cover of episode The Death Of The Personal Brand (& The Future Of Creative Work)

The Death Of The Personal Brand (& The Future Of Creative Work)

2024/10/6
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Dan Koe: 个人品牌不再是个人化的,创作者经济的兴起让更多人想成为创作者,但它已偏离了最初的轨道。曾经,个人品牌或成为创作者是那些想要从生活中获得更多的人的希望灯塔。随着创作者经济的兴起,越来越多的人想要成为真正的创作者,因为他们认为这是一种做自己想做的事情的方式,并且借助互联网的力量,更多的人可以做到这一点。 Dan Koe: 我们不需要更多只顾赚钱,不关心其他事情的网红。我们正处于一个关键时刻:注意力持续下降,垃圾食品泛滥,而最受关注的榜样却对此无动于衷。如果想改变现状,我们也需要获得关注,并成为那些通过做有意义的事情引领积极方向的人。销售产品本身并不坏,它是摆脱为他人工作的唯一途径;工作也不是坏事,只是垫脚石。 Dan Koe: 大多数人只是内容创作者,而不是真正的创造者;他们被内容模板束缚,缺乏原创想法。许多创作者陷入生存模式,成为内容模板的奴隶,缺乏原创想法。创作者应该更深入地理解算法背后的用户心理,才能创作出有深度、有意义的内容。许多创作者的做法,例如在大型账号下评论,加入互动小组,缺乏深度和意义。互动小组并非都是不好的,它可以帮助创作者互相合作,共同成长。在社交环境中,团队合作比单打独斗更有效。 Dan Koe: 不要轻易否定这些方法,要尝试理解其背后的深度和意义。短视频平台由于时间和字数限制,内容往往比较浅显;要脱颖而出,需要创作长篇内容。长篇内容更有利于脱颖而出、产生影响,并建立独立的受众群体(例如邮件列表)。个人品牌往往过于关注赚钱,而忽略了其他方面;他们关注高流量话题,受众流失严重。个人品牌应该思考自己是否在帮助他人做有意义的事情。为了产生积极影响,个人品牌必须持续改进和发展;停滞不前会导致衰落。不要只追求快速赚钱,要追求有意义的事业。 Dan Koe: 不要局限于YouTube创作者、个人品牌或网红等标签,要展现真实的自我。互联网、社交媒体和软件都是工具,其积极或消极取决于个人态度。最终目标是通过互联网获得报酬,做真实的自己。乔丹·彼得森是一个很好的例子,他利用各种工具来推进自己的人生事业,而不是专注于短期内容趋势。乔丹·彼得森的成功在于他高品质的想法和批判性思维。不要因为社交媒体的现状而放弃,要设定更高的目标。要改变对社交媒体的看法,利用它来提升自己。每个人都拥有可以帮助他人的知识和技能。 Dan Koe: 要追求人生事业,最终需要创建自己的事业。将个人事业视为独立工作,有助于克服心理障碍。不要被“互联网”、“事业”等词语吓倒,要尝试理解其背后的深度和意义。不必立即知道自己的人生事业是什么,重要的是朝着积极的目标前进。人生事业是未知的,需要通过实验和发展来创造。如果不知道如何设定积极的目标,可以先弄清楚自己不想要什么。 Dan Koe: “粉丝”这个词已经失去了其冲击力,更喜欢用“读者”或“受众”来代替。要建立事业,需要有受众;互联网提供了免费且易于访问的平台来吸引受众。互联网的优势在于:传播范围广、可以吸引志同道合的人、免费且易于访问。社交媒体是追求人生事业的工具,可以帮助人们与他人建立联系,分享知识,解决问题。要充分利用互联网的潜力,帮助他人,并从中获益。未来可能会有近70亿家公司,每个人都可以拥有自己的事业。互联网是吸引受众关注人生事业的途径。拥有受众(无论大小)对于建立事业至关重要。受众来源不限于社交媒体,还可以通过付费广告、播客赞助等方式获得。 Dan Koe: 创建人生事业需要三个要素:积极的目标、吸引受众的能力、项目转化为产品的能力。项目是实现目标、解决问题、积累经验的途径;盈利的产品带来改变,帮助人们更接近目标。每天都要建立项目,推动自己朝着未来的愿景前进。如果吸引到与自己拥有相似个性和愿景的受众,那么自己建立的项目很容易转化为产品。要不断尝试和改进,才能创造出更好的产品。创建产品并非要完全解决人们的问题,而是提供工具和方法,提高效率。创建人生事业需要四个要素:积极的目标、吸引受众的能力、项目转化为产品的能力、持续改进的能力。 Dan Koe: 创建事业是一个持续改进的过程,需要不断尝试和迭代。第一件作品往往不尽如人意,重要的是要坚持下去,不断改进。发布作品只是旅程的开始,需要持续改进和迭代。要学习如何脱颖而出,避免成为那些缺乏深度的创作者。要学习如何在限制条件下发挥创造力。创意工作的四个支柱是:品牌、内容、产品和推广。许多人专注于技能提升,却不懂得如何变现;许多人成为课程的奴隶,缺乏独立思考。品牌是一个环境,它包括所有与受众互动的方式。品牌是受众在长期接触后形成的整体印象。在创作内容和产品时,要考虑其与品牌愿景的一致性。人们会购买价格更高的产品,前提是品牌能够提供独特的价值。品牌并非只是静态的形象,而是动态的、不断演变的过程。 Dan Koe: 内容创作的关键是提供独特的视角,而不是重复已有的信息。人们关注的是视角,而不是信息本身。要脱颖而出,需要从已有的想法中寻找新的视角。要学习如何有影响力地思考。介绍 CoreNotes 系统,帮助创作者将想法转化为原创内容。CoreNotes 系统帮助创作者将任何想法转化为原创的、有深度的想法。CoreNotes 系统是一个笔记系统,帮助创作者创作内容。介绍 CoreNotes 系统的使用方法:从一个想法出发,选择 3-4 个方面进行展开(问题、目标、例子、好处、过程、概念)。详细介绍 CoreNotes 系统的六个方面:问题、目标、例子、好处、过程、概念。CoreNotes 系统可以帮助创作者创作更有深度、更有影响力的内容。从问题出发,可以找到更多有价值的内容创意。问题是目标的起源,也是吸引注意力的关键。通过 CoreNotes 系统,可以创作出更优秀的内容。他最受欢迎的 YouTube 视频“一人公司模式”和“如何将自己产品化”都源于 CoreNotes 系统。CoreNotes 系统可以帮助创作者创作各种形式的内容。 Dan Koe: 教育是新的营销方式。人们对事物的兴趣并非天生,而是逐渐培养的。要吸引受众,需要通过教育和品牌认知来培养他们的兴趣。在社交媒体上,与其寻找细分市场,不如通过教育来创造客户。系统是新的产品。人们需要的是系统化的解决方案,而不是简单的解决方案。他自己的写作课程“Two Hour Writer”就是一个系统化的产品。创建系统的第一步是设定明确的目标。他创建“Two Hour Writer”课程的过程,以及如何设定目标、测试解决方案、改进系统。他如何将“Two Hour Writer”课程中的内容应用于多个平台。通过不断尝试和迭代,可以创造出更优秀的产品。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why has the concept of personal branding lost its original appeal?

