How Jenn Breisacher helps K-12 Educators Reduce Their Stress, Reclaim Their Time, and Increase Student Success

• Course Instructor: Jenn Breisacher
  

• Website: studentcenteredworld.com

• Course Topic: Teacher professional development

• Interesting Stats: I increased my sales by 780% between 2019 and 2020.
  

1. Who are you?

I started my teaching journey in 2007 after graduating Cum Laude with her BA from Monmouth University with dual majors in both History and Education. Throughout my tenure of teaching, I taught in both an affluent, academically charged district and also a Title I, technical CTE school. 

Through my own research and both trial and (lots of) error, I was able to make the transition from a 100% teacher-led classroom to a 100% student-led one, with my final years encompassing a blended learning model (including teaching a course that was fully hybrid). While managing this, I also started a family and received my Master of Science degree in Public Service Leadership from Capella University.

After falling in love with giving workshops to other teachers and finding it my calling to help students outside of the walls of my own classroom, I founded Student-Centered World in 2018 with the goal to help every teacher create a fully engaged classroom.

2. What’s your course all about?

I help teachers adapt what they already know in the classroom to make it more manageable and successful. My course teaches them how to take what they already have in their toolbox and make it more engaging for their students, which not only increases student success, but this particular process also naturally differentiates for every student in the classroom. It also allows for the teacher to build one-on-one relationships with every student without anyone falling through the cracks or time being an issue. Because of this, teachers lower their stress level exponentially and also gain back their time outside of the classroom, which is a win-win for everyone in this season of education.

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3. What makes you an expert in this field?

I taught in two extremely different communities for 11 years. I found a system (after five years of trial and error) that ended up working for every group of students that walked into my classroom. After training teachers in this model since 2018, it has been proven that it works in all grades, K-12, with resounding results (including during the pandemic!)

4. What is the transformation your course offers to the students?

I help teachers come up with a plan and a system to not only help their students be engaged and successful in the classroom, but also allow them to be the teacher they always imagined. My program helps them be deliberate to decrease their stress levels and increase the time they have (not eliminating “teacher tired”, but significantly reducing it to a level that we imagined would be appropriate when we became educators).

5. Which market does your online course serve and how did you get into it?

I focus on K-12 educators (all subjects and levels). I was a classroom teacher and, once I established this system, I began giving workshops to my peers both in and out of district. I started seeing the, “Ah-ha!” moments with these teachers, which was my fuel as a teacher in the classroom, and I realized that the more teachers I helped with this, the more students I could ultimately reach outside the walls of my own classroom. I have trained everywhere from Kindergarten to Senior teachers, Advanced Placement and Special Education, and this method works for all of them.

6. Why is it important to you to serve this market?

Teaching and education is my passion. Having students in an atmosphere that is student-led is the direction that all administrators want to see happening, but there isn’t much out there that explains the “how”. There is a vast amount of data that explains the “why” and the importance of giving students autonomy in the classroom to ensure their success, but not much actually explains how one does that. With this in mind, I created my program that takes teachers, step-by-step in completing this and I help them every step of the way.

7. Describe the moment when you decided to create your own course. Where were you, what happened and why did you decide to do it?

I was at that crossroads in my career where teachers generally decide if they want to stay in the classroom or move to another element (administration, guidance, etc.). So many of my colleagues said I needed to become an administrator, but I didn’t feel any passion in that. I never had a workshop go poorly and saw how much my participants got out of them every time and I realized that if I created this program and put it online, I could reach teachers around the world. I bounced the idea off my co-workers and they were all so excited and supportive that it was certainly the direction I needed to go. As the school year was ending in 2018, that is exactly what I did.

8. How did you overcome doubtful moments during your course creation journey?

The hardest part is that I was an educator. I had no business or marketing background at all. I really had the notion that if I created this amazing program, it would go flying off the shelves. From my research, I knew this was what people wanted. I found out really quickly that this field does not work that way. There have been many moments of fear that this wasn’t going to work, but every time I hear back from one of my participants about how “perfect” the program is and how much it helps them, it revives me to know that I have a good thing going. Over time, I was also able to look at my statistics for a number of factors (traffic, income, etc.) and they have steadily increased since I started. That is also a huge help during those questioning moments.

9. What are some of your tricks to deal with imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is the worst…and also very real. It’s important to remember that if you’re in your course for the right reasons, then it is a calling. I put my heart and soul into what I know and do whatever I can to help my teachers. They see that and recognize it. We are all on a journey in this life and if you have something that makes someone elses life just a bit easier, then you are doing exactly what you should be.

10. How long did it take you to create your course?

It has definitely morphed over the years into what it is now. The original course probably took me about 2 weeks to fully put together, working all day, every day on it. I have tweaked and added to it a lot since then.

11. How did your first launch go?

I think I made one sale! Again, I knew nothing about marketing or that if 2% of your list is buying, you’re in a really good place. I didn’t do any type of advertising and then basically told my followers, “Hey, it’s here!”. I do not recommend this plan!

12. How do you structure your launches in general now?

I am constantly assessing what my audience’s pain points are and create a free training program to work them through. Some of the pieces are pre-recorded and others are live. Generally this is over a two-week span and the cart is open during the second week. I have turned the whole piece into a 6-month program that includes the original course and now one additional workshop and Live Q/A once per month. 

13. Where does your traffic come from?

I have been working hard on SEO which is starting to pay off, with about half my traffic being organic. From there, I utilize social media, Pinterest, and Facebook Ads.

