42% of solo business owners earn over $50,000 per year.¹ ² ³

The rest of them are in the “side hustle” phase, boosting their job income and maybe preparing to transition to a life of their own design full-time.

These solopreneurs contribute a total of $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy annually—with zero employees.

Clearly, attempting to make money online is no longer an unsafe bet.

So why does it still look that way from the outside?

Well, no university will teach you how to do what myself and other successful solopreneurs are doing. In fact, if you told their careers advisor you were giving it a shot they’d probably look concerned.

Large institutions are too slow to stay ahead of modern career opportunities. Still, most people rely on those institutions to tell them what to do with their lives.

The long-held belief is that if you can get a degree in something then it’s a dependable career path. But 52% of recent graduates in the U.S. are working jobs that don't require a degree. This underemployment persists for 45% of those graduates even a whole decade after graduation.⁴

Still, universities take billions of dollars from students, promising them bright futures.

This disgusts me.

So I’m taking matters into my own hands with this post, teaching you how to make the first practical steps toward taking control of your own financial destiny (without going into a single dollar of debt).

How Mainstream Education Put You In a Mental Prison

Imagine someone knocks on your door right now and tells you, “get in the limousine—from this moment on you’re in charge of the country.” How will you keep things running smoothly?

Like everyone else who ever tried, you’ll have to use rules.

Rules are great for managing groups of people. For example, the rule that every child must attend school does one good thing, at least: it gets underprivileged kids out of less-than-ideal homes and into more supportive environments.

But at the same time, rules often suck for individuals. That same rule about school attendance, for example, stifles kids who’d make a greater contribution to humanity if they were allowed to follow their natural curiosities.

6 Characteristics of the Mental Prisoner

1. Suppressed Expression

Up to the age of 5, children sing and dance spontaneously without concern for how they appear to others. They spend much of their days in worlds created by their imaginations. You probably don’t remember what that was like, but we know that those worlds are vivid. (Just watch an infant at play to see how immersed they get in their own daydreams.)

But then schooling begins and children are forced to line up, shut up and sit still for long periods. This strongly opposes their nature.

Worse, once they’re “under control”, they’re then forced to learn things—under threat of punishment—in which they have no interest.

The fundamental error of mainstream education is its belief that real learning can occur without the learner's curiosity.

Of course, some children happen to be academically minded and so thrive in school. But the further technology progresses, the more absurd it is that schools continue to force children into a narrow band of subjects.

2. Low Self-Esteem

If you’re the penguin in the cartoon above then 13 years of that treatment will grind you down—if you’re told enough times there’s something wrong with you because you can’t climb the tree, you’ll start to believe it.

But of course, you weren’t built for climbing trees. Still, school will make you think that climbing trees is the only way for you to prove you’re worth something.

3. Attachment to Security

The selection of life options presented to you in school was narrow. And 13 years of hearing this doctrine made the world itself seem narrow.

“If you don’t pass these exams,” said your schoolteachers, “your life is over.”

But what those teachers were really saying was, “if you don’t pass these exams my life is over”.

Teachers push the school’s agenda because their necks are on the line if you don’t pass your exams.

They lose their jobs—they lose their homes.

Trying to motivate kids by talking about their future is like trying to make the horse run by imagining the carrot.

(Of course, you’ll find the occasional good schoolteacher. But they, too, are trapped in a broken system—and find themselves playing along because it’s too hard to make positive change.)

All this left you feeling there’s nothing but a gaping void outside those few life options you were presented. So you cling to them—even though none of them excite you.

4. Overactive Skepticism

That gaping void looks pretty scary, hey? So when someone like me comes along and says “you can make a living online talking about your natural interests” it sounds too good to be true. It may even sound like I’m out to scam you. (I originally thought the guy I learned this stuff from was out to scam me.)

5. Time Poverty

Even if you somehow made it through school with an open mind, you probably don’t have time to do anything with it.

If you followed one of school’s prescribed life paths, you have a demanding job that doesn’t pay you enough, you’re struggling to save for retirement, you have kids to feed, and your mortgage payments are going up and up. You also have obligations to family, friends and community. You drink on the weekends which knocks at least half a day off every week by the time you’re done with the hangover. And what little time you do have for yourself is spent on other cheap pleasures because they’re the only way you see to claw back some enjoyment from life.

How the hell are you going to find time to try something new? (I’ll address this question directly later on in this post.)

6. Fixed Mindset

Mainstream education is about measurement. And the tool of measurement is the exam. You do your best to learn all that shit you really don’t care about over 13 years, then you’re scored on a single moment.

