Personal brands are no longer personal.
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with fitness.
I believe I experienced a peak in creator authenticity during this time. A Golden Age of individuals picking up a camera and filming their progress in life. Sharing their passions. Helping others do better.
Matt Ogus, Chris Lavado, and many others come to mind.
As a young teen, I had no idea how much their content would shape my future.
I was just a kid who played video games all day. A kid who wanted to become an anesthesiologist because it paid a lot. A kid who had massive ambitions, but lacked the confidence to do something I wanted to do with my life. These creators were my role models that lived across the globe.
I can’t thank them enough.
I hope I can help bring another wave, a second renaissance, to the creator economy. And I’d encourage you to join me in that.
Create the content you want to see in the world.
Build the product you want to see in the world.
People are starving for it. Starving for depth.
That’s what we’re going to learn in this letter.
Not how to become a personal brand.
But how to stand out with unique ideas and create your life’s work.
Today, we have influencers, creators, and personal brands.
Concepts that have begun to carry a negative connotation along with them.
In the eyes of the public, there are a few differences between them.
They are all relatively similar, but when you say the word, you feel a certain part of you die.
Influencers
Oh man… influencers.
The defining characteristic is that they don’t sell a product of inherent value.
They garner attention with looks and gimmicks to pitch often destructive products to the underdeveloped masses. They don’t educate, entertain, or inspire toward solving a real problem in people’s lives.
No, we don’t need Lunchly’s and Mr. Beast Bars that fuel the problem of obese and sick children. We’re at a critical turning point in society with attention spans decreasing, processed foods running rampant, and not enough online role models to show a positive direction that births a generation of sovereign individuals, not slaves.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. You all know that I don’t believe selling is bad. Work is a necessary part of life. Money is a necessary aspect of modern survival. You can make a lot of it, but at least try to have some shred of a positive impact. Profit from purpose.
Most of you will not become an influencer (thank the heavens), so we will stop there.
Creators
I love creators.
I would consider myself one.
But the average creator has a myopic view of that word.
They are content creators, not reality creators.
They become slaves to content templates.
They never go through the pain of contemplation and critical thinking to birth an idea that is worth copying. They just copy.
They see audience growth as some formulaic thing and trap themselves in a slightly more autonomous 9 to 5.
They comment on large accounts, not because they like the idea in the content, or because they want to befriend the person, but because they want to fake a relationship in order to garner attention for their own brand.
This is a problem on both sides. The “large account” doesn’t have ideas that make people stop and question their existence, the “small account” just wants to survive.
I see what we call “engagement” as one big online party. One big Xbox 360 game lobby. One big classroom where others help each other with their projects. One big bar where people meet and make memories. Engagement groups have become a laughing stock of the creator economy because they are quick pump-and-dump networking.
You can make good friends who help you in business. It’s actually the one thing people are missing that is necessary to build their audience. But most people just haven’t developed themselves socially, so they abuse outreach templates and lack a personality people want to form a bond with.
Stop thinking of it as an “engagement group.”
Start thinking of it as making friends, in a digital world where you can finally meet like minded people, so you can help each other build toward a shared goal. That’s a requirement for most goals.
Again, these aren’t always bad things. What I am trying to do here is open your mind to a greater possibility. The same thing, but deeper. Evolving beyond the shallowness you started with and got trapped in. You often need to do these things to learn, but they aren’t meant to be your death sentence.
Some may say I teach these things, and I do, but if you read the not-so-fine print, I’m rather explicit about not turning into a robot. Many read what they want to read and discard the things that actually make it work.
I want you to see that there is a more meaningful way to create your life’s work, but let’s finish talking about the average personal brand.
Personal Brands
The personal brand archetype is someone with the sole purpose of making money for their business.
They trap themselves in shallow topics and narrow niches.
They become glorified search engines.
They churn followers faster than their flash-in-a-pan SaaS.
They stick to one topic. One offer. The same ideas that brought the highest conversion rate to their email list and high ticket service. They position themselves as the absolute authority.
