Ep.45 / This Teacher Became a Millionaire by Selling Her Lesson Plans: Lisa Collum & Top Score Writing

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Meet a teacher who became a millionaire by selling her lesson plans. She made binders and she mailed them from Office Depot. Lisa Collum of Top Score Writing will join us and talk about how she started her business and scaled it from nothing, all while raising four kids.

Plus Rena Barron, a realtor in Georgia who helps educate moms and veterans on real estate shares a couple of sweet moments with her kids.

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In this episode you will learn:

Starting from where you are
Why networking and collaboration are essential for achieving success
The importance of delegating and prioritizing to find balance

Show Takeaways:

Do you have an amazing business idea but have no clue where to even begin?

You will not take any steps forward until you actually start it. My guest today actually googled how to start her business.

Plus Rena Barron, a realtor who helps educate moms and veterans on real estate shares a couple of sweet moments with her kids.

“I googled how do you start a business in Florida and followed the steps.”
“I looked at my living room floor and there were 400 binders and my kids are punching holes, my husband's putting them boxes, and I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I need to do this full-time.”
“I look at it as an overall balance, not necessarily a day-to-day, because there are gonna be times when I am working a lot and there are gonna be times when I'm not working a lot.”
“I prioritize because I can never get all 50 things done. I know that and I kind of schedule out like, this has to be done the next day. This has to be done by the end of the week.”

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EPISODE LINKS:

Lisa’s Website - lisacollum.com/

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Kim (00:02):

If you're the parent of a college bound student, you're probably feeling mixed emotions right now as acceptance letters and financial aid offers arrive, excited and proud of your student, but also stressed thinking about how you're going to pay for it all. Take my advice and check out college AV student loans. They are the emotional support system to guide you through the college journey from start to finish. With College Ave, you'll get free access to tools and resources that make the financial road to college easier. Like their student loan calculator that lets you see how a future loan can work for you and your budget. Plus, every month they give away a thousand dollars scholarship to one lucky family. Entering is fast and easy and winning could have a big impact on your college expenses. Visit college ave.com/exit interview. Trust me, it's a better student loan experience. There's no purchase necessary to enter or win the scholarship. See official contest roles for details@collegeave.com slash exit interview Meet a teacher who became a millionaire by selling her lesson plans. She made binders and she mailed them from Office Depot. Lisa, a column of top score writing will join us and talk about how she started her business and scaled it from nothing all while raising four kids.

Lisa (01:15):

I Googled how do you start a business in Florida and followed the steps.

Kim (01:22):

This is mom's exit interview the show for moms who want to craft the career and life they want. Each episode you'll meet inspirational moms across various industries and levels who are working and living life on their own terms, and they'll bring you actionable tips from finance to business development to happiness to crushing that imposter syndrome. I'm Kim Whitford. I was a burnt out media executive at Netflix, US Weekly and in TV news. I wanted a career where I was fulfilled at work but present at home with my kids. So I started working for myself and I love it, but not every day was easy or is easy. I wanted to explore with all of you how other moms were creating careers on their own terms. They're carving out flex jobs, starting their own businesses. They're taking back control. Join me and make work work for you instead of the other way around.

Kim (02:26):

So it was recently one of my favorite nights of the year. I do a mom son overnight and I also do a mom daughter overnight. So recently it was my mommy son overnight and I just was really checked in. Basically I try to stay focused on the fact that I work for myself to get flexibility and time with my kids and I really have to make sure that I'm actually doing that because I can get wrapped up in work or projects or growing my business, but I have to really check back in with my why. And so I book a mom's son overnight and we stayed at the Roxy Hotel. My son is five. So we stayed in the Roxy Hotel in New York City, which is like this very cool hotel has, it's a lot of exposed brick that has live music in the lounge area and from our third floor hotel room, there's like a banister and you can look over at the courtyard where everyone's like listening to music.

