How Nick Huber of The Sweaty Startup is pulling back the curtain on what it takes to be an entrepreneur who is successful

Find out how author Nick Huber uses his experience creating a small-scale business that is successful to assist other entrepreneurs through content and courses.

Small-business owner and investor in real estate Nick Huber started his Real Estate Masterclass in the form of a Google document.

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

Three and a half months after, the course was ready for launch.

"I wasn't a frenzied thinker. I did not spend long in the grass. I was able to get it cleared," Nick explains.

The course was a success. Nick earned $350K from courses sales within the very first month.

But sales like that do not just appear out of out of the blue.

Learn more about the ways Nick gained a following by creating in public, his strategy for launching his courses and tips for other creators.

Let's discuss "unsexy small businesses"

Nick doesn't believe in keeping secrets.

As the founder the creator of the sweaty Startup  The Sweaty Startup, he provides a peek behind-the-scenes of how to manage a successful small business through his newsletter, blog, Twitter, YouTube channel Podcasts, online classes as well as an online community.

But Nick isn't always a creator.

Prior to launching The Sweaty Startup, Nick was already a successful small business proprietor. He started a student storage business with a friend during his final year in college. Storage Squad expanded to 25 cities in the college system; and within 10 years, the duo sold it for seven million dollars.

While on the road, Nick realized that there was a lack of information on how to build what he describes as an "unsexy small-scale enterprise". Nick decided to fill that gap by building in public, sharing his knowledge about growing a profitable small business while navigating the market of real estate investments.

In the year 2018, Nick was on a meeting with his young brother, who runs his own business and the idea came to him for the sweaty Startup Podcast .

Nick was sharing the things they learned in the process of building his own business. If his brother was learning the lessons of Nick, surely other small business owners were hungry for that type of information.

"I'm very passionate about entrepreneurship and small business. Therefore, I began creating articles around the theme of "unsexy business"."

"A majority of the content on entrepreneurship involves startups, technology, Shark Tank, and innovative ideas and innovations," Nick explains. "And I'm kind of in the camp of thinking that the only way a lot of people get rich in small towns and in our communities is by doing boring, small businesses."

He launched The Sweaty Startup Podcast to share "the concepts of strategies, tactics, and strategies used to grow successful companies."

At the same time, Nick started writing articles about entrepreneurship, small businesses, and the real estate market on his blog . In the following years Nick added a newsletter with exclusive content to promote his classes to those who subscribed.

Now, the podcast has more than 300 episodes, and 1.5 million downloads. Additionally, the newsletter has over 22K readers.

Most of them found Nick via Twitter which grew his follower base to 245K. He tweeted insight in the form of a "self storage owner/operator through the medium of a tiny, unassuming biz".

Turning Twitter into the"top of the funnel" through the transparency

As Nick developed content, he realized that he had to create an audience for other entrepreneurs.

"The thing about entrepreneurship is it's kind of a solo journey."

The time spent on Twitter strengthened Nick's conviction that the lack of entrepreneurs sharing honest insights into what it is that it takes to expand a business.

"I consider there's an image of entrepreneurship. You must be secretive," Nick says. "You don't want to share your work too often and people could copy it."

In the end, Nick began tweeting about his experiences with real estate and small-scale business. He also shared "an inconvenient amount" of information on how both he and his business partners, Dan, ran their business.

Dan was, naturally, a initially sceptical.

"When I started blogging and sharing all the details about our company, Dan called me and told me, "Nick, you gotta explain this to me. What is there to gain by telling people how we run our business?" Nick remembers.

"I was thinking, 'Dan I don't get it. I've been meeting people who are doing big tasks. They're beginning to trust me. I'm beginning to establish an rapport with the people. And I think it'll help us in what we're trying to accomplish. He also trusted me."

Nick's risk paid off Nick now has two-and-a half million followers and 20 million daily impressions on Twitter. It is"the "top of funnel for the Nick Huber brand".

As his audience grew, increasing numbers of people contacted Nick to provide real estate investing advice in the amount of 30 messages each week. It was clear that people would like to know more about Nick.

And Nick was eager to instruct them.

Iterate and ship, then create the perfect thing

In the knowledge that there was a crowd ready to learn from him, Nick focused on getting the message out to themand not focusing on making it flawless.

Nick has made $350K through course sales within the first month.

"It's not for everyone," Nick acknowledges. "It's for people who really want to consider purchasing a home. For people who are serious about making an investment in real estate a piece of their life."

Now, Nick relaunches his masterclass every two years. The content is kept updated and current, making it an evergreen source for people who invest in it. "I've likely invested twice as long working on it, making it better by adding sections, and editing areas," he says.

Students can be tracked on their growth and see how they engage with the materials, which can help to ensure that they are getting all the info they need to succeed.

"I don't know of anything I don't like in the present -- it's great," says Nick. "The value prop is phenomenal and the cost is incredible."

(Want to follow in Nick's footsteps? Register for your free Account .)

Nick's suggestions to fellow creators

Nick is able to offer two tips for the entrepreneurs around him:

Build an audience

Write online in a course

You don't have to do them in that order: "When it comes to creating a course even if you don't have an audience, it's still worthwhile to clear your ideas."

Nick declares that the writing of course material helps him organize his ideas around a subject and find areas of knowledge that aren't there.

In order to build a successful business however, making that content alone isn't enough. There must be an audience you can be able to share the content with.

"If you want to make money, you need followers," Nick advises. "I thought that people with big followings on social media or YouTube created content just for fun -- I wasn't aware of the extent to which they could boost your professional career."

"I found sharing more and more and the more I shared, my network expanded and I discovered amazing people to invest with me, collaborate with to teach me or be friends with me."

"Opportunities arise from individuals, sharing knowledge, sharing information, and collaboration. The web is the best place for that to occur."