Don’t be afraid to pivot: Jay’s gone through a few changes in his business, including an expansion into content products and a reintroduction of consulting services. He also rebranded the business when the original name no longer resonated as he wanted.
Treat your early ideas as experiments: Viewing new business ideas as experiments rather than final products allows you to iterate and improve without being discouraged by initial failures.
Use what you have: Jay developed his content products based on what he was already doing with his clients and plans to add online courses derived from his one-on-one coaching sessions.

The Story of Jay Melone

Jay Melone dreamed of being a doctor until he discovered he didn’t like other people’s blood.

On a whim, Jay, a fan of the movie Hackers, took a computer science course, which spurred his interest in programming and technology. With a new focus, Jay dropped out of college and took a simple six-month programming course at a technical school in New Jersey.

After stints at Accenture and a few tech startups, Jay ended up starting his own business, New Haircut, a consulting firm that worked with teams as a product development studio. It grew to a firm of 35 with three offices.

But, building a business took a toll on Jay and his personal life. In 2018 – eight years after he started New Haircut, he went through a divorce. A year later, he separated from his business partner and wondered what he would do in the business.

Shifting from service provider to content products

In 2019, Jay pivoted his offerings to find additional revenue and decrease his face time as a consultant. He ran a cohort training program with a friend, where he learned tools and tricks for producing courses and products.

“It gave me the idea to take this and apply it to the consulting work I did. So, instead of me being hired to show up and do this work I don’t really enjoy doing, I’m just going to package all these materials and sell it or even give it away,” Jay explains.

Jay took two months to create his first offering, the Problem Framing Toolkit. During that development stage, he published a website and social media posts to let people know what he was creating. He also created a waiting list.

At launch, he instantly sold eight toolkits for $500 and never had to touch the sale directly, which was his goal.

In 2020, Jay’s emphasis on content products over direct service provided timely as the pandemic prompted all his in-person work to disappear.

Over the next three years, Jay created more toolkits and saw sales total of $80K, which wasn’t enough to sustain his life. He added consulting clients to supplement his income and used the toolkits as lead magnets.

People would buy the toolkits, use them to educate their team, and then call Jay and say they were interested in hiring him for his core consulting services. It took the sales and pitching out of the equation, which Jay longed for.

Pivoting to new business and niche

Despite the financial success of New Haircut and the new productization, Jay struggled with burnout. In 2023, he stepped away from New Haircut, let the two remaining employees go, and closed up shop. Jay liquidated some retirement investments to survive and took time to reflect on what he truly wanted to do.

This introspection led Jay to realize he wanted to help other service-based business owners build scalable, productized offerings that could generate revenue without the need for constant selling and client management.

In October 2023, Jay launched his newsletter, Passive Profits, to help entrepreneurs make money with digital products. He quickly discovered his target audience was too broad.

Over the next few months, Jay refined the target to later-stage service-based business owners, particularly consultants, agencies, and coaches struggling to scale their businesses.

While Jay was working to find his content tilt, a potential client prompted him to realize he might need to rebrand Passive Profits.

“I tried to give away one of my toolkits that normally sells for $200. I thought it would be great for her and told her it was going to help and people would love to hear her story afterward. Her first reaction was to question if it was some sort of multi-level marketing thing. She didn’t say the word ‘scam,’ but it was there,” he says.

Jay rebranded in August 2024 with the name Profit Ladder. The idea is to create passive profits but now focus on the process with multiple steps to profitability. He sees productization as part of a flywheel.

He ladders up his prospects, starting with a blog article, then a free analysis quiz, and progresses to a 10-day email course before giving them a free toolkit, which points to the $200 toolkit that promotes his high-level consulting services.

The content business and the future

The Profit Ladder newsletter has 650 subscribers, but Jay relies heavily on LinkedIn as his channel of choice. Jay offers one-on-one coaching sessions, which he plans to turn into courses.

Once he productizes, then he can focus on premium services and follow his own profit ladder model. The long-term goal is to create a robust ecosystem of products that can generate passive income while helping his clients achieve their business goals.

Jay has plans for a podcast, eventually. He knows it will help build his business, and he does have two previously recorded episodes, but they are under the Passive Profits name. He paused on creating more until he figured out his audience and defined his content tilt.

In the meantime, Jay is exploring the possibility of hosting live events and workshops under the Profit Ladder brand. He can share his knowledge and expertise with a broader audience and grow his newsletter audience at the same time.

Advice for content entrepreneurs

Jay believes strongly in the future of productizing services. Content entrepreneurs can reach new and bigger audiences by offering digital products. Ensure you have a large enough audience or address your audience’s pain point. Jay recommends defining your services and honing them with clients, and a digital product will come from your experiences.

Entrepreneurs need to balance their passion with practicality. While it’s important to pursue work that you’re passionate about, it’s equally important that your business model is sustainable. Jay’s experience with burnout highlights this need. He lost his passion and desire to continue the work. It took stepping away completely to realize his true passion and how to sustain a business with that passion.

The post Jay Melone Combines Consulting and Digital Content Products With Profit Ladder appeared first on The Tilt Publishing.

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