Kristina Harrill from Sweet for Kindergarten is sharing her win-win teacher business story today. Her work schedule ebbed and flowed over the years as her family grew, but she kept her goal top of mind and used it to prioritize what tasks fit in her current season of life.
Connect with today’s guest:
https://www.sweetforkindergarten.com
https://www.instagram.com/kristinaharrill
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/sweet-for-kindergarten-kristina-harrill
Kristina is a former Kindergarten teacher turned stay-at-home mom to three little ones. With a background in early childhood development, she is passionate about helping parents and educators nurture young minds through play, exploration, and hands-on learning. She believes that building fine motor skills, encouraging creativity, and fostering a love for learning during the early years lays a strong foundation for future success.
Kristina started Sweet for Kindergarten after years of working in the classroom, where she discovered how powerful simple, engaging activities can be for young learners. Now, she shares practical ideas, resources, and tools to make early learning fun and meaningful for both parents and teachers. From hands-on phonics ideas to simple fine motor activities, her goal is to support little ones in growing the skills they need to thrive in school and beyond.
On this journey, she loves sharing a glimpse into her life as a mom of three, along with the brands her family loves, learning activities, and tips for parents. Whether you’re preparing your child for Kindergarten or just looking for ways to make playtime purposeful, Kristina will help simplify early childhood development—one fun activity at a time!
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Read the transcript:
Janice Cook 0:00 Joining us today for a guest conversation is Kristina from sweetforkindergarten.com. She is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay at home mom to three little ones. With a background in early childhood development, she’s passionate about helping parents and educators nurture young minds through play, exploration, and hands on learning. She believes that building fine motor skills, encouraging creativity, and fostering a love for learning during the early years leaves a strong foundation for future success. Kristina started Sweet For Kindergarten after years of working in the classroom. She discovered how powerful simple, engaging activities can be for young learners. Now she shares practical ideas resources and tools to make early learning fun and meaningful for both parents and teachers. From hands on phonics ideas to simple fine motor activities, her goal is to support little ones in growing the skills they need to thrive in school and beyond. She shares a glimpse into her life as a mom of three, along with brands she loves, learning activities, and tips for parents each and every day. If you’re preparing a child for kindergarten or looking for ways to make playtime purposeful, you need to check out her early childhood development tips. I’ll share all her contact information in the show notes today and at the end of today’s episode. Grab a cup of coffee and join me for this coffee chat with Kristina. She’s going to share about the beginning stages of her business, she’ll share a time when business felt sticky, and she’ll walk us through her thought process of how she got out of that situation to make sure her business was a win-win at all times.
Janice Cook 1:43 You’re listening to Your Win-Win Teacher Business, a podcast for teacher authors who want to make a big impact in the world for teachers and students, and have fun doing it. I’m your host, Janice Cook here with a pep talk to start your week off strong. Some seasons of running a business feel hard and sticky, but it shouldn’t feel like that all the time. Let’s make your business a win-win together.
Janice Cook 2:07 Hey Kristina, good to see you today.
Kristina 2:09 Hey Janice, how are you?
Janice Cook 2:09 I’m good. I’m so excited for our chat. We’re kicking back today and talking about the real life in running a teacher business. I’m excited to get to know your story a little more. And I would love to know where you are in life. Take us back to when you started this teacher business, and like, what your dream was that it would turn into.
Kristina 2:33 Well, I started way back in 2015 so it’s almost coming on 10 full years.
Janice Cook 2:42 Wild!
Kristina 2:43 I know and I honestly never envisioned it to be what it is today at all. I just wanted to pay for my weekly Starbucks. That is literally why I started. I was already creating resources that I was using for my classroom and my whole kindergarten grade level team. There was eight of us at the school, we were all using, you know, each other’s resources, we were all creating things, and one of the other teachers was like, oh, you should put that on teachers pay teachers. And at the time, I had never bought anything on there. I had literally only downloaded the free resources that I found and, you know, screenshots from Pinterest like, that’s how I found resources outside of what I created and, like, what the curriculum had. And so I didn’t even realize that people, like, bought things on TPT. So I was like, sure, I’ll put it up at the time. I just wanted to make just like, a little extra money, like, $25 a month, then I could get my Starbucks every Friday. It’s funny, I still do this. I still go to Starbucks every Friday. I put a couple resources up that first month, and I made 25 bucks. And I was so happy.
