104: Cash Cow Mode  ## Metadata - Author: [[Mostly Technical]] - Full Title: 104: Cash Cow Mode - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/2fd3d078-0184-4ded-a19f-fecf3dc1f7a5 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Unexpected Update Broke Redis Cluster** - Ian described a Friday outage caused by an Ubuntu security update that broke Redis and left HelpSpot Cloud instances down for several hours. - Matt and the crew recovered the service and they're exploring pre-update servers and health checks to avoid repeat incidents. Transcript: Ian Landsman So everybody has their own stuff they're running. Okay. But Ubuntu security updates we have running on automatic. And it's like just narrowed down to like critical security updates. Well, they critical security updated Redis and that when it came back up it was not able to start Redis. And so left it in a broken state. Yes. So all every Helps by Cloud customer instantaneously in a broken state. So and a weird sort of thing. We had to figure out how to like get it back into a working state. And there was some other as AWS experienced uh the other day right it's like there was some uh cascading effects then once one thing doesn't work so but matt and the crew did a good job we Got it back up uh so not too bad we got to figure out what to do about that i don't know there is it's all very fuzzy like there is a way you can run them early but it's not very much early and it's All the there's a little hand waviness in the documentation sort of about how early you're able to execute these so like i think in theory at least we can set up a server that runs the updates Ahead of time and you know have some health checks on it to make sure everything comes up correctly after the updates run and stuff was this a bad update Was there like an incident report Aaron Francis From Redis or Ubuntu or anything? Ian Landsman No, no. I think it's like we had something set up with our configuration file for Redis. It was in a weird spot or something. So Redis had this big security thing like a couple weeks ago. And I don't know if you're aware of that, but they had a huge security. It's wide open, whatever. Terrible security vulnerability situation. Aaron Francis Yeah, it checks out. Ian Landsman And we were waiting for them to do this. We thought they'd be doing it right away, but then they weren't doing it. So we actually were already prepared to, I forget which way Matt ended up handling it, but I think it was we were going to pull in Redis directly from Redis as opposed to from Ubuntu's setup. And because Redis itself had released the fix, but the fix had not come through Ubuntu, which is managing the package. So we were going to switch over. But before we switched over, they finally ran this thing because we were running tests to make sure us switching over would be seamless. And so we were actually on it, but we got punished anyway. And so when it came up, it couldn't read the configuration file or something. I don't actually have all the details there, but then that was the problem. So we had to like, I don't know if we moved. So how long were you down? I think it was like probably five hours or something like that. So not the end of the world, but not ideal. So that was Friday, but we got through that. ([Time 0:02:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c2a77b61-36cd-4d81-a396-d2e8ac901345)) - **Leased Horse Needed Emergency Surgery** - Ian's leased horse developed colic and needed emergency surgery at 3 a.m., which is both risky and expensive. - The horse recovered from surgery but now faces uncertain rehabilitation and jumping prospects. Transcript: Ian Landsman You know, not too many angry customers. So was good um and saturday our we lease a horse for my daughter who show jumps horses let me just tell you let me preface this by saying we are play we have a nice little successful business Okay but we are playing in a world that's, this is above our pay grade, right? You're touching the next echelon. This is the next level. We are not, we could drive nice cars. We have a nice house. We go on vacation. It's all good. Aaron Francis But you lease a horse. They're talking about the Landsmans because they're leasers. Yeah, they're leasers. Ian Landsman Exactly. And yeah. So, okay. So we lease this horse. The horse gets emergency illness called colic, which I suppose is similar to a baby who has colic, which we might be familiar with those of us with kids. But in a horse, it's more severe. It's not just that it's got a rumbly belly and it's upset or is crying for sort of iffy reasons. This is the horse is going to die. OK, so it is backed up. It can't get out. It's secretions. This horse is in bad shape. They send the horse at three in the morning to the emergency vet horse doctor. Right. So you know that's not going to be cheap, right? Aaron Francis You don't want a nighttime vet. Ian Landsman That's already that's already double. ([Time 0:05:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/97f0cb61-d91d-4ab0-894e-220889ceabb4)) - **Contracts