They stagnate at a certain follower count because nobody actually cares to follow them. If they aren’t talking about their offer they are talking about what’s wrong with everything that others are doing. They attract an audience of trolls that feed into their negativity.
But as long as their funnel is seeing continued growth and high conversion rates, they’ll be fine. They just gotta keep churning out the authority content.
Not all of these things are bad. Sticking to a niche can be a good option. Shallow topics are necessary to introduce people at that stage of development to deeper topics. The problem occurs when you don’t zoom out to look at the big picture.
Are you helping people do something that actually matters?
To do that, you can’t stagnate.
You must continuously improve and evolve.
You must reverse brand entropy by pushing into the unknown.
The churn of your brand is a dead giveaway that you’ve given up a higher purpose for quick cash.
A New Way Of Life, No Label Required
Don’t be a YouTube creator.
Don’t be a personal brand.
Don’t be an influencer.
Be you. But in a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that’s on the internet.
The internet is a tool.
Social media is a tool.
Software is a tool.
If you think these things are toxic and negative, that’s a direct reflection of yourself. Algorithms show you more of what you pay attention to. Social media, for the right people, is the singular thing that will change their life. If you believe it’s toxic, you close yourself off to that reality.
These new forms of technology are tools to display your work, your art, your findings in the unknown that others can benefit from.
Jordan Peterson isn’t a “content creator.”
He goes on tours, writes books, leverages social media as a base, and uses all of the tools at his disposal to spread his life’s work. He isn’t worried about the latest content idea trend. His mind outperforms any of those myopic growth strategies. The quality of his ideas is what sets him apart and changes people’s lives (regardless of your opinion on Peterson).
You didn’t start down this path to end up a “personal brand” on the internet.
You simply lost your way and were programmed by the new society after breaking free of the old one. You left the old matrix for the new one. Happens to all of us.
You started because you wanted freedom. Autonomy. Meaningful income. The ability to write, speak, and create about the interests that spark a fire in your soul.
I’m not proposing that you quit because social media has become what it has.
That only means it’s easier than ever to start out… even if you feel like you’re late.
I’m proposing that you aim higher.
I don’t see social media as some shallow place with online business models and cheap advice.
I see it as a new way of life.
You’re already “online” most of the day.
The problem is that you don’t know what value you provide, how to stand out, and how to shift focus with the time you are already spending on the internet to make your creative work a success.
You have knowledge and skill that others can benefit from.
That’s a fact.
You just need to learn to stand out.
By the way, I teach all of this in Digital Economics.
How To Pursue Your Life’s Work On The Internet
If you understand the levels of purpose, you understand that your life’s work, at some point in the job > career > calling evolution, will require you to start a business.
If thinking of a one-person business as “independent work” helps you swallow that pill, do that.
But for now, let’s remove all of the business jargon and get straight to the essence of what you need to pursue your life’s work.
1) A Positive Aim For Your Life
Here’s the thing.
You don’t need to know what your life’s work is right now.
And realistically, your life’s work isn’t something you maintain 100% clarity on.
At times, it’s crystal clear. But this is often hopeful delusion, which isn’t bad but necessary for intense bursts of progress.
At others, you have no idea what you’re doing, but you are still moving toward a positive aim.
Your life’s work isn’t a static sentence that you can articulate to others, as that’s impossible. Your life’s work is in the unknown, and by nature of the unknown, it’s unknown. If it were known, you fell off your path to find security in someone else’s.
You create your life’s work through experimentation and evolution.
Your brand, content, and products won’t stay the same.
They will change as you discover new goals for yourself, but you won’t discover those goals unless you start and pursue your current ones.
If you aren’t sure how to orient yourself in a positive direction:
Deeply understand what you don’t want in life.
An anti-vision that brings clarity to your vision.
Is it a job you despise? Then your aim is to create more enjoyable work and learn everything necessary to achieve that.
Is it being overweight and unconfident? Then your aim is the opposite.
Get mad at yourself.
That which you don’t hate, you tolerate. – Malcolm X
No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. – Carl Jung
2) A Way To Attract An Audience
The term “followers” has lost its punch.