Kim (03:22):

It's just really cool. And it had a pool table and a chess table. So my son wasn't loving playing pool. He's this like tiny little guy with a pool cue and I'm helping him. And we both learned how to play chess somehow. I never learned how to play chess. I don't know how that happened, but I don't. But my son, a lot of his classmates are playing chess. He's in kindergarten, but he never learned. And so he and I learned to play chess in the Roxy Hotel in our overnight. We also watched Ghostbusters and we ate popcorn in bed and then we went to the Ghostbusters Firehouse nearby and it was just very special to really be together for such an extended amount of time. And I felt really checked in and his attitude, he was so happy and he felt really special and he felt really loved that I was giving him such focus attention.

Kim (04:11):

So anyway, it was just a really sweet thing that I tried to do at least once a year and my very next Grow Your Business Video Bootcamp starts on April 19th, really excited. It is for real estate agents and business owners. The last one was so fun and amazing. You'll go from overwhelmed, confused business owner to having a system, a process, scripts, templates, and a proper filming setup. That looks amazing because social video can catapult you from professional to thought leader and from business to brand. You can grow your leads, your income, your credibility, all if you understand the strategy behind it. And I can help you do that. And basically your guide and BFF to help you attract your ideal clients and grow your leads and income. It'll come with so much accountability with live coaching and you'll get full access to my curriculum, which is a library of videos. Plus, as I mentioned, live coaching and an online support group. You'll have ready to post videos and it is going to grow your business. Here are a few of the lovely things my past students said.

Shannon (05:16):

I loved Kim's class. I'm so glad I invested in it.

Therese (05:21):

I saw my average real view go from a hundred to actually hitting 13,000 on one of my reels, and that was because of the fact that I applied a lot of the things that she taught during this course. If someone was considering taking Kim's class, I would say hell yes, like what the hell are you waiting on?

Kim (05:41):

So check out kim rit.com to apply to be on the wait list. Doors will close last time we sold out early, which is great for me, but not great for you. So make sure to apply today and you are going to love hearing from former teacher Lisa Colum on the show today. She's the founder of Score Writing. She talks about how she started with nothing and now runs a multimillion dollar company.

Lisa (06:02):

Basically we sell writing curriculum to teachers and parents across the nation that they use to teach students how to write an essay. So it would be like your daily lessons. A teacher would open up lesson one, day one and teach the lessons, just how I've written them. And along with the lessons, there's activities, quizzes, tests, all that good stuff. So I try to make it where in one kit teachers and parents have everything they need to teach writing for the entire school year. So that all started a long time ago, about 19 and a half years ago with me in the classroom. So I was a public school teacher, I was 21, wanted to be teaching my whole life and kind of thrown into the classroom teaching writing. At that time you really, as an elementary school teacher, you were teaching all subjects. But my specific school was a Title one F school, low performing, and they said we want to try out what they called departmentalizing.

Lisa (06:57):

So they gave me just writing. And so I said, okay, it's not really my thing. I was more of a reading, but I went into it, was super excited, knew I was working with low performing students and right away I said, so where's the curriculum so I can study it? And they said there's no curriculum. And so that's really what I kind of went into fight or flight mode and thought, I've got to make this work, I want to do good. I've been waiting for this shot my whole life. And so that's what made me come up with my own way. I

Kim (07:28):

Want to interrupt to say for anyone who doesn't know. So title one is low income schools, right?

Lisa (07:33):

Exactly. So I knew I was working with low performing students at a title one school and I had no curriculum, so I decided I'm just going to figure this out and come up with my own way. And so I thought I'll go back to basics, I'll go back to what I know works best, repetition and practice. I did that just kind of through trial and error working with them. And that year I got 95% of the students to pass the state writing test. Now before me coming in, it was at that school was about 38% proficiency or students passing. So to get to 95 was huge. And then I thought, okay, I kind of got something here. And so I did it the next year and got a hundred percent of the students to pass, which that led to the Department of Education investigating me because that had never been done before, especially at that school. And so wait,

Kim (08:20):

Wait, wait, wait, pause, pause, pause. So yes, you got students from, what number were they at before and then

Lisa (08:24):

Percent.

