2. Justin Jackson - Fighting to 20k MRR with Transistor.fm

The Product Business

If you aren't familiar, Justin Jackson created Megamaker, Marketing for Developers, and most recently, Transistor.fm.

I love how open and honest he is.

In this podcast, he talks about why going on his own and hustling to pay his bills led to some great things, but also to depression. His course Marketing for Developers, along with his other obligations really drained him. He had to be "on" all the time, and it was exhausting. He wanted to do something new, and his pal Jon Buda was building a podcast hosting platform.

Justin loved the idea, and he was already deep in the podcasting world. He opens up about how he basically begged Jon to let him into the project. Jon eventually did, and the project became Transistor.fm.

Even though Justin had a pretty big audience for their launch, Justin recounts being about 6 months in and only having a few thousand in revenue. He felt a sense of despair because they were growing so slowly, and were still so far away from being able to pay themselves what they needed.

They are now at $20k MRR, and although this sounds like a great success, Justin says they aren't quite where they need to be yet. They use the Profit First method of taking 50% of revenue for salaries, which only amounts to $5K each. With 4 kids, a mortgage, and all the obligations of modern living, he needs more than that.

We also talk about why you should start a podcast even if no one listens. I agree, I'm having a blast with this one. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!