Five years ago, I hit publish for the first time.

At the time, I was stuck in a 9–5 career I hated. My job was in sales, but I studied finance on the side as I was determined to retire early.

I openly shared all I knew with friends and coworkers as I wanted to fill in the gaps that college didn’t teach us. After helping enough people, someone at work said I should start a blog.

I figured why not — even though I had no clue what a blog was. So to start 2016, I put the new year momentum to use and launched my first blog. A week later, I hit publish on arguably one of the worst pieces of content on the internet. …

There’s never been a better time to share your gifts with the world using Medium.

But if you’re just starting out in your writing journey, it’s easy to get intimidated by the platform.

You might be thinking:

• No one will even read my stuff.
• Is it even worth it to write on Medium?
• I don’t have enough topics to write about.
• Can you make money writing on Medium?

And a few other doubts or fears I’m sure. But if you have even a one percent desire to start on Medium, do it. …

Everyone wants to be more productive.

But in today’s busy world where every media outlet wants your attention, staying focused is harder than ever. When I quit my corporate job in 2017 to become a full-time blogger, I quickly learned how bad my productivity was.

There would be days where I worked 10–12 hours but felt like I got nothing accomplished. I was living and dying by my phone — constantly checking emails, and social media notifications.

I always a had a huge to-do list I would plan out the night before and the following night I’d only have 30–50% accomplished. …

I was side hustling before it was cool.

At age seven my cousin and I sold lemonade at garage sales (seriously… hope you’re proud Gary Vaynerchuk).

At age 10, I sold “Mike’s Weekly Mixtape”, a CD I burnt and sold to my friends for $3 thanks to Napster and dial up internet.

At 14, I bought and sold golf clubs on eBay using my mom’s account (thanks Mom). I even sold old people’s used clubs who didn’t know how to use the internet at my local golf course. …

When I first started selling online courses in 2018, I thought all I needed was a blog, some course modules, and a few emails before I started making sales.

At the time, I saw so many influencers and entrepreneurs selling courses about everything from Pinterest, email marketing, social media, and more.

And I was buying them and getting results myself. I figured if they could do it, I can too.

I realized the world was moving online and figured it was now or never to bet on myself. If you didn’t know, the online course business is booming. …

You can make a full-time living selling your expertise.

We’re living in a time unlike any other in the history of the world. If you hate your job and want to make money as a digital entrepreneur, you 100% can.

Imagine earning a full-time income teaching people a topic that you are wildly passionate about. Imagine quitting that job you hate and actually doing something that you love.

People are doing it in every niche imaginable thanks to selling online courses.

According to Forbes, the digital course industry is growing at wild rates and is expected to be a $350 billion dollar industry by 2025. …

I’ve always been a hustler.

My earliest side hustle started when I was 10 years old. I downloaded songs via Napster with dial-up internet and burnt CD’s for my friends in middle school. Since then, I’ve been hooked on entrepreneurship.

After that I started selling golf clubs for old people from my country club on eBay. In college, I ran party buses — I love hustling.

I love having the ability to create money from thin air — to take an idea that lives in your head and get people to pay you money for it. …

Growing up, becoming an entrepreneur had always been my dream. When I finally quit my six-figure job and took the leap in 2017, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. It quickly became a living nightmare.

At the time, I had earned $200 from my blog (total), but I figured if other people were making money as a blogger, then I could too. I was confident in my abilities, and since I had done well for myself working for other companies, I thought I’d do even better when I was steering my own ship.

But that’s not what happened. After 18 months as a writer and side-hustler, I hit rock bottom. As I headed into 2019, I was in a dark place. …