Skip the Degree, Save the Tuition: Your A-Z Pathway to Teach Yourself a Money-Making Online Skill Set

by Julia McCoy

To succeed in today's digital age, you need real, tangible skills. The skills you learn to build yourself will outperform a degree on your resume.

Outdated and perishable theories taught in college are becoming outdated and of disservice to the student. Is the degree worth the debt?
Americans would rather have an internship at Google (60%) over a degree from Harvard (40%), in a study led by QuestResearch Group in 2020.

And only 13% of U.S. adults, 11% of C-level executives, and 6% of university trustees say college graduates have work-ready skills.

Before you go to college -- or spend another year in that career you may not love! -- stop and read this groundbreaking guidebook.

Skip the Degree, Save the Tuition: Your A-Z Pathway to Teach Yourself a Money-Making Online Skill Set is a powerful new skills-based guidebook created by two successful dropouts, featuring the stories of more than 40 entrepreneurs to inspire your skills-based income journey. Lead author and serial entrepreneur Julia McCoy shares a tangible, actionable pathway that leads you straight into living and earning from your passion without the degree, and educational disruptor Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang brings the data, studies, and parental guidance on the pitfalls of perishable theories taught in traditional education to avoid at all costs. Joining Dr. Ai and Julia in contributing to this powerful book Skip the Degree, Save the Tuition is a host of self-started entrepreneurs: Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Amanda Bond, Valerie Young, Jacob McMillen, Shay Rowbottom, Jeff Deutsch, Tom Wedding, Jeanie Sanchez, William Robins, Zee Ali, Marisa Hamamoto, Ravi Abuvala, April Hill, Jeff Hunter, Josiah Town, Lori Stead, Brittany Harris, Alexander Strate, Angela Fehr, Chris Bryant, Clay Mosley, Brennan Agranoff, Ryan Stewart, Dr. Natalia Wiechowski, Sebastian Rusk, William Hall, Jordan Paris, Gene Petrov, Benji Hyam, Kris Olivo, Ryan Robinson, Tyler Samani-Sprunk, Henneke Duistermaat, Tami McVay, Rich Carr, Justin Staples, Marcin Drozdz, Jeremy Knauff, Alexandra Marshall, and Robert Nickell.

Julia teaches that a skills-based digital income can be built by identifying a market pain point, verified by income already being made in that segment, and then picking the one you’d enjoy solving (based on your passions). You should know how to avoid the common pitfalls (i.e., virality metrics vs. real success metrics). To grow the income you make from your skillset, level up with skills, processes, team members, and strategic steps. As you grow, you can invest back into the economy by hiring. Julia has repeated these steps in more than five brands, bringing in upwards of $5M in sales through her self-started businesses.

Co-author Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang, wrote the first chapter and brings in a powerful perspective for both parents and students. After receiving her MA from Syracuse University and then her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, she began her teaching career as an Assistant Professor. A few years into her teaching career, Dr. Ai discovered that students were becoming more disengaged and less interested in learning. This led Dr. Ai to embark on a journey to transform today’s education crisis.

Today, Dr. Ai is no longer teaching inside four walls, but on a much larger stage. She is the founder of Classroom Without Walls, serves as an Education consultant, and is a proud Adobe Education Leader and HubSpot Academy Instructor. Dr. Ai has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Today Show’s Parenting Column, Pearson Education, and more.

Don't miss this incredible book, launching in all formats on Amazon, including Audible, early spring 2020.

See all the book bonuses, VIP membership, and more at savethetuition.com.

365 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 10, 2020

About the author

JULIA MCCOY is an author, entrepreneur, mom, and wife. She dropped out of college at nineteen years old and escaped her father's cult at twenty-one to pursue her dreams to write for a living and find healing and life fulfillment. Her content agency, Express Writers, grew from nothing to over $4.3M in revenue in just seven years, and she was named an industry thought leader in content marketing by Forbes in 2018. Today, she's the author of two bestselling books, founder of The Content Hacker, and lives in Austin, Texas, with her daughter, husband, and fur baby.

