Complex sales funnels.
Upsells with countdown timers.
Absurd guarantees and flexing big numbers.
Rented Lamborghinis and beautiful women on a yacht for a paid photoshoot to market the product.
That was the state of internet marketing 10 years ago.
And while I don’t believe it was all bad, it seemed like everyone was walking on eggshells and bending the truth to make an income.
“Start an agency, you can make $100,000 fast.”
So you can learn one skill you hate, to work with people you hate?
“Start a dropshipping store, you can ship straight from China.”
So you can sell useless products and contribute to the cheap dopamine extravaganza online?
“Target this niche and never break out of it. Never evolve. Never incorporate your interests into your work. Always squeeze the most money you can out of your customers.”
Okay… nobody said that directly, but it was implied in all of their teachings.
I don’t really care if you go and do these things.
But you’re subscribed to this newsletter because you want to create a better life.
I’m here to tell you there is a way to earn a living doing what you enjoy, and it’s becoming a lot more feasible as the creator economy evolves.
I was on a Zoom call with Michael from my Modern Mastery community the other day, and we had a great discussion about how the creator economy is moving.
First, the level of market sophistication is increasing across the board.
Similar to how people lost trust in the formal education system, the collective space is losing trust in the shady marketing tactics of the past decade.
1) Reality Is Not Compartmentalized
The internet marketing industry followed the same path as the school system.
The common advice was to “niche down” as far as possible, because the riches are in the niches, as they say.
This has merit and is still a half-truth, but niching down on a target audience and accompanying skill is against the point.
Niching down for the sake of positioning from a goal, accompanying problem, and acquiring the skills to bridge the gap is a different story.
The essence of marketing is delivering a transformation with a unique solution.
You help people get from point A to point B with a system that gets results.
In the school system, there are separate departments that help you “learn” in pockets.
Like chemistry, biology, business, design, or architecture.
This structure neglects the interconnected nature of life that allows you to learn much faster.
Like how the ocean divides into rain droplets just to reunify back in the ocean, the internet marketing space is following the same pattern of evolution.
It divided into niche compartments, and is now reunifying into a demand for holistic, unified solutions.
2) Holistic Solutions For A Community With A Shared Purpose
Napoleon Hill had a concept he called a “Master Mind.”
In short, it is a group of people that are attracted to each other with a shared perspective.
A perspective is comprised of a goal (purpose) and accompanying beliefs.
When a group, or community, of people join together to actualize the same purpose, they can achieve it 10x faster than any one individual.
When it comes to the creator economy, individuals are attracting a community of people that resonate with their goals, voice, and personality.
Then, these creators are providing education related to a multitude of skills and interests that will help actualize that goal.
Like how Kortex University attracts a certain demographic of people that resonate with my meaningful goal of “work less, earn more, enjoy life.”
That goal is not limited to one niche or interest.
It is a holistic synthesis of everything required to achieve that.
Mind, body, spirit, and business with strategies that help with each.
We need fewer shallow promises and more solutions to reach meaningful goals.
Most modern business models don’t do that.
Dropshipping a fancy little flashlight has no depth.
Creating a basic journal with print on demand for the sake of quick and easy cash has no soul.
Starting an agency with a skill you hate to work with a customer avatar you hate will only result in shallow work.
3) Clarity Above All
The past decade of internet marketing banked on complexity.
Products and services would have the same simple solutions, but they were marketed in a way that overcomplicated what’s inside (to increase the perceived value of the product).
Now, people want a clear, simple, and straightforward solution that is taught from a perspective that they learn the best from.
Some people are very practical.
I am very philosophical, and my audience reflects that.
By leaning into the voice you learn best from, you attract people with shared goals that can learn best from you.
This starts to paint the depth behind my phrase, “You Are The Niche.”
The Emergence & Demand For The Holistic Synthesizer
Under this philosophy, the creator economy cannot get saturated because:
1) Your Community Evolves
When you don’t subscribe to a specific label, niche, or compartment of reality that limits what you are capable of, the only option is to evolve.
