Hey Reader,
One of the most important lessons I've learned over the last 11+ years building Teach Better is that many of our best ideas were sort of accidental.
They were not things we came up with in a strategic meeting. They didn't come from the multiple day-long meetings we've had with carefully selected mentors and advisors. They weren't born from deep dives into business books, business strategies, or business planning frameworks.
They came from paying attention to what the people we serve were saying, and then trying something stupid...that accidentally worked.
"Teach Better"
Our name, "Teach Better" and the idea that we're "The Teach Better Team" came from two accidents..
As we started doing more than just The Grid Method, we started hearing more and more that people were confused by our name. Originally, the business was named "The Grid Method" but we had expanded our offerings and to those that knew us through our work around other ideas, the name didn't make any sense. So we needed to change the name.
Chad had always said he never wanted to tell teachers how to teach, but rather wanted to show them something that had helped him teach better in hopes it would also help them teach better.
So when we decided we needed to make the change, "Teach Better" just made sense.
In the process of doing that, we discovered that the twitter handle @teachbetter was taken, and we wanted a uniform handle across all platforms. After checking the platforms we found @teachbetterteam was available, and it clicked...we ARE the Teach Better Team.
Oh, also, our publishing deal for our book also came from a series of accidental comments from me to Shelley from our publisher. During a random Twitter chat, I commented on her tweet about Christmas cookies and we laughed and decided to connect and formally meet.
During that meeting, I was asking her about publishing because we had been thinking of writing some books and publishing them. She responded with "or you could just publish with us." And...book deal.
**Keep reading below this note from our friends at Superhuman**
12 Hour Live Streams
We ended up doing 5 of these events during COVID and just after the era of "everything was virtual."
And yes, we really did go live for 12 hours.
This came from me joking about going live all day so people could just see into my daily life. That would have been super boring, but that silly idea led to us actually putting together a high-quality, all-day learning opportunity for educators. It went so well that we did it 4 more times.
Free Courses in The Teach Better Academy
We actually just re-launched and upgrading our academy recently, but the original academy and the idea of free courses came from us actually first launching a paid course and then refunding our first sale.
We were at a small conference in southern Ohio. It was the first time I had seen Chad present, actually. I was standing in the back of the room with a camera to record the session and two teachers walked up to me and asked, "So what's he selling?"
I told them he wasn't selling anything. The did not believe me.
But then I watched their demeanor completely change as they listened to Chad sharing The Grid Method and actually not selling them anything.
Afterwards, one of them came over to me and said "So he really isn't gonna sell us anything?"
Every single session they had been in that day, someone was trying to sell them something - curriculum, books, software, etc. Chad was the only one to just share value.
That's when we decided we didn't want to build a business selling The Grid Method to teachers. So we refunded the one course sale we had, and made it free.
๐The Green Hearts๐
Anyone who has been connected to our brand for a while knows we love our green hearts. ๐๐๐ You can find them in our social media, on our merchandise, and in most things we do.
In fact, as I type this, I am looking at a massive green heart on my wall...ceiling to floor...signed by everyone who attended our 2022 Teach Better Conference to show me they missed me. (I was in the hospital at the time and had to miss the conference, but that's a story for a different day)
Green hearts being part of our brand did not come from a branding meeting or a logo design.
It came from a comment in a livestream.
Someone commented "๐ = Teach Better" and before we knew it, the comments in any of our live streams were flooded with green hearts. Any time something inspiring was said, or a great idea was shared, or we celebrated someone or something...out came the green hearts.
The EDUpreneur Community
This newsletter, and the EDUpreneur Community I talk about often, came from a random conversation in a mastermind for school leaders. A few of them had mentioned casually that they had ideas they wanted to explore. I got excited to help and offered to get together and brainstorm.
Before long, we were meeting weekly. Eventually, the group asked if we could make it something official. So we did.
Then we needed a way to keep the group connected in between meetings and to organize agendas and resources, so we found the Circle platform.
Later we realized that the podcasters we supported were asking a lot of similar questions, so we brought them into Circle...and a community began to form.
The Grid Method
The Grid Method is literally the thing that started our business. It's the reason any of this exists.
But it didn't start with "let's build a business."
It's started with teachers in Chad's school noticing something different in his classroom. Noticing students reacting differently to the way he taught. Noticing his students showing success where others were struggling.
This led to Chad getting asked a lot questions. He wanted to help his colleagues so he reached out to me about maybe putting together an ebook for them.
And then I uttered the words, "dude, we're not just doing an ebook" and off we went.
Look for Those Little Accidents
Literally every good idea we have had over the last 11 years...was an accident.
Look for those little accidents...and I bet you'll accidentally find some really great ideas.
I hope this helps.
Before you go...
I'd love to know where you're at right now.
Just hit reply with the letter that best describes you:
A. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to build.
B. I know what I want to build, but I'm struggling to find the time.
C. I'm creating consistently, but not really growing.
D. I have an audience, but I'm not sure how to turn it into income.
E. I'm making some money, but I want to build something bigger.
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~ Jeff
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I appreciate you.
Jeff Gargas
COO / Co-Founder, Teach Better Team
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P.S. When you're ready, here's how I can help:
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