E4: "The Craft of Building a Course Business" | David Perell, Write of Passage

Erik Torenberg sits down with David Perell – writer, founder and CEO at Write of Passage, and podcaster. Perell's writing is read by 70,000+ people. He has catalyzed many creators at the intersection of media and tech, including Packy McCormick. Riverside.fm is a presenting sponsor of Media Empires. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/MediaEmpires + use code MEDIAEMPIRES for 20% off individual plans. Media Empires is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: www.turpentine.co In this conversation, Erik and David discuss: how David chooses opportunities, his vision for the future of liberal arts education, and how Walt Disney serves as his enduring inspiration.  - SPONSOR: Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience, and deliver a beautiful UX that stands out in an inbox.  🐝to https://Beehiiv.com and use code "EMPIRES" for 20% off your first three months. - We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world’s leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000 RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Run the Numbers is a weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. Subscribe to listen on the platform of your choice: https://link.chtbl.com/runthenumbers TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Episode Preview (00:50) Sponsor: Riverside (02:12) David's inspiration to create the Annual Review (03:34) Write of Passage's evolution (10:30) Tradeoffs in ambition and lifestyle (14:04) How David chooses opportunities and remains focused (20:24) The Disney diagram (23:54) Investing in people (28:00) Success with cohort-based courses (32:03) Walt Disney as David's enduring inspiration (37:45) The future of liberal arts education  LINKS David Perell's site: https://perell.com/ Write of Passage: https://writeofpassage.school/ TWITTER @david_perell (David)  @eriktorenberg (Erik) @MediaEmpiresPod (Media Empires) Music License: LQ2DW3MRL0BZDOOW