Thread by @thejustinwelsh

Last week my little one-person business crossed $1.3M in revenue.

It took 810 days, I ran zero paid ads and operate at a ~98% margin.

Here are the 14 steps of my strange journey:

Hope it's helpful to someone.

[🧵 thread]

1/ Created lots of noise

When I was just getting started, I looked at attention as my friend.

I wrote content every day before I even had a business, just to find my voice.

I started on LinkedIn.

I shared my thoughts & observations about many topics that I found interesting.

2/ Honed in on signals

Inside of all of that noise were some signals.

Sometimes I bombed, sometimes I struck a chord.

The more I looked at what resonated, the more I doubled down.

This allowed me to understand what people cared about.

3/ Built a service business

My experience building SaaS sales teams was resonating. So I began creating more and more content about that.

Founders sent me DMs asking questions.

I responded to every single one.

Once I had prospects in my funnel, I started consulting.

4/ Found my ideal customers

Inside of your customer base is more signals.

What are the commonalities between the customers you love and those who love you?

Mine were early-stage SMB SaaS companies in the healthcare space. A space I was experienced in.

That became my niche.

5/ 2x'ed my rates

With a well-defined niche, some happy customers, and testimonials, I 2x'ed my rates.

I started creating more content that was even more targeted. This led to more conversations with ideal-fit prospects.

I said no to any company outside of my niche.

6/ Reduced my time

With new rates, I could have worked the same and made 2x as much.

Instead, I chose to work 50% of the time and make the same.

I used that extra time to figure out how to scale automated income.

My goal has always been to get my time back.

7/ Kept my eyes and ears open

Something really interesting happened.

In an attempt to find common problems to productize, I started rereading my LinkedIn DMs.

I had some repetitive questions about SaaS sales, but I also had an inbox jammed with questions about LinkedIn.

8/ Tested a hypothesis

I had organically grown to 20k+ followers on LinkedIn & people wanted to know more.

I had a hypothesis that this would be an easy info product I could create & sell.

I put together a short course for $50 (more on price later) & wrote posts about it.

9/ Made my first product $$

I put the product for sale on Gumroad on April 16th, 2020.

In the first month, I made $10,482.

I was shocked.

I now had my first digital product, but it was in a totally different niche than my service business.

Honestly, this confused me.

10/ Ran with it

Over the next 15 months, I sold about $75k of the course.

I posted about audience building on LinkedIn and found other ways to continue to land consulting clients. (VCs, news sites, blogs, SaaStr, etc)

Even though it felt confusing, I continued to run with it.

11/ Tripled down

After the course was outdated, people started asking for a new version.

I rebuilt the course, but this time charged $150.

The earlier $50 price was my "trust tripwire".

I charged $50, delivered 100x worth the price, and built trust w/ a loyal customer base.

12/ Marketed aggressively

With 100% of my LinkedIn content focused on audience growth, and a product directly related to that content, sales took off.

My previous course grossed $75k in 15 months.

The second version has grossed $186k in 3 months.

Next up...

13/ I began creating an army

At the halfway point of my course, people are encouraged to leave a testimonial and sign up for an affiliate program.

I built the same automation at the conclusion of the course.

I have 102 affiliates generating roughly $20 per month, per person.

13/ Built a community

As sales picked up, my interest in consulting faded.

I was doing $2k per day in info products and wanted to run with that.

I opened a private community for LinkedIn creators and charged $199.

Those who completed my course were prompted to join.

*Extra snippet:* @GeoffTRoberts at @outseta wrote a really great article about building the community with automation to $40k+ in just 48 hours here:

outseta.com/posts/building…

14/ Created optionality

I'm loving the community but realize, like anything, that love may not last forever.

Yearly subscriptions meant I'm on the hook for 12 months.

To create optionality, I moved to $99/quarters.

Now I'm always 90 days away from stopping.

Finally, here's what my business revenue looks like after 2 years and 3 months:

Consulting: $880k
Products: $341k
Community: $81k (collected)

(many thanks to people like @dvassallo for his portfolio of small bets strategy)

A few last notes of potential interest 👇🏻

1. I still keep 2-3 consulting clients that I love on retainer.

2. I don't do any paid advertising of any kind.

3. I don't have any employees, but I do have a wife that helps me stay very organized.

I'm not sure what's next yet, but I'll be sharing as I figure it out.

If this was helpful, feel free to give me a follow.

If you have any questions, ask away.

Happy to give out as many helpful tips as I can muster today.

Thanks for reading.