235: Selling Digital Products to Business or Government Clients: An Online Business Success Story with a Twist

The Side Hustle Show

Nick Loper

Entrepreneurship, Business, How To, Education

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As one of several side hustles, Ryan Dowd runs HomelessLibrary.com, a training program that teaches librarians how to confidently and compassionately deal with their homeless patrons.

It’s something a little different from the business-to-consumer model we usually see with online course sales and comes with some advantages over the B2C market — namely potentially higher prices and the ability to perform direct outreach.

By day Ryan is the executive director for a homeless shelter in Illinois, but on the side he’s also an adjunct professor, a practicing attorney, and he’s writing a book — in addition to the 3-15 hours a week he spends on HomelessLibrary.com.

(And he’s married with a couple kids, so it’s fair to say he’s a busy guy.)

Ryan was working at the homeless shelter when a friend asked if he would speak at a local conference about homelessness to a group of librarian executive directors.

His talk went so well he started receiving offers to deliver training in person at libraries. Not having the time to travel to different locations, Ryan recorded a 30-minute video, posted it on YouTube, and sent people the link.

Now with over 13,000 views, his video has become a staple training tool for librarians across the country and there was a demand for more.

Ryan capitalized on this by recording a longer, more in-depth training. He broke it up into modules and began selling it to libraries across the US.

Tune in to hear how that first conference speaking gig Ryan did for a friend turned into a successful side hustle selling B2B online courses and started what he calls, “A crazy wild ride with a completely accidental start.”

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Selling Digital Products to Business or Government Clients: An Online Business Success Story with a Twist

Transcript

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0:00.0	Side Hustle Show 235, selling digital products to business or government clients.
0:05.0	It's an online business success story with a twist.
0:10.0	What's up? What's up? Nick, Lober here.
0:12.0	Welcome to the Side Hustle Show show because everything is learnable.
0:15.2	Now I did some learning while I was recording this episode and I think you will too.
0:18.8	So most of the online business episodes we've done so far have focused on establishing authority
0:24.2	or expertise in a given area and then selling digital products to individuals who
0:28.7	want to know what you know like Jacques Hopkins from piano and 21 days.
0:33.2	com that was episode 223 or Colin Jones from blackjack apprenticeship
0:38.0	com and that was episode two twenty seven but what if your expertise isn't well suited to that model of selling directly to individuals?
0:45.0	And even if it is, is that B to C targeting selling yourself short?
0:50.0	That's the position that Ryan Dowd found himself in.
0:53.0	By day, he's the executive director at the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois,
0:58.0	but by night and early morning he's an adjunct professor, he's a side hustling attorney, and he's the creator of
1:04.3	homeless library.com. It's an online training course that teaches library staff
1:08.4	how to work with their homeless patrons with confidence and with compassion.
1:13.2	In this episode you'll hear how Ryan came up with the idea for this side business
1:16.5	packaging up the knowledge and expertise he gained from his day job,
1:19.8	how he created the content for the course and how he's priced, marketed, and sold it to libraries
1:24.3	all over the country. Now a fun fact for you working at the library was actually my first real job
1:28.9	back in high school. It was Bellevue Regional Library for all listeners in the Seattle area. It was a time and a half on Sundays,
1:35.5	man. It was a good gig. So as you listen in, I want you to think about how you can apply
	...

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