This gives you the impression that you and every other candidate has a certain ability for the subject at hand, and that your ability is *fixed—*that you can force yourself to study all you like but, in the end, you are only “that good” at maths.

But research has proven this is not the case.

In a longitudinal study of 150 science, technology, engineering, and math professors and their 15,000 students, Canning et al. found that classrooms led by professors who believed ability is a fixed attribute had racial achievement gaps up to twice as large as courses taught by faculty with a growth mindset.¹⁰

Schoolteachers who believe in growth mindset may preach it. But they’re swimming against the current in a system that pins students’ destiny on traditional exams.

Are Exams Really About Learning?

Between 2016 and 2020 I was training to teach Alexander Technique. I almost quit the course when I found out exams were on the agenda. But it was the head of training’s approach to exams that kept me around—because it was completely different to that of mainstream education.

In our study material, that head of training practically placed flashing neon signs around information that would come up later on exam papers. But here’s the real crazy part…

Right after my class completed an exam, champagne was served. We toasted one another for our efforts, then the head of training announced the correct answers to every question on the paper. We were allowed to take notes, and we were allowed to retake the exam as many times as we wanted.

That’s what it looks like to use exams as a tool for learning.

By contrast, mainstream education uses exams as a tool for gatekeeping: answers are deliberately left obscure and there is no review following the exam’s completion. Students who can score highly under these conditions (typically those who are naturally inclined toward the subject) make it through, and everyone else is shut out.

Now, maybe that would be okay within a system that presented options for students of all types.

But I refer you to that same cartoon.

The Big Question

Now, let’s go back to imagining you’re in charge of your country. As you consider the millions of children you’re responsible for educating,  rules (and exams) look like a great idea—even with everything above in mind. They’re an effective way to produce capable doctors, engineers and lawyers for your country.

But now let’s snap back to your individual position. Are these rules good for you? Maybe if you were one of those kids who was suited to one of those traditional job roles.

Now, here’s a huge opportunity for you to try out an immensely powerful way of thinking: holding two seemingly contradicting truths in mind.

Humans typically like things to be one way or another. This satisfies that attachment to security I wrote about above. Things being one way—things being clear-cut—is easy to work with.

But things are rarely so simple.

Rules are both effective at the societal level and, at the same time, stifling at the individual level.

So the question you’re left with is, are you going to stay in line and continue to be stifled, or are you going to take matters into your own hands? Are you going to continue your subscription to the narrow life path society prescribed you… Or are you going to take a deep breath and dive off into the infinite range of possibilities awaiting you in the wider world?

This dive requires you to shake off those 6 characteristics above and bust out of your mental prison. Because those 6 characteristics are the opposite of what you need to succeed in 2024.

The good news is that I have an alternative way of viewing and living life for you right here, right now…

The Digital Renaissance

If you’re familiar with me you’ll know I studied with a monk for 5 years. But if the Thai monarchy had its way, that never would’ve happened…

That monk’s own teacher was a Thai legend named Bhikkhu Buddhadasa. In 1932, Buddhadasa went into a years-long retreat, during which he made a deep study of the oldest recorded teachings of the Buddha.

Following that retreat, Buddhadasa was inspired to share what he’d learned with everyone who would listen. But the monarchy disciplined Buddhadasa for this, telling him he was teaching “the right wisdom to the wrong people”.

But why would one of the most Buddhist institutions in the world stop a young monk teaching Buddhism?

Well, Thailand was a developing country at the time. That meant a lot of people were doing a lot of shitty jobs—construction, factory work, etc. The monarchy knew this depended on people being dissatisfied and wanting more from life. And they knew the deeper teachings of the Buddha sent people in the opposite direction—toward satisfaction that doesn’t depend on anything.

So the monarchy told Bhikkhu Buddhadasa that if people wanted to divorce their families, put on the orange robe and disappear into the forest with him then he could give them the deeper teachings. But they needed the public working hard, paying taxes and making donations to the temple on weekends in return for “spiritual merit”.

Buddhadasa wanted to bring the real teachings to everyone, but his hands were tied.

Until, that is, the internet sprang up. On the internet, information could move freely, beyond the rule of any monarchy or government.

On the internet, there are no gatekeepers.

So my teacher was sent out of the monastery to teach the inner circle secrets over Skype. I was fortunate enough to spend 300 hours speaking with him one-on-one, until he encouraged me to begin teaching my own students… Which led me right to this desk, where I’m writing this post to you.

~

Thanks to the internet, gatekeepers have lost their power—not just in Thailand, not just in Buddhism, but everywhere and in everything.

