Mike MilliganFounder and CEO, 1.oak Financial · Founder and CEO, 1.oak Financial

The Power of Scaling Your Voice

28 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:53

In this segment of his YouTube talk, Mike Milligan argues that public‑school teachers are limited to the low, fixed salaries of the "49‑cent model," but teachers who can package their expertise can earn far more by using subscription‑based platforms such as Substack, Skool, or Discipline. He illustrates the scaling potential with a concrete example: teaching 10,000 learners at $10 per month yields $100,000 per month or $1.2 million annually. Milligan states that teaching via these platforms is currently his primary income source and will remain so, at least until an AI replica of himself could potentially capture his knowledge and revenue.

Chapters

If you're a teacher in the public schools, that's that 49-cent model. You're just going to get whatever the school system pays you. But if you're a teacher who can teach, who has expertise, you can get on Substack or Skool or Discipline or whatever, all these platforms that exist, and you can teach and people will pay for your knowledge. And the numbers add up fast, right? If you can teach something to 10,000 people, And they're paying you $10 a month to learn that, that's $100,000 a month. That's $1.2 million a year. The numbers add up fast. So by far and away, where I make my most money is teaching, and it always will be, or at least it will, at least it will be for the next while until somebody figures out how to make an AI Mike and then just can just, just take everything I've ever said in the past and just takes my money away from me. But