In a recent episode of the podcast The Proven Entrepreneur, host Don Williams interviewed Justin Allan Montgomery, founder of ProCourseStart, about building a high-demand continuing education (CE) business. Montgomery, who retired at 39 after an eight-figure exit from his CE company The Elite Nurse Practitioner, shared insights into why CE courses represent a uniquely durable opportunity in the e-learning space.
Montgomery argued that while the online course market is flooded with generic offerings and increasingly saturated with AI-generated content, continuing education for licensed professionals remains recession-resistant because demand is legally mandated. Licensed professionals such as dentists, lawyers, chiropractors, electricians, and nurse practitioners must earn CE credits to maintain their licenses, creating a built-in, repeat-buyer market.
"There's no such thing as passive income. I'm sorry. There just isn't," Montgomery told Williams, emphasizing that even his eight-figure business required roughly ten hours of active input per week. He revealed that his company generated $250,000 to $300,000 in monthly course sales, with some Black Friday months topping a million dollars.
Montgomery detailed his audience-first approach. He launched The Elite Nurse Practitioner in 2018 and spent six months building an audience of roughly 3,000 nurse practitioners before selling anything. That strategy paid off when he generated $50,000 in his first seven days. He grew that audience to 40,000 subscribers without relying on viral videos or a massive follower count.
For aspiring course creators, Montgomery recommended a tactical $10,000 startup budget: approximately $3,000 on product build and $7,000 on marketing. He also stressed the importance of validation before building. "You really need to spend more time developing your idea, developing your value proposition, identifying the problems that you're gonna solve. You need to spend more time on that than you actually spend building the course itself," he said.
Montgomery suggested using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to validate a course idea before investing in development. This approach can help identify demand and refine the value proposition with minimal upfront cost.
Reflecting on his journey, Montgomery noted that while simultaneously operating multi-location men's health clinics, he realized, echoing a mentor's advice, that "you can only build one bridge at a time." He doubled down on the CE business, engineered an eight-figure exit, and now runs ProCourseStart, offering a 15-hour evergreen course and a mastermind program available at ProCourseStart.com.
The episode, titled "The 8-Figure Loophole: Building a High-Demand Continuing Education Business," is part of The Proven Entrepreneur podcast hosted by Don Williams, which aims to share real success stories and tactical frameworks from operators who have built and exited businesses. Episode 165 is available at provenentrepreneurshow.com and wherever podcasts are heard.
