5 Steps To 'Productize' Yourself And Earn $1K - $10K A Month With Your Expertise

You have $100,000+ worth of knowledge trapped in your head. It's time to use it.

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

We're truly living in a unique time.

You can make a full-time income from the comfort of your home by sharing your expertise with others on the internet.

I call this ‘productizing’ yourself.

It’s when you turn your knowledge and skills into digital products & services - and generate revenue online as a solopreneur (no boss to answer to or employees to manage).

In this article, I’ll share the 5-step process I’ve been following over the past seven years to 'productize' myself.

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Step 1: Identify A Monetizable Skill 

The first step in productizing yourself is to identify which of your knowledge and skills people are willing to pay for to learn.

This is where, for a lot of people, good old ‘imposter syndrome’ starts to creep in.

We often mistakingly believe that our knowledge and skills are common sense, not special, or not valuable enough to be paid for.

But that’s a big mistake. 

You likely have $100,000+ worth of knowledge trapped in your head. 

The key is to unlock it. 

To help you identify which of your knowledge and skills can be monetized, ask yourself these questions:

• What skills or expertise do I get paid for in my current (or previous) job?

• What's a painful problem I’ve solved in my life/career? What were the skills, systems, or techniques I used to solve it?

• What's a valuable goal or result I’ve achieved in my life/career? And how did I achieve this?

• What's a skill or area of expertise other people (friends, family, colleagues, etc.) often ask me to help them with?

For example, I used to be a chronic procrastinator and it kept me from getting things done.

After researching the science behind procrastination, I learned how to conquer it.

I started writing about my insights, attracted a following, launched digital products (like mini-courses), and turned the topic of ‘procrastination’ into a multi-six-figure online business.

In other words, the problems or challenges you’ve conquered in your life/business can be a great starting point to productize yourself. 

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Step 2: Create Content Around This Skill 

Once you've picked a monetizable skill, start creating content around this topic to build your audience.

(If you don’t have an audience, you don't have anyone to offer your products or services to later down the line.)

Here’s my audience-building strategy:

1. Pick 1 - 2 social media platforms and go all-in on them (for me it’s Medium and Substack)

2. Commit to a consistent publishing schedule (I do 2x long-form articles for Medium and Substack a week and 3x Substack Notes a day)

3. Analyze your best-performing content and double down on the topics that are the most popular (find different angles to repeat your best ideas)

4. Connect with other creators as much as you can, as your network is everything (engage with their content, send DMs, share their posts, etc.)

The power of content creation is that it has a high degree of leverage.

One good post can reach hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people.

Some of my most popular Medium articles have generated 100,000 - 300,000 views, which is the equivalent of 1 - 4 sold-out Superbowl stadiums.

That’s the power of online content creation. One viral post can attract hundreds or even thousands of new followers.

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Step 3: Build An Email Newsletter

The next step in productizing yourself is to use the attention you generate with your content to grow your email list.

An email list is your most valuable asset as an online entrepreneur.

If you don’t build an email list, you’ll always be at the mercy of the big social media companies.

• One overnight algorithm change means you can no longer reach 90% of your followers

• One mistake can get you (shadow)banned and that’s it for your business

• One quick shift in the social media landscape (e.g. users flocking to another platform) can be a disaster

In other words, a social media audience is an audience you rent. But an email list is an audience you actually own.

(You determine the rules, you’ll never lose access to your audience, and it’s a true business asset with economic value.)

That’s why I use social media to grow my audience, and email to nurture and monetize my audience.

To incentivize your social media audience to join your email list, create an ‘irresistable’ freebie (like a PDF, checklist, or 5-day email course) that helps people solve a specific problem or achieve a specific result. 

For example, for my productivity business, I created a PDF with 17 science-based techniques to boost their productivity.

This simple freebie has generated well over 12,000 email subscribers.

Once you get people on your email list, don’t ghost them. Send at least one email newsletter a week to keep them engaged.

(To save you time, repurpose the content you’ve already created and turn that into your email newsletter.)

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Step 4: Create Paid Offers 

Without paid offers, you won’t be able to (consistently) monetize your knowledge and skills.

Paid offers come in two distinct categories; digital products and digital services.

Digital Products:

• E-Books

• Mini-Courses / Workshops

• Flagship Courses

• Cohort-Based Courses

• Challenges

• Memberships / Communities

Digital Services:

• 1-on-1 Coaching

• Group Coaching

• Consulting

• Done-For-You Service

Most digital products are scalable, meaning you only have to create them once but can keep selling them over and over again without much additional effort.

Digital services are much more time-intensive, but you can charge a much higher price for them because you offer personalized help.

Personally, I believe it’s good to have a mix of both digital products and services, so you have multiple streams of income rather than relying on just one.

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Step 5: Stay Consistent With This Process

Consistency is key as a solopreneur. It takes time to build an audience, establish yourself as an authority, and consistently generate sales.

That’s why I like to remind myself of this:

“Long-term patience. Short-term impatience.”

Be impatient with your daily actions (post a lot, create a lot, engage a lot, etc.).

But be patient with the outcomes of your actions. Don’t expect to grow an audience, email list, and six-figure business overnight. 

Stay consistent with your actions, and the results will eventually follow.

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Summarized:

All in all, the 5-step process to 'productize' yourself and turn your existing knowledge & skills into a one-person business is to:

• Step 1: Identify a monetizable skill

• Step 2: Create content around this skill to grow an audience

• Step 3: Turn social media followers into email subscribers

• Step 4: Create paid offers (like digital products and services)

• Step 5: Stay consistent

It's not rocket science, but you have to be willing to put in the work.

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