Put Lessee On The Hook** - Ian explained lease contracts put financial responsibility on the leaser even for owner-decided medical care, and the paperwork was vague and one-page. - He regretted trusting the barn's informal advice and plans to use stricter contracts next time. Transcript: Ian Landsman The horse has a job. And don't even own this horse. Right. Now, the way these contracts work is that no matter what happens to the horse, no matter what, you are responsible for paying for the horse. So like to me, it's like, oh, if you break the horses something or other while you're riding the horse, I feel like, yes, that totally makes sense. I should have to fix that. And of course, you have to do all the maintenance of the thing. It's just like a car, that part of it. Great. I do the change the oil. Fine. But this like act of God, the horse got sick. This is like a totally random thing. Everybody acknowledges like nobody knows why it happens. Nobody knows really how to prevent it. It's just a thing that happens. Why do I have to pay for this? Okay. So I have to pay. This contract is ridiculous. You know, we probably should have, we took the advice of the barn we were at, which was a huge mistake. The business dad error one-on is don't ever trust anybody. So this contract is just like a napkin. Like basically like there, this contract is not even like a real contract. Like there's just no chat GPT ripped this thing to high hell. Like it's terrible. It's missing all kinds of stuff. It's horrible. So now it's sort of working out to our favor because in there, the only clear thing it says is it goes against convention, which convention is you need 30 days notice to even get out of this Contract. That's what the barn is telling us, right? But this contract doesn't say that. This contract says, let us know immediately. And for any reason, including injury, it says you can return the horse. You just forfeit the rest of your lease payment. Aaron Francis So we're like, great. That's what we're doing. Great. Yeah. Take this horse back, right? 3 a.m. I'm canceling my contract. Ian Landsman So we didn't, we weren't able to pull that off. And that would probably be a little bit, whatever. The etiquette there is probably a little bit even too far for us. But like, we're going to pay for the surgery, whatever, fine. But, you know, this horse is now in recovery, like a human. They compared it to a C-section. So this horse isn't jumping any jumps anytime soon, right? Like this horse is got, it could have setbacks. All kinds of stuff can happen to the horse, right? Yeah i'm not along on the journey with this horse's recovery exactly so we're like okay we pay where's the surgery we got it we don't know how much the surgery is yet but that's fine but The horse has to go back today like you know we're transferring it back the owner who loves the horse should take care of the horse it's their horse right great So that's kind of where we're At. The barn, though, is like, oh, that's not the etiquette and blah, blah. And I'm like, that's the etiquette. This is business. This is a tens of thousands of dollars thing we're talking about. We are not going on. This is what the contract says. It doesn't say anything about 30 days or anything else. It doesn't even make sense. Why would you even want us care of this horse? Like, we are people who are not motivated necessarily to make optimal decisions for this horse, in theory. Now, we wouldn't, obviously, intentionally do anything to hurt the horse. There's even a whole other side aspect to this, which is really the owner decides everything. Like, the owner makes the call on getting the surgery. We just have to pay. What? Yeah, the current state of it is you still have to do whatever the owner says. So you don't even have any say in what happens. That's how crazy this stuff is. Now, even that should be specified in the contract and it isn't actually explicit. This contract should be 30 pages long. ([Time 0:07:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e510d3e9-2dba-49be-8768-e34268bea601)) - **Built A Chalkboard-Centric Studio** - Aaron built a new living-room studio centered on a large framed green chalkboard shipped from New York/New Jersey blackboard makers. - He chose green over black, stained IKEA shelves, and mounted the 60 lb board freestanding to avoid drilling apartment walls. Transcript: Aaron Francis So where I'm recording right now is the bedroom of the apartment. Out there is the living room. And I have built out a brand new set that features prominently a giant chalkboard. Ian Landsman Man, I love what you call these things. Giant chalkboard. Nobody, who saw this coming? You've never seen anybody do this before, right? Nobody's done it. I love it. It's fantastic. It's 10 times better than I was expecting. I was expecting just another nice set, like the one you have now, but just, I didn't expect it to be different. Like, I just wanted to have a different place. And I'm sure I expected it to be nice, but I was expecting it to be blown away. And I was blown