Janice Cook 3:52 Oh, 25 bucks pays for some Friday Starbucks for sure. I still remember our first sale was 27 cents because we weren’t on the premium account yet, you know, back in the day, but it was just that validation of, like, see what happens, right? Okay, I put this thing up here, I figured out how to get this far, and then you like, wait for the universe to tell you, right? I’m like,
Kristina 4:14 exactly.
Janice Cook 4:15 Maybe this is a thing that works. I kind of liked that cha ching sound. Maybe I’ll do that again. I can totally relate.
Kristina 4:23 Yeah, it was super motivating. I just fell in love with, like, creating resources. And I was using everything in my classroom, you know, filling in those gaps that I needed a worksheet for this phonic skill. I’m just going to create it real quick, because it was easier than trying to search for it myself. I could create it faster. And, yeah, it just it grew from there. Kind of started my blog, my Instagram, after I I did a cross country move. So I was in Florida, and I moved across the country to Southern California, and I didn’t know anybody. And that first summer I was there, this is before I got, like a teaching job I was with my husband, then fiance. And, I mean, I had nothing to do during the day. Like I nannied for a family, and then the rest of the time, I was just creating resources and created my blog. It was Chevron everywhere.
Janice Cook 5:15 Of course, it was, that’s what, that’s what the game was.
Kristina 5:18 That was, uh, yeah. That was like 2015 Yeah, and that’s when I started my Instagram as well. So, and then since then, it’s just it’s grown and it’s gone through different changes and different seasons. I became a mom. It just, it’s crazy to see.
Janice Cook 5:34 I think Instagram is a really similar story for a lot of people, where you’re in a season, whether it was the pandemic, or you just moved, or you’re home with a baby that can’t talk to you. I think that’s a time where a lot of people turn to Instagram for community, and I think the circle of that is really cool, that you turn to Instagram for community, and now you’re that safe space for others in that season needing community too. I think that part of social media doesn’t get enough positive press.
Kristina 6:03 Yes, I completely agree. I mean, there are friends I have on Instagram that I’ve never met in real life, and I talk to more than my real life friends,
Janice Cook 6:11 100%
Kristina 6:11 When you’re going through everything is just a great way to connect. And as a teacher who didn’t know a single soul out in California before I got a teaching job, it was a way that I could, you know, share different teaching ideas. And that was like, the beginning of, like, teacher gram, too. So I feel like I kind of got in, like, at a good time, and now my Instagram is completely different. So,
Janice Cook 6:34 right? Because life shifts and business shifts, and I think you’ve done such a beautiful job taking your audience with you, and just having them be like, Hey guys, here’s where I’m going next. If you want to come too, I’d love to have you. If this isn’t your jam anymore, I totally get it, but like, this is the season I’m in, and I think that people have come along with you for the journey, right? They’re like, No, I like you. I’m here for – I’m here for the real and people have zigged when you’ve zagged. I think,
Kristina 7:03 Yes, definitely. I mean, I still have people on there that I talk with regularly that have been there since like, the beginning 2016
Janice Cook 7:11 Yeah. So that’s really, really special. So if it was Starbucks money, was there a moment where you felt like your store was flagging you down? Like this could become really significant income? Pay more attention to me? After that initial period of transition where you just kind of put your head down and let yourself be creative, was there a moment where like the market was telling you, or like your dashboard was telling you, like, this could be, this could be a bigger thing?
Kristina 7:37 It was more myself telling me, because I always wanted to be a stay at home mom like that was always my goal. But living in California, living on one person’s salary is not cheap. And so when I found out I was pregnant, it was about a month after I went to my first TPT conference, and there, there was a seller who was able to double her teaching income. She talked all about how she was able to stay home with her kids and all of that. And I remember talking with one of my friends who I’ve met there, like, oh, that’s what I want to do one day. And then, like, literally, a month later, I was pregnant, and I was like, Oh my gosh. And I remember talking to my husband like, I can do this. I can do this. Just like, give me a year. Let me see if I can match my teaching income, because, you know, the cost of daycare, and I was working at a private school in California, so I was really not making a lot, and I was like, I can do it. And yeah, I when she was born, I stayed home. We ended up moving back cross country to Virginia. So I had a year to kind of like, prove myself, like, okay, I can supplement this enough to support our family. And yeah, I blew it out of the water.