Reviews

[Elle J. Tarragan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most important book in education right now. It's the philosophical manifesto of success. Not even digital. Just in general. It's such a thinking book. So healthy. Wholesome.
Let me shout a little bit: This book MAKES ME WANT to read other books for empowerment.

Also, mine came with a chicken feather! Long story short, Julia goes to every length to truly connect with you. You'll feel that connection as you read her book.

This Book Is:
- Inspirational and empowering
- Humorous
- Authentic
- Easy to read (literally Julia's blogs in book form)

This Book Uses:
- Real-world perspective
- Free resources (understands where we start, y'all)
- Scientific psychology sources
- Many other scholarly sources

What It's Like to Walk Through It:
The first chapter is for parents, and the rest is for students/career dropouts. And, dropouts, she'll prepare you for everything. You develop yourself as you go, and breathe every now and again (she checks on you, like she's really there!). She walks you through success, at each stage of it. The book is incredibly organized.
Here's the setup:
- outlines
- stories
- pictures
- proof (her own, others', and research sources)
- interactive "workbook" sections
- calls-to-action to tie it all together
Ultimately, she identifies and addresses the real problems we face in a practical way.

Fangirl Moments:
It's really reassuring to read that her journey was not because she was superior in some way; she's simply different. This reaffirms that each journey is different. She stumbled upon her passion, but some work to find it. That's okay, she says. It's okay.
I love page 154. Just go. Read it. See what happens.
Afraid? Read pages 277-278. You'll figure out how to overcome that fear. I LOVE this. It's EXACTLY what I used to overcome my fear, and it worked.

Favorite Quote: There are too many.
"Never stop learning" (147).
"There is no single path to follow to success" (148).
"Your comfort zone is the death of growth" (280).

Favorite Section: Overcoming fear (page 270)
"Fear is a problem only if you let it run your life" (271).
"The only limitation that stands in your way, therefore, is the simple limitation of overcoming that limitation" (280).

For me, the journey was to take out all the blockers so I could see where I was going. That's what this book is. Read it. Ask questions. That's how you get to the point where you can see clearly.

Why I Trust This Book:
1. Scientific references. It's filled with real research and experience - she doesn't just opinionate. Julia includes several of my favorite personality assessments, including DISC, CliftonStrengths, and the Enneagram.
2. Value. She's passionate about giving REAL value, not just winning (she hopes her entire INDUSTRY will succeed, not just her; I mean, she wrote this book).
3. Reality Check. This is a big-picture look at the reality of success. She recognizes success is not a cookie cutter. She molds it as a compass, not a template. Go to college for templates; read this book for direction. She understands that the entire successful person is successful financially, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually...everything. On passion, I don't think you NEED it to succeed. That's why I like that she combines passion with PURPOSE. If passion is just an emotion, emotions fade. You will most likely get tired. We are not all superhumans. But emotions are emotions. I have learned to push through it to tomorrow, because tomorrow the sun will rise, and my passion will return. But to rely on emotions? That's dangerous. With purpose, you CAN push through on days when your passion dies.

[Naman Jaloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% Recommended
Indeed. I found book useful.

[Lynnell Neri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've known my passion, but still, I was lost for over 7 years, until I've read this book!

This book is a life-changer! If only I have this book before, I would have saved myself from years going through life directionless, and I would have saved all my money for a skill set.

In this book, you will know about yourself, your personality, your passion. Then you'll learn how to build a real-world skill set to thrive in this digital world, how to grow that skill set and earn from it.

This book is full of concrete steps, not abstract ones.

A must-read! Whether you don't know yourself or you already know yourself.

Thanks for this book, Julia, Dr. Ai, and all the inspiring stories of real people in their respective fields!

[Julia McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot WAIT to share this book with the world! <3

[Billy Ombima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Has some actionable points. Bottomline, with or without a degree, it encourages you just to go for it. You don't have to quit school to prove that it is possible. The act of going through the system is on its own a test of our resilience. For that school should be given a plus.