We were lucky to catch up with Timothy Freitas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Timothy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

When I first started teaching, I wanted to give my classroom a catchy title because English, at the beginning of the day, can be particularly boring, especially in 84 minutes blocks. So, as I dug around, I settled on “The English Emporium.” I ran with that for about a year, but it certainly didn’t fit my jam. So, once I transferred schools, I knew it was time for a reconceptualization and reinvention, and “The Garden of English” seemed to hit all of the points I liked.

I decided to brand my classroom with my signature skulls, flowers, and snakes (referencing the Garden of Eden) in order to liven things up a bit, and I worked incredibly hard to become the best English teacher I could.

After about 7 years of experience, I began becoming active on social media, particularly helping teachers. It was after the 1 millionth phone call that my wife encouraged me to just make YouTube videos that answered the consistent questions I’d be called for. Of course, there was only one name that my channel could have. All of the GOE has been her idea, and she has been absolutely correct. My first videos sucked, I mean, well…most are still posted on my channel; go look at them, and you’ll see. But, over the past year, we’ve been elevating the production quality, and we’re looking forward to producing more engaging content.

Besides major companies, there aren’t very many YouTubers who focus on AP Lang and Lit content, so this endeavor was built off of seeing a need in the student and teacher community. This need was especially true during COVID! So we tried to, and are, continuing to try to fill a specific niche. We hope we’ve been highly supportive!

Since we became a company a little over a year ago, we’ve added workshops, seminars, products, and even other consultants to our fold; we’re excited to expand.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Timothy Freitas, and I run the educational consulting company, The Garden of English. I’m a full-time, veteran teacher of 15 years, a textbook author, a College Board-endorsed consultant, and full-time dad of 5 kids (all under the age of 12).

My consulting team and I strive to offer the best professional development opportunities for schools at a fraction of the cost of our competitors, and we have been succeeding at this greatly.

I knew that I wanted to be a high school English teacher since I was 14, but I never knew I would also enjoy making videos and running professional development like I do; in fact, I think I actually like the latter tasks more. However, my passion for students mandates that I stay in the classroom, even while I run my business, which is like a second full-time job.

But, 5 kids have to eat, and it’s extremely important to my family that my wife be able to stay home, so we do what it takes to make that happen (even if it means driving really old, garbage minivans. :) ).

Besides the Garden of English’s prices, what really sets us apart is the edge we bring in our branding. The GOE’s educational consultants‘ experience is borderline self-evident (in the most nonpretentious terms), seeing as though Dr. Brandon Abdon and I have written (with co-author Lauren Peterson) an incredibly successful English textbook, Dr. Abdon is the former director of English for the College Board, and our Calculus consultant is not only a former Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, but he’s also in the National Teacher Hall of Fame. So, when it comes to our branding, we want to make sure that we can have fun and stay true to the roots–pun intended–that started it all: small images that were drawn by my students that always included flowers, skulls, and snakes.

Sure we love books, and we love education, but we also love cool images, bold colors, and supporting student artists, so that’s what we do.

All of our art is designed by former students, and whenever the GOE produces student samples, they are actually written by my–Timm Freitas’s–students. Thus, supporting the GOE supports and empowers these students who are always excited to help out as we publish work. (And YES! My students who contribute to the GOE’s work are always paid.)

Another element of what we do that makes us different is that as a company, we are small. Yes, I have a few other content consultants, and yes I have a bunch of tutors that have been willing to contractually join up with the GOE. BUT!!!! All of the work that is produced during the daily grind is completed by either me or my wife. My wife edits every video and runs all of the GOE’s social media. I write all the scripts, reach out to every partner company, design all of our products and merch once my artist provides new images, and I even do my own web-development.

Thus, supporting the GOE contributes to the real lives of two parents trying to do the best for their children with what they have. And what they have right now is a ridiculously strong work ethic.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I started my first real, contracted job as an English teacher, I was told by my department head and superintendent that, due to “underperformance” (judged by only a week-and-a-half in a completely new district at the age of 22) I would not have a long career in education at the rate I was going. And I’m not actually bitter about this, because though I disagreed with their assessment at the time, it lit a fire under me to become THE BEST TEACHER at that current moment that I could be. AND, looking back, I could see where their initial concern was justified.

Anyway, I left the district a week later, and I found one willing to encourage and support new teachers, since new teachers MUST learn by experience. And yes, this experience sometimes has to be failure, but because of the initial support my new district offered me, it helped shape my pedagogy to the point where other professionals now desire to learn from what I can produce at the Garden of English.

I never expected to be in this position, but here I am, and I have some great friends and family involved in what The Garden of English is offering.

I do sometimes consider that day I was sitting in an office being told that I wouldn’t amount to much in what I thought was my dream job, but the words had to be said because they inspired me to grow in my craft, rather than be despondent and feel sorry for myself.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Everything at the Garden of English is HOMEGROWN! Yes, even the capital. We started the Garden of English by saving about $3,000 to purchase a new computer, a camera, some lights, and a website domain.

We have had two different investors approach us, but we have decided to fund all of what we do ourselves because we take immense pride in our work and services.

I’m honored that some other business-minded people believe in what we do, but for me, to keep what The Garden of English does immensely personal, I have to be able to direct it based on my own convictions. Essentially, it’s my inner control freak that directs this decision.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegardenofenglish.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegardenofenglish/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thegardenofenglish
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/gardenofenglish