Kim (08:25):

So 38% had a passing reading grade. What grade is this?

Lisa (08:29):

This was fourth grade. So this was for the state writing test. So 38% proficiency before me coming in.

Kim (08:36):

And then you got these fourth graders that you taught your class to go from. 38% could pass the reading test to a hundred percent pass the reading test and then the department of education started investigating you in. And this is in Florida?

Lisa (08:47):

Yes, this is in Florida.

Kim (08:48):

So why do they investigate you?

Lisa (08:50):

So to get a hundred percent is kind of unheard of and to get a hundred percent at that school, and so it's an F school or was an F school, and our reading and math scores were still low, but writing in particularly was at a hundred. So the state's looking at is what is going on? How is your reading at 30 or mass at 30, but your writings at a hundred. And so they investigated, cleared, everything was fine. I go on the third year, I get a new group of students, I get a hundred percent of them to pass. They keep our scores, put everything on hold, investigate again, write news articles. There's this whole big thing. I assume they thought there was some sort of cheating going on. Again. They come in, everything's clear, we get our scores. So at the time when I'm super excited, I just did this really cool thing, got all these students to pass when everyone thought they couldn't, I'm getting investigated, I'm like 23, 24, I think my teaching career is over.

Lisa (09:49):

I'm like, oh my gosh, they're investigating me. But that's really how this all started. And so my principal said, you know what, instead of you teaching fourth grade, can you become the school's writing coach and teach your way of doing writing to all the teachers? I said, okay. So I did that for a few years. Then the district, the school district said, can you do it for the whole district? So what was cool about that was they gave me the lowest schools. I worked with them, they all scored between 95 and a hundred percent. And so by this time, almost 10 years has passed and I'm on baby number three. So I leave the squid district entirely and take a job teaching online. And that's when everyone says, where'd you go? What are you doing? We need you. And I'm like, oh, I took another job. And they're like, can you just write it down and we'll buy it from you? And I kind of laughed, not thinking that that could ever be done because business entrepreneur, none of that ever crossed my mind. But that's what led to a Google search of how do you start a business in Florida? And now 12 years later, a nationwide company. So that's the crazy story.

Kim (10:59):

Okay. So can you explain basically in one sentence, you built a curriculum and because so many people wanted it, you basically put it online so people could buy it.

Lisa (11:11):

So I hadn't written anything down prior to them asking. I was just sharing my ways, my strategies, what I had done to get the hundred. So when they started saying, we need you, we need what you were doing. So I typed out lessons, like 25 lessons, didn't think much of it, put it in a binder, whole punched it myself and sold the binders to a few schools and then that just spiraled. And now I have curriculum second through 12th and 25 books and selling everyone.

Kim (11:41):

So how fast did this grow? How much did you sell in your first year? How much did you sell in your third year, your 10th year? How did it grow?

Lisa (11:47):

Yeah, so very slow because I was a mom and I worked full-time teaching online for the first four years. Why I built this on the side, I had three kids, my husband was a teacher, we had bills and I just was not in a position to a hundred percent leave my full-time secure job with benefits to start a business. So I thought I'll just start this on the side. And at first it was great. It was like extra money to take my kids to Disney. I sold 10, 15 binders the first year. And then the second year I sold about 25 to 30. And then I started going into other districts, not just the one I lived in. And in the fourth year I looked on my living room floor and there were 400 binders and my kids are punching holes, my husband's putting in boxes, I'm doing putting the lessons in order, and I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I need to do this. It had gotten to the point where I knew I was making enough money. And so that's when I decided to full-time do my business. And so even from there, it still took, it was the sixth year where I was able to hit that million dollar revenue mark. I just think it's because I never took out a loan. I built things on my time. And I think just being that mom kind of made me say low risks the whole time.

Kim (13:04):

And talk to me, how much were you charging for each binder?