No longer can anyone—neither a schoolteacher nor a government, nor even a monarch—tell you what to do. (They’re going to enforce the law of course, but I doubt you’re here to follow a passion for human trafficking.)

The internet, from 1995 to 2005 was like the wild west. People were doing business, but many were getting scammed due to lack of regulations and insecure transmission of data.

From 2005 to 2012, most people became comfortable purchasing from large websites like Amazon and eBay.

By 2012, social media had become a way of life, and finally the new marketplace was born. Now, people started making simple offers that solved problems for others, building their reputations, and earning a living online. And they were doing so without hiring a single employee, and with 90%+ profit margins—enabled by digital technology.

Still, this seemed like voodoo to most people—including myself.

In 2012 I was struggling to make more than $1500 a month as a music teacher in my city. Meanwhile, I saw more and more drummers heading out online and making way better money—with less musical skill than I had.

But the idea of following their lead seemed so far outside the realm of possibility that I didn’t even formulate questions around how to do it. There was just a vague assumption that they must have somehow gotten lucky and ended up in a position that was unattainable for me.

By 2021 it was becoming so common for people to run businesses online that I couldn’t ignore the call any longer—I had to figure it out. And one thing was clear: where to start.

Social Media: The Town Square of the New Economy

In 2024 the social media marketplace is, mechanically speaking, no different to a traditional one.

In a traditional marketplace you take the tomatoes you’ve cultivated, lay them out for people to see, set a fair price and—hopefully—make some sales.

In the social media marketplace you take the knowledge and experience you’ve cultivated, lay it out for people to see, set a fair price and—hopefully—make some sales.

It’s really that simple.

But it took me a while to see it like this. In the end, it was only lack of familiarity that bred all my fear around the new marketplace.

Online purchases are actually safer than those made in cash.

That dude you’re buying tomatoes from is a total stranger. And sure, his tomatoes look ripe and juicy, but maybe that’s because he used chemicals in his soil. And maybe he sprayed them with pesticides. And once you give him your cash, you’re never going to see him again. If his tomatoes turn out to be full of maggots there’s no way of getting a refund.

By contrast, on social media, you get to watch the people you buy from over time.

My first purchase through social media was Dan Koe’s legacy course, Digital Economics. It cost $800. But by the time I dropped that cash I’d read and watched dozens of hours of Dan’s content. And I confirmed over time that he lives consistently with the principles he teaches. I assessed his trustworthiness by my own standards, so when the time came I felt comfortable with my purchase (even though that price tag represented 1/3rd of my savings at the time).

I wasn’t buying from Dan just because his tomatoes looked good (cue immature giggling). Nor was I buying from Dan based on someone else’s assessment of him—because a university had given him a degree. I was buying from him because he ticked my boxes.

And this demonstrated what we all really want. Certification is good at the societal level—it does a reasonable job of keeping psychotic maniacs out of roles where they might do harm. But once again, *it’s terrible at the individual level—*we’ve all had experiences with professionals after which we’ve wondered “how the hell did they end up in their position?”

~

Since the dawn of humanity, we’ve assessed one another’s trustworthiness before making exchanges. And as much as people have screwed one another over from time to time, generally we’re very good at creating win/win arrangements. (We’d never have come this far as a species otherwise.)

But only recently—in historical terms—did institutions rise up and commoditize trust by inventing certification and telling people they can’t serve others unless they pay the toll. This is what I mean by gatekeeping.

Of course, we don’t want amateur surgeons to ever be a thing. But if someone tries to sell you a certificate in “life coaching” please tell them “Dan Goldfield says you’re an idiot”.

The fear this is all built around is that of making a bad judgment when considering who to buy from. Or of falling victim to an unusually skilled con artist.

Most people feel safer when someone else makes their decisions for them.

That’s anything but safe. But it’s how institutions maintain so much power.

Anyway, those fears are irrational in 2024— because anti-fraud measures are now basically foolproof. You can get a chargeback through your bank for any purchase that doesn’t deliver what was promised.

This enables you to get back to doing honest business, where people buy from people. More specifically, people buy from people they trust.

The Research

You still won’t find families talking about digital solopreneurship over Sunday dinner anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean it’s not established.

In fact, this demonstrates something we’re all going to have to get used to: society is now changing so rapidly that there’s no longer time for cultural movements to become cultural norms.

Culture used to develop slowly enough that everyone had time to catch onto trends. Believe it or not, one generation and the next used to understand one another. But the “family business” is already a relic of the past: how many people do you know who took up their parent’s profession?

What this means for you as we dig further into the 21st century is that if you wait for things to become “normal”, you might be waiting till you die.

