How would you scale a niche school community for early career structural engineers, and is high ticket the only path?
The niche of early career structural engineers is tiny—about 3,000 total, capping at roughly 150 members even with a strong conversion rate. To scale you have two options: charge a higher ticket to the same audience, or find adjacent niches (e.g., early‑career civil or electrical engineers) and copy about 80% of the program with minor tweaks. You could also teach cold email as part of the offering. Essentially, either raise price or expand to similar audiences.
I’ve thought about creating an info product, but it feels too circular and I don’t want to be part of that AI‑economy‑joke where everyone’s investing in each other’s pockets. High‑ticket products also don’t appeal to me; they’re annoying and would make me unhappy even if they could generate millions. I prefer hands‑on work that directly helps people, especially beginners who are starting from zero. Building something from the ground up and watching newcomers succeed is far more fulfilling than adding a little extra revenue for already wealthy owners. So I’m steering clear of high‑ticket offers and focusing on low‑ticket, high‑impact education that serves a broader audience.
First I take stock of where we are. I have roughly 50 k followers across platforms, which currently generates about $128 k profit per month, or roughly $2.56 of profit per member. Michelle’s question is how to raise that per‑member profit to about $3.34 without adding more members.
To do that I need higher‑ticket products and additional revenue streams. My current product, Maker School, is $66 /month. I’m capped at that price point, so I can’t simply raise it. I’m thinking about creating a third, higher‑ticket offering—something like a $20 k‑per‑year advisory or mastermind that takes a percentage of the client’s revenue. For example, a $6 k annual fee plus 5 % of revenue would generate about $36 k from a client making $50 k a month.
The idea is to layer a low‑ticket (Maker School), a mid‑ticket, and a high‑ticket offering that helps members monetize, retain, and convert better, thereby increasing the average revenue per member from $2.56 to $3.34. Simpler options like selling templates could also add revenue, but the most direct way is to introduce a high‑ticket community or advisory service that captures a share of the growth we help generate.
The growth operator model works well because it lets you make bold, results‑based guarantees—like promising to add $150 K/month in six months—by improving a client’s revenue levers by a realistic percentage (e.g., 15% over six months, about 2.5% per month). If the client already generates high cash flow, such a lift is credible and achievable. I especially like applying this to content businesses, where you can promise concrete outcomes such as adding $20 K/month within three months or even more extravagant rewards, as long as the client isn’t opposed. Starting with a narrow niche—like school community owners—lets you build proof points and credibility quickly, then you can expand to broader creator markets once you have a track record. This approach balances focus with scalability.
You can absolutely hit $17‑$20K a month without cold email, but you need to focus on the platforms and outreach methods that actually move the needle. The biggest issue right now is that you’re not targeting the right places. While cold email is the simplest and most scalable channel, you can still generate high income through Upwork and community‑based outreach. For example, sending about ten high‑quality Upwork proposals a day can give you a 4‑6x return on your connect spend, which translates to roughly $7‑$8K a month after accounting for marketing and platform costs, leaving you with a healthy 75% gross margin. To improve beyond linear growth, decouple inputs from outputs by building reusable outreach templates and leveraging platforms that let you automate large‑scale, yet personalized, communication. Cold email is one such lever: invest a fixed amount of time in a high‑quality campaign, target precisely, and let it run without daily manual effort. Community outreach works similarly—become a recognized figure in a niche community, create evergreen posts that solve problems, and let those assets generate leads with minimal ongoing work. The same principle applies to cold DMs. All these strategies are layers of leverage; even the lowest‑leverage method—consistent Upwork activity—can get you to $17K if you execute well.