Janice Cook 8:54 Yeah because your why was So Strong. You were like, nothing’s gonna get in my way. This has been my dream. I saw a path to get there. Get out of my way. I love that.
Kristina 9:05 Exactly,
Janice Cook 9:06 Yeah, and I love that you kept your Starbucks habit alive. I think that’s really important as like, a little ritual to remind you, like, this is this is still where we started. I think that’s really sweet.
Kristina 9:16 Yep, I think of it every week.
Janice Cook 9:18 Yeah, no. I think it’s super important to throw it back once in a while and remember, like, how nervous we were at the beginning. Like you could have put that resource up on TPT, no one could have ever bought it, and you wouldn’t have been, like, totally surprised, right?
Kristina 9:32 Right. I did not think anybody was going to buy it. I didn’t think teachers were actually buying resources on there.
Janice Cook 9:39 I started my store together with my husband. We were creating resources together, and he didn’t know what TPT was, and I had to tell him, and I felt like this weird shame that I had spent money on TPT. I was like, it’s this website where we buy things to use for work, because, like, that’s not a popular thing out in the real world. I was like, but the good news is now we can get some of that money back.
Kristina 10:00 Yes, I definitely use it in the early days to buy things for sure.
Janice Cook 10:05 Yeah, once you see that there is stuff in there that can help you, I can appreciate that there are seasons of life that it’s really helpful. So I think having your teacher business has been a huge win-win for your family overall. It sounds like you had a dream, you were looking for a path to get there, and you went all in on this, and you made it happen. These are really exciting moments in the story, but we know that business is like an up and down roller coaster. Have there been any moments that felt a little sticky and frustrating?
Kristina 10:36 Like the whole last year? In 2023 I found out I was pregnant with my third, and I was gonna have two under two, so I’ve already kind of like, figured out the whole, like, nap time hustle with, like, having one baby, and then I was working through, you know, doing it with two kids. And, you know, my oldest was in preschool at the time, and figuring that out, and I had like, kind of a good groove going on. And then the third just kind of like threw it all out of whack. It’s so different going from two to three kids. I had my oldest in kindergarten, and then I had that two under two age gap, which is just like, you’re in the trenches, like I honestly did not work more than maybe five hours a week the past year, until, like, recently.
Janice Cook 11:22 And what do you think you were working before the third baby before that? Because that’s part of that transition, is the expectations of it all?
Kristina 11:29 Like 20 hours, easily. I did have a babysitter come once a week too. I hired that out to have, like, a set work time for myself. But then, yeah, all of our babysitters got real jobs and all of that. And so it was kind of like, I honestly didn’t have the mental capacity to, like, really put a lot of work into it as well. Like, at the end of the day, I’m exhausted. I’m, you know, waking up early to, like, either try to work out or, like, try to get work in real quick. And then, you know, having little ones their sleep schedules all crazy.
Janice Cook 12:03 I don’t think people talk about the mental capacity of it all. Because you can write on your calendar that you’re going to work one hour after your kids go to bed, and that looks so neat and tidy, in your little planner with your highlighters. But that doesn’t mean that, like, at 8pm I can just, like, turn on my functional human brain and make something happen. Like we are – we are people. We’re not robots. You can’t just do that. And so we learn a lot about our mental capacity, I think, in motherhood too, where you are just tapped out in all direction – tapped out, touched out, mental load to the max. Just because you have a moment where, technically, nobody needs you doesn’t mean you’re ready to, like, make something. Mental capacity is an absolutely limited commodity. I’m so glad that you mentioned that.
