We’re removing our custom CSS feature on November 26th to make room for a whole new Gumroad.

Happy Sunday, creators!

In this week’s newsletter, we cover:

How Justin Welsh Built A $1,300,000 Business
How To Build A Successful Membership
How To Create and Sell eBooks
Planning for Unpredictability with Daniel Vassallo

Let’s dive in!

How Justin Welsh Built A $1,300,000 Business

At first, Justin built an audience with no intention of launching a product.

The goal was to start building a brand. He didn’t know what to build a brand around, but he knew that having attention in the future would be helpful.

So, he started writing about what he knew, which was how to build sales organizations for software and service companies. And for 8-9 months, Justin cranked out content and built up an audience of 20,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Then, he left his job and announced it to his audience. What happened next were requests for consulting services.

Then Something Interesting Happened.

After Justin understood his audience, he was ready to build a product. Justin’s initial idea was to create a sales course. But then his friend and ex-coworker said, “Why build a sales course, there are hundreds of sales courses out there. Why don’t you tell people what you’re doing on LinkedIn?”

Then it clicked.

Justin started going through his DMs and realized that nearly every question his audience asked was about building an audience on LinkedIn. And based on his audience’s desires, he pivoted.

Justin shifted his focus and started creating content that taught his followers how to use LinkedIn effectively.

Then he created his first product that generated $75,000 over 18 months.

How Justin Differentiated Himself:

To find his angle, Justin first looked at the content he didn’t like. Then, he analyzed it and found the common denominators in the content that didn’t perform well.

On the other end, Justin searched for the creators who created content he liked to consume. And from there, he asked himself, what makes this content fly, why people are paying attention to this, and reverse engineered how to do it.

He Mastered LinkedIn. And Is Now Scaling On Twitter Too.

For Justin, two different platforms mean two different strategies and identities.

On LinkedIn, Justin will continue to help people build audiences on LinkedIn and build his course business.

But on Twitter, the approach changes. Justin solely wants to focus on building an audience, not selling anything, and become known as an expert in the one-person business space.

And develop the reputation of someone who shares his ideas, builds in public, and pulls back the curtain on how to build multiple businesses generating over $1,000,000 in revenue.

As He Scales His Business, He Wants To Continue Being Known For Delivering 100x The Value.

Justin believes too many creators and entrepreneurs think short-term and neglect long-term thinking and building when it comes to revenue. So when Justin launched his first course, he focused on delivering a product that had 10x the value compared to the price.

He wanted his customers to have the best product experience possible. Knowing if they did, they’d trust him and continue to purchase his products in the future.

To Reach $5,000,000 In Revenue, Justin Believes He Has To Change How He Operates.

So far, Justin has generated $1,300,000 in revenue since starting this journey two years ago. But, $5,000,000 is the goal. To get there, Justin believes he needs to stop operating as a freelancer/individual and more as a founder.

That means testing and validating ideas and then outsourcing those ideas to individuals that can package them at a high margin while he hones in on his strengths.

And for Justin, $5,000,000 is the revenue goal before he feels financially free and nowhere near the finish line as he intends on delivering value, building products, and helping others for years to come.

You can purchase Justin’s products here.

And you can visit Justin’s website here.

What’s Happening In The Creator Economy

Don’t Disrupt. Just Launch.

More and more creators are embracing memberships.

And every creator can find their pocket on the internet, carve out an angle, find their differentiation factor, and build a membership around it.

The benefits?

A predictable, recurring, and passive income.

And one that can continue to scale as you build a larger audience and understand your customer base.

If you’re looking for a guide to help your membership get off the ground and thrive, look no further than right here.

Planning for Unpredictability with Daniel Vassallo

Daniel Vassallo left his $500k a year job at Amazon to create a portfolio of small bets where he had full control over his lifestyle design.

But on the other hand, he left a somewhat predictable environment into uncharted waters where unpredictability was the new norm.

In this episode of The Gumroad Podcast, Justin Mikolay and Daniel Vassallo discuss:

How to thrive in the creator economy
Creating a portfolio of small bets
The unpredictability of small outcomes
How to find luck
Lifestyle design

You can listen to the episode here.

We hope you have a great rest of your weekend,

Gumroad

PS - we've got exciting news to share with you soon!

🗓️ Next Gumroad public board meeting: May 15 in NYC

New sections for your Gumroad!

Collaborate with Another Creator!

Q1 2024 Gumroad update - Profile sections, product bundles, and more!

🆕🎁🎄 Product bundles on Gumroad!

See all posts from Gumroad