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1/ I think I figured out my goal when it comes to online courses: make it a predictable, reliable career path for anyone who loves learning, writing, teaching, and personal growth. To make it boring. Just as respected AND profitable as being a doctor, lawyer, or software dev
2/ My courses basically constitute a step by step curriculum for following this career path: Get Stuff Done gives you basic productivity, Design Your Habits solid routines, Bldg a Second Brain a system for producing content, Just-in-Time PM will help you execute projects
3/ And this makes complete sense: I’ve created my content based on what I’ve had to learn at each stage. My passion is helping ppl not have to make the same mistakes, to drastically shorten their learning curve, to make new kinds of lifestyles possible
4/ And make no mistake, this is the greatest lifestyle in the world. It’s teaching but well paid, freelancing but w/out trading time for money, consulting but not starting from scratch each time, writing but much shorter payback, coaching but leveraged with systems
5/ And all while you’re getting paid and admired and thanked for learning the most interesting stuff in the world, helping ppl change their lives and careers, and having total freedom. I can hardly believe this is allowed
6/ But it’s currently too difficult, requires too many diverse skills, hard to bootstrap but no sources of funding, and confused with less sustainable, less fulfilling pathways like “becoming an influencer” or “selling stuff online.” It’s in the genesis stage
7/ I honestly think the biggest barrier to a new career path becoming viable is ppl imagining themselves with that identity. You need to see ppl like you, with similar levels of wealth, privilege, education, status, motivation actually doing it, to believe it’s possible for you
8/ This is one of Silicon Valley’s secrets: there are entrepreneurs of every shape and size and background and variety, so you’re much more likely to see and be able to model yourself on someone like you. Elsewhere, entrepreneurs are more uniform
9/ So what I’m going to do is make an online school, The Full-Stack Freelancer School. We won’t just teach you to make an online course, but the whole stack of complementary products and services required to make it work
10/ And we won’t just assume you have all the skills necessary to run that business, but train you from the very ground floor of managing tasks, forming habits and routines, managing knowledge, producing content, etc. so that you become the person you need to be
11/ When you graduate from this curriculum, you’ll have the chance to create your own course and join the roster of instructors. The requirements for being an instructor will be completing the same curriculum, which you will now add to and extend with your own knowledge
12/ Pooling content and resources into an online school will be the next major wave of online education I believe. Ppl are fed up with one-time, random courses leading nowhere. Instructors are fed up with constant, never ending marketing and promotion
13/ By pooling their reputations, resources, and efforts, instructors will be able to create coherent name brands that ppl trust, giving them a pathway to long term success and also driving repeat attention and traffic
14/ Instead of everyone trying to do everything, each instructor can handle the parts of the school they’re most interested in, specializing in curriculum design or email marketing or graphic design or website design or content production or whatever
15/ So basically we’re reinventing the school. But online, in the cloud, distributed, asynchronous, and with a far wider range of more monetizable skills required to run a profitable online business. And open to anyone, not just those with credentials and tenure
16/ The problem with “teaching people to create courses” is that that is the end point of a LONG process. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to create a course. The number of ppl already at that endpoint is tiny
17/ By focusing on more fundamental mindsets and meta-skills (how to track your commitments, managing your own schedule, setting goals, curating content, blogging, creating systems for creativity) we increase likelihood that the final product will succeed
18/ But because we’re training ppl in fundamental skills for success in life, there’s also so many more ways to win than “making a million bucks with my course.” Possibilities for positive outcomes proliferate when you are so equipped
19/ And that’s the best part of this journey anyway: the journey. The whole thing is so much more profound and satisfying and amazing when every step along the way is an end in itself, not just an obstacle to a far off payday