Personal branding has strayed from its original purpose of allowing individuals to embrace their curiosity and display their skills. Instead, it has become a tool for monetization and audience growth, often leading creators to focus on high-performing topics rather than authentic self-expression. This shift has resulted in a loss of depth and authenticity, making personal brands feel more like glorified search engines than genuine representations of individuals.

What is the key to standing out as a creator in today's saturated market?

To stand out, creators must focus on producing unique, long-form content that offers depth and value. Short-form content and social media algorithms often lead to shallow engagement, but long-form content allows creators to own their audience and build meaningful connections. Additionally, creators should prioritize their vision and passions over marketing tactics, as people are drawn to authenticity and depth.

How can creators avoid becoming trapped in the cycle of content templates and survival mode?

Creators can avoid this trap by focusing on original ideas and critical thinking rather than relying on content templates. They should view social media and algorithms as tools shaped by human nature, not as rigid formulas to follow. By diving deeper into their interests and creating content that reflects their unique perspectives, creators can break free from the cycle of survival mode and build a more fulfilling creative practice.

What role does experimentation play in building a successful creative career?

Experimentation is crucial for success in creative work. Creators must continuously iterate on their ideas, products, and content to find what resonates with their audience. The first iteration of anything is likely to be imperfect, but publishing and receiving feedback is the starting point for improvement. This mindset of persistence and iteration allows creators to evolve and refine their work over time.

Why is long-form content more effective than short-form for building a lasting audience?