Kristina 12:52 Yeah, and I mean, honestly, after five my brain is mush. I cannot form coherent sentences. There’s no way I could write an email or work on a resource. I, you know, I might put some pins on Pinterest. That’s about it. Even now. I just, I can’t
Janice Cook 13:07 I feel that. Sometimes I can do, like, some digital cleanup, right? Like dragging things to the trash can. That’s like, all I can do at 5pm. And so that was giving you big feelings – like you had decided these all are important things that I do in my 20 hours a week. What is that process of saying that like, well, I don’t have 20 hours anymore. How do you decide what makes the cut?
Kristina 13:32 I had to let go of so much. It was really hard, because I had worked so hard to get to where I was. But, I mean, I had an email list, a blog, an Instagram, a course. I had webinars that I was doing. I had this huge like business, and it’s not feasible for one person to do all the time. And I had to let go of VAs because I honestly couldn’t even keep on top of them, like I couldn’t even keep on top of the monthly tasks that I was giving them. So I had to take a huge step back and be like, Okay, what is like, my most important thing that I need to work on? That’s what I doing, and that’s the only thing I can focus on at this time. And as my kids get a little bit older, and I’m having a little bit more work time, then I can start adding things back in. So that was that was really hard for me.
Janice Cook 14:23 It’s a living in your season moment. It doesn’t mean you’re going to work five hours a week forever. It doesn’t mean you’re never going to have mental capacity again. But right now, you have what you have, and so you have to look at that pie right and decide, like, what are, what are, like, the really big things that are making the money. If I only had five hours, like, that’s where it has to go. That’s so hard because you don’t get to say, like, well, this is my favorite thing to do, right? You didn’t get to pick your favorite task
Kristina 14:51 No, I didn’t get to pick my favorite
Janice Cook 14:53 No, you have to pick the big money makers. And those are those hard moments, I think, where it feels sticky. You’re like, but I’m my own boss. How come I don’t get to do the things I want to do? How come I have only five hours of tasks left and they’re not my favorite? What a bummer! But it is that like perspective of like, no, but I am still at my goal, like I’m getting to stay home with my babies. That was my goal. This is still accomplishing my goal, and it’s only a season.
Kristina 15:22 Right.
Janice Cook 15:22 Is there something that didn’t make the cut in the five hours that you’re like, really excited to bring back when you have more capacity?
Kristina 15:30 So the course was something that I had worked so hard on. I spent most of 2019 and 2020, setting it up, getting everything in, you know, creating these webinars and all of that. And that was, like, the first thing that had to go. There was absolutely no way, because you’re very, like, forward facing on it. It’s not like you can hire out a VA to, like, kind of take care of everything. It’s, it’s a lot on you um, and that was also a chunk of the income that I made, too. So it was like, I just had to let it go. Like that was the one thing that I had to let go. I’ve tried bringing it back a little bit, but I’m still trying to figure out what that looks like in the future.
Janice Cook 16:12 And I think we hear a lot about courses being passive and set it and forget, but there’s man, there’s maintenance and there’s upkeep,
Kristina 16:19 It’s not set it and forget.
Janice Cook 16:21 No. And so it’s hard. You know, in the crystal ball, you probably didn’t know you were heading into a season with two under two, and so you probably would have put the course on your landscape at a different time. But, like, we didn’t know what we didn’t know.
Kristina 16:33 Right? And like, put course on evergreen has literally been on my to-do list for the past two years, so I have a whole plan for it. Have I had time to do it? No.
Janice Cook 16:42 No. And I think that happens too, where we have time to learn about something, but you’re like, Well, I’ve learned just enough to know I don’t have the bandwidth to start. Right once the train leaves the station, you have to go. And so if you know that, you don’t have the margin for it, I think you were really wise to just – just take a moment. One day they go to school, and then you have more than an hour, and it’s okay.
Kristina 17:04 Right.
Janice Cook 17:05 Yeah, so the course is something you poured a lot of your time into, and it’ll be there. It’ll be easier than creating it from scratch, for sure, because it started.
Kristina 17:14 Yes.
Janice Cook 17:15 What did make the keep list?