away. I was like, this is a fantastic idea. Like, what a great idea. What an eye-catching people everybody's got that in their head of like school and learning and there's like a heavy nostalgia connection to it so fantastic i saw you had a post that they Sent you a black one by mistake they did you insisted on the green i did that's an excellent call i think the black one would been way inferior to the green one green one it was totally required Aaron Francis Um so that was great and it's just such like a deep rich green it's just the perfect green yeah that that uh that little snafu cost me like two weeks you know two and a half weeks getting the Other one because they build them they build these boards and then they ship them from New York. I think it's actually New Jersey. I feel like that's a common thing up there to be based in New Jersey and call New York Blackboards. Ian Landsman New York Giants. They're all in New Jersey, actually. Aaron Francis They're all New Jersey? Yeah. Oh, that's funny. The sports teams are in New Jersey. I didn't know that. So, yeah, I built out a set and I called up NewYorkBlackboard.com or Blackboards.com, one or the other. Ian Landsman I heard we don't make anything anymore. But you make Blackboards, baby. Aaron Francis You make Blackboards and have for like 75 years. That's so cool. It's one of those. It's great. And so I talked to Joey, truly. It's definitely New Jersey, for sure. I talked to Joey Tringali. I talked to him first in New Jersey. Up in New Jersey. Talked to him on the phone. He sent me a couple of samples. And so he sent me, you know, like a four by four square of a black one and a four by four square of a green one. And it arrived and I was like, obviously, this green is beautiful. I have to get the green. And he sent me some samples of the wooden border that goes around the board. Because you can get it unframed. You can get it framed with three or four different types of wood. You can get no chalk tray. And so they do it all. It's like completely custom. They do all the classrooms on the Eastern seaboard. Very, very, very cool. So I had this idea because for for a couple of reasons some are practical some are emotional the practical one is steve is gone right steve is uh steve is off doing you know off as a service Um uh i cannot do motion graphics in terms of like video work motion graphics one are very very time consuming and very hard to learn and therefore two are very expensive to hire out so I was staring down the barrel of like okay i just lost like a big like i just lost my visualizations uh ability right i can't do 3d i can't even do 2D really that well. And so I need some way, some affordance whereby I can help people visualize things. It is very common, I think, to do whiteboards. And a lot of people have done whiteboards. And I actually, you know, in a previous office back when I was a working man, I had a whiteboard. I loved a whiteboard. A whiteboard is great. That's how I did when I was in college. I did all of my accounting tutoring at a whiteboard. I loved it. But I thought that's been done. Like that's been done several times. It's very like, there's nothing really, there's no second layer to that. It's just like, I have a whiteboard now. Ian Landsman It's just expected. You're not going to note that. It's like, oh yeah, he's got a whiteboard. That makes sense. I've seen Khan Academy and everybody else has got the whiteboard. Great. Aaron Francis And so then I looked at the light boards with an L, light boards, and those are very, very cool. So it's like a, you know, a pane of glass, edge illuminated, and you write on it with these neon markers and then you flip it in post and it comes out as if you're writing kind of in thin air. Looks very cool. Problem with that is um for the effect to work with the you know the physicality of light for the effect to work everything else has to be basically pitch black oh right so the background Has to be black you have to wear black the lights have to be low so that the only thing illuminated is the light board and the neon markers and so i watched several of those videos and I was Just like, this is cool, but it's like nerdy. It's like it's not the vibe I want. It's very like oppressive. It's very dark. It's just like this is clearly a nerd, you know, in in some basement studio doing this. And so I thought that's that's no good either. I don't like that. That's not your brand. No, not at all. And so then I thought chalkboard, chalkboard is cool. Like chalkboard is, it has that second layer of nostalgia, um, analog, tactile reality, like anti AI. So it has this whole other emotional layer to it in addition to being practical. And so I started looking around for like, you know, I looked at chalkboard paint and I was like, this is janky. It doesn't erase well. It's, it's, it doesn't turn, it's always black. Usually it's like, I don't like this. And looked on, you know, Craigslist all over the city to be like, where can I find a chalkboard from an old school and that's not really a thing um and then