On the 6th March 2024, Aaron Francis was part of layoffs at Planet Scale, where he was an educator. Since then, Aaron has had a hard decision to make: find another job, or take the leap to full-time entrepreneur. Now the job offers came in thick and fast for Aaron, with almost 600,000 people seeing his layoff tweet, but after documenting his thoughts on his own podcast, Mostly Technical, Aaron announced what he was doing next. He launched his own content studio, Tryhard Studios.

Links:

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
01:28 What it's like being laid off
02:05 Building a studio in an apartment
04:24 Why PlanetScale laid off people
05:06 The reaction to being laid off
07:26 How to increase your chance of getting a new job
09:12 Side projects as layoff insurance
12:29 Do side projects make you more hireable?
15:09 Aaron's existing money making side projects
18:24 Deciding to go all in and not find another job
23:11 Aaron's new thing, Tryhard Studios
28:01 Why the name "Tryhard Studios"
30:15 The business model
32:08 Dealing with the course promotion treadmill
33:29 What things haven't gone so well
34:53 Building a pipeline of new work
37:13 Preparing for burnout

As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven— brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com.

If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

1021 - Illusion USA (3/23/26)

Chapo Trap House

Elon Musk's 'Based' Son and Public Absurdities

The AI-powered Podcast Player