Lisa (13:06):

So in the beginning I was charging 50 bucks a binder was nothing. I had 25 lessons. But then at people would say, can you do third breaks? I only had fourth and fifth. And so I added third grade. Then can you add more lessons? And so it went from $50 to $150. And then I pretty much, after I went full-time, put everything at about between three and 400, which is where it's at now. And so now they're not binders, they're in fancy books and they come in kits. But it started with three ring binders from Office Depot.

Kim (13:36):

And so you were saying how many grades do you teach now? How many year binders now are all the

Lisa (13:39):

Grades? So now I have second grade through 12th grade. And actually, I'm sorry, first through 12th grade, we just added first this year.

Kim (13:46):

So you brought in other teachers for the other grades?

Lisa (13:49):

No, so I wrote the curriculum for all grade levels. So I wrote the curriculum for second through 12. I have a team of people that help me, so it's books that they can buy or digital that they can access everything online as well.

Kim (14:03):

And what about the title one school? Are you still connected to them? How does it work with, are you still helping them with curriculum or is that sort of

Lisa (14:11):

Yeah, so it's pretty cool because that school still uses my program. The district that I worked in still uses my program. So it's nice because a lot of the people that I used to teach with are now principals or even superintendents. And so to go back and still have those relationships is definitely helping the business overall. And it's nice to still see those people and them to have that past of, Hey, I used this 15 years ago and it was getting us these scores.

Kim (14:40):

It's funny what you said about the Office Depot. So basically in my twenties I had a jewelry business and I was just sort of making, selling to friends, doing jewelry parties. And then I had an opportunity to sell in Henry Bendle, which is now not anymore, but a really fancy department store in New York City. And eventually Bloomingdale's, my first show for Henry Bendell, my mom, my brother. We were all up till four in the morning with in our den with the carpet and the beige leather couch and the lazyboy. And I was like, help me make these necklaces. You're just do what you got to do. I had to make I think hundreds of necklaces to be available for sale at this trunk show. And so I was like my brother with these clunky hands and my mom who's not like I have artist hands and they're like, right, just regular people. But I was just get to work, got to get to work, got to make it happen.

Lisa (15:27):

Oh my gosh. I love, that's how it is. In the beginning

Kim (15:31):

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Lisa (16:24):

To be honest, the hardest part was I had zero clue what I was doing. When I tell you that I was a hundred percent educator my whole life wanted to be a teacher, went to college to be a teacher, it never even crossed my mind. So when I tell you I Googled, how do you start a business in Florida and followed the steps. And then when someone asked for a purchase order, I googled what is a purchase order and how do you create an invoice? I googled free template invoice. I literally knew nothing and I had nobody that knew it. I didn't have any friends that ran businesses, no one in my family. My family looked like I was looked at me, I was crazy. My husband was like, are you sure about this? So it was learning everything down to the smallest thing along the way. That was just the hardest part for me. And also just that confidence because I kept saying, I'm a teacher, what am I doing? Go back to teaching Lisa, this is not what you're supposed to do. And so it was getting past all of that to realize that I can still do what I love, which is education and teaching just at a much bigger level.

Kim (17:26):

How did you eventually find the resources and built the network? Because I feel like I'm the same as my dad was a business owner and he worked so much. That is not something that I saw for myself, but I realized I could have more flexibility and make the same or more money and help more people. I was like, yes, I would like to help business owners grow their businesses through video and podcasts. And I, I'm an extrovert, I love helping people. I'm a big cheerleader. But I think a big part of it is I didn't have colleagues, I didn't have people to cheer me on to help me to give me their templates, to give me their forms. I eventually did. But how did you build that network and get those resources as you were working?

