It's Justin's turn in the hot seat to talk about what he's got in his buckets: which projects make the most money? Which take the most time? Where is he focused on breaking new ground? How does Transistor, The Podcast Standards Projects, and other projects he's got going all fit together? Plus: what kind of grit, desire, and resilience do you need to actually build a company that works?

Timestamps:

• (01:09) - Why Brian will never join your Slack
• (04:54) - What email client did Brian switch to?
• (16:56) - Justin's matrix of boxes
• (17:58) - What are Justin's boxes?
• (19:54) - What is the Podcast Standards Project?
• (28:57) - The benefits of working in the same place together
• (35:49) - Pushing back on Justin's time allotement
• (38:48) - What's the work in the investment portfolio?
• (48:34) - Having the motivation and ability to commit
• (58:24) - Running your own business + a family changes the calculations
• (01:01:04) - Getting encouragment from simple projects

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Illustration: Justin's buckets
• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company
• Builder Methods
• Instrumental Components
• HEY – A delightfully fresh take on email + calendar, from 37signals
• Superhuman | The most productive email app ever made
• Shortwave | Download
• Readwise
• Podcast Standards Project | Advocating for open podcasting
• ProjectionLab - Modern Financial & Retirement Planning Tools
• Tiny | We buy wonderful businesses
• Going independent (2016 year in review)

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?

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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

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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

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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

Justin just got back from a big trip to London UK for the podcast industry conference, and honestly, it's got him thinking about some big thoughts about the podcasting medium. This episode starts out with an honest chat between Brian and Justin: 'How are you feeling about the podcast so far?'

Timestamps:

• (00:06) - Just the two of us
• (01:06) - The struggle with guests on a podcast
• (10:33) - What if we did it live?
• (16:46) - What's Justin been up to?
• (20:28) - How does the shift in podcasting affect Transistor?
• (24:50) - Justin's universal theory about podcasting
• (39:51) - One reason Justin is hopeful
• (43:42) - The pipeline problem is a big one for startups
• (51:19) - How could Transistor work in a video podcast world
• (57:53) - Why Justin is hopeful about Apple Podcasts

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Links mentioned in this episode

• The Podcast Show
• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company

Justin and Brian talk about how Brian's launch for Instrumental Components went. "Some things are way harder now that I'm older." Brian describes some of the technical challenges faced during the launch. There's also a meaty section about how much AI to use in software development (and how Brian uses it). At the end, Justin provides some feedback on Brian's pricing and marketing strategy.

Timestamps:

• (00:05) - Introduction
• (02:00) - Brian's early access launch
• (04:15) - The fear that nobody is going to buy
• (06:45) - Sass vs product
• (09:43) - How does it feel to launch a product as a solo person?
• (13:11) - Hiring vs doing it yourself + AI
• (24:20) - Are we losing the shared experience?
• (37:20) - Why are you batching invites out?
• (46:23) - The pricing decision
• (51:13) - The importance of positioning
• (55:40) - Why should this be a subscription?
• (01:04:38) - The importance of getting other people telling your story
• (01:09:23) - How to ask for social support from your people
• (01:17:16) - What's Justin up to next

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Aaron Francis' tweet
• Adam Wathan
• How About Tomorrow?
• The REWORK Podcast
• Replit
• Statamic
• Gravity Forms
• Tailwind UI Components
• Radical Design Course
• Instrumental Components - Brian's new product
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company

Justin is wrestling with strategic decisions for Transistor after hitting his initial "success goal," while Brian is two weeks away from launching a new Rails components product and grappling with how to reach his target audience.

Timestamps:

• (00:06) - What are we talking about in this episode?
• (01:41) - The importance of a founder or CEO
• (05:40) - Learning about marketing from politics
• (18:27) - Thinking about the next phase of Transistor
• (36:27) - Not knowing how a new product or service will be recieved until you launch it
• (48:34) - Being in motion in the direction you think you need to move
• (53:12) - Trying to figure out what makes me different
• (01:00:26) - Brian sharing his survey
• (01:09:35) - How do the rest of us reach people?
• (01:21:38) - SEO ideas in 2025

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Podcast Movement: The World’s Largest Podcasting Community | Events, Resources & More!
• Justin Jackson – SaaS, bootstrapping, marketing
• Jordan Gal Voice AI
• Marketing Automation
• Customer Engagement
• Email-First OS
• AI Video Editing
• AI Code Editor
• .NET & JavaScript Libraries
• Instrumental Products - Brian's company
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company

Jordan Gal is breaking the mold with his new startup Rosie. He's targeting non-technical small business owners using consumer-style marketing rather than the B2B approaches most SaaS use. He talks about the opportunities and risks with AI-based startups, and how he's waiting for the "dam to break."

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (03:42) - Using what I want to listen to to guide what I create
• (12:10) - The advantage of finding your audience
• (16:26) - What kinds of experiments have you run lately?
• (23:28) - What is the marketing strategy for Rosie?
• (33:10) - Struggling with content creation
• (47:28) - It can be dangerous when your audience is also your customers
• (54:02) - Content is not the end goal
• (01:05:19) - Building a business on tradespeople

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Links mentioned in this episode

• Rosie - AI Call Answering Service
• Jordan Gal - Portland, Oregon, rallyon.com | about.me
• Post Purchase Offers
• Brian Casel
• Bootstrapped Web
• Wireframing Tools
• Instrumental Products - Brian's company
• Clarity Flow - Brian's SaaS product
• Transistor.fm - Justin's company