Humans and communities do not stick to one purpose.
Once you actualize that goal, you move on to the next that reveals itself.
2) Your Products Evolve
I started out as a web designer, my products and services revolved around that.
As I developed myself and my business, I transitioned into different skills and interests.
My products followed suit, and I effectively desaturated the web design market under me.
3) Unique Webs Of Interests
When you lean into your genuine combination of interests, your brand ceases to be compartmentalized.
Someone who talks about fitness, business, and tech is still vastly different from someone who talks about fitness, business, and spirituality.
4) Large Creators Have Ample Resources
It is not rare to see a large creator decrease output on all fronts.
Go and look at a YouTuber with over 1 million subscribers.
~50% of the time, you will see that they barely post, or they stop posting altogether.
The same goes for Twitter creators. Huge accounts often decrease to posting a few times a week.
This gives new creators the ability to flood the market, generate more attention, and create the network and resources without much competition from the “big players.”
The big players go on to pursue a new purpose, like starting a family or building a separate company with the leverage they now have.
The Demand For Depth
We’ve reached a critical point in the creator economy.
Content platforms have been saturated with basic, shallow, and regurgitated ideas for the sake of growth.
This isn’t necessarily bad, and still works to grow an account, but my question is… why?
- Why over-systemize ideas?
- Why strip the soul from your business?
- Why prioritize growth, revenue, and shallow impact over everything?
- Why limit the only thing that can set you apart as an individual: your creative ability?
The general level of awareness in the space is rising.
The market will demand that creators rise above generic quotes and the same old step-by-step self-help advice.
This can only be done when you prioritize depth, perspective, and holistic synthesis.
The Holistic Synthesizer
Let’s define what a “holistic synthesizer” is:
Someone who pursues their own vision, forges their path with the unique skills and interests they acquire. They do not view those skills or interests as individual parts, but as an interconnected whole that are necessary aspects of their life (not temporary pieces for quick cash grabs). Their life’s work is to distill, educate, and distribute their personal experience on the path.
In short, a holistic synthesizer who documents their pursuit to the good life in a persuasive and educational manner.
That way, you can attract the community that resonates with your voice, help them reach their shared goals, and not limit yourself to a compartmentalized aspect of reality.
- Your brand is your story – where you are now, regardless of experience.
- Your content is your school – what helped you get there.
- Your product is the map – a holistic system that helps people get to where you are with less trial and error.
The internet has given you the power to self-educate much faster than any human has ever been able to.
Take it upon yourself to improve your life, pursue your curiosity, and share your discoveries.
Is there anything better you could be doing?
Before you go off and start a billion-dollar tech company, consider starting with the only thing that matters:
Improving the one thing that every human must improve to evolve: the quality of their human experience.
When more people master their personal lives, they can put the creative ability of their minds together to work on global problems.
By the point you do this, you will know what to do.
You will become a large creator that pursues new avenues and desaturates the market beneath them.
A New Way Of Life
The creator philosophy is not a business model, but a way of life.
Improve yourself > improve others that want to be helped.
Here are the steps that you can start acting on today:
1) Master Your Survival
You can’t sustain authenticity when you need something from someone else.
Every single individual on this earth has to self-actualize in order to contribute to humanity in the best way they can.
Self-actualization: to fulfill the desire to become everything one can be. To actualize your potential.
While this can be done with the perfect career path, that’s not what I can help with. Nor is it something that you have full control over.
Entrepreneurship is modern-day survival.
We hunt for resources (money, in the modern sense) to fulfill our needs and create work that we enjoy. And if we don’t enjoy certain aspects, a business allows you to eliminate, delegate, or automate that aspect of work.
My recommendation is still the same:
- Solve the biological problems in your life
- Improve your health, finances, and socialization
- Discover your interests through improvement
This takes time, but does not limit you from generating an independent income source.
