Not a subscriber?

Join 1,000+ readers using awakening as the foundation of their purpose-based business:

Subscription received. If you don't get your confirmation email, check your spam folder. Still nothing? Email dan [at] dangoldfield [dot] com and I'll add you manually 💙
Tech fail 😑 Please try again or email dan [at] dangoldfield [dot] com and I'll subscribe you manually.

DAN KOE

ALEX MATHERS

TAYLIN SIMMONDS

Founder, KorteX
‍
3.5M followers

medium.com top writer
120K followers

BRAND CONSULTANT
79K followers

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

"If you want practical strategies to maximize your own well-being, then create a profitable internet business around your passions, interests and curiosities – Goldfield is your guy."

DAN KOE

Table of Contents

my sleep's been f„cked for a couple of months now.

i'm in the process of eliminating everything in my life that could be the cause of a pretty nasty skin condition.

but i've already found a few pleasant things in this unpleasant circumstance.

firstly, i'm glad to have some adversity back in my life. i've managed to simplify things to such a degree that i've really had nothing to fight against for the past 12 months. but as we know, good things come out of challenging times.

of course, the value is found in the solution.

right now i'm ruthlessly eliminating every potential cause from my life. i'm doing this systematically, and that means i'm creating something i can share with other people to help them.

of course, some people never solve their problems, which is a shame.

most people solve their problems without thinking about how their solution could be shared with others.

but in the freetirement economy, we can do better...

your freetirement north star

the ultimate guiding principle to living the life you want is mutual benefit.

in other words, if you structure your life around win/win arrangements then, naturally, you can't lose.

now, if you have a problem, it's almost guaranteed that someone else has had that same problem. and when you talk about that problem online you make it very, very easy for those people to find you.

if your problem is one worth solving, people will pay for your solution.

in a way of thinking, solutions are all people ever pay for:

  • they buy cars to solve the problem of transportation
  • they buy groceries to solve the problem of hunger
  • they buy a gym membership to solve the problem of preventable death

of course, people pay for more niche problems too.

the first problem i solved online was for intermediate meditators, who were struggling to take the benefits of their sitting practice into their daily lives.

now i solve the problem of people being stuck doing something they hate to earn a living.

first i solved these problems for myself, then i solved them for family and friends, then i solved them for strangers (for free), then i made a proper offer around them.

you can do this too.

here's how:

the problems to profits framework

this framework will guide you from 1) having a problem that seems unsolvable to 2) selling the solution to others for profit.

step 1: ​create a notion account​ if you don't have one.

step 2: open a blank page.

step 3: write down your problem in simple terms (eg: "i'm having trouble sleeping", "i can't get clients", "my garden is a mess", "my mother doesn't understand me". it really can be anything.)

step 4: note everything you've tried, are trying, or intend to try to solve your problem.

step 5: choose whichever of these seems most likely to be the winner and give yourself a time frame to experiment with it (one or two weeks is usually adequate).

step 6: put the other potential solutions out of your mind right now. we want to get clear data on one solution at a time.

step 7: keep a daily journal to track your experiment. if you wish, you can also create a table for tracking simple data (eg: wake-up time, prospects emailed, hours spent).

step 8: at the end of the experiment term, if you didn't solve your problem, repeat steps 4 to 7. if you did solve your problem, move onto step 9.

step 9: find someone else who's suffering your original problem. this could be a friend or family member, or it could be someone online.

step 10: offer to help them for free.

step 11: communicate your solution to them as clearly as you can. expect the process to be messy as hell to begin with. (they won't mind because it's free.)

step 12: document your process in your notion page.

step 13: continue helping people for free until you feel confident you can replicate the solution for anyone.

congratulations! you now have a saleable solution that people will give you money for.

of course, from here you'll need to learn about how to present and tell more people about your solution. you can get an overview of how to do this in my ​240-step freetirement guide​.

it really is that simple.

the internet has destroyed gatekeeping around business. we're back to the roots of human transaction—simple exchange of value. if your solution is valuable enough to someone, they'll pay for it. and if your problem was substantial enough for you to bother going through the problems to profits framework with it, you've already struck gold. the rest is just mechanics.

need help with this?

click here to talk about how i can make it easy for you.

with love from my desk,
dg 💙

share this article:

Social Share

Enjoyed this post? Click here to subscribe and get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Previous Issues of
The Freetirement Files

6 Steps to Real Success

(Stop Doing What You Were Told In School)

Money itself does not hold the power to make you feel successful. If it did, everyone who had money would be fulfilled, content, satisfied. But they're not. You must decide what your definition of success is, then go after it without compromise. Here's how...

