In Episode 165 of The Proven Entrepreneur, host Don Williams explores the lucrative and resilient niche of continuing education (CE) for licensed professionals with Justin Allan Montgomery, founder of ProCourseStart. Published July 3, 2026, the episode highlights why CE courses represent a rare opportunity in the e-learning space: buyers are legally required to purchase them, creating a built-in, repeat-buyer market that withstands economic downturns and the influx of generic, AI-generated courses.
Montgomery, who built and exited an eight-figure CE business, emphasizes that the key to success lies in audience-first validation. He advises aspiring course creators to spend more time developing their value proposition and identifying specific problems before building the course itself. Using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, entrepreneurs can validate course ideas without spending a dime. Montgomery's first venture, The Elite Nurse Practitioner, launched in 2018 after six months of building an audience of 3,000 nurse practitioners. He generated $50,000 in his first seven days and eventually grew the audience to 40,000 subscribers without viral content or a massive social media following.
Montgomery is candid about the myth of passive income. "There's no such thing as passive income. I'm sorry. There just isn't," he tells Williams. Even his eight-figure business required about ten hours of active input per week, generating $250,000 to $300,000 in monthly sales, with peak months topping $1 million. He outlines a tactical startup budget of $10,000: roughly $3,000 on product build and $7,000 on marketing. The episode also covers the strategic advantages of targeting licensed professionals like dentists, lawyers, chiropractors, electricians, and nurse practitioners, who must fulfill CE credits to maintain their licenses.
Montgomery's journey includes scaling The Elite Nurse Practitioner while simultaneously operating multi-location men's health clinics. He eventually followed a mentor's advice that "you can only build one bridge at a time," doubling down on CE, engineering an eight-figure exit, and retiring at 39. He now runs ProCourseStart, offering a 15-hour evergreen course and a mastermind program at ProCourseStart.com.
The episode underscores that continuing education is a recession-resistant corner of the e-learning market, where demand is legally mandated. Montgomery's insights provide a roadmap for entrepreneurs looking to build a high-demand, scalable business in a space less vulnerable to market saturation. Episode 165 is available now wherever podcasts are heard, and at provenentrepreneurshow.com.
