383 days ago I quit my job.

I was working as the VP of Product Marketing at Kajabi, a high growth scale-up valued at $2 billion. On the surface, it looked like a dream job. But, underneath, I knew I wanted more:

• I wanted to be my own boss

• I wanted to build my own products

• And I wanted to control my own destiny

At the time, I had proof of concept for my business, PMM Camp. I had 2,000 newsletter subscribers, thousands of LinkedIn followers, and about 70 paying customers.

All that to say, I could pay my bills but not replace my tech salary. But, I was ready to take the leap.

Today, I’m going to share the story of my journey this past year. Of how I put it all on the line to prove that I really do know how to build and market products customers love.

The story of how I learnt how to market myself.

Please be gentle with me ❤️

Marketing Myself

First things first, I’m sure you’re wondering: was it all worth it?

I’m happy to report that, well, I’m happy 😊 I’ve come a long way in a short period of time. In just one year:

• My newsletter has grown from 2,000 subscribers to more than 6,500

• I’ve grown my LinkedIn followers from ~6,000 to 14,500 AND recently ranked as the #1 PMM creator in Canada

• The PMM Camp community has 200+ paying members

• 1,300 product marketers registered for Day Camp, my first virtual event

• I’ve partnered with brands I love like Hubspot, Klue, Navattic and more

• And I’m on track to surpass my tech salary in 2024

This isn’t meant to be a humble brag. I just want to be transparent about the results so we can use it as a frame for the inputs.

Now, onto the meat of today’s post. How did I put my PMM skillset to use get from A to B?

My Strategies and Tactics

From the beginning, I recognized there were two sides to my business: 1) building high quality products; and 2) marketing myself and my brand.

I’m sure you’d agree, as an experienced product marketer, this was the ultimate challenge!

However, in reality, things aren’t actually that black and white. Both sides flow into the other, and I found myself using the same strategies to grow both parts of the business. I’ve bucketed them below.

Customer Obsession

What’s that saying — the riches are in the niches? I am building a niche business. I’m radically focused on serving the product marketing leaders of today while building the leaders of tomorrow.

I’ve always loved this quote I heard from Shaan Puri: “You want to be "known well", not "well known". You want a narrow set of people to know a lot about you.”

My goal is to be the first person you think of when you hear the word “product marketing leader”. That’s it.

Which means I’ve completely immersed myself in that world. I’ve attended conferences, taken hundreds (yes, hundreds) of calls, and traveled to NYC, Austin, Vegas, London and San Fran to meet PMMs in person. I’m in my community every single day speaking to PMM leaders and learning more about their challenges.

This has been the fuel for my products and my content. The more I get this right, the faster I grow. It’s product marketing 101 — know thy customer.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

Experimentation

One of the first things I needed to understand was how I would make money (seems obvious, I know). By this I mean, which products would I offer? Which products would be free and which would be paid? What did my value ladder look like?

I knew I wasn’t building a consulting business. I do not want to exchange my time for money. But, beyond that, I wasn’t quite sure of the right product mix.

As any good product manager would do, I needed to test potential offerings with early adopters. Over the course of the year I’ve experimented with all of these products:

• Paid community memberships

• Brand sponsorships

• Free and paid courses

• Recurring leadership coaching

• One-time coaching and advising

• Product marketing consulting

Here’s the breakdown of my revenue by product type:

I quickly saw which areas brought me joy, and which drained me. And I’ve adjusted my product offerings accordingly. Moving forward, I’ll still have product diversity, but I’ll also have a refined focus that will allow me to better harness my energy.

Partnerships

Life isn’t a zero sum game. I don’t want to win if it means someone else needs to fail.

Call me cheesy, but I’ve adopted the following aphorism in my business: a rising tide lifts all ships.

Partnerships and collaborations have been the backbone of my strategy this year and have fuelled growth not only for my business, but for my friends’ businesses too.

Andy, Jason and I created the Ready for Launch brand with our own cohort-style course and podcast.

That same podcast was created in collaboration with my long-time friends at Klue.

Anthony, Emma and Jason helped me bring Day Camp to life. And I couldn’t have offered it for free if Navattic and Goldcast didn’t sponsor it.

I delivered the opening keynote at the Product Marketing Alliance’s conference in NYC and was a guest on some of my friends' podcasts (shoutout to April Dunford and Daniel Murray).

All this to say, growth didn’t happen because I built and marketed products alone at home. My business blossomed in partnership with really smart people doing really interesting things.

Habits

Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have one special LinkedIn tactic or newsletter growth hack you can steal. I wish it was that easy.

However, I do know one thing that almost always leads to success: consistency.

I truly believe my success this past year can be attributed to my determination to build habits. Here’s the habit tracker I built right into my Notion dashboard last year. It’s not fancy, but it keeps me focused.

(Yes, I’m learning Greek. Unrelated to today’s post, but a humbling experience nonetheless).

Every day I take one step forward and trust that it will get me closer to my goal. And, I try to celebrate progress along the way 🎉

One Final Thought

It’s ironic that one year after leaving my very official “product marketing leader” job I feel like a better product marketer than ever.

As a consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to peek inside half a dozen businesses. As a community leader, I’ve spoken to hundreds of PMM leaders about their current projects and challenges.

Every day, I get to apply everything I’m learning to my own business. And, help all of you too.

So I’ll end today with one final thank you to everyone who has welcomed me into their inbox this past year ❤️ I wouldn’t be here without you.

I hope sharing part of my journey helps give you the courage to follow your own dreams.

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

🎧 Playlist: April Dunford and I jam on product marketing lessons in the latest episode of her podcast Positioning with April Dunford. What a pinch-me career moment!

Keeping this light as I’m writing to you from my vacation in Greece 🇬🇷 Now, back to the beach.