How Nick Huber of The Sweaty Startup is pulling back the curtain to reveal what it means to be an effective entrepreneur

Find out how author Nick Huber uses his experience building a successful small business to assist other entrepreneurs by providing content and training.

Small business owner and investor in real estate Nick Huber started his Real Estate Masterclass as the result of a Google doc.

A week later, he'd written 10,000 words.

Three and a quarter months later, his course was ready for launch.

"I did not overthink it. I did not spend long in the grass. I got it out," Nick explains.

The course took off. Nick earned $350K from course sales during the very first month.

But sales like that don't just come out of nowhere.

Learn more about how Nick increased his followers through building in public, his course launch strategy and tips to fellow creators.

Let's discuss "unsexy small businesses"

Nick doesn't believe in keeping secrets.

The founder of the sweaty Startup  He shares a behind-the-scenes look at the process of running the most successful small business. He does this through his blog, newsletter with Twitter, YouTube channel Podcasts, online classes and an communities on the internet.

But Nick hasn't always been a creator.

Before launching The Sweaty Startup, Nick was already an established small business proprietor. The founder of the student storage business along with a friend in his senior year of college. Storage Squad expanded to 25 cities in the college system; and in the tenth year The duo decided to sell it to a buyer for 7 million dollars.

As he went along, Nick realized that there was a lack of information about building what he calls an "unsexy small-scale enterprise". Then he decided to begin filling that gap by building in the public domain: sharing his experiences about growing a profitable small business and navigating the market of real estate investments.

In the year 2018, Nick was on a meeting with his young brother who owns his own company, at which point the spark of inspiration struck him. The Sweaty Startup podcast .

Nick was sharing what that he had learned from the beginning of his own company. If Nick's brother was learning about Nick's experience certainly other small-business owners are hungry for that type of information.

"I'm very obsessed with entrepreneurship and small businesses. This is why I decided to create content around the thesis of "unsexy small businesses"."

"A lot of entrepreneurship content involves startups, technology, Shark Tank, and new ideas and inventions," Nick explains. "And I'm sort of in the camp that the method by which a lot of people get rich in small towns, in our neighborhoods, is via boring small business."

He created The Sweaty Startup Podcast to discuss "the principles, strategies, and methods that have helped grow companies."

At the same time, Nick started writing articles on entrepreneurship, small business, and property through his website . A couple of years later Nick added a newsletter to send exclusive content and promote his classes to those who subscribed.

The podcast is currently running nearly 300 episodes and over 1.5 million downloads, and the newsletter is averaging 22K readers.

Most of them came across Nick through Twitter which grew his follower base to 245K. He tweeted insights in the form of an "self storage owner/operator through the medium of a small unsexy biz".

Transforming Twitter into the"top of the funnel by ensuring Transparency

When Nick created content, he realized he was required to establish an audience for fellow entrepreneurs.

"The aspect of entrepreneurship is that it's an extremely very lonely experience."

A greater amount of time spent using Twitter reinforced Nick's belief that the lack of entrepreneurs sharing candid insights on what takes to grow a business.

"I consider there's an image in entrepreneurship that, you must be secretive," Nick says. "You do not want to divulge your work too often, or people will steal it."

Then Nick began to tweet about his experience in real estate and small-scale business. He shared what he calls "an inconvenient quantity" of information on how the business he was working with and his partner, Dan, ran their business.

Dan was naturally a little initially sceptical.

"When I started writing and sharing everything about our business, Dan called me and asked, "Nick. You must explain to me. What do you gain by sharing with people the way we conduct business?'" Nick recalls.

"I thought, Dan I don't get it. I've been meeting people who are doing big things. They're beginning to trust me. I'm beginning to establish an trust with the people. This will surely help us in what we're trying to do. And he trusted me."

Nick's gamble paid off: He has 245K followers and 20 million monthly impressions on Twitter. He calls the platform the "top of the funnel" for Nick Huber's brand. Huber company".

The audience that Nick was able to reach grew increasing numbers of people contacted Nick to provide real estate investment advice -- to the tune of 30 messages each week. It was clear that people were eager to learn more from him.

And Nick was eager to instruct the students.

Ship and iterate > make the perfect thing

Being aware that there was an audience willing to take his advice, Nick focused on getting the course to them -- without obsessing over making it flawless.

Nick made $350K in course sales during the first month.

"It's not for everyone," Nick acknowledges. "It's intended for those who are serious about buying a property. It is for those who are serious about making the investment of real estate part of their plan."

In the present, Nick relaunches his masterclass each year. Nick keeps the material up to date and relevant which makes it an unending asset for those who put their money in it. "I've probably spent twice as much time working on it, making it more efficient by adding sections, and editing areas," he says.

The instructor can monitor students' progress and watch how they respond to the content, which helps his ensure they have the right information to succeed.

"I can't think of anything I don't like about right now", it's awesome," says Nick. "The price-to-value ratio is incredible, the price point is phenomenal."

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Nick's advice for fellow creators

Nick has two recommendations for the entrepreneurs around him:

Build an audience

Create an online course

It's not necessary to write them in that order: "When it comes to writing a course even if you don't have an audience, it's still important to clarify your thoughts."

Nick declares that the writing of course material helps him think through his ideas about a subject and find gaps in his knowledge.

In order to build a successful business though, creating that content alone isn't enough. There must be an audience you can share it with.

"If you want to make money, you need an audience," Nick advises. "I thought that people who had large followings on social media or YouTube created content just to have fun. I wasn't aware of the extent to which it can amplify your profession."

"I discovered that how much I shared with others and the more I shared, my network exploded and I found amazing people to invest with me, work with me or teach me and simply become my friends."

"Opportunities are created by people sharing knowledge, sharing information, and collaboration, and the internet is where that can be achieved."