are not seeing the actual revenue come through to our bank accounts. So let me come through with some inspiration and hope using my story. I honestly do think it is worth it because we are in a very unique advantage where we have a specific skill set and we can use our specific skill set to kind of clone ourselves and clone our income so that we are now having two streams of income at least. And what I mean by that is we’re educators. We know how to teach. And when you learn and as you go through your career, you learn more effective ways to teach and more effective activities that Drive more engagement and you see more academic progress with your students. Chynell [00:03:18]: And it’s at that point where you can actually turn that skill set into a business model where you create resources for other teachers to use in their classrooms. For example, I’ve created a resource and over 7,000 teachers have used it in their classrooms. That is more impact than I could ever have just in my classroom, you know, and what’s really cool is it’s pretty. There’s no overhead to running an online store besides finding a platform to sell on like teachers pay teachers or shopify and just going for it. Literally anyone within 48 hours could have an online store up and running. And that’s sort of the problem because this, this extra stream of revenue is very low barrier entry, meaning anyone can just join up. And maybe you were one of those people that were like, I think I’ll start an online store because I’m already creating these resources for my students to use. Why not just throw it up there and see if I can make a couple dollars off of it? Many of us start out that way and then we actually start to think about, or maybe we are inspired by others who have actually turned their online store into something that is having a much larger impact on their and it’s bringing in more money to get them out of debt and able to provide for their family. Chynell [00:04:44]: And you start to think, wow, I want to bring my business to that level. That’s really who I’m speaking to. Because you really have to just roll up your sleeves and get to work. But the thing is, and the struggle is we already have a job. So when am I going to work? Is it really worth waking up at 6 o’ clock in the morning or 5 o’ clock in the morning to try figure out how to do Pinterest graphics or write a blog post or create a caption on Instagram? And what’s this about clip art? What are the copyrights? What’s the best program to use to design my materials? All of that. And let me tell you, it’s 100% worth it. If you follow me on Instagram at thepinspiredteacher, then you’re going to start to hear me talk more about having an online teacher store. Because I am multi passionate and this is one of those things that I don’t think enough people really talk about. Chynell [00:05:48]: The why the core of why we do this. It’s not about money. It’s about money, but it’s not about money. I woke up early, I stayed up late, I spent tons of hours in the summer and on weekends, creating, learning this business. And it wasn’t because I was just money hungry. It’s because I fully believe that if you free yourself financially, you can be fully present to your purpose on this planet. Putting in the time, investing in courses and coaching. I mean, if you do this and you’re not seeing results, it’s frustrating. Chynell [00:06:28]: But I’m so passionate about this topic because I see money as a tool for people to show up in a much bigger way and for me to show up in a much bigger way for what I’m called to do. I don’t see money as something that’s positive or negative. It’s a tool for us to make change and impact. And if we have a lot of financial chaos going on, where we’re worried about our student loans from, from getting our teaching license, funding things in our classrooms, hoping Amazon and DonorsChoose come through, but then they don’t. So then you go out and buy it any and then car payments and just basic bills. Don’t forget those target dollar spot. I mean, it’s a dollar, but we all know we don’t, we don’t spend a dollar time. It’s the $23 spot because if we’re buying a class out of anything, we’re probably buying like 23, 25. Chynell [00:07:25]: But when you have that sort of financial chaos, it takes up so much creative space in our minds and it takes up so much power that we don’t have the freedom and flexibility to show up in the same way as if our financial lives were in order and taken care of. Think about that for a second. If we’re not worried about how we’re going to pay our rent or save for a down payment on a house, if our financial lives are being taken care of, then we can go and do the things. We can be of greater service to others. We can pursue some of our passions that we originally may not have been able to because maybe we had to pick up an extra summer school or, you know, we’re carrying these other jobs that require our physical presence. But getting your financial life in order is truly just a vehicle for being able to show up more fully in your purpose and whatever that means for you. It makes us a better teacher, it makes us a better spouse, a better parent, a better friend. We are able to show up so much more fully and authentically when we don’t have financial burdens. Chynell [00:08:46]: And I am passionate about this because we all know that teaching, you don’t go into teaching for the money. We are all Called to teaching. It is what makes us special. But at the end of the day, the career and profession that we chose, if you are a teacher in America, we most likely are in debt and potentially living paycheck to paycheck just like the rest of America. And you know, we all agree we deserve to be paid as much as doctors because we’re saving lives, we’re transforming lives, we’re molding lives, we’re molding the minds of future presidents and future doctors and lawyers. Every single person who is successful today most likely got taught by a teacher. So we all know what we do is absolutely amazing. But our paychecks, you know, so if you are somebody who’s like, ugh, I see these teachers, they’re creating these, they’re in the comma club, they’re earning 1,000 and up per month, doing this in their sleep. Chynell [00:09:53]: That’s the point I want to make. This is a work hard so that it becomes passive income type of business model. You can’t do that when you are in teaching summer school or you know, picking up other side jobs. So I’m passionate about this topic because you, if you stick with it and you put in the work, whatever that looks like for you, it’s so worth it because then you can back away when life events hit and you still got money coming through. It doesn’t have to just be when life events hit, like your car breaks down or you know, you suddenly need to move and you need to figure out where you’re going to come up with, you know, the deposit and things like that. For me, I’ve been able to do so much with my side income from running an online