In Episode 165 of The Proven Entrepreneur, host Don Williams engages Justin Allan Montgomery, founder of ProCourseStart, in a deep dive on the continuing education (CE) market. Montgomery argues that CE courses for licensed professionals—such as dentists, lawyers, nurse practitioners, and electricians—offer a recession-resistant business model distinct from generic online courses. With buyer skepticism rising and AI flooding the course economy, CE stands out because demand is legally mandated, creating a built-in, repeat-buyer market.
Montgomery shares his journey from launching The Elite Nurse Practitioner in 2018 to an eight-figure exit and retirement at 39. He spent six months building an audience of 3,000 nurse practitioners before selling anything, then generated $50,000 in his first seven days. That audience grew to 40,000 subscribers without viral videos or a massive follower count. “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,” Montgomery advises.
The episode breaks down a tactical $10,000 startup budget: roughly $3,000 on product build and $7,000 on marketing. Montgomery emphasizes using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to validate a course idea before spending a dollar. He also debunks the myth of passive income: “There's no such thing as passive income. I'm sorry. There just isn't,” he states, noting that even his eight-figure CE business required about ten hours per week of active input, generating $250,000 to $300,000 in monthly sales, with Black Friday months topping a million dollars.
Montgomery’s deeper insight is that CE businesses thrive because licensed professionals are required to earn credits to maintain their licenses, making them repeat buyers. He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on audience-first models and avoid skipping validation. His current venture, ProCourseStart, offers a 15-hour evergreen course and a mastermind program at ProCourseStart.com.
Episode 165 is available now wherever podcasts are heard and at provenentrepreneurshow.com. The conversation underscores that in a saturated market, CE courses represent a durable, high-demand niche for those willing to do the upfront work.