Long-form content is more effective because it allows creators to delve deeper into topics, providing value and fostering meaningful connections with their audience. Unlike short-form content, which often relies on quick engagement, long-form content helps creators establish authority and trust. It also enables them to own their audience through platforms like email lists, reducing reliance on social media algorithms.

What is the ultimate goal of pursuing creative work on the internet?

The ultimate goal is to get paid to be yourself by leveraging the internet as a tool to display your work, art, and experiences. This involves attracting an audience, building products that solve problems, and continuously evolving your creative practice. The internet provides a platform for creators to share their passions and make a meaningful impact while achieving financial independence.

How can creators productize their skills and turn them into profitable ventures?

Creators can productize their skills by building projects that solve problems and then turning those projects into products. For example, a fitness program, a writing system, or a productivity planner can be developed based on personal experimentation and then offered to others. By attracting an audience with similar goals, creators can monetize their solutions and create sustainable income streams.

What is the importance of having a positive aim in creative work?

A positive aim provides direction and purpose in creative work. It helps creators focus on meaningful goals and avoid stagnation. Even if the exact path is unclear, having a positive aim ensures continuous progress and evolution. This approach allows creators to experiment, iterate, and ultimately discover their life's work through a process of trial and error.

Why is it important for creators to build their own systems rather than relying on existing ones?

Building your own systems allows you to create unique and original solutions that stand out in a crowded market. While existing systems can provide a foundation, personal experimentation and experience lead to innovations that resonate with your audience. This approach not only differentiates your work but also ensures it aligns with your vision and goals.

How can creators use social media as a tool for meaningful connection rather than shallow engagement?

Creators can use social media as a tool for meaningful connection by focusing on sharing knowledge, solving problems, and fostering genuine interactions. Instead of chasing likes and followers, they should aim to educate and inspire their audience. By viewing social media as a platform for human connection rather than a source of distraction, creators can build deeper relationships and make a lasting impact.

Chapters
This chapter explores the evolution of the creator economy, highlighting the shift from authentic passion projects to a more formulaic, often inauthentic approach. It emphasizes the importance of creating content and products driven by genuine passion rather than solely focusing on marketing and sales.
  • The creator economy initially offered a beacon of hope for those seeking fulfilling work.
  • The rise of influencers and the focus on algorithms have diluted the original authenticity.
  • Creating content you want to see in the world, and building products you want to see in the world, are key to standing out.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Personal brands are no longer personal. What used to be a beacon of hope for those that wanted more out of life, the personal brand or becoming a creator was that thing. As the creator economy started to emerge, more and more people wanted to become actual creators because they saw that it was a way to do what they want and with the power of the internet, more people could do that.

A personal brand or a creator was this thing that allowed you to go whatever path you want and embrace your curiosity and display your skill set, your interests, and attract people like you that wanted to support your work. It was a way to take your current skill set, put it online, and remove all of the limitations that the traditional path and job market allow for. So that's what we're here to talk about because the personal brand and being a creator

has strayed far from what its original path was. Now, when I was a teenager, I was deep into fitness and I remember watching a few small creators online when YouTube was first gaining popularity. And I would consider this the golden age of the creator economy. It was a peak

in authenticity, where people were just picking up cameras to share their passions and teach what they've been learning. People like Matt Ogis, Chris Lovato and other people in the fitness industry at the time come to mind when I think of this.

And the thing here is, the power behind this is that those individuals had such a strong influence and impact on the direction of my life. I was just this kid who came home from school and played video games all day and cooked frozen burritos at night and chugged five Dr. Peppers and then woke up early just so I could maintain my rank in Halo 3 so that my other friend didn't pass me.

I was a kid with massive ambitions, but didn't have the knowledge or even the awareness of how to make those ambitions a reality. I just knew that I wanted something more. But the only thing that I knew at the time was that I wanted to become an anesthesiologist because it paid a lot, right? I was just told my entire life, you need to go to college, you need to go to college. And so that was what was on my mind. That's what framed my perception and perception.