I prefer the term readers, but not everyone views themselves as a writer.
So, we’re going to use the term audience.
There are a few beautiful things about the internet:
- How far your work spreads is a skill that can be learned and practiced, not luck.
- There are people who relate to your anti-vision and aim for your future.
- It’s free, accessible, and the majority of the population has access to it.
I’m of the firm belief that the internet was invented by the deep human desire to connect, share, and solve problems.
Now that it’s here, and because of shallow human distractions, few people realize it as the foundation for pursuing your life’s work.
You’re telling me you have indirect access to nearly everyone in the world, and you don’t think any of them can benefit from what you have to offer? Yeah, it takes some development and skill acquisition, but once you truly see the potential for everyone to have a business in this global decentralized economy, it’s hard to pursue any other path.
As Naval said:
There are almost 7B people on this planet. Someday, I hope, there will be almost 7B companies.
The point:
The internet is how you attract an audience to your life’s work.
An audience, large or small, with small being enough to make more than enough money to be fulfilled, is not optional.
You aren’t working for a company that attracts an audience to their product that you fulfill a specific role in keeping alive.
The audience doesn’t have to come from social media. But it’s going to come from media (paid ads, podcasts, etc). Might as well take the free and leveraged option of building an audience, then tack on other methods.
3) A Project Turned Into A Product
Projects are how you achieve the goals in your life.
Projects are how you build a solution to a problem.
Projects are how you guide experimentation, education, and skill acquisition.
Profitable products provide a transformation – they solve a problem to help you get closer to a goal.
So, if you aren’t building a project, every single day, that pushes you toward your vision for the future, you are playing a losing game, and your attention automatically gets drawn to the projects of others so you can make money and survive.
Build more projects.
It can be a program that helps you get in shape.
It can be a planner that helps you stay productive.
It can be a Kortex or Notion system that helps you write content, take notes, track progress, or anything really. Templates are always beneficial to include in a product.
And if you attract an audience that has the same vision as you, they will pay you for these projects if you position them correctly.
4) Experimentation, Iteration, & Persistence
You will have to improve your product based on feedback.
You will have to create new products to reverse brand entropy.
You will have to experiment with content ideas while doubling down on feedback.
You will have to change direction toward your own goals in life in order to evolve.
Don’t get stuck.
It’s all an iterative process.
How To Set Yourself Apart
The 4 pillars of creative work are:
- Brand
- Content
- Product
- Promotion
Most people focus on the skill they want to sell and forget that they need to earn an income to survive.
The problem:
Most people have no idea how to stand out.
They start, buy a few courses, and never branch outside of what the courses teach.
And just like going to school, you set yourself up for being replaced, or worse… forgotten.
Brand Is An Environment
Stop thinking of your brand as a profile picture and social media bio.
Brand is an environment where people come to transform.
You attract people to a vision for the future.
You help people move away from an anti-vision.
You illustrate your worldview, story, and philosophy for life across every single touchpoint. Your banner, profile picture, bio, link in bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and the rest.
Brand is the little world you are inviting others into.
Brand isn’t illustrated when a reader first visits your profile.
Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader’s mind after 3-6 months of following you.
Filter all ideas, content, products, and decisions through your brand vision.
People will buy from you even if you have the same products at a higher price point as a competitor.
Content Is Novel Perspectives
People don’t follow information, they follow perspectives.
10 people can talk about the same old topics, but one of them can say it in such a way that brings an entirely new meaning to it.
Perspectives are infinite.
Sometimes, it’s not about coming up with a completely different idea.
Sometimes, it’s about talking about the same idea, but from a deeper lens.
If you want to stand out:
1) Find ideas that are already working. Save ideas from books, social media, podcasts, and videos.
2) Turn them into an original idea by changing the perspective.
But how do you change the perspective?
How To Think With Impact
Inside the free Kortex Second Brain course, I breakdown what I call KoreNotes.
KoreNotes is a note-taking system for writers and creators that I’ve been developing for quite some time now.