Kristina 17:18 So my email list was definitely top. Like, I have been consistent with emailing my I have, like, monthly roundups and then weekly newsletters and for the sales and all of that. That was, like, my number one. Stay on top of this. Create email funnels and different options and things like that. Blogging, I had to take a big step back. I created, I want to say, like 40 something posts in 2021 and this year, I think I’m at like, 12, so it’s, like, completely different, like, I’m not blogging as much, but still trying to be consistent. And those were, like, my main two things, and resource creation. But it’s taking me so much longer to do a resource these days. I have all of these wonderful ideas, but not enough time.
Janice Cook 18:02 It just it takes a lot of mental capacity, a lot of creative strength, and a lot of being able to, like, get into that flow zone, which we don’t always have as moms. We are start and stop and start and stop and working in pockets and I think that makes something like resource creation really hard.
Kristina 18:18 So hard.
Janice Cook 18:19 I will say I think 12 blog posts a year is a great goal. That’s the season of blogging that I’m in right now. It’s like, it reminds Google like I’m still here, my website is still a thing. Things are still happening in here. Please don’t forget about me. And it also makes sure – I never want to be putting out a blog post just to check the box. I don’t want to put it out until it’s ready and it’s helpful and it’s really intentional. So I I absolutely resonate with that. I would always rather put out 12 blog posts in a year that are really good than 52 that you know a bot could have written and aren’t going to help anyone or ever get seen. I think email marketing is so smart. There are seasons of the year where I write the weekly email, like the week of, spontaneously. And then there are other seasons, like summer, where I left the office in May, completely batched out for the summer. And it was like my favorite part of my business in that moment, because I feel like I could still show up in a good way for people with batched content in the summer, where not everything is like that, like you can only batch social media so far, you can only batch certain types of things so far ahead. I’m always grateful for email marketing in those seasons, because you really can keep a steady experience for your users on the other side, without them feeling the chaos of your life.
Kristina 19:40 Right. And you can continually get new subscribers by not really doing anything, because you have opt in forms on your blog, on Pinterest, you know, you can run a Facebook ad. There’s so many ways to get people onto your email list, and that was one of the things that I focused on this past year, was creating email funnels, because I had a bunch of opt in but they got the freebie, and that was it. So I started building out those funnels, and I’m definitely seeing more of a return. So it’s getting me excited to continue to do that for different resources and topics and all of that.
Janice Cook 20:13 Yeah, and I think the data is always there, the breadcrumbs are always there about what’s working. We just have to be like, brave and listen to them. So when you see like, well, this email performs well, every October, I’m gonna send it again. Oh, everybody likes this freebie, whether it’s my favorite or not. That’s the beginning of their journey in my brand. So let’s go ahead and really make the most of their first couple of emails in. And once you see a funnel formula that works for your person. I’m sure it’s easier to set one up for the next resource from there.
Kristina 20:45 Yes, yes. The first one I did took so long, and then the next one was a lot quicker, the next one was faster than that. So just like kind of getting your feet wet and actually doing it.
Janice Cook 20:57 The fact that the data is always there, with the funnels, we have to do more of what’s working, and we have to be really humble and just do what the data says. I think that’s always the path of least resistance, funnels. The fact that we can build a funnel that you write those emails once and more fresh people come through the top and you get the same results, that’s really encouraging, because it makes a lot out of the five hours that you have to give. You know that, okay, if I work on this funnel and I get it right now, it’s gonna have a big ROI. Are there other tasks in your business that, even if you enjoy doing them, you feel like you don’t get the long lasting results?
Kristina 21:35 Um, sometimes resource creation, honestly. Like, I’ll create something and, like, so excited about it, and then it just crickets. And I’m like, Okay, I guess you guys didn’t want that.
Janice Cook 21:45 There’s that 80/20 rule that like, 20% of our resources are going to make, like, 80% of the money. But then, like, I look at my store, and I’m like, but I worked really hard on these, and I were really thoughtful and intentional, and I worked just as hard on them as the others, and they’re just as good, in my opinion. And it’s so hard. It’s like, but it doesn’t matter. What do you mean? It doesn’t matter. Like, you’re,
Kristina 22:05 yep,
Janice Cook 22:05 you’re attached to all of them. And I know social media, we had just talked about as like, a real positive that we get a lot of community on there. But I do struggle sometimes with the shelf life of a social media post. You work on a reel and you feel really good about it, and you really put a lot of intention into it. And I’m like, All right, guess no one cared about that.