Lisa (18:06):

A lot of it goes back to I didn't know that I needed to build that network. And so I wasn't out there talking about it. I mean, I downplayed my businesses for years. People would say, what do you do? And I've never used the word c e o entrepreneur, author. I was like, oh, I just helped teachers at schools with writing or even this school I owned. I'm like, oh, I just tutor kids. And so I wasn't even putting myself out there to even open up that. And then when I realized I need people, I'm not a specialist in all these areas that it's going to take to build a business. And so it was slow. It wasn't until probably the fifth or sixth year, but I met someone now my C o o, he was my first person that I hired. And I immediately saw, wow, I could do so many other things. Cause now I have this person where we were doing digital at the time, digital's their specialty and then I brought in a social media and it was like, wow, they can help me with that. And then just through networking and different business events that I was a part of, I now say to everyone, we all have our thing, our specialty, the thing that we're good at and we can't be good at everything. So that's why you need to network and bring other people in. And that was really a turning point for my business.

Kim (19:21):

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think a lot of the women that we've had on the show and Rebecca Minkoff was one of the people who I feel like I hear her voice. She's like, what is the best, highest and best use of your time? And that's what you should be doing. And recently I'm sort of shifting, I'm doing more speaking engagements, I'm having more sponsors come on and I'm like, I needed to lean on a vir, my virtual assistant more. I need to be doing what I do best, which is creating the curriculum. I'm a teaching and taking on bigger projects for content strategy. I have a lot of inbound. I'm like, I can't be writing blog posts and doing this and posting the newsletter. I can write it, I can edit it, but I can't be doing all the administrative. It's not a good use of my time. And so I feel like to your point, I've been better about being like, who can do this probably more efficiently than me? And in fact, if I'll be honest, I think that when I'm really overloaded, I'm posting a blog post, it'll have typos. I'm a great speller, I'm a great gramer. When I'm busy, I'm going to put out a blog that I'm not proud of and I'm better off giving that to someone else who is going to give it love and care and not make me look like an illiterate.

Lisa (20:28):

Right. No, that's exactly. It comes down to use of your time and also just getting insight from other people. It's something that I think we have to do on our own and that's not the case at all. What's the worst? Someone can say no and I've just had to accept that over time.

Kim (20:46):

Totally. So I work in marketing, I help people market in terms of marketing. What has worked it worked for you from your experiences with your business?

Lisa (20:54):

So in the beginning, I did not know it was going to become a thing. Now it's a thing. But I kind of did what everyone's doing now. I built my email list. I have over 130,000 people on there. I've been building that from the beginning, not knowing it was going to be a thing. I just would go to schools and say, sign up for my email list. Cause I thought, how am I going to communicate with these people after? So I would go to conferences, sign up for my email list. And so I've been building that forever it feels like. And also I would give out pieces of my curriculum, like the first five lessons all the time. And I would just say, I'll give you the first five lessons if you'll give me a testimonial or I'll give you a free kit if you tell the teachers at your school and then make me a video explaining why you like it.

Lisa (21:39):

And so I was doing all these things and ask them to post about it. And through that teachers talk to teachers. And I never paid a dime for marketing until five years ago. I was just doing that. And that's what worked best. And what's very interesting is I then shifted and started spending money and went to Facebook ads and have a marketing team and did all this great stuff and it was good. But I will tell you, I am going back and I did forget to mention in the beginning years too, I was out front in front of people. I was in schools, I was meeting with teachers. And so I kind of got away from that not doing it as much. And now I'm going back to that because I feel like people want that relationship. Again, the Facebook ads are great for brand awareness and even getting some leads, but teachers aren't answering the phone. They're busy. And so I've had to think what worked and what worked is me being in front of people and me giving out pieces and letting them try it. And people trust other people's testimonials and posts and things like that.

Kim (22:44):

And I love what you're saying about email because I advise people for social video and all of that, but I always say, you do not want to rely on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. You do not want to rely on them. You really want to get that one-to-one relationship with people. So as much as you can get their email, and I love that you were doing this in the early years, give them value. Cause when people say, sign up for my newsletter, but you have to say, sign up for my newsletter, it'll give you curriculum tips, it'll teach you how to teach, support your kid, learn to read. So it's always that give value for their email. So I love that you were very, didn't really realize you were doing it, but you were very advanced email marketing. That's that's really savvy of you. I think it also relates to a lot of what I see with my clients in terms of positioning themselves as thought leaders. It dovetails with that. What do you find, I feel like you're a thought leader. I mean you're an author and you have a big social presence and you're running a company, successful company. What do you think has been successful for you to position yourself as a thought leader, which is different than a business owner?

