Daily Content Machine

This episode is dedicated to a bit of feedback we got on the topic of feeling "not good enough." What do you do when you've tried but fallen short? What if things just don't seem to be working out? Do things just come easier for some people? Where does natural talent and acquired skill separate from hard work and deliberate practice? Can anyone with enough time, passion, patience, and practice develop the skills needed to truly follow their passion full-time?

We dive into these questions and talk about evaluating whether something is the wrong thing, or maybe just the right thing in a time of resistance. We touch on the internal rewards of hard work, why finding you don't enjoy something isn't a dead end, and finally the value of iterating in public.

I recently shared very specific launch revenue numbers from Learn Lettering because I wanted to show people that it’s possible to make a living pursuing your passion. However, I didn’t want the fact that I was sharing such detailed information to detract from the fact that I’m just a normal guy doing working hard, doing what I love.

It was that last sentence that stood out to a friend when I explained this. “But you’re not normal,” he said. This bit intrigued me. In this show, Ben and I talk about normalcy and how everyone has the opportunity to sacrifice—we just often don’t want to.

This is the in-depth case study of the original launch of my first course, Learn Lettering, in 2014. I shared what went into the marketing, design, and production of the course—as well as the emails sent and advice I got from Nathan Barry on pricing and packaging.

This was the first course I ever launched. I shared this case study to show you the detailed process of launching an online course. This case study is not specifically for designers or lettering artists. It's not intended to help you launch your own lettering course. It's not intended to sell my course. It's purely to pull back the curtain and show you what goes into the production and marketing of a six-figure online course, and it is applicable to anyone teaching an online course on any topic.

Since this case study was written in 2014, I've learned a lot about marketing. I am no longer a designer—I have since shifted to teaching business. I've since launched numerous other courses on topics including copywriting and pricing client work.

While much of the information in this original case study is still relevant, there are a lot of things I've learned in the years since. A year later, I reproduced this course and added 50% more lessons to the business side. There is a new, more recent case study that is free if you would like to read it here: http://seanwes.com/LaunchCaseStudy

I had to take off another week from the podcast to finish producing my Learn Lettering courses. While that meant canceling the normal recording schedule with Ben, I was able to record an episode with my good friend Matt when he was over last week so you still have a show!

We talk about effective product launches, backwards-building products, the non-threat of competitors, the benefits of collaboration and networking, necessary sacrifices, and go behind the scenes on the production of Learn Lettering.

One of the most common responses I received after sending out the question, "What is the biggest challenge you have in pursuing your passion full time?" was "Fear of failure." Today, we dissect failure, and get to the deeper issues of the mindset needed to face this fear. We talk about why there is no such thing as a person who is a failure or a person who is a success.

My brother randomly stopped by my house the other day. His visit was unexpected, but welcome. After a few minutes of catching up, he asked for my advice on college—specifically, if it was worth his while.

Now, my brother is a phenomenally talented pianist. He has a day job, but he’s planning to move on from it soon and he’s wondering if he should go to college or pursue his passion in music. He doesn’t particularly have anything he wants to go to college for, it’s more that he feels he needs a goal of some sort in this coming season of his life.

In this episode, I recap with Ben the conversation I had with my brother. We get to talking about the reasons for and against college, how to make your own path if you don’t go to college, and I decide to finally go into detail on my strict No-Debt Mentality.

Scarcity Mindset is operating out of fear. It results in making compromising decisions because you are scared that you won't be able to pay your immediate bills. It's a good thing to live within your means. But it’s a bad thing to allow scarcity to breed shortsightedness and keep you focused only on the now.

Scarcity Mindset only ever breeds more of the same. You won’t ever get ahead of it. You have to start by making decisions. You have to start by changing the way that you think even when you’re not where you want to be yet. We talk about how to adopt a success-oriented mindset.

We want to say "Yes" to good things. A great project with awesome people? Yes! An opportunity to speak? Yes! Create an awesome product on the side? Of course! But saying "Yes" to too many good things can leave us in a place where we don't have the freedom to say yes to something that would be great.

Margin decreases stress. Margin helps you look at your current projects objectively and plan for the future. Margin enables you to act on spur-of-the-moment inspiration. We look at how to create margin, how much margin is enough, and if there's such thing as too much.

Pre-sales can be an effective way of getting something built that you might not have the capital for, but I think people often don't consider the costs. I see a lot of people jumping to the pre-sale model without weighing the pros and cons.

You have to remember that the WHOLE experience is a part of your product. That includes wait time just as much as it includes the quality of materials that you use. We talk about bootstrapping and why it's not just for people that already have large audiences.

What's the point of putting my voice out there? Wouldn't my blog post just be a drop in the bucket of more experienced writers and more qualified authors who have written entire books on the topics I'm speaking about?

I share why YOUR VOICE matters, why the internet is skewing your perception, and why competitors are not the enemy. You'll learn how to repurpose an existing message in such a way that it will resonate with a new audience. Get ready to find and embrace your own unique style.