Pardon My Pause ⏯️
What Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up?
Last month I was at a festival when the sun was going down.
I had my three boys with me, and I knew it was bedtime—but I waited too long to leave.
Everyone was overtired and hangry. It was 85 degrees out, which is “feels like 100” in Tennessee. As I’m dragging one boy and struggling to carry another, I realize... I have no idea where I parked.
I’m standing in the middle of two thousand cars in a field. One boy starts crying, then another. I can feel the panic rising as I stumble forward without any clear direction, other than prayer.
At this point, I’m gambling. Can we find our car, by chance, before I break down too? 🫣
Just then, my oldest son shouts “Look, up on the hill!”
Sure enough, there’s our van. Parked in plain sight on the tallest hill in the lot, with a street light shining directly on it as if to say “Who me? I’m right in front of your face!”
That’s how clarity works. Once you have it, it seems obvious, but until then you’re stumbling, at best.
Three months ago, I wrote that I was pausing new content to reset and refocus on creating the right content to solve the right problems, so I can better serve you.
I needed clarity. Thank you for your patience.
Over my last decade of entrepreneurship, I’ve done a lot of different things. Some have gone very well, some haven’t, and I’ve learned a lot (I’m still learning more every day).
After I wrote Survive and Thrive and opened my coworking space, I started serving everyday entrepreneurs (including many traditional brick-and-mortar small business owners) both online and locally, in the town where I live.
That was rewarding work. I love serving entrepreneurs, because I fundamentally believe entrepreneurship is one of the greatest forces for good on the planet and empowering entrepreneurs is the most direct path to eradicating generational poverty.
I wrote Survive and Thrive as a foundational guide for entrepreneurs in any industry. It is a phenomenal book, and I am proud of the testimonials and awards that go with it.
Still, entrepreneurs come in many shapes and sizes, and every industry has different needs. It would be a fool’s errand for me to try to master the intricacies of success in every industry, beyond timeless principles. I know this.
I chose to kill my podcast (and YouTube ambition) because I want to master my craft, and focus on writing. I’m ready to do the same thing by narrowing my niche. So, here’s what I do:
I help experts turn their wisdom into wealth by building a thriving online education business.
I’m grateful I created space to pursue clarity. In hindsight, this clarity may seem obvious given a short list of my most significant professional success:
- I made $10K in 10 days from my first course launch in 2015
- I ran Platform University for more than three years, a multimillion-dollar online education business with hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of paying subscribers
- I published a bestselling, award-winning book as a first-time author
I’ve already been helping people turn wisdom into wealth, I just didn’t have the words.
When I was young, I wanted to be a teacher. But as we all know, “Teacher’s don’t get paid enough.” I know you’ve heard it or said it, and I’ve heard it plenty too, but...
I personally know teachers who makes tens of millions of dollars each year.
They don’t report to a principal or leave their payroll up to the school board. Most of them aren’t even licensed to teach! Still, they teach skills so valuable that students pay directly to learn.
We are in the midst of a global shift from the Age of Information to the Age of Insight, and people will gladly pay you handsomely to teach your wisdom so they can make sense of the world.
Yes, you can make a lucrative living as a teacher! And I want to help. That's why I'm growing my Thrive School Accelerator program, and it's why I've published over 300 articles on JohnMeese.com (many of which were previously lost or hidden in email inboxes all over the world).