Lisa (23:45):

I mean it's literally accepting that what you're talking about and that you can be that thought leader. You know, kind of get stuck in this box of I'm a teacher and I'm a mom. I don't know if anyone's going to listen to me. But no, if your stuff put it out there and start thinking about there. I always put myself in their position, what do they need to hear? What do they need? And that's literally how I create everything when I'm putting it out there. And I always tell my teen this, I'm like, well, I'm just telling you all from my point of view of I was getting this. And they're like, here she goes. But I'm like, that's what I do. I got to put myself in their position and just think of how can I help them solve problems? How can I be that need or fix that need that they have? And it's work because now people know they can come to me or my page or my emails for writing information. It's kind of maybe into the writing guru.

Kim (24:42):

I love that because I also see, it's interesting, I think people think of putting yourself on there on social media is in this place, getting presses in this place and being a thought leaders in this other place. But actually it's all really tied together. And I recently hosted an Instagram live with Sabina Hitchen, who she runs Press for Success. And we talked about how you can use social video to pitch press and your social video can build you as a thought leader. And it's like all the same. And I see this from my clients and I see this from myself. I got a big paid speaking gig. I said, I have in my form, how did you learn about Kim? And I asked them on the phone, how did you hear about me? And they said, you were on some podcasts and I was listening for the other person and then I heard you, or I saw your name and then I reached out to you.

Kim (25:24):

It's all of this stuff is like you're using these different methods to your point about you're showing up in person, you have to show up in person in addition to being online, but you can reach more people online than you can reach in person. So you really need both. So I love that it's kind of all of those things. And that idea of bringing value, I literally love to talk about how people can grow with video and podcast and how it can help you grow your brand. But it's about, you're right, it's not about saying like, oh, I feel self-conscious, or Oh, I'm just this. I'm like, no, no, no, I want to help you. I just want to show up and help you. And it's not about me. I put on lipsticks. So it's about me to not look weird, but now look bad. But it's really about you. I really think about how am I delivering this? And I've gotten out of the mindset of how do I sound, how do I look, how do I feel really? How am I delivering value? And so I love that you were doing this from day one because it came from that place of service. And when I think that when you come from that place of service and helping others, all of the self-consciousness and all of the fear, it just lowers because you're thinking more about how you're helping people.

Lisa (26:26):

Exactly. You have to think about how you're helping people because we get all caught up. And I talk to so many people that say this, it's like, well, what if no one listens? Or what if they think this or what if? And we're always worried about mainly the people that we know. It's more about our close friends. And that took me a while to get past too. And I'm like, you know what? Forget them. I'm not here for them. I'm trying to help teachers. And so you know, got to get past the mom that you're going to see at the soccer game that you're going to think is what is she always on there talking about? Who cares? Yes. Who are you helping? What are you helping them with? Because this is your business and you need to be growing that not worried about what everyone's going to think because people, there's always a need. And if you can fulfill that, then they're going to go to you. And that's just what you have to figure out.

Kim (27:14):

I agree with you. And it took me a lot of work to say, you know what? I'm really not on social media for the other parents at my kids' school. But I love how you've kind of been doing that from the beginning. Yeah. I want to ask you about your work-life balance because you have four kids and now you have two businesses. So talk to me about how you balance four kids and two businesses.