Continue reading →

How to Escape Wage Slavery

(In 5-12 months)

You already have $100,000 worth of knowledge in your head. You just need to learn how to transmit it to people. Then you can quit your unfulfilling “time-for-money” work and join me in the Freetirement gang. Here's how...

Continue reading →

How I Earn $10K/mo Teaching Spirituality

(My Exact System)

2 out of 3 millennials have nothing saved for retirement. Yet everyone feels they need $1.8 million to retire comfortably. If that makes you think you’d better stop buying lunch out, you’re still playing a rigged game. In this post I’m going to show you how to play a better one...

Continue reading →

How I Made $100K on X

(And How You Can Too)

In March 2023 I was a broke music teacher. But since then I’ve earned more money than I thought I ever would
 while compromising less. Here's the full timeline of how I did it—and a full guide on how to start your own profitable purpose-based business.

Continue reading →

How to Make Peace With Death

(And Use It to Enhance Your Life)

The leaves fall from the trees in autumn, but we don’t rush around trying to stick them back on.Yet when it comes to our own death, we feel that it’s somehow wrong. One of the main purposes of spiritual practice is to make peace with death. Let’s do a little contemplation together right now.

Continue reading →

Turn Your Problems Into Profits

(How to Give People What They Need)

For 250 years a lot of businesses didn’t give a damn about helping their customers. But since the internet went mainstream, things have been changing. For your one-person business to succeed, you must solve actual problems people are dealing with right now. Let me tell you how...

Continue reading →

Create Your Own Dream Clients

(With Zero Sales Tactics)

For 20 years I believed financial success was reserved for people who were willing to sacrifice their integrity. Now I know you can have the best of both worlds. But most people never learn what I’m about to teach you—and so live their whole lives at the mercy of other people’s decisions...

Continue reading →

How to Win on Social Media

(Escape the Rat Race)

42% of solo business owners earn over $50,000 per year. And "solopreneurs", as a group, contribute a total of $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy annually—with zero employees. Clearly, starting an online business is no longer an unsafe bet. Here's how to build the foundation of your own...

Continue reading →

How to Create Your Ideal Future

(Without a Vision You're Lost)

‍One of society’s greatest lies is that employment is stable. And one of society’s greatest blind spots is that the same technologies which are disrupting the workforce can enable you to create your own stability (from your couch). Here's how...

Continue reading →

10 Mindful Money Megahacks

(Delete Beliefs that Keep You Poor)

I was broke till I was 36. Then finally I found a way to earn money without sacrificing my wellbeing and integrity. Here are the 10 mindset shifts that made it possible.

Continue reading →

Mindful Money-Getting In 8 Steps

(How to Make Your Work A Spiritual Practice)

If you can't earn enough money, it's because you're not spiritual enough. And please don't listen to anyone who tells you that money will disrupt your spiritual practice. Money can't do that—it's just paper and metal. But what it can do is enable great benefit in the world. Here's how...

Continue reading →

How to Stop Killing Your Better Self

(The 5 Self-Help Non-Negotiables)

It's never been easier to settle for an average life. But this makes the winnings that much greater for those who rise up. Learn the 12 problems self-helpers are trying to overcome, the 6 problems with the most extreme solution, and the 5 non-negotiables that'll finally get you to your fullest potential.

Continue reading →

How to Make Dream Clients Come to You

(Without Spending a Single Dollar On Ads)

I look forward to every coaching call I host. Once I knew how to create my dream career it took just 5 months to go from my old life of compromise, fatigue, and selling my time for money... to my new life of passion, purpose and profit. You can make this shift too.

Continue reading →

The Self-Help Cheat Code

(How to Get Actual Results)

$7.52 billion: the current valuation of the self-help publishing industry. Yet only 3% of readers apply what they learn. It's clear: the answer you're looking for is not in the next bestseller. Here's how to get out of the trap.

Continue reading →

How to Make a Living on Social Media

(The Zero-Follower Money Method)

Everyone thinks you need 100,000 followers to make money online. Bullsh!t.There are people with over a million followers making no money. And there are people with 3000 followers doing $10K months (I achieved the latter myself). Here's the quick & dirty way to make it happen.

Continue reading →

The FIRST Thing to do About Any Problem

(How to Struggle Less)

"If you want good things in life, you have to suffer for them." That's what traditional schooling and parenting taught us, anyway. But the highest achievers of the East have been doing things differently for thousands of years. Here's their secret...

Continue reading →

How to Profit From Your Problems

(In 13 Little Steps)

some people never solve their problems. most people solve their problems without thinking about how their solution could be shared with others. but in the "freetirement" economy, we can do better...

