Learn Scrivener Fast

Joseph Michael was using Scrivener—a powerful but notoriously difficult writing tool—to organize his blog posts when he noticed a striking gap in the market. On Twitter, writers were simultaneously obsessed with and frustrated by the software. "People are saying they want to marry scrivener and have its adorable little organized babies," he recalls, "but then there's this other group saying, gosh, I tried scrivener, but it's just so hard to learn." He realized there was no quality product teaching people how to use Scrivener effectively—and if there was, it could be transformative. At the time, Joseph was working a mediocre $60,000/year day job at a casino organization, looking for problems to solve after previous business failures.

Joseph had no email list, no audience, and no experience in online marketing when he launched Learn Scrivener Fast. His strategy was unglamorous but effective: identify influential writers and propose webinar partnerships. He hired a researcher for $200 to compile a list of 200 potential JV partners, categorized by reach (A, B, and C tier). He started with his first partner, Jeff Gawins of GawinsRider.com, inviting him to co-host a teaching webinar. The webinar generated roughly 2,000 registrations, with about 600 attendees live. Joseph taught directly from the software—"come watch over my shoulder"—demonstrating Scrivener's capabilities from beginner to advanced. The soft sell came naturally: people who loved the free training were offered lifetime access to his video course.

The results shocked him: 30% conversion rate, meaning 180 people purchased his $297 top-tier course. Suddenly Joseph had 1,000 email subscribers and proof of concept. He realized webinars were his growth engine.

Joseph's JV partnership model was built on two key insights: (1) offer partners 50/50 revenue splits, and (2) handle all the logistics so they could take credit without effort. This removed friction for influential partners. He then systematized the funnel. Using cold email to his C-list of writers (those with smaller but engaged audiences), he gradually worked upward. People told him 30% was an exceptional conversion rate, so he doubled down on webinars for the next two years. By the time of the interview, his email list had grown to over 60,000 highly targeted subscribers—a mix of Scrivener users and aspiring course creators.

Joseph's pricing strategy was counterintuitive: charge more for the course ($45–$297 tiers) than the software itself ($45). The reason? Strategy and knowledge are more valuable than tools. He also discovered a secondary market: he'd created enough proof of success with Learn Scrivener Fast that he could now launch a course teaching others how to build and market online courses—targeting product creators who wanted to replace consulting income.

In 2015, Learn Scrivener Fast generated $500,000 in revenue, averaging $40,000–$42,000 per month. Joseph had scaled from a casino job to building a business that could support his family (a wife, 10-year-old daughter, and one-year-old) and was aiming to double revenue to $1 million in the following year. His insight was that the real asset wasn't the course itself, but the 60,000-person email list of targeted, engaged subscribers—a list he could leverage for new JV partnerships or future products. He was also moving beyond Scrivener into the broader course-creation space, helping other entrepreneurs build their own online businesses. Nathan Latka joked that Joseph was likely making more money than Scrivener itself—a testament to the principle that teaching people to use a tool often beats selling the tool.