Trend #021 - Your 0 to $100k learn in public playbook

Hey,

This week’s idea is about making money WHILE you’re learning a new skill, aka the ultimate learning in public playbook.

I’m unpacking how Anne-Laure Le Cuff built a learning community around mindfulness, a topic she’s fascinated by while earning a PhD in neuroscience.

This week, I’m also including a Learning In Public Playbook, complete with 3 learning topics I think will do well and how to get set up this business. Grab the playbook here.

What you will learn:

• What Learning in Public is

• How you find Product Market Fit when learning in public

• What it takes to make 6-figures (>$100k) learning in public

• The number 1 rule when building an audience while you learn

• How to be seen as an expert even when you’re learning

🔎 What is learning in public?

Imagine you are interested in learning about the latest AI tools. Instead of reading & watching YouTube about AI on your own, you broadcast your findings, thoughts and experiments in real-time. Of course, it doesn't have to be about learning AI, but it helps to be learning about a topic many others find fascinating if you want to build a sizeable audience.

👀 How Anne-Laure learned in public

In 2017, Anne-Laure de Cunff quit her job in marketing at Google and moved to London to start a Health Tech company.

2 pivots and an accelerator experience later, she decided to start writing about her entrepreneurship and mental health journey. Within a year, she gained 20,000 subscribers while documenting her projects.

She now has 80,000 subscribers earning well over $100,000 a year from the learning community she built.

From what I can tell, her main revenue source is membership in a “learning” community, where she hosts meet-ups and courses to discuss productivity and mental heath related ideas.

👁 What does it take to build this business?

Your results will of course be different, but it helps to see the numbers behind Anne-Laure’s business to get a sense of what you’d need to do to get to where she is today.

Content: Wrote 640 written articles on her blog, Nesslabs
Free newsletter: 80k subscribers to Maker Mind, published weekly
Social Media: 63k Twitter, 6k LinkedIn followers
Free content: “The beginner’s guide to Mindframing” A 22-page handbook
Revenue source: Membership, consulting (consulting was 80% of her income a few years ago but she is lower now as she prioritises her community)
First customer: Google (her ex-employer) for paid consulting
Community: $49/year x 2,000 members = ~$100k/year! This does not include paid consulting work.

🔥Anne-Laure’s Learning In Public Playbook

1. Do Interesting Things

The number 1 rule to remember when learning in public. Don't just post lecture notes! What do people who are learning similar topics as you find interesting? For Anne-Laure, her followers wanted to learn productivity frameworks, how to grow an audience, and her adventures in building (and sometimes failing) Health Tech startups. Share your experience putting what you’ve learned into practice.

2. Find Your Leverage

Anne-Laure's background in neuroscience gave her a unique edge that set her apart from the sea of "coaches" when she finally pivoted into building a learning community of "curious minds". Do you have a passion, interest and life experience before starting your business? If so, try to think what are some unique perspectives you can share that are at the intersection of your experience and business. Examples - "How mountain-climbing teaches resilience" or "How an ex-pilot approaches starting a business"

3. Let Your Interest Guide You:

She wrote over 600 articles on mental health. Don't write about AI if you are not at least interested in it. You are about to invest a significant amount of time learning about the topic so find something that genuinely interests you.

4. Collaborate:

The quickest way of being seen as an expert in your field is to appear everywhere talking about this topic. Anne-Laure's been a guest on podcasts of Khe Hy, Creator Lab, James Clear, Tiago Forte and Nathan Latka among many others. Expand your reach by collaborating with others in the same niche.

5. Experiment Aggressively:

Specifically, run short-term sprints in the form of challenges and templates. When she first pivoted Ness Labs into a science-based mindful productivity community, she didn't know what her audience wanted. She launched various challenges such as "Mindful Productivity", "the Note-taking Challenge" and "the Year in Review" to hone in on what her audience enjoys.

✨Want a printable Learning in Public playbook?

Download and save Anne-Laure’s learning in public playbook, including 3 learning in public niche ideas, how to get your first 100 users (customers), revenue model ideas and 3 other example learning-in-public creators like Anne-Laure de Cunff.

→ Download here 

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Until the next one,

Hazel

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