Continue reading →

How to Earn Money Helping People

(3 Steps to Your Ideal Future)

People pay me $300 per session for coaching. They pay me this much because I help them solve problems that are costing them more than that. But over the past 6 months people have started asking me to help them with a different problem: they want to know how to help people like I do (so they can quit that job they hate). Here's what I tell them...

Continue reading →

How to Stop Beating Yourself Up

(The Sustainable Way to Motivate Yourself)

You can’t force motivation. The more you try, the more it escapes you. So after 30 years trying to whip myself into shape, I experimented with going the other way. Here's how I 100X'd my motivation (without hustling).

Continue reading →

The One Question You Must Answer

(Before You Can Find True Happiness)

I contemplated this question for a whole year. But it was worth the wait, because once i had my answer, everything changed: I became happier than i ever thought possible, married the love of my life, and transitioned out of my old "time-for-money" business into my new "expertise-for-money" mission. Let me accelerate the process for you.

Continue reading →

How to "Freetire" Yourself

(Without Leaving Your Sofa)

Solopreneurs made $5 TRILLION in 2023. 0.00002% of that will make you a millionaire. Here's how to start your own internet business (with zero experience or capital).

Continue reading →

The Real Reason You Can't Stick to Anything

(Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work)

Only 1 in 100 people will take their new year’s resolution all the way to december. ​So why does everyone keep trying? Because no-one knows about the better option. Here it is...

Continue reading →

How to Stop Working Too Hard

(And Earn MORE Money)

55% of U.S. employees failed to take all their paid time off in 2023.​ They may as well be walking to the ATM, drawing out days' worth of pay and sliding it into their employer's wallet. Don't spend the rest of your life in this trap. Here's how to wriggle out of it...

Continue reading →

How to Get the Ultimate Perspective on Yourself

(Let Go of Your Emotional Baggage)

The way you see things determines your entire reality. So of course it's pretty damn important how you see yourself. In this guided meditation i'm going to lead you through a brief study of the breath, the body, the emotions and the thoughts. Then, finally, we'll relax into the ultimate perspective on all of them, enabling you to let them go and be free.

Continue reading →

How to Take Back Control of Your Life

(In Just 3 Weeks)

1 in 2 people will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime. You do NOT want to end up on the wrong side of that statistic. Here's a simple process for keeping yourself in control and off the psych ward.

Continue reading →

How to Get, Have, and Be Anything You Want

(Without Even Trying)

Since 2017 I've married the woman of my dreams, 5X'd my income and tripled my energy. But no-one in my own culture could've told me how to do so. I had to look elsewhere. Let me save you 7 years and give you the solution right here...

Continue reading →

5 Relationship Tips From a Guy Who Married a Psychologist

(Twice!)

In 2016 I was needy as hell, which was quite a turnoff for the ladies. But by the time I took my wife on our first date in 2019 I was 100% self-validated. Here's what I learned in those 3 years...

Continue reading →

How to Delete The 6 Mind Viruses That Keep You Poor, Sick & Miserable

(In Just 12 Weeks)

I get up at 5, do creative work for 4-8 hours, develop new ways to help people, share my ideas, go to the gym, coach, talk to my audience and other creators, have dinner with my wife, study, read, go to bed, then get up and do it all again. 7 days a week. I’m effectively retired because I’d be doing this same routine if i were already a billionaire. But this was only possible once I did what i’m going to share with you here


Continue reading →

How I Meditated My Way to Freetirement at 36

(Retirement Is For Losers)

Imagine i approach you right now and say i want 40 hours of your life every week for 47 years. If you make it to the end of those 47 years I’ll set you free. Any wear and tear on your body, mind and spirit is forfeit. I won’t guarantee you’ll make it to the finish line. Nor will i guarantee how long you’ll live into your freedom. Sound like a good deal? No? Ok, here's a better offer...

Continue reading →

How to Earn More Money By Relaxing

(Why Hustling Is No Longer Optimal)

The most harmful belief in work culture is that simple effort is the magic spell for earning more money. This is harmful not only because it builds up heart attack levels of stress
 but because it doesn’t f„cking work—not in the 21st century. Here's the better way to boost your income (without busting your balls)...

Continue reading →

3 Lessons on Happiness From a Senior Monk

(And How They Saved Me From Depression)

i spent the whole of my 20’s in chronic pain. and the solutions i was trying were digging me into a pit of depression. 29,366 hours of mindfulness later, things are pretty f„cking different. Here are the 3 best lessons I learned on happiness from my ~300 hours in one-to-one conversation with a senior monk.

Continue reading →

How to Release Trauma In Meditation

(Heal Your Inner Child)

I grew up terrified of sex. But millennial British culture told me i had to get as much of it as I could (and more). So for 15 years I tried everything to get laid—for all the wrong reasons. Much later, in deep meditation, I had an encounter with my inner child that put everything right. 2 weeks later, I met the woman who would become my wife. Here's what I did to make myself ready for her.

