119: Behind the Scenes of a Successful Funnel with Laura Kebart (Part 1)
Laura Kebart leverages her 20+ years of classroom teaching experience and instructional coaching systems to serve busy middle school English Language Arts Teachers through her online presence at languageartsteachers.com.
Through her educational consulting, realistic instructional strategies, hands-on workshops, and back-to-school MSELA Summit each July, Laura helps educators teach with confidence while reducing their overwhelm and increasing student engagement.
In this episode, Laura shares her expertise on structuring and profiting from funnels. She breaks down funnels in a way that feels super doable, and explains how even a tiny $9 product can turn into serious income with the right setup.
You’ll hear tips on order bumps, upsells, and easy ways to tweak your funnel so it keeps working better over time. Plus, Laura shares her favorite Friday routine for reflecting and brainstorming fresh ideas.
If you’re ready to stop overthinking funnels and start using them to grow your business, this conversation will leave you excited and confident to try it yourself!
Key Takeaways:
- (04:20) What a funnel actually is
- (07:25) Inside Laura’s funnel: offers, order bumps, and upsells
- (09:30) How a $9 product became a large revenue stream
- (16:00) Laura’s friday reflection routine for fresh ideas
- (17:20) Funnel mindset; why ethical funnels build trust and more sales
- (22:00) Recent funnel strategies and results
Listen to Episode 54: Slowly Transitioning from Teacher to Full-Time Business Owner with Laura Kebart
Connect with Laura Kebart:
instagram.com/languageartsteachers
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Crafting Funnels That Convert: Behind the Scenes of Profitable Teacher Funnels With Laura Kebart
Today, Laura Kebart of Language Arts Teachers, generously pulls back the curtain on her business and shares the detailed mechanics—plus numbers—behind her thriving funnel strategy.
What is a Funnel and Why Does It Matter?
To put it simply, a sales funnel is the journey a customer takes from first discovering your business to making significant purchases.
Laura explains it this way: “A funnel is a way to light the pathway for someone to move from, ‘I just now heard about you,’ to purchasing your top-tier offer.”
Throughout this journey, each touchpoint—whether it’s a freebie download, a small purchase, or a valuable piece of content—serves to build trust and guide the customer closer to your core products and services.
Most online small business owners spend a lot of time “warming up” their audience, but Laura emphasized that her cold audience (people who start off not knowing her at all) is actually the main engine of her business’s growth.
It all starts with strategic list building and then nurturing those new subscribers via well-designed funnels.
Breaking Down The Funnel: Products, Order Bumps, Upsells, and Down Sells
Laura’s approach isn’t just about getting leads—it’s about creating a series of win-win offers that both serve teachers and boost her bottom line. Here’s how she structures her funnels:
- Main Product: This is the primary offer promoted to new visitors—a resource that addresses a core problem for your target market. In Laura’s case, it’s a $9 nonfiction article collection.
- Order Bump: Think of this like “Would you like fries with that?” It’s a low-ticket complementary product offered right on the checkout page to increase cart value.
- Upsells: After the initial purchase, customers are shown higher-value add-on offers. Laura’s first upsell is her entire nonfiction unit collection—a standalone product that enhances, but isn’t required for, the original product.
- Downsell: If a customer declines an upsell, they may be offered a smaller, less expensive product instead. Interestingly, Laura experimented with turning her downsell into a second upsell when its conversion rate warranted broader exposure.
The key takeaway? Your funnel isn’t set in stone. “Once I got past that little hurdle of ‘the funnel I made does not need to stay this way,’ I’ve been having a lot more fun with funnels, too,” Laura said.
Analyze your results regularly and tweak your offers, order, and pricing to optimize performance.
Mindset Matters: Ethical Funnels and Customer Experience
A surprising part of Laura’s success comes from her intention to make sales funnels feel supportive—never sleazy.
She shared discomfort with traditional “hard sell” tactics where customers feel pressured into buying something extra just to make their original purchase usable. Instead, all “bumps” and “upsells” in Laura’s funnel are genuinely optional and complementary, not required for the core product to deliver.
This approach creates goodwill, repeat sales, and a brand reputation based on honesty—something teacher-entrepreneurs in particular value deeply.
Real Results: Numbers That Speak Volumes
Laura didn’t just share theories—she opened her books.
Last month, her $9 main product generated $5,229 in sales. By adding an order bump and two upsells, that same funnel produced $11,487. That’s more than double the revenue, showing just how powerful an ethical, well-optimized funnel can be.
Another powerful insight: Laura’s data confirms that starting your funnel with a paid offer vastly outperforms leading with a freebie when your aim is sales growth. Warm up your list with free content, but don’t be afraid to test low-ticket paid entry points for new visitors.
Building In Time for Reflection
Laura credits some of her biggest breakthroughs to “buffer time”—light, unscheduled hours where she reviews data, tests assumptions, and makes curiosity-driven decisions. This deliberate space for reflection proves you don’t need to overcomplicate.
Sometimes, choosing a new offer configuration and letting it run for several months is the best way to discover what really works.
The secret sauce in Laura’s funnel success isn’t a magical formula—it’s a combination of ethical choices, experimentation, and regular review.
Teacherpreneurs can learn a lot from her transparency: build your funnel to solve real problems, keep it flexible, focus on customer experience, and don’t be afraid to look at the numbers.
Ready to take the first step in your own teacher biz funnel? Download the free Teacher Biz Starter Guide today.