Kristina 22:27 Five likes, and it just dies.
Janice Cook 22:29 So it’s really hard, no, but I think that’s something that you do really well as a business owner. Is like, all right, I guess what is the best use of my time is this. And so if I only have five hours. And I’m really, really strong about this why and making the stay at home mom thing work that I have to make every single hour I have really, really count.
Kristina 22:50 And I did a lot of back and forth on, like, what do I work on? What do I do? And I’ve definitely, like, bounced all over the place, tried different things. And, yeah, I think email marketing was definitely like the biggest return on investment for for me personally, in this season. So that’s what I’m really focusing on, those ways to make income passively. So I’m not I do it once, set it and forget it, and then also just trying to find multiple streams of revenue too, to just kind of keep building that up.
Janice Cook 23:22 Yeah, and I think there’s no shame in the exploration of trying those things. I think it’s just about being humble and taking the cues like, Well, I tried that. It didn’t work. That’s fine, but I can’t do it again, because there’s no time to waste on the current schedule in this season.
Kristina 23:37 Exactly
Janice Cook 23:38 When you get 20 hours again, though, don’t you feel like you’re going to be like, unstoppable?
Kristina 23:43 Yes, seriously, I’ll have like, a three hour window some days if my youngest takes a long nap when the other two are at school and I’m like, Wow, I did all of this in three hours. This would have taken me so much longer. Two, three years ago,
Janice Cook 23:57 100% and one day all three of your kids will be like at school for the whole day, like the sky is the limit. I have no idea what you’ll be capable of.
Kristina 24:06 I have no idea,
Janice Cook 24:06 unbelievable. So your your audience shifted, but you’re definitely still serving that original teacher community in the ways that you have capacity for, right? So on Instagram, or you are chatting a little bit more with moms?
Kristina 24:19 yes,
Janice Cook 24:20 but you’re definitely still supporting your teacher audience. I imagine that they just hang out more on your email list, right?
Kristina 24:26 Yep, my email list. I have a Facebook group, and then I’ll have people, you know, find me through blogs and whatnot. So my other teacher, Instagram is dead. I haven’t put it on there in so long. It’s like, one of those things I’m trying to build back Pinterest a little bit right now, just like with the organic pinning, and that’s been going a lot better. So I’m going to focus on that, because that’s a lot easier to batch and, like, get a big chunk done, versus writing a single social media post that takes me 20 minutes and then nothing happens. So.
Janice Cook 25:00 Right. And I don’t think Pinterest and Google, for that matter, like, notices as much when we’re absent, whereas, like, on Instagram, like, it just feels really, really
Kristina 25:06 It really does. You take a couple days off and it’s like, Who are you again?
Janice Cook 25:11 Yeah, Pinterest is very forgiving in that way. It’s like, Oh, welcome back. People like your stuff. They will still like whatever this is. I know exactly where to send it to.
Kristina 25:19 Just after, like, one month of, like, consistently pinning a couple of times a week. I was like, wow, my reach has gone up. Like, that was, that’s all I had to do. That was easy.
Janice Cook 25:27 And that’s really encouraging, because you’re like, Well, I can do that again, because I have time to pin to Pinterest. I have no mental capacity, but I could pin to Pinterest, right? Yep, I don’t look Instagram ready today, but I could pin something to Pinterest. We’re so grateful for Pinterest and its kindness in this season. And so I just really appreciate I have followed you from back, I think I found you in the teacher days, but yeah, it moved along with your mom journey. My kids are older than yours, but I I love seeing you pivot and share real life. You’re like, this is what I have for you today. It’s a tip about feeding your kid. It’s a tip about active boys. It’s, this is what I have guys. And you just always show up for your people every day. And you’re like, if this isn’t what you need, scroll on past, but this is what I can offer you in the world in my season. And I think people are here for it.
Kristina 26:20 Yes, I love to hear that.