i came across blackboards of new Ian Landsman York or new york blackboard and called them up and five hundred dollars to make a chalkboard four hundred dollars to ship it so i mean i think that's great i was expecting way more than That it's not bad i know so it's that's crazy i thought especially because it's framed in wood it's not just like well we took the sheet off the assembly line and shipped it out. It's like they constructed, you know, some work there. Yeah. Aaron Francis So it's three feet tall, seven feet wide. And it's framed in, I think, oak or something. And it's just, it's beautiful. Ian Landsman It had a very school vibe. The oak was perfect. Aaron Francis This is great. So it shows up. ([Time 0:21:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9d15ecce-10f4-49d7-9cf7-35aa5dac190e)) - **Nostalgia Enhances Visual Teaching** - Aaron wanted a second-layer emotional affordance: chalkboards add nostalgia and tactile authenticity beyond whiteboards. - That emotional layer can strengthen teaching by making visualizations feel more human and memorable. Transcript: Aaron Francis It is very common, I think, to do whiteboards. And a lot of people have done whiteboards. And I actually, you know, in a previous office back when I was a working man, I had a whiteboard. I loved a whiteboard. A whiteboard is great. That's how I did when I was in college. I did all of my accounting tutoring at a whiteboard. I loved it. But I thought that's been done. Like that's been done several times. It's very like, there's nothing really, there's no second layer to that. It's just like, I have a whiteboard now. Ian Landsman It's just expected. You're not going to note that. It's like, oh yeah, he's got a whiteboard. That makes sense. I've seen Khan Academy and everybody else has got the whiteboard. Great. Aaron Francis And so then I looked at the light boards with an L, light boards, and those are very, very cool. So it's like a, you know, a pane of glass, edge illuminated, and you write on it with these neon markers and then you flip it in post and it comes out as if you're writing kind of in thin air. Looks very cool. Problem with that is um for the effect to work with the you know the physicality of light for the effect to work everything else has to be basically pitch black oh right so the background Has to be black you have to wear black the lights have to be low so that the only thing illuminated is the light board and the neon markers and so i watched several of those videos and I was Just like, this is cool, but it's like nerdy. It's like it's not the vibe I want. It's very like oppressive. It's very dark. It's just like this is clearly a nerd, you know, in in some basement studio doing this. And so I thought that's that's no good either. I don't like that. That's not your brand. No, not at all. And so then I thought chalkboard, chalkboard is cool. Like chalkboard is, it has that second layer of nostalgia, um, analog, tactile reality, like anti AI. So it has this whole other emotional layer to it in addition to being practical. ([Time 0:25:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/798ce0ed-aaf7-41e7-a0bd-7f2ec580497a)) - **Pick A Visual That Matches Your Brand** - Aaron rejected dark lightboard rigs because they require pitch-black backgrounds and clothing, making them impractical for his brand. - He selected a chalkboard to combine tactile nostalgia with practical visual teaching advantages. Transcript: Aaron Francis And so then I looked at the light boards with an L, light boards, and those are very, very cool. So it's like a, you know, a pane of glass, edge illuminated, and you write on it with these neon markers and then you flip it in post and it comes out as if you're writing kind of in thin air. Looks very cool. Problem with that is um for the effect to work with the you know the physicality of light for the effect to work everything else has to be basically pitch black oh right so the background Has to be black you have to wear black the lights have to be low so that the only thing illuminated is the light board and the neon markers and so i watched several of those videos and I was Just like, this is cool, but it's like nerdy. It's like it's not the vibe I want. It's very like oppressive. It's very dark. It's just like this is clearly a nerd, you know, in in some basement studio doing this. And so I thought that's that's no good either. I don't like that. That's not your brand. No, not at all. And so then I thought chalkboard, chalkboard is cool. Like chalkboard is, it has that second layer of nostalgia, um, analog, tactile reality, like anti AI. So it has this whole other emotional layer to it in addition to being practical. And so I started looking around for like, you know, I looked at chalkboard paint and I was like, this is janky. It doesn't erase well. It's, it's, it doesn't turn, it's always black. Usually it's like, I don't like this. ([Time 0:25:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ff04382d-120b-4e3b-8151-46e91ff6789a)) - **Systematize Multi-Camera