2 builders who never spoke to each other

Teach from a product you are still running

Material drawn from work you are doing right now beats material recalled from work you used to do, so keep operating something real and pass on each lesson while it is fresh. Understand what that commits you to: teaching income depends on new material every year, and building a course is more work than the service it was meant to replace.

The method

1. 01

   If you sell teaching, keep operating a real product so the material comes from current practice, and pass on each lesson while you are still learning it.

2. 02

   A course business depends on shipping something new every year, since a large share of the income comes from the new material - if you stop producing, revenue falls.

3. 03

   Do not reach for a course as the way out of a service ceiling unless the audience is already large, since building the product is more work than the service was.

What it returned

• $190,000

  Nine months of being unable to create anything new took Justin's indie business from $190,000 to about $140,000: coaching $10,000, other consulting $10,000, MegaMaker Club $29,000, books and courses $91,000.

• Justin's teaching came from his time as a product manager at Sprintly and Mailout, and he set himself the challenge of shipping a profitable SaaS the following year partly to have fresh material.

Sources

• Episode 147: “I can't get past €10k/month Freelancing…” — Solving $100k→$200k/yr Bottlenecks, With Delia Monk - Double Your FreelancingZach Swinehart · doubleyourfreelancing.com · AI-Generated Summary: · 2024-10-01
• 2017 year in reviewJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · I'm building a SaaS · undated
• 2018 year in reviewJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · 2018 year in review · undated