teacher store that I would have never been able to do. And I started when I was a first year teacher. I was also a first year online store owner. Chynell [00:10:53]: And so I’ve learned a lot along the way. But the opportunities that it has provided, it has provided me an opportunity to be a published author and have a book in stores like going to Target and typing my name is like, that’s crazy, right? But it’s not just that. My husband, he was working in a job and, and he really wanted to pursue becoming a realtor. But in order to do that like a realtor, if you, if you know someone that’s a realtor, it’s hard work to build up to a steady income level because when you first start out, you know, you just have to pick up clients and all these other things. My husband was able to quit his full time job and take two weeks to study for the real estate exam because my online teacher store revenue had matched his salary that he was earning at his full time job. And we were okay. We didn’t have to think, well, if you quit, that’s huge. You know, to other people, quitting a full time job is huge because it instantly screams instability. Chynell [00:12:02]: But for us, we have a vision of where we want to go in our lives. And, and having an online store operating in the background while I taught full time is something that allowed him to quit his job, study, just spend all day studying because tests aren’t his thing. And then he was able to continue to take a year and just build up his real estate business. And then he was able to accept a dream job, dream in his field out of state. And again, we are like, wow, this is, this is like you wanted this. You’ve spoke about being able to work for this company and you’d still be able to do real estate. And we, so we moved, we moved to, and you probably heard this if you were listening to the first episode, but we moved out of state and we moved to one of the hottest real estate markets. We’re in love with our city. Chynell [00:12:57]: He’s working at a company that he’s always wanted to work for while he builds up. Because you know, when you move at as a realtor, you still, you have to build it back up. But guess what? That meant me having to step away from a district that was amazing. So now I’m in a position where we’ve moved out of state. I’ve left a district that I absolutely loved. And here’s the thing. Once you fall in love with like the good life as a teacher and you’re in an amazing district, you want that. And I feel so blessed to be in a position where my online store is generating enough profit in my sleep that allows me to just take some time, get to know my area and ultimately the districts. Chynell [00:13:47]: And eventually when I find the right school, that’s when I will go back. I’ll be going back because I’m choosing, I’m choosing that school, that particular grade level. It’s where I want to be, not where I have to be. What would that mean for you? Can you imagine if you’re not in that position yet? This is why it’s worth it. Because you’re able to just shift and do things and pursue things that you never would have dreamed of. For me, I’m able to sit here and record this podcast. I’m able to launch this podcast that’s been on my heart to do for years and I’m finally in a financial position where I can just take a second, like I said, get to know my city. Ultimately, when it comes to my career and just me and my personal life, I neglected my health for a long time and it’s not something I’m proud of. Chynell [00:14:45]: But I am able to take this time while I’m just adjusting to this new city and I’m working on my health. I want to prioritize that and I can financially afford to take a couple like basically an extended summer vacation and just work on my health and not worry about, well, I better transfer my teaching license and start looking for places to sub. That’s not even on my radar right now because I am so passionate about getting back in shape. I am so passionate about creating content that will bring value to teachers, elementary teachers, and creating content for the full time teacher who’s running an online store. And if I was teaching or if I was like moving, moving is one of the most stressful things in someone’s life. If I was moving and trying to look for a teaching job and trying to run this online business and trying to launch a podcast, it would be too much. It would just be too much. One of it would go away and it would probably be this podcast. Chynell [00:15:51]: And if you’re listening to this, it’s because I put in the work. I worked really hard. Not all the time off and on. You don’t have to work extremely hard. Like it’s not like it’s a hundred hour per week kind of gig that we have here. But over time I would go, I would have these all in these seasons where I was all in, all in for like two weeks. I know I’m horrible, like, but I would be all in for those two weeks and then I would take time away and then I would be all in again. So you don’t have to be all in every single week. Chynell [00:16:24]: Be perfect every single week. Like, obviously your business will grow faster the more all in and committed you are and able to be consistent, but you don’t have to be. I’ve spoken a lot about the struggle of balancing being a full time teacher and running an online store. It’s not easy. It is not easy. And this is what this episode is all about. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. I promise you that. Chynell [00:16:52]: If you just commit to going all in and doing the hard things, figuring out things that you never learned in college and you’re just going to Google University or learning from me right here on this podcast or reading books like it’s worth truly is worth. Takes time to build up. But you know what? It’s doable. And that is the key thing. It’s doable. Anywho, I have the time to start creating. I already have. As you can see, I’ve been creating episodes designed around the teacher who teaches full time and is building an online store in selling their digital resources. Chynell [00:17:38]: If this is something that really spoke to you, I hope you share it with other teachers you know that are in the struggle. And just, like, you can tell they’re, like, getting frustrated. Like, it’s, you know, you’re frustrated when you have a meltdown about clip art. Okay. Or a cover page. That’s when you know, like, all right, I need to go back and listen to Chynell’s episode about is it worth it? And get me fired up again. So come back, share it with friends, and ultimately, please, please leave a review. Today I am asking you to leave a review. Chynell [00:18:13]: If you are new to podcasts, that is like, how Apple ranks podcasts. And if this was helpful for you, I would love it if you left a review so that others can see the value in it. Thank you so much. And remember, first you dream it, then you routine it. I am your host, Chynell, and at routineyourdream on Instagram. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.