Research develops a lot faster than Boomers do though, and there’s already encouraging data on solopreneurship:

Electronic Commerce Research states, "The rise of social media influencer marketing research… signals the importance of social media influencer marketing… reaffirming past observations of an acceleration in technology adoption and significant financial success for solopreneurs".⁸

The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science states, "virtually every part of a consumer’s decision-making process is prone to social media influence. This has increased consumer trust and ease in making online purchases driven by social media."⁷

The Boston Hospitality Review states, "Social media influencers… have become significant earners by leveraging their personal brands to promote products effectively".⁶

And finally, Frontiers in Psychology states, "Personal branding [the business model run by most solopreneurs] is progressively moving from conceptualization to empirical studies, with a preference for qualitative methods… positioning personal branding as one of the essential human activities for maintaining sustainable work and employment."⁵

All of this reflects how easy it is to make an honest living online in 2024 and beyond.

Once I had the right information, I was able to freetire myself in just 5 months. But among the 1100+ people I’ve guided through this territory, very few have been able to take the necessary steps without getting in their own way.

The difference was that I’d done the mindset work before I showed up.

So let’s get into that right now…

The 9 Most Common Blocks For Social Media Beginners (And How to Get Over Them Fast)

1. Impostor Syndrome

Almost everyone who decides to give social media content creation a shot struggles with feeling like what they have to say isn’t valuable enough.

The cure for this is simple.

4.25 billion people log onto social media daily.

That’s a difficult number to visualize, so check this out:

Now, among those 4 billion people who show up on social media each day, it’s reasonable to suppose that some of them are struggling with a problem you already solved in your life.

It doesn’t have to be anything crazy:

• Maybe you learned to budget your finances
• Maybe you learned to co-ordinate your wardrobe
• Maybe you learned to meal prep

I promise you there are people out there who will pay to learn how to do these things. (And anything else that can add value to their lives.)

And look, you could try to find a few dozen of those people locally. But why limit your reach? (And income?)

To wrap this section:

You’re only an impostor when you’re dishonest.

If you stick to what you know and represent it honestly you will find people who need exactly the kind of help you can provide.

2. Uncertainty

Your education created a bias in you, which goes hand-in-hand with that attachment to security that’s become a theme of this post.

Your teachers painted a picture of traditional employment as an unshakeable rock—something that would never let you down.

“Just study hard,” they said, “get your grades, become a suitable employee and all will be well.”

So everyone leaves school thinking employment is safer than entrepreneurship, failing to acknowledge that all private sector employers are, themselves, entrepreneurs!

Any business can go bankrupt at any moment. But if you’re working in someone else’s business they’d prefer to make you redundant long before that happens.

Even governments can, at a stretch, be considered businesses:

• They have income and expenses
• They provide services
• They answer to the people who use those services

Of course, we all hope our governments are more stable than businesses.

But what about single departments? These open and close all the time.

There’s no such thing as certainty. Not in employment, not in relationships, not in anything.

Everything is subject to change. Remember COVID? I saw people who felt their jobs were bulletproof being let go.

If you’re a halfway-capable individual you’re actually more secure taking matters into your own hands by learning how to transmit value directly from yourself to other people. Less middle-men, less bureaucracy, less bullshit. Just you, your knowledge and expertise, your means of transmitting it and your happy customers.

Yes, there’s a lot to learn and do to make it happen. But that’s what I’m here to help you with. (If you want personal assistance right away, click here.)

3. “Shouting Into The Void”

If you’ve ever posted on social media—even on a personal account—you’ll know what it’s like to get zero likes.

But the number of likes on a post is not a strict indicator of its quality.

That’s so important, I’m going to write it again:

The number of likes on a post is not a strict indicator of its quality.

Why? Because posts aren’t published on an even playing field.

Every day I see trash posts from accounts who bought their followers getting thousands of likes. But how? But why?

Imagine you’re visiting a new city and you wander past two Japanese restaurants at lunchtime. They appear almost identical. The menus are pretty much the same. But there’s one important difference: one restaurant is full of customers, while the other is empty.

You’ve never been to either one, but social proof tells you the busy restaurant is almost certainly the better pick.

But here’s the thing: the empty restaurant could just be new in town, have no idea about advertising, and be serving the best sushi in the freaking world. You’ve just no way of knowing it. Meanwhile, the chef in there is crying herself to sleep every night because “the world isn’t fair”.

This chef is falling victim to the fallacy of “make it good enough and they will come”. A lot of artists struggle with this too.