Recording** - Aaron standardized camera rigs with tripod-mounted batteries and HDMI-to-SDI converters to avoid swapping SD cards and power hassles. - He routes SDI coax to a Blackmagic DeckLink in a Mac Studio and records clean, separate high-quality camera and mic files into OBS. Transcript: Aaron Francis So they're all Canon cameras they're all slightly different um just because that's what i had um but attached to each camera i have like a standard setup um and a lot of the thought of putting This together was like all right i need i need a system like i have this has to be i can't be schlepping cards around and like accidentally moving cameras, trying to get cards out, running Out of space on cards. Like I just I have if I'm going to do this as, you know, one man show, it's got to be systematized. So every camera is on a tripod and attached to the tripod is a small rig battery, which is very cool. It lasts forever. And then attached to the other leg is a Blackmagic HDMI to SDI converter. So it converts it into a coax cable. And so the black or the small rig battery powers this converter box and it powers the camera. So I don't have to like have AC adapters for all the cameras which is nice hold on it's not a dummy battery no it's a okay it's a rechargeable battery so inside the canon cameras are real Batteries um and then on the leg of the tripod is a small rig uh which is a brand name small rig uh power bank battery basically, basically. And it's huge. It's like, I don't know how many milliamp hours, but it's huge. And so out of that SmallRig battery, I run USB-C into the camera to power it. And then I run USB-A over to the Blackmagic converter box to power it. And then out of the camera, I run HDMI the Blackmagic box to convert HDMI to this coax because it can run longer lengths than an HDMI cable. HDMI maxes out, you know, 20 feet, 30 feet. Really? Okay. It can get, it can go further, but you at some point need boosters or converters to, you know cat 60 or something so i don't want to get into all that i don't want to get into all that so all Three tripods have this exact same setup and then i have these three coax cables run out of the living room through the bathroom back into the closet up into the mac studio because all The stuff all this all the noisy stuff is in the back. The NAS, the Mac Studio, all of that is in the back. And attached to the Mac Studio is a Thunderbolt enclosure. So I got like an expansion, you know, an enclosure. Yeah, kind of. And in that enclosure is a Blackmagic DeckLink quad that has four SDI inputs and so i can take four cameras in i only take three but i can take four cameras in and then i those are visible Then to obs as devices and so on the mac studio in the back i run obs and it i can like have a confidence monitor that shows all three cameras so i can see that like everything's working, which Is very nice. And then I can hit, I can hit, you know, start recording and it records my, my lav mic and the three cameras as separate files. And so at the end I have four files that are all, you know, 2160, like highest quality possible. ([Time 0:38:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7f3d6bf7-8493-4bb1-8c25-5ede5f6a3c84)) - **Use Small-Caps For Readable Board Writing** - Aaron adopted small-caps handwriting for maximum legibility on camera and trained himself to write architect-style letters. - He practices this style in daily notes to internalize consistent, readable board writing. Transcript: Aaron Francis Have done some like practice recordings of like, you know, all right, let's do some dress rehearsals. And it's good. I've spent maybe a couple hours my handwriting to small caps. Ian Landsman So I had this question of how is your handwriting and drawing? Because this is kind of dependent. Like I couldn't do this because my handwriting is unreadable. Aaron Francis My handwriting is pretty good. You know, I spent years at the board tutoring accounting. And so my handwriting is pretty good. Did notice when i was doing handwriting um that small caps are more readable than trying to do upper and lower and so i have been i've been writing my lines at the board converting my handwriting To you know basically like architect handwriting so i have you know the capital letters are big, but they're still capital. Lowercase letters are small caps. So there's no two versions of the letter E. There's only a tall capital E and a small capital E. And so everything looks like architect handwriting now. And so it's imminently readable. It takes a little bit of mental load to be like, don't back to, don't go back to, you know, regular. And actually like in my, I don't have a yellow notepad here. Um, in my, like, whenever I do take notes, I am also converting my handwriting in regular daily use to small caps. I'm just, I'm changing my handwriting. Yeah. I'm 36 and I'm like, well, all right, we'll try something new. So, yeah, I'm getting my brain only to write in small caps because it's much more legible. It's much more consistently legible, I will say. ([Time 