Intelligence Officer Cracks Code with 7-Figure Course

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Oh, hey there. What's up? Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. We're listening to Side Hustle School daily podcast every single day since January 1, 2017.

It's all about how to make extra money without quitting your job. And ultimately not just make extra money, but create more freedom and opportunity for yourself so you can do more of what's important to you. And we've had so many examples over the years of real people doing just that, including many of our listeners, probably 20 to 30% of our stories, coming directly from listeners who have joined us at some point along the way. So I am grateful to you wherever you are in the world, whatever you're up to. Good job and more to come, right?

If you're just getting started, that's okay too. In this story, I'll tell you about a self-taught web developer and former US intelligence officer. She is one and the same, same person, who teaches 2,500 women how to build WordPress sites. And this has actually grown to become a seven-figure business, but it all started from an RV, someone who was trying to build their own website and then was living in an RV, I think for the better part of a year, maybe a year and a half, and then eventually turned into this business that was much more than she imagined. But of course, we're gonna go to that origin story, that Genesis point of how the idea came to fruition.

The story is called "Intelligence Officer Cracks the Code with Seven Figure Course." I'll bring it to you after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]

Julia Taylor's face burned with embarrassment. She had just asked for help in an online forum for web developers and was mocked for her silly question. And it wasn't the first time. From these negative experiences, she vowed to create a more supportive and inclusive community.

But let's go back a bit. A former US intelligence officer, Julia had left her previous career when she had been stationed in Afghanistan to follow her heart to the UK and be with her boyfriend, a member of the British Special Forces. The couple married and her husband remained in the military, which meant they had to move every two years. This halted career growth for Julia, leaving her in an unfulfilling day job. One day her boss came in and told Julia to figure out how to make the company website do a particular thing.

Julia managed to complete the task with a bit of Google research. She had never touched a line of code before, but she figured it out and it worked. From that moment on, she was hooked on coding. She had a feeling that this could be her ticket to location independence. A few years passed and Julia and her husband moved to the United States.

By that time, she'd been teaching herself how to code for more than two years, watching YouTube, taking some free classes, and of course, doing lots of Googling. That's when she began having those unpleasant experiences in forums, where she'd asked for specific help only to feel insulted or belittled. But she pushed through and eventually began building real websites. Her first client was a friend of her husband's, was retiring from the military and starting a drone business. Before long, Julia's freelance work was profitable enough to replace her nine to five income.

Then in 2018, the couple decided to buy an RV, leave their home behind, and travel the country with their dog. They started an Instagram account, as one does in those situations, and soon people began asking her how she managed to live a nomad lifestyle. Was she just independently wealthy? Well, Julia explained she was a self-taught WordPress web developer and that anyone could do it, at least anyone who took the time to study. And to her surprise, people wanted her to teach them.

Julia developed her online course, WP Rockstar, along with a community she called Geek Pack that same year. Through the community, she began teaching women and a few men now and then how to code. This project has been a tremendous success. She's now taught more than 2,500 students. She's got 16 members to help manage the Geek Pack online community.

The purpose of Geek Pack is to empower women to change their lives for the better through the power of code. When the WordPress course began in 2018, Julia had a small email list she marketed to. She also promoted the course on that RV life Instagram account to help grow the email list. Learning to code didn't cost her anything upfront 'cause she already had a laptop, so her startup costs were almost non-existent. The business now brings in, get this, seven figures a year.

The 18 months spent living in an RV was a fun and challenging time that showed her anything as possible. And for Julia, the best thing about this business is showing other women that code doesn't have to be techy or bro-ish, it's just problem solving and troubleshooting, skills that anyone can learn. [Music]

All right, well, if you wanna learn more about Julia's work, head to geekpack.co. I was taking a look at that site, and it's interesting because what she has done here, she essentially has two sites, well, there's probably more than two, but basically two predominant areas. So you go to geekpack.co and this is the community site, there's lots of resources.

And then from there, there are landing pages to the course that she sells. I think she probably sells multiple courses at this point as well. But basically she's using a combination of formats here of content marketing and providing that supportive welcoming environment and also the more detailed training, which of course you can purchase. So this is a tried and true model. She's been able to make it work very, very well, as you've heard, and so congratulations to her.

Hopefully there's something that all of us can learn from it. Speaking of that, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. And the reason I say that is 'cause I hope these stories will kind of nudge you along in your own journey. Nudge you to take action, nudge you to do something to get closer to what's more important to you so that you can be location independent or pay off your debt or just not be so reliant on a company or on a paycheck from anyone. Ultimately, I think that's a good thing for as many people as possible.

The show notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/1921. I'll link up that site I mentioned and anything else discussed in the episode. And you can also send us a comment or question. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you will come back tomorrow.

New episode coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."