Brian Casel shares a first look at BuilderMethods.com. Brian dig into how he's going to grow an email list from scratch, and we had a great chat about what makes an email newsletter awesome.

The bulk of our chat was about honestly assessing the resources, time, and energy Brian is putting into each project, and how much revenue each project is producing. (Check out Justin's diagram here)

Timestamps:

• (00:05) - We're back live!
• (01:15) - What is BuilderMethods.com?
• (04:04) - Brian's building a newsletter builder first
• (08:17) - What makes a good newsletter?
• (15:44) - Do videos work in email newsletters?
• (20:00) - Next steps for Brian in the business: products to offer?
• (22:17) - Offering consulting and coaching
• (25:20) - Does it all feel overwhelming to take on?
• (30:53) - Visualizing Brian's project's revenue vs time
• (34:05) - Audience building vs Saas building
• (41:56) - How excited is Brian about each project?
• (58:14) - How do you quantify the time and revenue?

• 🎤 Send us an audio or video message
• 📧 Email us: panelpodcastshow@gmail.com
• 📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
  
• 🦋 Reply on Bluesky
  

Links mentioned in this episode

• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company
• Builder Methods
• Instrumental Components
• Audience Ops
• Justin’s “Bob Ross” strategy diagram
• Marketing for Devs
• Curated
• Mailbrew
• A Book Apart
• Web framework popularity
• Hitenism
• Aaron Francis Newsletter
• Tangle
• Product market fit collapse
• Why Justin pivoted businesses in 2018

Brian's walking through the new website and idea he's launching and getting Justin's feedback on what he thinks will work and what could use refining, the struggle of creating video content in 2025, keeping course content fresh, whether another podcast is the best use of time, and whether targeting junior or professional software developers is the best route to go.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - What broke the internet?
• (02:00) - Sports is heartache
• (05:49) - The trouble with hosting video costs
• (24:57) - What is Brian launching?
• (35:13) - The struggle of creating video content
• (37:48) - How are people finding the videos on YouTube?
• (47:19) - What do we think about the revenue opportunities for Brian's idea?
• (51:49) - Keeping a course and content fresh in 2025
• (59:38) - Should Brian start another podcast?
• (01:04:21) - Should I target junior or professional software developers with AI training?
• (01:22:20) - Live shoutouts

• 🎤 Send us an audio or video message
• 📧 Email us: panelpodcastshow@gmail.com
• 📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
  
• 🦋 Reply on Bluesky
  

Links mentioned in this episode

• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company
• Amazon S3
• Mux
• HTTP Live Streaming
• Delivering 15TB of 4K video with Cloudflare R2 for $2.18
• How About Tomorrow?
• Cloudflare Stream
• FFmpeg
• How Vibe Coding Goes PRO
• buildermethods.com
• Descript
• ScreenFlow
• Telestream Blog
• Stephen Robles
• Mostly Technical
• CRUSH Your Backlog With Background Agents in Cursor
• No, AI Won’t Turn Everyone Into App Developers

Big episode! Brian shares the results of his launch of Instrumental Components (sales numbers, and how he's feeling). He also talks about his next project: helping devs and teams navigate how to use AI in software development and design. This episode was recorded live, with tons of folks joining us in the "panel" chat. Adam Wathan ended up joining us last-minute to talk about how he's changed is mind on AI and coding, and how AI is affecting Tailwind's business.

Timestamps:

• (02:50) - What is Instrumental Components and how has the launch been?
• (11:06) - Why not go for something big?
• (24:26) - What you hear online vs the reality of what's going on
• (29:24) - Pricing change for Instrumental Components
• (34:04) - Where Brian's going next
• (51:42) - Adam Wathan on how they're using AI
• (01:06:14) - Writing PRD for AI instead of prompt writing
• (01:09:39) - How is AI going to affect Adam's business?
• (01:24:03) - Vibe coding personal projects

• 🎤 Send us an audio or video message
• 📧 Email us: panelpodcastshow@gmail.com
• 📺 Leave a comment on YouTube
  
• 🦋 Reply on Bluesky
  

Links mentioned in this episode

• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company
• Integrate Open AI and Anthropic APIs into your Rails applications (video)
• Rob Walling's Stair Step approach
• Vercel's new V0 AI tool
• Thorsten Ball's article: How to build an agent
• Mostly Technical | 85: Screencasting.com Launch Failure
• The Steve Ballmer Interview: The Complete History and Strategy
• TaskMaster AI Solutions
• Claude Code Overview
• AI Video Editor
• Figma AI Creativity
• Rand Fishkin on Marketing