As a teenager, I thought if I just got good enough on drums I’d somehow get the best gigs in the world. No-one ever told me that I might need to let people know that I was good enough.

Now, here’s the problem with all this as it pertains to social media: it’s incredibly easy to fake that social proof. As mentioned, followers can be bought. And engagement on any one post can be bought too.

But any creator who built their audience organically, at first, was “shouting into the void”—getting zero response on anything they put out.

In a way, this is actually a good thing—it gives you time to practice your craft before you get exposure. But regardless, you’re going to want to take matters into your own hands and start building some momentum. And there’s one way to do this that beats all others, hands down: making friends.

Friends are the ultimate social media growth hack.

It’s called social media, after all.

In my upcoming free course, Freetirement Foundations, I’ll teach you exactly how to make these friends and set up win/win arrangements with them around social media growth. For now, just know that creators on social media are super open to hearing from others at their level and sharing posts that are relevant to their audiences. (Of course, you’ll need to share their posts in return.) This is how you start to get more eyes on your content.

4. Fear of Rejection

No-one wants to be disliked.

This is hardwired into us from millions of years of evolution. In a primitive community, if you’d upset the tribe enough you’d have been excluded—or even banished. Banishment meant certain death.

Ancestral humans who upset the tribe had less or no mating opportunities… Which means they didn’t pass on their genes… Which means all of us in 2024—except the psychopaths—want to please one another.

But is this ideal?

Over the past 30 years the structure of our communities has mutated.

Before social media, the average person maintained around 150 social connections.

In communities limited by geography, preferences were more similar (for example, most people followed the same religion, which meant most people thought and behaved similarly). But now you can make a statement on social media and within seconds it’s seen by thousands of people from all walks of life.

News flash: some of these people are going to disagree with you. Some of them are going to dislike you. But here’s the thing: you actually want some people to dislike you on social media. This is part of what’s called polarization, which is a well-known and desirable phenomenon among seasoned creators.

Many beginning creators try to play it safe, to avoid upsetting anyone. Then they struggle to grow an audience. Why? Because if no-one dislikes what you’re saying, no-one likes it either.

Imagine you’re scrolling your feed and you see two posts:

Post 1: “Junk food isn’t the healthiest, but it sure tastes good. If someone wants to eat it every now and then that’s okay I guess.”

Post 2: “McDonald’s will kill you. Put down the fucking cheeseburger.”

Post 2 is going to provoke more response, every time. Some people will agree, some people will disagree. This isn’t a bad thing.

It’s okay for people to disagree.

If you don’t think so then, again, mainstream education has a lot to answer for. It trained you to fit into a box and behave nicely. You can keep doing that if you like. But you’ll be neglecting the tribe of people out there who need to hear what you really have to say.

5. Digital Addiction

The average person checks their phone 96 times a day.⁹

If you’re conscious about mental health, personal development or spirituality—which you almost certainly are if you’re reading my posts—then you’ll have considered the harms of such compulsive behaviour.

So won’t it be a problem to start spending more time on social media?

That depends on how you do it.

“Social media bad” is black and white thinking.

I’m on social media a lot, but it causes zero problems in my life. In fact, it only brings benefits to my life.

We can draw a bold line between social media users like myself (creators) and social media users who fall into addictive behaviours (consumers).

The number one difference regarding what happens when these two types of user open their apps is that the creator has curated their feed to display only content that makes a positive impact on them. The consumer, meanwhile, hits “follow” on anything that spikes their dopamine.

The first thing I tell new creators to do if they’re concerned about digital addiction is to scroll their feed and unfollow anyone posting cat GIFs, memes or sexualized content. This alone is life-changing.

Social media is not bad. Using social media in a harmful way is bad. And yes, the algorithms are designed to hook you in—and they are powerful. This is why I recommend mindfulness to all my students. (Try this guided meditation if you want to start addressing addictive behaviours.)

6. Conflicting Information

Let’s say you’ve read everything above and you want to give this solopreneurship thing a shot… But there’s a problem: I’m just one among dozens of creators telling you how to do it. And each of us has a different approach.

How are you supposed to know which of us to listen to?

Well friend, you’re not.

In fact, you can’t.

I know that answer may increase your anxiety, but let me tell you why it should do the opposite.

To pick the advice that’s guaranteed to work, you’d have to be Dr. Strange with the Time Stone. You’d have to look into all possible futures, find the one where you made a success of your business, then identify the advice you followed to get that favourable outcome.

Of course, you can’t do this. So what are your options?

1. Don’t pick any advice at all. Stay in your current career and let your dreams of a better life fade.
2. Take bits and pieces of advice from various creators and try to patch them together.
3. Assess the creators offering guidance, pick the one that feels like the best fit, and follow their system to the exclusion of the rest.