Lisa (27:33):

Yeah, so my favorite thing to say is that there's no such thing as balance. Everyone always says, I look at it as a overall balance, not necessarily a day-to-day because there are going to be times when I am working a lot and there are going to be times when I'm not working a lot. And I try to look at it as an overall balance. I have a 17 year old, almost 15 year old and 11 year old and a six-year-old. So I've got high school, middle school, elementary and kindergarten every grade level. So I'm got the one that's dating, I got the one that's learning to write her name. But I feel like through all of this I've been able to go through it all with them, especially my two older ones. They were there from the very beginning. So I always tell every mom, I'm like, trust me when you feel that mom guilt when they're little, no one remembers.

Lisa (28:20):

No one cares. And it's a life skill in the end because my now 17 year old has been with me through it all. And if he got anything out of all of it, it was that life lesson of you work hard for stuff, you got to pay bills. Sometimes you work harder than other times. So for me, I am just the queen of scheduling and prioritizing. My favorite thing to say, I write a list, everyone makes fun of me. My whole team makes fun of me. I have a paper and pencil list. I am obsessed with it. If I ever lost it, I don't know what I do, but I rewrite that list every night. That's my thing before I go to bed. And so once I write my list, I prioritize because I can never get all 50 things done. I know that. And I kind of schedule out, this has to be done the next day.

Lisa (29:05):

This has to be done by the end of the week. And then I've always got a sticky note of what has to be done by the end of that month, things for later. And then once I've done that, then I delegate what I can. And I joke, I literally delegate to the grocery app. To me that's a delegation. I don't need to spend two hours at the grocery store. I will pay the monthly fee, get someone else to the and get it delivered at my door or I delegate to a team member, family member, whatever I can do. And I feel like through all of this too, I've been traveling the last month. Every week I'm gone for at least a couple days. I leave tomorrow again. And it's hard. Everything is crazy. When I'm gone, it's like mom leaves and literally I have to have four people take over.

Lisa (29:47):

And so I'm really big on talking to my kids. Even my six-year-old, like I we're going on a cruise for spring break, which is in a week. And so I've been telling her, she goes, why do you have to leave again? And I'm like, listen, I have to pay for the cruise. I'm like, the cruise lady keeps calling me. This is a lie. But I'm like, and I have to pay her. I said, I got to sell my books. And she goes, oh, okay. But it's like her being able to connect that I'm not just going away to go away. Oh, she's selling her books because she knows I sell books and to pay for our cruise. She's putting it all together. And my older ones obviously get it. But for me, I think it's just knowing that I'll tell them, Hey, the next week it's going to be crazy for me, but I promise after that it's not I'm all yours or we're going to have time off. So it's just this constant overall balance. And for any mom that has little kids, I can't stress enough. I have two teenagers who have been with me since the beginning. It's like this invaluable life lesson for them to see all this. My kids are not entitled. They understand working hard. I feel like they're more grateful because they've seen it all. They saw me on the living room floor at midnight. And so I just think if anything, it's it. I know it's hard, but it's definitely worth it in the end for the kids especially.

Kim (31:04):

Great. And then what are your top three tips? If someone is trying to start their side hustle or start their business, what would be your top three tips?

Lisa (31:13):

Ooh, my top three tips. First it would be start it. And I mean literally start the business. I don't care if you take five years actually build it. But no one ever wants to start it for real. Everyone talks about it. I'm like, just go on, follow the steps, come up with the name and start it because you will not take any steps forward until you actually start it. So that's number one. Come up with the name and start it. What I always tell people is you take your time and build it as slower or fast as you want. You put as much money risk as you want into it. And I think that allows you to have that ownership of it if you do it that way and it's not so scary. And then second would be the social media. I would say start the business account.

Lisa (31:51):

Don't mix it with personal and start posting. My biggest thing is people connect to you. So post the behind the scenes post. The first, for me, my first notebook I posted my very first picture ever on my Facebook business page is of my two kids loading binders into boxes. And then the other one was my van loaded up as I was going to deliver books on my own before I had someone that could deliver them. And so I think people, and I know this, people have told me that's what makes them come to you over everyone else. I always compare to a restaurant, you go to the restaurant if you got two, but the one that has the great story of the owner who got it from the grandpa and it's been the family, you go to that one. And so people want that story.

