I’m Building the Medium Course I Wish Someone Had Taught Me 7 Years Ago

After making pennies for years, I finally figured out how to make $4,500 a month. Now I’m teaching it.

I’ve been working on this for weeks. Not the quick “throw together a course in a weekend” kind of work. The real kind. The “stay up until 2 AM mapping out every detail” kind.

Because this matters.

I spent 7 years failing on Medium. Writing my heart out. Getting tens of thousands of reads. Going viral once. Making $3,000 in a month and thinking I’d figured it out.

And then making $50 the next month. And $12 the month after that.

Seven years of writing stories nobody paid me for. Seven years of thinking “if I just write better, if I just be more authentic, if I just share more of myself…”

And it didn’t work.

Until October 2025. When everything changed. Not because I got lucky. Not because the algorithm smiled on me. Because I finally understood what I was doing wrong.

I was writing for myself. Not for my audience.

And now I’m building a course to teach you how to fix that.

It’s Called “The Honest Writer’s Guide to Making Money on Medium”

The tagline: “Stop writing for yourself. Start writing for your audience. Get paid for being real.”

That’s the whole thing. That’s what took me 7 years to learn. You can be authentic. You can be raw. You can be vulnerable and honest and real.

But if you’re only writing to process your own feelings, nobody’s going to pay you. You have to give them something. A takeaway. A solution. A reason to come back.

That’s the shift. That’s what changed everything for me.

And that’s what this course is about.

I’ve Been Brainstorming With My Group for Weeks

I’m not building this in a vacuum.

I’ve been working through the details with my Skool group “Over 40 and Unemployed” for weeks now. Testing ideas. Getting feedback. Making sure this is actually what people need.

If you’re not in that group yet, you should join. Because that’s where I’m sharing all the details before anyone else sees them.

Updates. Progress. Early access pricing. The whole development process.

You should join even if you are not over 40 and have a job, because its a great vibe, a great place to talk about Medium, freelancing, job hunting, work, and whatever else you want to talk about.

It’s free to join. And if you want to know everything about this course before it launches, that’s where you need to be.

Sunday Coffee Hour: Progress Update

This Sunday (1–18–2026) at 9 AM Mountain Time, I’m doing a coffee hour where I’ll talk about where I’m at with the course and when I think it’ll be ready.

Not a hard launch date. I don’t have that yet. But an estimate. A realistic timeline. And I’ll answer questions. About the course. About Medium. About whatever’s on your mind.

Check the calendar in the group for the link. These coffee hours will happen every week.

The Process Is Messy and Real

Here’s how I’m building this:

I’m using AI to help me brainstorm and structure. Claude and I have been going back and forth for days mapping out the curriculum, refining the modules, making sure the flow makes sense.

But I’m writing every word myself.

AI helps me organize my thoughts. It suggests structure. It helps me see gaps in my logic.

But the content? The lessons? The stories? That’s all me. Because this has to be real. It has to be authentic. It can’t sound like every other generic course out there.

This is my story. My failures. My breakthrough. My process.

And I’m not outsourcing that to a machine.

What You’re Actually Getting

This isn’t just videos. This isn’t just text.

It’s both. Plus images. Plus examples. Plus live coaching.

11 modules covering everything:

• Why you’re not making money (the ego trap I fell into for years)
• How to write real without making it all about you
• The Jessica Wildfire lesson that changed my career
• Patience and marathons (why it took me 7 years)
• The engagement system (why I answer every comment)
• LinkedIn + Medium strategy
• AI tools that won’t get you blacklisted
• Headlines and hooks that work
• Niches (and why you don’t need one)
• Handling trolls while staying human
• Your 90-day plan

Plus weekly group coaching calls. Three hours. Every week. Hot seats. Article reviews. Open Q&A. Real talk about what’s working and what’s not.

This isn’t a “buy the course and figure it out yourself” situation. This is ongoing support. Accountability. A community of writers on the same journey.

It Will Keep Evolving

Here’s something most courses don’t tell you: they’re built once and never updated. You buy it. You get what was recorded six months ago. And that’s it.

Not this one.

I’ll keep updating it. Adding lessons. Refining modules. Responding to what the group needs. Because Medium changes. The algorithm shifts. What works today might not work next year.

And I want this course to stay relevant. To keep helping people. To actually work.

There Are No Secrets. Only Principles.

I’m not promising you secret hacks. I’m not selling you a magic formula. There are no secrets on Medium. Just best practices. Principles that work if you actually do them.

Write for your audience. Give them something useful. Be authentic but not self-indulgent. Engage with readers. Be consistent. Use tools that make you faster without making you sound like a robot.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. But knowing it and doing it are two different things.

And doing it consistently for 90 days? That’s where most people fail.

This course is about helping you actually do the work. Not just know what to do.

My Story: From $12 to $4,500

In 2019, I wrote a viral story about my suicide attempt. It got published in Human Parts. I made $3,000 that month.

I thought I’d figured it out.

Then nothing. For years. Writing about my mental illness. My struggles. My family. My life.

Making pennies. $50 a month. $12 a month. Sometimes nothing. I had 7,500 followers. I was writing regularly. I was being authentic and vulnerable.

And I was broke.

Then in 2020, someone told me the truth. Jessica Wildfire, another Medium writer, essentially said: “Stop being selfish. Stop complaining that Medium isn’t fair. Write for your audience. Give them a takeaway. Every single article.”

And I listened. But it didn’t stick until October 2025.

I started writing about jobs. Hiring. Freelancing. Age discrimination. The broken job market. Topics people actually need. Not just stories that made me feel better to write.

October to January 2025: I went from 7,500 followers to 12,930. From $500 a month to $2,500, then $4,500.

Not because I got lucky. Because I finally stopped writing for my ego and started writing for them.

This Is a Long Time Coming

I’ve wanted to teach this for a while. But I needed to make sure I actually knew what I was talking about. I needed consistent results. Not one viral story. Not one good month.

I needed to prove to myself that this works. That it’s repeatable. That I can teach it.

And now I can. Because I’ve done it. I’m still doing it. Every day.

And I want to help you do it too.

Join the Group. Get the Details First.

I’m announcing this on Medium. I’ll announce it on LinkedIn. I’ll announce it everywhere.

But the people in my Skool group “Over 40 and Unemployed” are getting special offers. Early access. Locked-in pricing that won’t be available later. Because they’re the ones who’ve been with me through this process. The ones who asked me to build this in the first place.

So if you want the best deal, if you want all the details before anyone else, join now.

It’s free. And it’s where everything happens first.

This Is Raw. This Is Real.

I’m not building a polished, perfect course. I’m building an honest one. One that shows you my failures. My mistakes. The years I wasted writing for my ego. And the breakthrough. The moment everything clicked. The process that took me from broke to making real money.

This isn’t inspiration porn. This isn’t “follow your passion and the money will come.”

This is: stop being selfish, write for your audience, do the work, be patient, and get paid.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

And if you’re ready to actually do it, I’m ready to teach you.

Join my Skool group “Over 40 and Unemployed” to get all the details first. Sunday coffee hour at 9 AM Mountain Time. I’ll see you there.