Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michelle Emerson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?
I’ve been the sole manager of all my social media accounts since I started my business. Since the purpose of social media is to share information and make connections, it feels most authentic to create all of the posts myself so that I can ensure the messaging and overall tone convey my personality. I find that the posts conducted in real time are the most genuine and therefore perform the best because they reflect the thoughts, feelings, and ideas I hold at that moment in time. These posts tend to be the most relatable and form the most connections with my audience.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I began my first year of teaching in 2014 and quickly started to struggle both financially, due to the low salary combined with the high cost of buying supplies for my students and classroom, and mentally, due to the high demands of the profession. I had been creating my own lesson plans, activities, classroom decor items and realized I could supplement my income by selling these digital resources to other teachers and in turn save them time and energy. In the spring of 2015, I opened my own store in a digital marketplace for teachers called Teachers Pay Teachers and started sharing about my life as a teacher on Instagram under the handle @pocketfulofprimary in order to form connections with more teachers. As I dove further into the teaching community online, I found that the difficulties I experienced during my first year of teaching were common and sought to use my experience to help prevent other teachers from going through the same struggles. I started creating YouTube videos on my channel Pocketful of Primary with tips and tricks for teachers in the summer of 2016 and began vlogging my daily life as a teacher in order to show a realistic, behind-the-scenes view of the profession. Over the next 5 years, I continued creating digital resources, sharing content on YouTube and Instagram, and providing professional development targeted at supporting other teachers and making their lives easier while still teaching full time. In the fall of 2021, I transitioned out of the classroom and now travel to schools and districts across the country to train teachers in the areas of technology integration, organization, time management, and productivity.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I started my Instagram account in the spring of 2015 during my first year of teaching merely as a way to connect with other teachers and share my passion for the profession outside of just my friends and family members. Initially, I used it as an outlet to share my ideas, seek ideas from others, and form connections with teachers who have similar interests. It was a way to document my life, experiences, and growth as a new teacher. After consistently posting valuable content, I began to attract followers who were interested in my ideas and enjoyed connecting with me on a personal level. In the summer of 2016, I expanded my social media presence by starting a YouTube channel where I could post long-form content for teachers and broaden my audience. I still continue to produce weekly videos after 6 years and connect with my subscribers by responding to their comments, sharing resources, and holding in-person events for them to attend. For anyone starting out on social media, consistently showing up and providing valuable content are the biggest factors that will draw in an audience. The people who choose to follow you want to trust that you’re going to show up for them on a consistent basis, whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly, and benefit from the content you produce. If your social media account or brand is highly focused on you as a person, make sure you open up to your audience on a personal level and give them opportunities to know you a little bit deeper than just the surface level. Strong connections on social media are formed through reliability and sharing about your personal successes, struggles, and everything in between are a great way to attract and form strong bonds with your followers.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I started my side hustle of creating digital resources for teachers such as lesson plans, classroom decor items, and templates during my first year of teaching out of necessity. My teaching job had extremely low pay and I was struggling to pay my bills and have money to contribute to my classroom and materials for students, so I had to find a way to supplement my income. Creating digital resources didn’t require any initial capital besides purchasing some commercial font licenses and clipart which was perfect for my situation at the time. I began investing all of my free time creating these resources and posting them for sale on a digital marketplace called TeachersPayTeachers, where teachers can purchase resources made by other teachers. Within a few weeks, I made my first sale and was hooked on the potential to generate additional income while still teaching full time. I only made a few hundred dollars during my first year of sales, but every product I added to my store was an opportunity for my sales to increase so I continued creating products and began marketing them through my YouTube channel, Pocketful of Primary, which I started the following year. With the additional marketing efforts, my side hustle was able to surpass my teaching income during the third year and continued to increase thereafter. After several years of consistently tripling my teaching income, I made the decision to leave the classroom and pursue my business full time. In addition to creating digital resources and producing content for YouTube, I have written two books, run a podcast called Teaching to the TOP, and present professional development workshops and teacher trainings at conferences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pocketfulofprimary.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pocketfulofprimary/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PocketfulofPrimary
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/pocketfulofprimary
- Other: TeachersPayTeachers Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pocketful-Of-Primary Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/teaching-to-the-top/id1493099649