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Graham Cochrane is the creator of TheRecordingRevolution.com, a blog and teaching business focused on helping people learn how to produce and mix music.
At the time of this interview, Graham had topped $600,000 a year in revenue, primarily from the sale of digital teaching products.
How Sharing Your Skills Online Can Lead To A Big Business
Graham did not start life as an entrepreneur. Instead, he had a passion for music, which he focused on both in his studies and during spare time, learning how to use mixing and production software.
Graham’s passion for producing led to a freelance business helping bands put together tracks, a project he took with him when he moved with his wife to Florida.
Despite his freelance work and his wife also freelancing as a photographer, they struggled to make enough money, digging into their savings and eventually going on food stamps.
Things started to turn around after Graham launched a blog and began creating videos he released on YouTube. The plan was to share his skills by teaching how to use music creation software, in the hope of attracting clients.
Graham’s audience grew, and despite not following advice from a coach or mentor (he even returned Tim Ferriss’s book ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ because he didn’t see that kind of outcome as possible for himself), he did make one very smart decision – to grow an email list.
One day Graham had a thought…
If people value his shorter free videos, what would happen if he created longer more in-depth training videos and charged money for them?
This led to the creation of his first course, which generated about $1,500, then another course. By the end of the year, he had made $5,000 from sales of his own teaching products.
The next year Graham topped $60,000 in sales, then things just continued to grow as Graham released more products and reached more people.
Build On Each Success
What I love about this interview with Graham is how his story slowly unfolds. There’s no big breakthroughs, no single moments that defined his success. He simply built his business, one step at a time, working diligently to provide more and more value to his audience.
If you’re currently investing your time and energy to build a teaching business and you’re focused on using content as your tool for reaching people, this interview is a must-listen-to.
Graham’s story lays out what I think is a very reasonable timeline to follow. This is no overnight success story, yet there is a sense that Graham was always heading towards the result he enjoys today because of his steadfast commitment to content production.
Listen in and I’m sure you will walk away feeling inspired and ready to produce a ton of valuable content for your audience.
Enjoy the interview,
Yaro
EJPodcast.com
Relevant Links
- TheRecordingRevolution.com
- Graham Cochrane’s YouTube Channel
- Graham Cochrane’s Facebook Page
- Business Insider
- Kajabi
- MailChimp
- ConvertKit
[ Download MP3 | Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud | Raw RSS ]
Just as I knew I would, I loved this. It just shows that things really don’t have to get complicated when it comes to scaling your business. Incremental improvements to your traffic, lead and sales mechanisms consistently over time will very likely bring consistent returns.
I’d say I’m at the 2011 stage in Graham’s story, and my path for the next 2-3 years is pretty simple now that I have the pieces on the board. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get a podcast invite myself 😉
I totally agree Dan! It helps too that Graham was so willing to break down what he did in so much detail.
It’s not easy — just looking at his YouTube channels shows how much work has gone into creating content — but the path is there for us to follow.
Yaro
I’m not a muso myself but I worked in a software company that made PCI plug in boards that allowed real time mixing of 8 then 16, 32 even 64 tracks in the late 90’s. Most people were on windows 95 and this product ran on DOS4GW.
I have a ton of respect for anyone musical because they seem to take to new technologies just as a means to make their music better.
Had to laugh when Graham said he went and bought Tim’s book again learning from a new perspective. People are not always ready not matter how great a product.
Another excellent interview, thanks Yaro.
Hi Yaro! Thank you (and Graham) for this interview! Thank you for sharing so many details. I’m considering taking the leap and it’s been very helpful to hear from someone who went through something similar to my experience. I wish you guys lots of success!