Continue reading →

How to 48X Your Meditation in 4 Weeks

(Without Going On Retreat)

The average meditator aims for 15 mindful minutes per day. So what about the other 945? If you really want true happiness, you're going to have to learn to be present in EVERY moment. Good news: this isn't as hard as it sounds. Let me explain...

Continue reading →

10 Mindfulness Success Stories

(For The Doubters & Procrastinators)

If mindfulness feels like a chore you're doing it wrong. You need proper motivation. And nothing is better motivation than a good success story. So here's 10...

Continue reading →

Here's Why You Need "Spiritual Practice"

(It's Simpler Than You Think)

I have a student who feels free and easy for a while but then falls back into a familiar mental trap. If this sounds like you, we need to make sure you're clear on what spiritual practice is, what it can do for you, and how to proceed with it (so you're not just going round in circles).

Continue reading →

1 Step to Instant Enlightenment

(The Direct Path to Effortless Wellbeing)

You don't have to meditate for years. You don't have to develop wholesome qualities. You don't have to contemplate the nature of reality. All you have to do is recognize what's already true. Here's how...

Continue reading →

Do This When You're Stuck In Life Or Business

(7 Steps to Finding Your Perfect Mentor)

Without the guidance i’ve received throughout my life i’d be a drunk, broke, fat, lazy mess. Intelligent co-operation is the unique edge of our species, and nowhere is this more obvious than in our ability to learn from one another. if you’ve never had a mentor, you're WAY behind where you could be in life. But it’s not too late. Here's how to get the guidance you need, step-by-step...

Continue reading →

How to Perform Like The Top .1%

(Without Beating Yourself Up)

Millions of people squeeze a 20-minute meditation into their morning routine, then hope it’ll sustain their performance throughout the day. They may as well believe in magic. Here's how to GUARANTEE consistent peak performance (without hustling yourself into burnout).

Continue reading →

3 Steps to Realize Ultimate Wellbeing

(The Simplest Way to Ditch Your Emotional Baggage)

Most people overcomplicate spiritual awakening. But in the 21st century, we're finally able to cross-reference wisdom from different cultures, ditch the baggage, apply modern science and get down to what really works. Follow these 3 steps to cut the cr^p and ditch your anxiety, depression and self-hatred for good.

Continue reading →

The Biggest Challenge In My Spiritual Journey

(Save a Year by Skipping This)

If you've ever been confused about which spiritual practice to commit to, you're not alone. I spent a whole f„cking YEAR looping on this. But the solution was right under my nose the whole time. Let me give it to you right now (and save you a lot of headaches)...

Continue reading →

How to Make Friends & Enjoy Win/Win Arrangements

(Without Even Trying)

Everything great that humans have achieved has been achieved by teamwork. Unfortunately, many people struggle to unlock their true friend-making potential because of insecurity, doubt and anxiety. Here's a simple 3-step process you can use to delete your fears and start getting all the benefits of collaboration.

Continue reading →

How to Stop Wasting Your Time In Meditation

(7 Insights to Save You 1000 Hours of Practice)

Over 8 years, I spent 29,366 hours experimenting with every mindfulness technique available. I checked my results with a senior monk and a neuropsychologist. Want to know a secret? Meditation isn’t necessary. Contemplate these 7 insights. If you understand them, you can save yourself a lot of time.

Continue reading →

How to Avoid The #1 Cause of Stress

(3 Steps to Avoid Early Death)

A 2012 study by NHS Scotland found that "psychological distress is associated with increased risk of mortality from several major causes." It's proven: stress is literally a matter of life or death. Here's how to get out of the trap (and stay out).

Continue reading →

How to Get What You Want In Life

(3 Steps to Stop Feeling Lost)

Unless you know what you want, it’s impossible to get it. Sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many of my 1,000+ one-to-one students have been confused on this subject. Here's how to find your north star and get on the road to a life of wealth, freedom, love and inspiration.

Continue reading →

How To Attract Your Perfect Life-Partner

(Avoid the #1 Killer of Attraction)

A strong romantic partnership is the ultimate team. Sadly, most people never even meet their perfect partner—let alone attract them and make them happy for a lifetime. Here's how to make sure you don't miss out on the most significant relationship you'll ever have.

Continue reading →

How to Maintain Healthy Social Boundaries

(The Power of Saying No)

The main reason you struggle to say "no" is fear of what will happen if you do. But have you ever seen things going badly for someone who has their boundaries dialled in? Me neither. Here's how to value your time properly and take it back (before you run out of it altogether)...

Continue reading →