Episode 7: Teaching Teaching with Dave Stuart, Jr.

Life On Brand with Dave Stuart, Jr.

Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan it.

Matt wanted to be a lawyer and as the good Asian boy that I am, I wanted to be a doctor. But just because things don’t work out, doesn’t mean we can’t still do great things with our lives.

Our next guest is a true example of this. His name is Dave Stuart.

Dave and I met back in college at the University of Michigan when we were a part of a pre-med student program. Ultimately, he decided that medicine wasn’t the right thing for him, and I for one am glad that it didn’t.

Today, Dave works as a history teacher by day and runs a successful blog by night that educates teachers on how to engage and impact the lives of their students. It’s a sad reality, but most teachers quit the professional within the first 3-5 years of their career due to the challenging working situation and not having enough support and training.

And Dave wants to do something about that. He wants to help teachers flourish. Because when teachers flourish, students flourish.

In our interview with Dave, we ask him about how he got started and considering he gets approximately half a million of readers on his blog every year, we asked him about tips and tricks he learned along the way as he built his blog and mailing list.

Thinking about starting a blog? Have one but it’s floundering? Then you’ll enjoy our interview with Dave Stuart of davestuartjr.com.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:20 How Dave got to where he is today.
• 4:33 When he decided to go into teaching.
• 5:34 Dave’s favorite period of history.
• 6:37 How a writing passion turned into an entrepreneurial venture.
• 8:45 Dave describes his process for building the blog.
• 13:00 How he landed in the Convert Kit coffee table book
• 17:39 That one reason Dave started the blog and the thing he hopes readers get from it.
• 20:29 How he promoted the blog at the outset. What worked and what didn’t.
• 22:30 Seminal moments throughout his blog’s success.
• 25:56 Daves feelings around his first published post.
• 28:32 Some challenges in his journey as a writer.
• 32:41 How he manages his time and finds balance.
• 37:26 When and how Dave’s online course came about.
• 39:59 Dave’s ultimate vision for the business.
• 42:06 Advice for listeners looking to start a niche blog.
• 45:15 Dave responds to our slow burn questioning sequence; revealing his views on success, doubt, what he would have done differently, things he found easy or difficult, and the song that best describes him.
• 52:60 Dave answers the previous guest’s question – How is your soul?
• 54:14 The one question Dave would ask other business owners.

Links and Resources:

Dave’s Blog

These Six Things

Convert Kit

I’m a Blogger Series    

Charitywater.org