Hope you're having as fun a summer as I am ☀️💦

To quote the host of Last Week Tonight (and hopefully, just an honestly nice guy all around, and not a creepy Hollywood insider 🤞):

As you may recall, I started building 12 products in 12 months. My first idea was a tool for small business owners so they could rapidly generate and test effective landing pages. And it was dead on arrival 😄

Sure, there was a little excitement. I got some "Ohh! Brilliant idea!"s.

In the past, that excitement may have lead me down a path doomed from the start. I probably would've mistaken compliments for genuine desire. I like to imagine Tony Soprano saying, "Always the optimist, this guy over here."

One of the main takeaways from The Mom Test is to be on the lookout for compliments. Compliments are free, meaning it doesn't cost a whole lot to give them away. People have generally learned it's safer to give a compliment and move on, as opposed to expressing curiosity (or doubt).

But peoples' time, money, professional introductions—these things aren't free, and if someone is giving this to you, it's a probably a sign that they're invested. Or at least, they're more invested than someone who just says, "Awesome! Now that's keepin' it 💯"

Queue my next idea 🤓. The plan was to make a tool that helped course creators automatically sell their digital courses. Wild Ink Marketing sells courses and makes a few sales here and there, but wouldn't it be great if there was a tool that automatically advertised and sold courses for people?

Turns out, nope. Lol. 

A helpful Internet stranger (the best kind of stranger, IMO), experienced in selling courses and manages a large Facebook group about the topic, simply stated, "It's not a big deal for me" 😐 Cool. cool.

Alright then. What's the next idea? In my last post, I shared an image of a helpful spreadsheet used for quickly evaluating ideas. Jon Yongfook, someone who inspired me to do 12 in 12, created this template to get me started.

A couple of ideas I had on that list were courses for software developers. For example, teaching React.js or generating revenue from a side project. The thing is, a few years ago, I stopped working full-time in software. I was getting burned out and felt like I needed to step away for a little bit. So I wasn't entirely motivated to make a software course as one of my first products.

Another part of the reason I considered not making a product in this space was my hunch that it was just too crowded. 

Bootcamps

Online Courses

As I see it, there are 3 proven ways to learn software development. 1) Traditional schooling. 2) Coding bootcamps. 3) Self-taught with free/inexpensive online resources.

After running a poll, it became rather clear that people from group #3 (self-taught programmers) needed help getting a foot in the door. 

I messaged some of the people who replied to my poll with something like, "Hi! What are you building for your side project?" This lead to a lot of interesting 1-on-1 convos and it became quite apparent that most junior developers struggle when coming up with impressive project ideas for their portfolio.

This gave me an idea: I could run a mentorship program for junior developers, teaching them the ins and outs of interviewing in the industry. 

All I'd have to do is share a link to the Facebook group and I'd get tons of signups. Easy, right? That night I sent what would be my last post in the group, because the next morning I woke up to this:

I was banned! I'm still not entirely sure why. Although this particular group doesn't, many Facebook groups have explicit rules banning self-promotion. I have a feeling the moderator of the group interpreted my post as a sales promo.

At first, I was pretty bummed, but this reminded me how important it is to build my own audience, as opposed to relying on others—especially if they can cut me off at any time.

Luckily, with the help of the friends I made in the web dev community (both on Facebook and other niche communities), I was able to get 300+ signups for the mentorship program.

I will share what that process was like in my next update, stay tuned!

—Scott

P.S. the next round of my React.JS mentorship program will begin Monday, July 25th. If you know anyone interested, please have them apply here.