95% of people’s problems revolve around health, wealth, relationships, and happiness.
If you can solve those problems in your own life and document the solution, you can charge for the knowledge you acquire.
Individuals don’t learn best from someone 10 steps ahead of them, but from someone that is 1 step ahead of them.
2) Create Your Own Philosophy
There is enough shallow advice on how to make money, how to get laid, and various bandaids you can apply to your mental health.
We need more individuals that are truth seekers.
The individuals that understand that prescribed step-by-step advice looks good on the outside, but is hollow on the inside.
We need more people that attack the root of the problem, which is often metaphysical, spiritual, or epistemological.
The world is desperate for depth, and that can only be created by forging your own path.
Philosophy is based on experience.
You have to set your mind on an ideal future, pursue it wholeheartedly, make mistakes, and correct your actions.
We aren’t here to get the same results that everyone else has gotten for decades.
As an example, my ideal future is to work 4 hours a day, do what I want in my free time, and help others realize a better way of living.
My philosophy is fueled by the teachers I resonate most with.
I’ve burned through books on psychology, philosophy, modern work, and modern rest to refine my philosophy through experience.
3) Turn It Into A Public School
I’m convinced that the future of schooling will be done online, with creators as teachers, and each student can join the “school” that aligns the most with their interests, values, and preferred method of learning.
One school system wouldn’t dominate 12+ years of their life.
Students would evolve beyond one creator-based “school” after a few years, go on to the next, and eventually be able to start their own – if the other schools have the underlying principle of critical thinking and personal experience.
Make it your life’s work to create a library of knowledge and share it online under your brand, or school, with an underlying philosophy that attracts the right people.
Your public school is digital real estate.
Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to attract a broad audience.
YouTube, podcasting, and a blog or newsletter to educate and nurture the audience.
And a host of products, from low-cost courses to memberships to high-cost tailored coaching.
This is what I’ve dedicated myself to teaching because I see the opportunity in the space.
So, I offer 2 Hour Writer to help people get their ideas out without prior experience.
Then, I offer a more expensive masterclass, Digital Economics, to productize yourself for those that are serious about making this work.
Eventually, you will gain the resources to start whatever kind of business you want to further your message.
4) Create A Holistic Solution
I’ve worked with 5000+ creators and one of the main problems is not knowing what to sell, or not knowing how to make what they sell unique.
I will flesh out my Minimum Viable Offer strategy in the next letter.
That will help you get started from 0.
I especially like creating a “tutoring” offer that nobody does in the space yet. I’ll show you how to create one.
Until then, here’s what you do:
1) Identify A Desirable Goal
What is one big goal in your life that you are trying to achieve, or have achieved?
Are you fit? Have you acquired a skill (like writing)? Have you understood the nature of reality? What is it? What have you accomplished, no matter how small or insignificant you think it is?
The key with this:
Don’t focus on the goal itself, but on the lifestyle it has created for you.
2) Identify Your Starting Point
What made you want to change?
What was the burning problem in your life?
What did your life look like before the goal?
Marketing is about transformations.
You are helping others go from point A (where you were) to point B (the desirable goal).
3) Outline A Unique Path
Now, outline modules, chapters, or steps necessary to get from point A to point B.
You are at a point in life where you can look back and help others navigate the mistakes you made.
Act like you are outlining a book.
Fill in the blanks for what people need to know, learn, and do in order to reach the goal.
Start thinking about this now, we will come back to it in the next letter.
5) Branch Into New Opportunity
As you start, grow, and evolve as a creator, you will reach stages of development that will present new opportunities.
Maybe you’ll start podcasting full-time.
Maybe you’ll write a book (I am right now).
Maybe you’ll build a software (I am right now).
The most difficult part is gaining a foothold in the market during your first year or so.
After that, your ideas and name have reached so many people that you cannot lose.
That’s it for this one.
Talk next week,
– Dan