When I was in your position, I picked number 3.

I’d already decided to move on from my previous career, so number 1 wasn’t an option.

Number 2 felt safe—kind of like diversifying a portfolio of investments. But I saw that it was actually dangerous.

Imagine you take advice from me on social media content (which I’ll be getting into below), but you take advice from another creator on your newsletter, then from yet another creator on your website. Here’s the issue: how can you know that these 3 pieces will fit together into something that works? What if some subtle detail about my newsletter strategy hooks into my social media strategy in a way that you can’t possibly see as a beginner?

Here’s an even bigger issue: if what you do doesn’t work after a year, how will you know what the problem was? You won’t.

I decided I’d pick one person who’d done what I wanted to do, follow their systems to the letter, and ignore all other experts for a period of time. That way, if it didn’t work for me I’d a) be able to ask questions or b) be able to confidently throw that system in the bin and move onto something else.

Ok, so how do you pick the expert who’s most likely to get you the result you want?

Well, one of the best things about the business model I’m encouraging you to try is that everyone who runs it puts a ton of content out for free.

A post like this one takes me roughly 10 hours to produce. Still, under the purpose-based business model I’m able to put them out for free—because 1 of my 950 readers signs up for $2500 worth of coaching. Often, this person will have been reading my content for months—if not over a year.

They watched me to see if I practice what I preach. They saw me follow my own recommendations and increase my own level of success. They contemplated my ideas for themselves and decided, eventually, to go deeper.

I encourage you to do the same. Then, when you choose someone to guide you, go all in on them.

7. Overwhelm

Let’s imagine you’re a little further down the track now. You’ve chosen a system to implement, but the size of the task seems intimidating as hell. You’re stood at the base of the purpose-based business mountain with your heavy rucksack on, wondering how you’ll ever make it to the peak.

My recommendation likely won’t surprise you:

Stop thinking about the peak.

Just put one foot in front of the other, and trust the decision you made regarding which mountain to climb and who’s going to guide you. Focus on the journey. Because focusing on the result, at this point, is only a distraction.

8. Time Management

But what if you have a job and a mortgage and 3 kids and a partner with a high sex drive and a sick mother and a dog and a cat and a 5-a-side soccer team and a friend who owes you money and a lease on a car and a birthday party to organize?

You’re going to have to learn to say “no”.

You don’t need as much time as you might think to start your one-person business—an hour a day is the minimum. But you do need that much. And you need that time to be high quality: undistracted and at a time when you have adequate mental energy.

Most people at the beginning of this journey need to focus on removing things from their lives. From the list above, I’d recommend you:

1. Optimize your domestic chores with things like an automatic pet food dispenser
2. Ditch the soccer team
3. Give that friend one more harsh reminder about your loan before considering the money lost

Also, if you can afford it, hire a cleaner. You may not want to spend the money, but this is about freeing up the time to earn so much that you wonder why you didn’t outsource time-intensive tasks sooner.

Oh, and if you ever have hangovers, those are half-days you can get back with baby-level discipline.

You may not like these changes. The other people in your life almost certainly won’t.

But every time you say “yes” to these drains on your time you’re saying “no” to a better life.

Time management begins with prioritization. And make no mistake: if you hold two things as equal priority in your life, you’re chickening out. Decide what matters most to you and be ruthless with everything else. This is what’s necessary to take charge of your own destiny.

9. Tech Issues

The final common issue I hear from beginner creators is that they don’t know how to deal with the tech.

This is an absolute non-issue.

If you’re not doing this already, I strongly recommend asking ChatGPT when you don’t know how to do anything.

It’ll give you step-by-step instructions in the blink of an eye, and you can ask it follow-up questions for further clarification.

I built my website from scratch in Webflow—which I’d never used before—in about 50 hours with GPT’s help. It wasn’t always straightforward—there were plenty of moments when I scratched my head, and I had to drill GPT pretty hard for accuracy. But this is what it is to figure something out on your own.

You can earn $2500 per month if you want someone else to tell you how to do things.

You can earn $2500 per email (and more) if you teach yourself how to do things.

(Yes, I’m teaching you how to do things in this post, but my goal is always to lead you to self-sufficiency.)

~

Now, with your mindset thoroughly addressed, it’s time for you to take action…

The Brand Base Builder

I’m going to show you how to build the foundation of your purpose-based business right here, right now.

And it begins with your personal brand.

Your personal brand is the banner under which you’ll unite everything you ever do from here on. It’s the representation of yourself, what you stand for, and what you can do for people.

