Good morning,

Before jumping in, if you just thought, “I have no idea why I’m getting this newsletter,” you can fix that quickly and easily. Just hit the button below. No hard feelings.

If you’re excited to dive in, grab another cup of coffee, and let’s go!

For this week’s letter, I thought I’d do something a little different. This one is more like a resource guide or a research summary. It is more concrete than usual. Let’s see how it goes.

Here’s what I have for you today:

• One big thing. If you’ve ever thought, "I should write a book one day,” this one is for you. 📖

• You have to check this out. This week needs some good news. 🍀

• Tools and tech. Traveling over land. 🚙

Are you ready to jump in? 🦘

1️⃣ ONE BIG THING

Better than writing a book.

Several times in my life, I’ve thought, "I should write a book one day."

Have you?

For today’s purposes, I don’t mean a short story or novel.

I mean a book that captures everything you’ve learned in your life or career. Or, a book that presents a big idea you believe more people need to know about.

Books have allure. You can hold them and give them as gifts. It feels like you’re leaving a legacy. After all, your book will have an ISBN. That’s official.

But what if a book isn’t the only—or the best—way to capture everything you’ve learned or to share your big ideas with a wider audience?

Don't get me wrong. I love books. Physical books. My small house is slowly being overwhelmed by them. And yes, I still plan to write a book. Now more than ever.

But today, I'd like to expand your thinking just a bit—to think beyond the book.

I’m going to tell you about three book alternatives.

I bet you've already heard about one or more of these, but I'm going to compile all the best resources I've found on these three ideas for you.

I will keep this very high level, with more links than long paragraphs. Perhaps something here will spark an idea for you or help you imagine a new pathway.

Like writing a book, each of these ideas can start as a side project. Or they can easily become your full-time job (and can produce full-time job income if done wisely).

Finally, each of these ideas are ideal complements to a book. The smartest people I know see nonfiction books as a means to another end. They function best as the ultimate piece of marketing collateral for a bigger business idea.

The three non-book knowledge-sharing ideas I will cover today are:

1. Digital courses

2. Online communities and memberships

3. Coaching and masterminds

Each section below follows the same structure. My aim is for this to be easy to skim. Find the information that resonates most with you.

My only request: Keep an open mind. Unless you have done a recent deep dive on this, there may be ideas you haven’t considered. The pace of change with all three of these concepts is rapid.

Digital Courses

What started with a few courses posted by universities and others on platforms like Udemy or Coursera has become a $430 billion industry, growing over 900% since 2000. Most digital courses help people learn a new skill or achieve a specific transformation, often incorporating video lessons and downloadable materials. Some are offered on demand, where individuals take the course at their own pace, while others are more structured, with cohorts of learners progressing through the materials together.

Modern digital courses are typically offered directly by their creators (rather than hosted on platforms like Coursera) and cover niche subjects.

The opportunities today are not posting an “Introduction to Woodworking" course on Udemy, for example, but creating your own teaching experience covering something like "Making your first wooden bookcase for under $100 for people scared of saws." Yes, it's a little silly, but you get the idea. A rule of thumb: When you think you have a niche idea, go down one more layer of specialization.

Finally, with the explosion of online courses, the best courses are standing out by focusing more on helping people apply what they learn and get real results.

Digital course examples:

• Growing and monetizing your LinkedIn account (Justin Welsh).

• Building a second brain (Tiago Forte).

How to learn how to create a digital course:

• Amy Porterfield’s Digital Course Academy (she is the OG).

• Most of the digital course tech platforms have their own “universities” (see below).

Where to host and market a digital course:

• Kajabi - This is my preferred all-in-one platform (after comparing all the options). The Kajabi University and Creator Class include fantastic learning modules. (This is an affiliate link. I have used this platform for years.)

• Teach:able 

• Circle (see more below)

Online Communities and Memberships

Just as digital courses benefit from the power of small niches, you can bring together people with unique shared interests or identities in an online community. In some ways, they mirror traditional professional associations, community groups, or social clubs but are primarily online.  

Online communities can be paid or free and often include exclusive content, discussion forums, live online events, and ways for members to connect.

Some memberships are less about community interaction and more about a recurring value proposition. This can include published content (like this newsletter!) or a package of content delivered on a schedule (like a sock of the month club).

Online community and membership examples:

• Patients Like Me – An online community for patients with unique health conditions.

• Growth in Reverse Community – A paid community for newsletter creators.

• The Pragmatic Engineer – This Substack newsletter has a subscription option that generates over $1.5 million annually.

How to learn how to create an online community or membership:

• Stu McLaren is the OG of this space. Here is a free six-part YouTube series. In the past, he offered a comprehensive digital course called The Membership Experience, but it is not currently available. There are many free resources on his website.

• Jay Clouse is well respected and offers this self-paced course.

Where to host and market an online community:

• Circle – This has become a go-to community platform for many people I respect (with combinations of digital courses and communities).

• Skool – This platform is growing fast. You can see a lot more community examples here or create your own.

• Membership.io – This is the platform created by Stu McLaren.

Coaching and Masterminds

Coaches of all sorts have been around forever—from business coaches to life coaches. The overall coaching market generates over $7 billion a year, but the online coaching market makes up 64% of this and is growing rapidly (with a 14% annual growth rate).

While in-person coaching is typically one-on-one, online coaching can be conducted either one-on-one or in a group setting.

While group coaching involves one expert and a group of learners, a mastermind is a community of peers who all bring expertise to the table with a facilitator rather than a coach. In many cases, however, less experienced people join a mastermind to learn and expand their network with senior professionals (and pay sizable sums to do so).

Online coaching and mastermind examples:

• Unstoppable Women in Business

• Build Change Impact

• Joe Polish’s Genius Network – A hybrid community and mastermind for entrepreneurs.

How to learn how to be an online coach:

• CoachBuilder – Donald Miller’s coaching platform. Here is the book version.

• How to create a mastermind group – A video from Russell Brunson.

Where to host and market a coaching business:

• Paperbell

• Coach Accountable

• CoachVantage

Bringing it all together.

Perhaps this already jumped out at you, but some of the best ways to teach others what you’ve learned or to get your big idea out there are to mix and match the pathways listed above.

Creating a community of learners is a perfect complement to a digital course.

Adding 1-1 or group coaching is a perfect way to add value to an online community or to support online learning.

A midlife pivot.

If you've been working in the same industry for many years (let's not count them, lol), you've seen and learned a great deal.

If you're like me, you might see younger generations repeating many of the same mistakes you and your peers made. Your deep experience may provide you with unique insights into where your industry is heading or where it should be heading.

Or maybe you just want to turn your whole profession on its head.

If you have something to say or want to pass on what you’ve learned, then yes, you could write a book. There is still value there.

But today’s media and learning environments create other options, and technology platforms make things easier than ever.

I say this all the time, but you can accomplish more as an individual today than you could have with a team of ten specialists ten years ago.

I hope some of these ideas and resources spur some new ideas for you.

Thanks for reading this week.

If you’ve been reading for a while, I’m curious what you thought of this week’s letter. Hit reply and let me know.

See you next Sunday,

Kevin