0:44:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1e784ff2-75ce-453a-abdd-0f4056f05621)) - **Prepare Tools And Condition The Board** - Aaron uses a projector to trace complex diagrams and bought premium non-squeaky chalk plus microfiber cloths to reduce dust and smearing. - He conditioned the board by rubbing full-coverage chalk into the surface to improve eraseability. Transcript: Aaron Francis Um i do have a projector and so if there is like a big diagram that i need to do i will do it first in tl draw and i'll project it onto the board and trace out some of it um but beyond that i don't Have any like protractors or rulers or anything that could fit uh that could fit the need um i have purchased Japanese chalk, of course. Obviously. I believe it is now South Korean chalk. It's one or the other. So there's originally a company that was either in Japan or South Korea where they make this very specific type of chalk that all the mathematicians covet, and this company was going Out of business. And they were like, we're done and then um whichever the alternative is there was a japanese man or a south korean man that was like hey sell me these machines and let me carry on the legacy I promise i'll protect it and the guy was like sure it sounds good um and so i've purchased some of that some of that chalk and it's uh it's tight. And so it like doesn't get all super dusty and it writes very cleanly and it sounds good. Like it's not squeaky. And so I purchased some of that. And I do have, it's predominantly white, but I bought a multicolored pack too in case I need any sort of, hey, look at this. So that is, and I bought some microfiber cloths because all the actual erasers just like smear it around. The microfiber cloth actually like cleans the board. And, you know, I read some articles about conditioning a chalkboard. And so I spent some time making the entire chalkboard white, the whole chalkboard to fill in all the pores and then, you know, wiping it off with the microfiber cloth. And now it cleans more like more cleanly because it's like there aren't any pits in there that haven't been filled historically. ([Time 0:46:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8f09c62e-7aef-42ba-ad8c-4990f128d3da)) - **Niche: Developer-Focused Database Education** - Aaron sees a gap teaching databases for developers (non-DBAs) and believes that focused, approachable video courses can claim that niche. - Proprietary database platforms may sponsor foundational free content while advanced material becomes paid, aiding growth. Transcript: Ian Landsman Think for your target audience, which is going to be to some degree, I feel like the like people who don't want to just read the docs, right? Like the dry, I'm just going to go to SQL or Microsoft or MySQL docs and like go through there or whatever, Postgres's docs and like be super bored and like just obviously it's terrible In there for the most part. Or if it's when you get to different database platforms, I'm going to go to, you know, Redis's official video series. That's some generic person up there being corporate-y and generic, right? Like, so this is your, a very clear distinction that this is a different type of thing, that this is not just this guy in a suit giving you the facts about, you know, indexes and whatever Aaron Francis In a totally dry boring manner so and i like that has always been true but this is now clear on the face of it that it is true and that's helpful right because if you land on the site and you're Like whoa what the hell this guy's like right at a chalkboard teaching what's going on here like you don't have to watch the videos to see this is something different yeah you know it's Something different let me dive in and see if it's something that i like sure that's fine but facially it is different and so i do i do like that a lot and i was on uh i finally was able to join Uh justin and brian on the panel podcast and was telling uh i was telling them and it surprised brian that i don't feel like i have any competition here um in in the database world and you And i have talked about this a little bit but you know if i were to teach react or mcp servers or typescript or even laravel at this point like there's there's there's a lot of competition. Right. And so in this database world where it's not teaching to DBAs, um, there's just, there's just no competition. And so I'm hoping that I can, uh, I can become, like I've mentioned many times before, become that like trusted voice in database education for non-DBAs, for developers. ([Time 0:53:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a8d24888-884c-4fd0-a00a-77bf527c4795)) - **Use Sponsor Deals To Seed Growth** - Consider sponsor deals that fund a free introductory course while reserving advanced modules for paid subscribers. - Use sponsor traffic links to gate free courses and convert engaged learners into paid members for deeper content. Transcript: Aaron Francis So i've got one more deal that is closed um and then two that are in the works and in addition to you know the one i'm working right