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Hey rebel ideapreneurs 🦸♂️🦸♀️
Miles writes a weekly newsletter for people starting their first podcast.
He walks them through the boring parts — the mic, the editing, the nerves.
About 400 people read it, mostly from one LinkedIn post that did well.
And his readers? They want a hand to hold while they hit record for the first time.
⛳️ Problem:
Miles wants to earn his first $1,000 from that little list.
So he's about to spend two months building a big, polished course.
But a worry keeps nagging him. What if he builds the whole thing and nobody buys it? Brutal.
His struggle:
He's about to build for two months, with zero proof that anyone will actually pay.
🔥 The recipe
➡️ The Pre-Sell
Imagine you want to start a taco stand.
The risky way is to buy a truck and cook 200 tacos before a single person has paid.
If nobody shows up, you're stuck with a truck and a pile of cold tacos.
Here's the smarter way.
First, you ask a few people at the market what taco they'd actually pay for.
They tell you: something spicy, under $5, and ready fast.
Then you set up a tiny table and take ten orders for that exact taco.
Get this — people pay you upfront, before you've cooked a single one, so you KNOW it sells.
Only then do you buy the truck and cook 200 — the ones people already want.
That's what Amy Porterfield teaches.
She's one of the best-known teachers of online courses.
She's reported to have made over $100 million in course sales, with 100,000+ students.
Most people build the whole big thing first, then just hope someone buys it.
Amy flips that order. She gets proof and real money BEFORE she builds.
And the way she does it is simple.
First, she asks — she talks to a handful of real people to find the exact thing they'd pay to fix.
She doesn't guess what they want; she lets them tell her, in their own words.
Then she pre-sells a small version, and takes real money before building anything.
If people pay, she has her proof. If nobody pays, she just saved herself two months of work.
Only then does she build the full thing for real — for the people who already bought it.
Now she's building something she KNOWS sells, instead of a guess.
🚗 So Miles tried it his way.
Back to Miles and his newsletter for first-time podcasters.
He was about to build a two-month course with no proof anyone wanted it.
So he tried Amy's way instead.
First, he asked.
Before, he assumed people wanted a big course on "everything about podcasting."
Now he emailed ten readers and asked what they were stuck on. Eight said the same thing: editing.
Spoiler: not the big course he'd planned.
Then, he pre-sold a small version.
Before, he was going to build first and hope for sales later.
Now he offered a simple 3-week "Edit Your First Episode" workshop for $97, and asked people to pay upfront.
He braced for silence.
Finally, he built it for real.
Twelve people paid before he made a thing — that's his first $1,164, and his proof.
Cha-ching.
So he built the workshop live with those twelve, fixing it as their real questions came in.
He didn't gamble two months on a guess.
He got paid first, then built exactly what his readers had already bought.
🧸 Don't build for months and hope. Get a few people to pay first — then build that.
The prompt below turns your small list into a pre-sell plan you can run this week.
You just tell it who reads you and what they're stuck on.
🏄♀️ The prompt
Save this prompt as a Skill or add to Project in your favorite AI tool — build once, use often.
Update your input values in the prompt, or just run it as is. Your AI sidekick will use the example values and give you an output.
CONTEXT:
- (use what's available, fall back to the inline values)
- If my Voice Profile exists, write in that voice. Otherwise, write in a clear, warm, no-jargon voice — first-person, plain words, no startup-speak.
- If my ICP / Audience doc exists, target that reader. Otherwise, use the audience below.
Inputs:
My audience and list size (who reads me, and roughly how many — small is fine):
{e.g. ~400 people starting their first podcast, mostly from one LinkedIn post}
What I already sense they're stuck on (the problem I hear most, even if I'm not sure yet):
{e.g. editing their first episode — it takes them hours and still sounds rough}
What I was tempted to build (the big, slow thing I was about to make before selling anything):
{e.g. a full 8-module podcasting course I'd spend two months building}
For Audience: {e.g. total beginners who want a hand to hold through their first episode}
For Outcome: {e.g. a pre-sell plan I can run this week to earn my first $1,000 before I build anything}
Outputs:
1. Five ask questions — the exact questions to send a handful of readers to find the ONE problem they'd pay to fix. Short, human, easy to reply to.
2. My small pre-sell offer — a simple first version (a short workshop, guide, or template), a fair starting price, and the promise it makes. Something I could deliver live, not a giant course.
3. The pre-sell message — a short, honest email I can send that offers the beta and asks people to pay upfront, with a plain reason to buy now.
4. My proof line — the number of buyers (or dollars) that means "yes, build it," and what to do if nobody buys (so I don't waste two months).
Then name the ONE big thing I was about to over-build, and the smaller version I should sell first instead.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'showing you that building a business is fun, not a drain' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️