Lisa (32:34):

Which kind of leads me into number three, which is like tell your story. I don't know what my issue was, but I never wanted to tell my story. I just felt like no one wanted to listen. But my story is part of my company and it's part of why people choose me. And so people, I felt like if I told my story that I was a teacher that made lessons in my living room, school districts wouldn't buy from me. I'm not this big company. I don't have billions of dollars I I'm in my home office, but in actuality was the complete opposite. It was people were choosing me because I was a teacher and because I made the lessons off of my experience in the classroom as opposed to being this big company of a bunch of people that haven't been in the classroom in 20 years. So those would be my top three tips for anyone that wants to start.

Kim (33:20):

This is so great. How can the mom's exit interview listeners find you and find top score writing?

Lisa (33:26):

So the best way is Instagram. So my Instagram is lisa column c e o. I also have my website, which is just lisa column.com. And for top score writing, there's a link on there as well. We do have our own business Instagram page, which is just top score writing.

Kim (33:42):

And they can also find out more information about your 5 0 1 cun [inaudible] nonprofit. Right, the coastal, middle and high school that's on your site. Yep,

Lisa (33:47):

That's on there. And I post about that all the time as well because I say that's my fifth baby. Since I have the four kids. My nonprofit school I always say, causes me the most time stress and money, but it's my fifth baby and I love it.

Kim (34:01):

And that's a school you founded to give back to help your community.

Lisa (34:05):

So I just feel like public schools especially have moved very much into a one size fits all. Not to anyone's fault, it's we have a lot of kids and not enough schools and we're crowding schools and teachers need to be paid more and all that good stuff. And so there's a lot of kids slipping through the cracks. They always have. But more than ever, and I'm a firm believer in, some kids just need something different. My school's very small, but we provide that different, we take breaks every 40 minutes, small class sizes, things like that. So they come and they're successful with me because it, it's not that it's a better school, it's just a different environment and some kids just need that.

Kim (34:39):

That's awesome. Lisa, I had so much fun hearing about your business. I'm so impressed by all your success. And thank you so much for sharing your story. Get ready for your real mom moment. It's life in its happiest, funniest, or grossest moments and we feature a real mom. If you want to submit yours, visit mom's exit interview.com. While you're there, sign up for the newsletter. This one is from Rena Renee Barron, a realtor that helps educate moms and veterans on real estate and she's got a couple of moments.

Rena (35:05):

Hi everybody, this is Serena Renee Barron. One of the sweetest moments that my daughters shared with me was that they appreciate me out of the blue. They called and thanked me for all the parenting that they had throughout the years. They didn't understand then, but they understand now. So that was one of the best moments that I had. And nature said, I appreciate you. And I said, thank you. So that was one sweet moment. An embarrassing moment was when they came to me one day and they offered to have a birthday party and I didn't have anything scheduled, so she brought all her friends to the my home and then I didn't have a cake or anything. So luckily Chuck Cheese was down the street about maybe about two miles, and we all went there. So that's one of the funny moments that I had. And one of the cool moments in my professional career is I'm in the military and I decided to be a realtor. So I studied really hard that was doing C O V I D and I got my real estate license.

Kim (36:21):

Thank you so much for listening. Make sure to drop a review and if you want to send in a real mom moment that we'll share on the air, check out moms exit interview.com. And if you're a professional or small business owner looking to grow your brand through amazing content with no silly dances and with no burnout, check out my website kim redford.com and you can hit contact to chat with me. And thanks for listening. Like this is the most amazing community. You guys send in the best feedback. So share it with your friends. Let anyone know who you think would appreciate it. And this is Mom's Exit interview. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rit Bird. The show is produced by Henry Street Media. Jillian Grover edited this episode, and Eliza Friedlander is our editorial producer and publicist. I'll see you next time.

Kim (37:11):

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Kim RittbergApril 19, 2023Comment