The best thing about a personal brand is that, like you, it will—and should—change over time. Here in the beginning it’s going to be about you stepping out onto the digital frontier and figuring things out. In 6 months, if you’re consistent, it’ll be about your first offering to people. And in 6 years it’ll be about something you probably can’t foresee.

Where to Start

I strongly recommend x.com as your first social media platform.

It’s text-based, which means you can post quickly. Posting quickly means you can post a lot. Posting a lot means you can learn what resonates with people.

A year down the line, you’ll have a bunch of validated ideas, which you can sort by engagement in your analytics. That’s when it’ll make sense for you to start creating higher-effort content (video).

💡Video content is a lot more effort to produce than text. In fact, all the extra effort video requires is in addition to what writing requires—because most good videos begin as a script anyway. Beginning with writing can save you years of wasted effort. It’s hard enough to figure out what works on X. Writing, shooting and editing video just to see if it resonates with people makes no sense.

If you already have a personal account on X you can use that. Or if you prefer you can start fresh. It doesn’t matter much. Privacy may be the deciding factor (if you have a bunch of colleagues following you, for example).

On a personal account you’ll likely lose some followers who were just there as friends, but the social proof of even 100 followers can be a nice boost to your early efforts.

Pro Tip: Lower Your Standards

I want you to aim for a 1/10 (yes, one-out-of-ten) standard in everything you’re about to do.

This may seem ridiculous—why would you put trash out in public? Well, you won’t. I know you won’t. But if I tell you to aim for a 6/10, you’ll aim for an 8/10. So I’m telling you to aim for a 1/10 and that’ll land you on a 5.

This is just about getting something—anything—out there. We’re building your “minimum viable brand”. You have the rest of your life to improve it.

The Profile Generator

Your Minimum Viable Bio

1. Start a fresh note.
2. Brainstorm things you’re knowledgable about (e.g. software engineering, music production, yoga).
3. Brainstorm things you’re passionate about (e.g. dogs, live comedy, wine).
4. Brainstorm things you’re curious about (e.g. quantum computing, longevity, Taoist philosophy).
5. Brainstorm things you’ve achieved (e.g. employee of the month, repairing a difficult family relationship, winning a hotdog-eating contest).
6. Brainstorm things you’re working on right now (e.g. fitness, a work project, this personal brand thing).
7. Circle your favourites among everything above.
8. Arrange them into the following structure for your bio:
9. “Writing about x, y and z so you can [desirable result]. [Relevant achievement]. Building [project].”

The goal here is to give people who visit your profile a reason to follow you; a reason to want to see your posts on their feed. It really doesn’t have to be anything profound. Think of it like “what would someone want to hear more about if they met me at a party?” Not “how can I prove I’m going to change the world?”

Your Minimum Viable Banner

1. Go to canva.com.
2. Sign up for an account if you don’t have one.
3. Create a project that’s 1500x500 pixels.
4. Pick a light or dark background colour that you feel represents you and what you’re about (read up on colour psychology if you’re stuck).
5. Click “elements” in the sidebar.
6. Search for a simple icon that represents where you were before you learned what you wrote about in your bio.
7. Place it left of centre on your banner.
8. Search for a simple icon that represents where you are now with the benefits of all your knowledge and experience.
9. Place it right of centre on your banner.
10. Create an arrow shape between them.
11. Your banner should now reflect the transformation you’re able to help people with (again, you don’t have to be Tony Robbins—you can just be sharing modestly about what worked for you).
12. Upload the result to your X profile.

Your Minimum Viable Profile Pic

1. If you have a high-quality selfie, that will do just fine. If not, take one against a blank background. (Be prepared to take 100 shots here to find a single winner. This is how pro photographers win.)
2. If the vibe of your profile so far is serious (e.g. if you’re talking about finance or Stoic philosophy), use a pic that reflects this. If, on the other hand, you’re going for a warmer vibe, flash that smile.
3. Create another Canva document, this time 400x400 pixels.
4. Upload your pic.
5. Click “edit image” above the canvas.
6. Click “Adjust” to the left.
7. Click the purple “Auto-adjust” button.
8. Click “Effects”.
9. Click “BG Remover”.
10. Set the background colour to be the same as that of your banner.
11. Upload the result to your X profile.

~

If you’re unsure of anything, check out my profile for reference.

But bear in mind, my profile is the result of thousands of iterations.

If you can get something 10% as polished, great.

Congratulations—your minimum viable profile is complete!

Don’t worry about any other settings for now.