And after over 70,000 people going through my creative ideas guide and 2 Hour Writer course, it’s safe to say that it works.
You can duplicate the KoreNotes template here if you have early access to Kortex, or you can emulate it in another app.
Here’s what you do:
First, choose a high-performing idea that you want to make your own (try one from this letter).
Then, pick 3-4 of the following to flesh out more ideas related to it:
- Problem – illustrate a problem associated with the idea and how it impacts people’s lives.
- Goal – desirable goals people want to achieve to overcome the problem.
- Example – a personal experience or tangible example to help people understand.
- Benefit – the benefits of overcoming the problem and achieving the goal.
- Process – a step-by-step process for overcoming the problem and achieving the goal.
- Concept – a word or name that helps make sense of everything above.
Now, if you understand persuasion, content, marketing, or sales – you can see that this is a synthesis of them all.
A completed KoreNote looks like this.
You can see how I turned one popular idea into original thought.
One of my most popular YouTube videos was The One-Person Business (How To Productize Yourself).
That title is just a Concept (the one-person business) and Process (how to productize yourself).
The video itself is composed of KoreNotes as building blocks.
I promise you.
If you create 1 KoreNote a day for a week, you will realize that you can create unique ideas that others can’t stop reading.
You can string KoreNotes together for unique writing.
You can use each KoreNote as an outline for a thread or newsletter.
You can use each part of a KoreNote for individual posts.
You can use a KoreNote as an outline for a product and landing page.
This is how you end writer’s block and create a database of intellectual property.
A secret weapon for those who want to stand out.
Education Is The New Marketing
You can’t write or sell whatever you want because you don’t understand how becoming interested works.
People aren’t just born interested in something.
They’re slowly exposed to ideas, from beginner to advanced, until they become interested in that thing.
First, they’re exposed to why they should care about that thing.
Second, they’re exposed to how a pain point is affecting their life.
Third, they’re exposed to a solution that creates a desire to change.
And through that process, they become interested in that thing.
Your writing doesn’t do well because you’re trying to discuss a topic that people don’t care about.
When you start talking about a new topic, establish interest by:
- Writing content about why it’s important to your brand vision.
- Making people aware of pain points in their lives.
- Giving actionable steps to overcome those pain points.
- Create a free guide that goes over all of the above.
- Turn parts of that guide into posts, threads, newsletters, videos, etc.
Your job isn’t to “find” a niche set of customers.
On something like social media, where most of your content is being shared to random people who don’t care about you, your job is to create customers with constant education and brand awareness.
Systems Are The New Product
At this point in time, we are in a systems economy.
People don’t want a solution to their problems.
They want your solution to their problems.
There are tons of writing products out there, so what’s different about 2 Hour Writer?
It’s a system I created through experience.
It doesn’t teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that doesn’t help you achieve our shared vision of living a creative and meaningful life.
I had a few problems:
- I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas.
- I didn’t want to waste a ton of time creating content for all different platforms.
So, I started experimenting with my own system.
My goal for the system was clear: write all of the content I need to in under 2 hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life.
I started testing solutions to have more content ideas.
I created swipe files, steps to generate ideas, and templates if I still couldn’t think of anything.
I mapped out exactly what I was going to attempt to write each week: 3 posts a day, 1 thread a week, and 1 newsletter a week.
During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms (this is public, you can see it). I also realized that threads could be turned into carousels, and newsletters could be turned into YouTube videos.
If the system didn’t flow, I would try new things the next week.
From there, I realized I could copy-paste my newsletter to my blog, embed the YT video in that blog, promote my products in that blog, and turn that blog into more content ideas.
Then, I could link that blog under my content each day.
This led to more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, and product sales.
I realized that if everything I did was newsletter-centric, that’s all I had to worry about for both growing my audience and promoting my products.
That’s how you stand out in a world of copy-paste products.
Yes, it takes time and experience.
But the end result is so worth it.
That’s it for this letter.
Thank you for reading.
– Dan
P.S. We are still rolling out access to Kortex.
And we made the free tier free for life with unlimited documents.
If you want access, join the waitlist queue.