Janice Cook 26:22 So I’m so glad to hear that the teacher business is still chugging for you in the background, and you’re still staying in it within your season. Because there are definitely seasons of life where life throws curveballs at us and it feels like everything’s important. There’s no way I’m going to be able to turn this around and figure it out, and it can be really, really frustrating, but I just know that there’s someone listening who’s entering in a season like yours, and hearing the decisions you had to make and how you think about them out loud is going to help someone else navigate, like, the next step in their teacher business journey. So I’m just super grateful that you’re willing to chat today.
Kristina 26:58 Yes, of course. And so many people talk about, like, the journey to get to where they are, but then they don’t talk about what happens if you have to pivot and change and take a step back. And I feel like that was hard for me, because I had never really heard anyone talk about it before. And so then I’m dealing with it like, Oh, I’m failing at everything right now, but in reality, it was just I had to live within my season.
Janice Cook 27:20 Yeah, I totally agree. And I love reading the stories of businesses and people like, um, if I get to know like a peloton instructor, you’re seeing them in like, their chapter 90. I’m like, Oh, my goodness, I would love to know about chapter one with all of these big name people. I love reading stories all the way back, because these are the big moments you want to hear about. A moment where an opportunity landed on someone’s desk and they had to make a big choice. A moment where something wasn’t working and they had to either stay stuck or make a big, brave decision and go for it. And hearing people talk through what that felt like and how they knew which road to take, I think those lessons are much more valuable, although there is something about sharing the success story like that original moment at the TPT conference – that was a really important moment for you, too, to know that you what you were driving towards was possible and repeatable, and someone had done it. I would love to hear so much more in teacher business world in general, about these middle steps that are sticky, that I think we keep a little closer to our heart, because nobody wants to share like, oh, it’s not working today,
Kristina 28:30 right? I tried this and it didn’t work.
Janice Cook 28:35 Right! I tried this and it’s going horribly. Love that for me. But I think when each and every one of us takes a moment to share one time where things were sticky and shows that like we got on the other side in one piece. It turned out okay. Then the sticky moments feel a little bit less like a catastrophe.
Kristina 28:54 Yeah, you’re not so alone.
Janice Cook 28:57 Kristina, where can people connect with you after our chat today?
Kristina 29:01 So I’m most active on my Instagram, it’s @kristinaharrill and I just share a plethora of, just like, relatable mom tips. I also kind of share a little bit behind the scenes of trying to run a business and all of that. You know, different toys that my kids are enjoying and I always have that little teacher in me, where I share the developmental piece too, because I think that’s so important. And then I also have my website, www dot sweet for kindergarten.com which has lots of different blog posts about phonics, writing, literacy, phonemic awareness, all of that. So you can also find me there as well.
Janice Cook 29:40 Yeah and it’s so cool to see you get to use that expertise now, as your kids go through those ages that you’re an expert on too. I’m glad that you’re not in your season making these resources or googling or researching now and finding out, because I think that’s the trouble in the parenting realm, is a lot of us are like, Oh, I have to teach my kid to read. Let me real quick figure out how that works, and there’s no time and space. You have to learn experts like Kristina who have already figured that out. I think that’s a really exciting time for you to get to use your own resources with your own kids.
Kristina 30:12 Yeah, it is really cool. I love chatting with you, and I think it’s really important for everyone to hear all of the ups and downs, the roller coaster ride.
Janice Cook 30:22 Absolutely and even if somebody has like, a really exciting dashboard and they’ve been on the platform a really long time, they’re all living the same life behind the computer screen. I think we’re all having days where we hit our head against the wall. Whether you’re in the beginning trying to turn that first Starbucks money into something repeatable, or your store has grown and you’re still in the same place. It’s so interesting how the day to day struggles are really also similar at the different steps in her journey. Kristina, thanks for having coffee with me today. It was super nice to chat with you.
Kristina 30:56 Yes, I loved being on
Janice Cook 30:59 Thanks for making this podcast a part of your day. Do you have a win-win teacher business story you’d like to share? Head to cookfamilyresources.com/podcast ,to find my guest application. I’ll also leave that link in the show notes for you see you in the next episode.