The 3 A’s of Winning Social Media Content

Every successful creator posts 3 types of content:

1. Appeal
2. Authenticity
3. Authority

These are arranged as a triangle above because they all lean on one another to create a solid foundation for your growth.

Appeal content interrupts a reader’s doomscrolling and gets their eyeballs on you.

Authenticity content demonstrates that you’re a real human being. This gives readers opportunities to connect with you.

Authority content demonstrates that you have valuable knowledge and experience to share with the reader (this doesn’t have to be any more significant than showing them how to repot a houseplant). This gives them a reason to keep following you and—eventually—buy from you.

Here’s how to create one post of each type…

Appeal Post Generator

The first post you’re going to write is a simple list.

Readers love lists because they hijack deep “what’s next?” psychology.

They also give readers several opportunities to resonate—perhaps they don’t agree with you on 4 out of 5 list items but the 5th one is something they really vibe with.

1. Go back to your brainstorms from the “minimum viable bio” section above.
2. Pick a topic most people know about (e.g. running).
3. Write “x benefits of [topic]:”
4. Brainstorm benefits and ask GPT if you need help here.
5. Write an encouraging statement to close the post underneath.

You want it to look something like this:

~

5 benefits of running every day:

• Improved mood
• Improved sleep
• Improved endurance
• Improved metabolism
• Improved self-esteem

Get those Nike's on!

~

This isn’t going to win any awards for most imaginative social post ever, but it’s more than good enough for your first.

Follow my account if you’re not already doing so, then check out the list of people I’m following to find a bunch of other creators putting out content that aligns with the 3 A’s. Use it all as inspiration and put out a bunch more lists for practice.

Authenticity Post Generator

This is your chance to express yourself and speak to your audience—or potential audience—as if they’re already friends.

1. If you can afford to sign up for X Premium, go ahead and get access to the “long post” feature. If not, open your preferred notes app.
2. Before you begin, commit to keeping your reader in mind. Yes, this type of post is more personal, but the intention is still to provide value. The golden rule for this is to always think in terms of *pains and benefits—*what is your reader (your past self) struggling with? What do they want?
3. Write about whatever’s on your heart. You could write about a challenge you recently overcame, a story from your past, something or someone you’re proud of, or just something you saw on YouTube that resonated with you.
4. If you’re using the “long post” format on X, go ahead and publish. If not, take a screenshot of your note and post that.

Authority Post Generator

Consider your authority posts as educational.

1. Go back to your brainstorms again.
2. Pick a topic you have a lot of knowledge/experience on.
3. For the first line of your post, highlight a problem people experience relevant to your topic.
4. For the second line, agitate that problem.
5. For the third line, provide a solution.

Here’s an example:

~

Knee pain is unavoidable in running.

If you’re not careful it will stop you altogether.

To stay on the road, invest money in your footwear and invest time in your form.

~

See how I’m not trying to blow anyone’s mind here? I don’t have to. A lot of the time people are just looking for reminders of stuff they already know. But writing in this way—being the person who’s giving the reminder—positions you as an authority on the topic.

And I’m going to keep drilling this in: you do not have to be Eliud Kipchoge to be considered an authority on running. Precision is important here: you’re not trying to be the authority on running—you’re trying to be an authority on running.

Meaning you only have to know more than beginners. They’ll never get access to Kipchoge, but they can get access to you. And besides—as crazy as this might sound, Kipchoge might not even be able to give appropriate advice to beginners. He’s too far ahead. He’s already left the stratosphere. He can’t relate to someone who’s still concerned with what shoes to buy.

Over time, you’ll demonstrate that you’re not just talking but actually practising what you preach. This is how you earn respect.

If You Need Help With All This

Good news: I’ll soon be launching a free course, Freetirement Foundations that covers everything you need to start your purpose-based business in one place.

If you can’t wait—or you want personal guidance—I have one space open for coaching right now. Click here to tell me about your goals and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

Win/win for the win,
dg 💙

~

SOURCES:

¹https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/household-income-distribution-wealth-inequality-united-states/

²https://sidehustlescience.org/solopreneur-statistics/

³https://blog.xolo.io/how-to-succeed-as-a-solopreneur

⁴https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2024/02/22/more-half-recent-four-year-college-grads-underemployed

⁵https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02238/full

⁶https://www.bu.edu/bhr/2021/10/04/influencer-marketing-a-comparison-of-traditional-celebrity-social-media-influencer-and-ai-influencer/

⁷https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1

⁸https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10660-023-09719-z

⁹https://techjury.net/blog/technology-addiction-statistics/

¹⁰https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/dweck-growth-mindsets