This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Let's talk about the downside of doing everything yourself, the downside of DIY platforms specifically. We're gonna hear a short story from a tech savvy course creator. He tries to save money by building his own platform, only to discover that it was probably better to focus on what he was actually good at, building the course itself and letting somebody else, some other company, do the hosting because there are companies that specialize in this. And yes, you have to pay for it, but maybe in some ways that's better in the long run. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my friends.
Welcome as well to Failure Friday. This is a collection of short stories about things that do not go well, things that go wrong, in fact, and how a creator, an influencer, a side hustler, an entrepreneur, a small business owner, somebody out there trying to build something, whatever the case may be, experiences a hardship and what they do in response. How do they learn from the process and move forward more positively? That's what it's all about. I try to do that in all the setbacks I experience.
So let's hear today from Brian. He is this tech savvy course creator. He's really good at coding and he's like, I'll just make my own platform. But you know, specialization is a thing. It's there for a reason.
So let's hear the story from Brian. I'll have a few words of wrap up at the end. [Music]
Hi team, this is Brian. I'm an online course creator who loves to tinker with code and building things from scratch. A while back, I decided to create a new course and thought it would be a great idea to build my own platform instead of using a service like Thinkific or Kajabi.
I'd been a little mad at those companies for a few reasons that I won't go into. And I figured I could save money and customize it exactly how I wanted. But man, I was wrong. The idea started off well. I was excited about my contents and equally thrilled about creating a platform to host it.
I spent countless hours coding and testing and tweaking my DIY platform. It felt great to see my progress, but little did I know I was diving headfirst into a rabbit hole. As launch day approached, I found myself buried in technical issues. And every time I fixed one bug, another one would pop up. I was spending all my time trying to code and troubleshoot my platform instead of focusing on the actual course content and marketing.
I was drained and my launch plans were slipping away. I guess I really didn't think about the fact there was no support team other than myself. And one week before the plan launched, the platform was still far from ready. I was so caught up in making the tech work, I hadn't even thought about promoting the course. I was stressed and overwhelmed and I knew it couldn't launch on time.
I had to make a tough decision to delay the launch and try to fix the platform or scrap it, start over with one of those services I've been trying to avoid. But reluctantly, I decided to delay the launch and move my course to Thinkific. Setting up was annoyingly easy and fast. Why didn't I do that before? In just a couple of days, my course was ready to go.
I could focus on polishing my content, preparing the launch instead of wrestling with code. In the end, my course launch was a month late, but it went smoothly once I switched to a ready-made platform. The initial attempt to save money by building my own platform ended up costing me more in terms of time and stress and missed opportunities. If I had used this service from the start, I could have launched on time and reached my audience sooner. The lesson I learned was clear.
Sometimes it's worth spending money on reliable tools that allow you to focus on what you do best. For my next course, I won't hesitate to use Thinkific. It's not just worth the hassle and distraction of trying to do everything myself. Looking back, I realized I was trying to handle everything on my own and that was a mistake. I thought I was being smart and resourceful, but in reality, I was just overextending myself.
Using another platform allowed me to focus on creating valuable content and connecting with my students, which is what really matters. The experience taught me a valuable lesson about knowing when to go DIY and when it's just better to go with the flow. [Music]
Brian, thank you so much for sharing the story. Listeners and Brian, never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. These companies, these platforms and services, I do think it's important to be careful about letting them just kind of stack up.
I've got services I'm paying for that I don't need to be paying for right now. So I totally respect the DIY ethos, but at the same time, these things can make our lives easier. So of course you wanna find a balance there because time is short and time is valuable. With that in mind, I'm gonna wrap up for the day. I always wanna respect your time.
We've got a new episode every single day, seven days a week, always short, action packed, designed to give you a story, a point of inspiration, an answer to a question or something to just kind of keep you going in your own quest to create financial freedom, whatever that looks like for you. Today's notes, sidehustleschool.com/2820. That's for episode 2,820. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
- From the Onward Project.