14. Which content do you like producing the most?

When I was teaching in the classroom, I LIVED for the “ah-ha” moments with my students. They made everything worth it for me. When I am developing content now for teachers, anything that helps them alleviate some of their stress a bit and leads to that “ah-ha” moment with them, makes me so excited to produce. There isn’t one thing that falls into this category; it truly is anything that makes their lives easier.

15. What online course platform are you using?

Teachable.

16. What is amazing about this platform?

Once you understand it, it is fairly user friendly. I also like that they take care of taxes, VAT, etc. because that is one less thing for me to try and coordinate when I am actively selling.

17. Which features do you wish this platform would have?

I wish it was a little easier to edit the visual aspects. I am not a programmer; I know what I have taught myself. I know other platforms make it easier to use boxes, etc. to move around the visual elements of a page and I wish I had that option as well.

18. Why did you choose this platform over other platforms?

I did a webinar with them where they really broke down the platform and it had all of the elements I was looking for at the time (including participants being able to download a certificate upon completion, which is absolutely vital when working with teachers because they need to prove those PD hours!)

19. Which other tools do you use to keep your online business running?

My website is through WordPress and SiteGround, both platforms that I like. I also use a lot of scheduling tools like Tailwind and Later to help me keep the aspects of Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram organized.

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20. How many students have you served so far?

I have about 100 people who have enrolled in my paid program, but I also have a Facebook group of over 5,000 that I am constantly giving free content and resources to. As a matter of fact, I created that group in March 2020 to try and help as many teachers as I could try to navigate digital learning due to the pandemic. There are 39 free trainings there that we all worked on to put together to try and give everyone as many options as possible for teaching online.

21. How much revenue have you created during your first launch, and ongoing?

I have changed the price so much over the years. When I first started, it was only $29 because I had no idea how to price things and wanted to keep cost low. In my first full year of running the course, I made about $800. Last year, I was able to make about $12,000 in two weeks time. I am currently working with a business coach and hope to keep that climbing exponentially.

22. What are you running costs to keep the online course business going?

All costs equate to about $3600 per year. If I purchase a course to help me with a concept or a new piece of equipment, like some lighting or a new camera, that is additional.

23. What are some of the biggest mistakes you made along the way?

Everything I have learned about course creation and running a business over the years has proved that I did everything in reverse order when I started. Again, having no formal business or marketing background at all, I had no idea the ins and outs of running a business, let alone an online one, which is it’s own beast. I would have certainly worked with a business coach in the beginning because even though the cost of one was higher than I wanted, over time I probably ended up paying more for smaller courses or programs that didn’t end up helping long term. Knowing what I know now, I would make that big investment up front instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick all on my own.

24. How has your business changed since implementing an online course into the business model?

Again, I thought if I would build it, they would come. My entire business model in the beginning was to blog for a little bit so “everyone” could learn who I was (because who knew Google had a little thing called an “algorithm”) and then once the course was done, every teacher would be racing to buy it. Once I realized (the hard way) that that isn’t how things work, I had to restructure, take a few steps back, and create a plan that included all the elements that not only I knew nothing about, but that I had no idea I even needed to have to be successful.

25. How has your personal life changed?

I love that I am home all the time. There is nothing more upsetting as a teacher than not being able to go to something at your child’s school because you have your own classroom to take care of. Doing this, I am still helping children learn (many, many more than I would have had the chance to teach traditionally) and also am 100% present when my own kids have something. While yes, sometimes I do have to work or take a call, etc., I haven’t missed a game, school play, or parent day since I started working for myself. For me, that is what it’s all about.

26. What’s the greatest transformational story you can tell about one (or more) of your students?

I have had so many. The biggest hangup I have when selling to teachers is that they don’t believe me. As a former teacher, I totally understand. There is nothing more frustrating than finally finding a workshop that you think is going to help you solve this big problem you’re having, and then it either misses the mark or, my biggest pet peeve, gives you all this knowledge and theory, but then there’s no time to implement it, so you keep with what you already know because it’s comfortable.

My biggest transformation with this is with a teacher who met me during summer 2020, getting ready to head into our first year of teaching during the pandemic. It was also going to be her first year teaching third grade (though she had been teaching for many years already). She kept asking me over and over, “I understand how this model would work for older kids, but I just don’t think it will work for younger ones”. I continually tried to explain to her that she needed to try it to believe it.

She finally did, went through the program, and gave it a shot when school started. She was absolutely floored that, not only did the students immediately buy-in to the model and start doing it, but it was helping them in ways she couldn’t believe with maturity, self-regulation, and finding ways to pique and appease their own curiosity. She now gives workshops on her own to teach this model because she believes in it so much (once someone completes my program, they have the opportunity to purchase the actual workshop that I have done to introduce teachers to student-centered learning and become a high-earning affiliate of my program if their attendees decide to enroll as well).

27. If you could use a time machine and send yourself back to the time before you started out, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

Two things:

1. Don’t leave the classroom until making consistent income. It is a lot easier to fund a business when it is funding itself and not coming from your personal income.

2. Find someone who actually knows what they’re doing to help you when you first start out. You don’t know what you don’t know and having someone in your niche (or who has worked with people in your niche) will give you not only a huge leg-up with the process, but will also have the income coming much sooner.

28. What is your million dollar piece of advice to those who are just getting started in their online course journey OR for those who are looking to scale?

Don’t think you’re going to save money by trying to figure things out on your own. While yes, everything you could possibly need may be out there for free on the internet or in a moderately priced course, it is going to take you longer to get everything accomplished that you want to. Do some research; find someone in your niche, or who is familiar with your niche, and hire them to help you. It will save you time and money in the long run.