now super base um and so the one that is closed is an open source Technology it's kind of like this it's similar to the super based one it like an open source technology. We're the like premier host of it. And so do you want to teach that? It's like, sure. Sounds great. Proprietary, but they like want me to do a course on their technology, like their offering in the database space. And I'm like, sure, that sounds great. Because I don't have any, I don't have any market risk on it if they're going to pay, like if they're going to pay me to do it, and then I can put it on database school and they can send people Over and be like, hey, there's a fully free course, you know, two or three hours on using our technology and you'll get to learn fundamentals and how to use it. Go over there and check it out. That seems awesome to me. And so the stuff that I'm hoping will build the subscriber base is that open source technology stuff. So like the Redis and the DuckDB and that sort of stuff. Ian Landsman Well, I think you should be, I would be a little cautious there. I guess here's my thought on it. It's like, first of all, the distinction from a like people who are willing to pay money for things angle in the current environment between an open source thing and a proprietary thing Is pretty blurry at this point. Like back in the day, it was like, I'm using open source thing because it's free. And if I, or otherwise I'm paying Microsoft $10,000 per chip and fee for my big database server, right? Like, but now it's like, well, yeah, I'm using Postgres, but on Superbase and I'm paying them money to do it. Or I'm using MySQL on RDS and I'm paying them money to do it. So, so you're still always now, I feel like as a business making this decision of like, I'm still now at this point, like what's the best database platform? I'm paying money for any of them. I'm not running any of them myself for free. So they're all commercial in a, in that sentence. And so, yeah, I think like, I don't know, I think it could be interesting to potentially structure some of those if it's possible to be more like where those courses become part of database School paid. And it's just like if they come through the proprietary platform, like if they can send a link out to their newsletter and have a link on their website, even that just going through that Link, get you the course for free. Great. Like it'd be super permissive, right? But if you don't come through that door, then it's not necessarily free. Like if you just show up at databaseschool.com, you have to sign up to watch it. And so it's only free when you come through them because that is like builds your offering because I think people will buy for a proprietary database platform. If anything, I feel like it's more necessary to buy for the proprietary, because there's less information than in, there's 8 million resources on Postgres and MySQL. And so there, you have to be the best of them. But in, you know, ClickHouse or whatever, it's like, yeah, there's some stuff, but there's not nearly as much as my sequel right so yeah so i think there's something there too or maybe It's a pro and free or whatever yeah you know there's different ways to slice it but i wouldn't yeah say i think that people will buy for that too potentially that's interesting i would Aaron Francis Have to figure out and become comfortable with the deal structure on that like yeah hey you pay me $150,000 and then I'm going to put it behind a paywall. It's like, well, that's a bold move, my friend. But maybe. Maybe. Ian Landsman But also, I mean, maybe it's more like the free and the pro, right? It's like, well, I'm doing this free version of it. That is what you're paying for. And then you're going to have the more advanced version, which gets into deeper stuff. And maybe there's a few things you always reserve that that you're like, listen, I'm not going to get too deep on your indexing setup or whatever, because that's where I make my money On the pro side of it, whatever. ([Time 0:58:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1824a9d8-6978-4adf-95c6-888d065ebc0b)) - **Schedule Small Wins And Recording Sprints** - Turn course production into repeatable, bite-sized units: plan weekly or multi-day recording sprints and hit small goals consistently. - Alternate focused recording blocks with rest or prep weeks to avoid burnout and preserve creative energy. Transcript: Aaron Francis Like a content schedule of deals and in-house. