This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
A Minneapolis teacher turns her knowledge of children's stories into a series of short actionable online courses. In this episode, Robin shares how she marketed her micro courses and earned her first $1,000. Welcome, friends. Welcome, listeners. Welcome, everybody, to our first, first $1,000 segment of the year. Did that make sense? First, first $1,000 segment
of the year. So every week, in fact, throughout the year, we're going to be repeating one of our segments from last year, well, with all new stories, of course, but I just mean the same segment. It's all about how somebody makes their first $1,000, not their first $100,000. That's cool, but it's a longer story usually. It's all about how somebody gets going. And one thing I have learned and noticed over the years, once you begin to earn some
real money, like $1,000 or more, the steps required to go to the next level, $2,000, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 and beyond are often easier than that first real paycheck. So that's where we kind of break things down at a micro level. And today we're going to talk about micro courses. Robin, as noted, a Minneapolis teacher turned her knowledge of children's stories into these courses. So how did she do it? What did she learn along the way? What
might be helpful to somebody else out there trying to do something similar? I'm going to pass the microphone over to her. I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. My name is Robin, and I'm a former elementary school teacher from Minneapolis with a passion for children's books. After spending years reading to my students, I'd always wanted to write my own stories. I'd spoken to other aspiring children's authors and most felt
overwhelmed by the time and the cost required to learn. This frustration, combined with my background in education, sparked the idea to create my first micro course, a short affordable introduction to writing children's books that anyone could complete in just 30 minutes. The course, writing your first children's book, was a tight, action-oriented overview that covered the essentials, choosing an age group, brainstorming character ideas, crafting a simple story arc, and finishing a first draft. I priced it at $15, low enough to be accessible but enough to convey value. This was my starting point. I decided I'd need
to sell at least 67 courses to hit my first thousand dollars, and I was determined to get there fast. Since I was working on a budget, I filmed the lessons in my living room, using my phone and a ring light. I used Canva to create slides and supplementary worksheets, which made the course look polished without professional design costs. I uploaded everything to Gumroad, which took care of payment processing and made it easy for customers to download the course materials. I also set up an email list through MailChimp and designed a landing page to make the course look as nice as possible. Next, I posted online every day, using hooks
like "Got a Story in Your Head? Here's How to Get It on Paper in 30 Minutes." I shared free tips on creating a character and use short reels to give a glimpse into my content. My audience started to grow, with many following me just for these quick tips on children's writing. After a few weeks, I'd sold 20 courses, bringing in my first $300. But it was slow going, and I realized I needed to draw more engagement to reach a wider audience. I decided
to create a free story starters guide, five simple prompts that could help aspiring writers kick off a children's book. I advertised the guide on my social channels and required an email sign-up, growing my list by over 200 new subscribers in the first week. About ten percent of them bought the full course after trying the free guide, leading to an additional $300. Once I hit $600, I felt more confident about upselling to my existing buyers. I designed a follow-up course, perfecting your children's book manuscript, which included tips on editing and polishing a rough draft. I sold it for $20 and offered a $5 discount
to anyone who'd already purchased the first course. Nearly half my previous customers bought the second course, generating $400 in just a few days and allowing me to hit my first $1,000. Today, I've expended my offerings to include three core micro courses on children's books, writing your first children's book, perfecting your manuscript, and self-publishing basics for children's authors. Combined with monthly workshops and occasional consulting calls, my side hustle has turned into a steady income stream, bringing in an average of $1,500 a month and giving me a way to help people bring their children's stories to life. All right, Robin, thank you so much for sharing your story of your first $1,000. Listeners,
I hope you found it encouraging. There's always something you can take, whether it is a practical tip or a point of inspiration or just maybe a nudge to get you thinking about your first or your next side hustle. My hope is that all of our listeners can take action this year and I want to help you as much as possible to that end. This was episode 2,928. We've got new episodes coming out every day. In fact, seven days a week, always completely
free. Subscribe, follow wherever you get your podcast, or check out the website for the complete archives. Funny enough, it's just sidehustleschool.com. And of course, new episodes on the way. So excited about all that is to come this year. Thank you for being out there.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle Schoolful. From the Onward Project.