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Ian Landsman It doesn't have to be, like, the specific deals. I just feel like you have enough backlog between stuff you want to do on your own and deals you're working that there's plenty to do, right? So I feel like you need to be like, I'm coming up with a schedule of how much content I'm going to make. And this is the year of the push where I'm doing. I think you're right. I don't know the number of videos it is, 150 videos or whatever, 200 videos, right? But it's like every week, this is my grind. I'm doing these videos and I'm holding myself to that, which I don't work this way. So this is me giving you advice that I do not take myself, but I feel like for you and what you're doing, something like that might be valuable to like have this barometer of where you are And how far along you are and all that stuff. Aaron Francis So I think I am now in the fortunate and terribly unfortunate position where the only thing that can the only thing that can make this fail is if I just don't do the work. Right. Yeah, that's great. What a great spot to be in. It's all on you. What a great spot to be in. There is no, no, there's nothing that can stop me except myself. And what a horrible, horrible, horrible spot to be in. Oh, that is what, when I wake up at 3am and can't go back to sleep, that's why I put on Curb Your Enthusiasm in my headphones. Cause I'm like, oh God, the whole world is resting upon my shoulders let's see what larry david's up to because i just it's just so much so yeah i mean maybe we can maybe we can thread the Needle i think we can i think we can i've got an editor i've got a set i've got the brain i just need to like do the thing well this is where i think it's like also maybe it creates bite-sized Ian Landsman Chunks. Do you know what I mean? So like, I got through this week. Oh, I got through next week. Oh, like, yeah, I was going to do 20 videos this week. I got them done. Oh, next week I'm going to do 20. Oh, I did those 20. Like, as opposed to like, oh, I have 300 videos. Like 300 sounds like an impossible number. You're never going to do it, right? Or 100 even. Even 100 sounds impossible. Does but it's not impossible it's possible it just has to get done turning it into those small chunks so that you can build momentum have accomplishments uh and then even just abstracting It from the courses to me that's almost like the main thing because it's like oh if you run out of this course you finish this course but you don't have the next paid one set up okay you backfill With just your one you're working on like you're just a machine who's building these courses and not so much like not so much even about a course as a whole concept because that feels overwhelming To me right it's like oh the course has 35 videos and that's a lot of videos and i'm only through 15 it's like no my job is just to do this x number of videos this week and that's what i do every Aaron Francis Week and i'm changing at least i at least mentally i think on the site as well i'm changing them to series it's not a course it's a series that's what Jeffrey does that's even better it's Like all right I got a series on on Redis and it just feel like the weight I love that the bar feels so much lower so much better with the subscriptions and series it's great and I'm not I'm Not doing I'm not doing big splashy launches where I got to come up with a new like a cinematic video every time like i'm i just can't do that one i can't do that without steve and two that's Just too much pressure jeffrey doesn't do that he just like sits quietly and works all day and then goes and hangs out with his family or plays chess or whatever he said i think you'll need Ian Landsman A little more than jeffrey i don't know if you've earned i know jeffrey's release schedule yet but i don't think you need to do the crazy video every time. I just think, hey, here's a new series. Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. New series for a week or two, right? Okay, then on to the next one. But like, I love the series idea because it's like, oh, I got eight great videos here. Boom, series. And then you backfill when you have time with, now I added three more videos to that series. Oh, changed they added a new thing here's another video right and like it's just an ever-growing thing as opposed to yeah I have to complete this to ship the entire thing which is you know Obviously very unit the unit of work needs to be much smaller yes yeah yeah and it lets you cut things in too then it's like oh something's hot right now I'm just gonna cut this one in into The schedule totally no problem doesn't matter as opposed to like oh i'm on the death march of this 40 video course and i'm never gonna get there it's the death ([Time 1:06:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/dc1ee727-6964-4e64-8852-b955ce097c5b)) - **Execution Is The Last Remaining Risk** - Aaron recognized the project's only remaining major risk is his own execution and consistency. - That realization reframes the problem: success depends on disciplined output, not product-market fit. Transcript: Aaron Francis So I think I am now in the fortunate and terribly unfortunate position where the only thing that can the only thing that can make this fail is if I just don't do the work. Right. Yeah, that's great. What a great spot to be in. It's all on you. What a great spot to be in. There is no, no, there's nothing that can stop me except myself. And what a horrible, horrible, horrible spot to be in. ([Time 1:07:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8febbae1-595b-4ed4-8272-4202b061e42a))