every piece of information that I soaked in, everything at school and everything I did was directed toward going to college and becoming an anesthesiologist. My search history for like a week was just looking at different universities, checking out their majors, and then

searching for like the top paying degrees that I could potentially go into because I didn't want to spend eight to 12 years becoming an anesthesiologist. So I can't thank those creators enough for changing the direction of my life. And I hope that I can be that person for a lot of people. I would say that's one of my driving forces behind actually creating these videos. And with this video, I've kind of re-sparked my desire to at least help create

what you would call a second renaissance of these creators. And not that I want to be the guiding light of them. I just want to be a role model and share my passions and the things that I'm learning throughout life. And hopefully that changes the direction of some of your lives. So my lesson for you, if you want to join me on this path, is to create the content you want to see in the world and build the product you want to see in the world. All of the other skills

come secondary. All the marketing, the sales, the writing, all of those things come under that vision. They help actualize it, but they are not the driving force. Because the thing is, people are starving for this. They're starving for depth on the internet. They think it's just filled with toxicity and memes and all of these things that don't matter, but they can't pull themselves away from it. Social media has drastically changed my life and how much I've been able to learn and do because

It's just a library of value and information allowing you to learn and do almost anything that you want. So that's what we're going to learn in this video. It's not how to become a personal brand, but how to stand out with unique ideas and create your life's work. Because today we have influencers, creators, and personal brands. These are concepts that have begun to carry a negative connotation with them.

In the eyes of the public, there isn't really a difference between them. They're just people that post content online and they're all relatively similar. But when you hear the word influencer, personal brand, creator, a part of you kind of dies. So if we want to avoid these things, first, we need to understand them. We need to create these concepts so that we can move in a different direction or at least use them as some kind of frame to shape our decision making. So the first one, influencers, influencers.

No, we don't need more

lunchleys or Mr. Beast bars that are just contributing to making the population obese and sick. We're at this critical turning point in history where attention spans are decreasing, processed food is just handed out like candy, and the role models who have the most attention are not

attempting to do anything about it. Now, I'm not saying that they should. I'm not one to tell them what to do. I'm one to say that if we want to change it, we also have to garner attention and we have to become the people that try to lead in a positive direction by doing something purposeful and fulfilling. Now, with all of this, don't get me wrong here. You know that I don't think selling a product is bad. It's the

only way out of selling a product for someone else, aka working a job. And of course, jobs aren't bad either, they're just stepping stones. The point is that work is a necessary part of life, and money is a tool that has allowed us to transcend our survival. But the thing is, at least try.

to have a shred of positive impact. Now let's talk about creators. I personally love creators and I would consider myself a creator at times, but most people are content creators. They're not reality creators. Most people have a myopic view of the word creator. They don't see it as the literal word.

creator that holds so much depth and meaning. They see it as, oh, I need to post content today or else I'm not going to get engagement and then I'm not going to make sales and they're stuck in survival mode. They start out with good intentions, but then they quickly become slaves to content templates and they can't

have a single critical thought or original idea that allows them to stand out. They don't have ideas worth copying. They're the ones that do the copy. They see social media and the algorithm as some formulaic thing that you need to study and dissect and understand. And while that's true to an extent, you're missing the depth behind it. You're missing that all of that is shaped by human nature. And by diving a bit deeper, not only can you understand it more,

and get better results, but you just open up this world of depth that allows you to find meaning in what most people see as superficial. And that's true for many areas of life. The other things that they do are just comment under large accounts, not because they like the ideas of the large accounts, but because they want to get the people that are following the large accounts to follow them. Now, of course, again, these things aren't bad. I'm just saying for almost everything we're talking about, we're

we're missing the other half of the perspective. We're missing the meaningful part of the perspective here. The same thing goes with engagement groups. Engagement groups have become like the weird child of the creator economy that people just think are bad things to do. But then when you actually zoom out and

Think about it. When you were in school, you worked with your friends on your homework. You strategized with each other to achieve a goal. When you're in business, you find business partners to work with. You reach out to your network and you get advice when you don't have it. You help each other grow your own businesses or projects. And that's what a quote unquote engagement group is. It's like going into a Call of Duty lobby.

and then arguing against the other tribe and helping your team do better and communicating with each other. It doesn't have to be this shallow engagement group type thing. It has to be, and this is a requirement for your success, not only online, but in any area of your life, is to make friends that you work with to grow whatever it is that you're doing. The lone wolf mentality doesn't work

in a social setting. What sucks about this to an extent is that I'm partially to blame for contributing to this because I teach social media, I teach writing, I teach how to capture attention, but I do feel like I'm rather explicit and nuanced with how to go about these things and bringing this meaningful perspective to them. So my challenge for you is not to write these things off, but to try to find the depth behind not only my teachings, but other people's teachings, especially other people's teachings or

especially on short form social media. Now that Twitter and Instagram and reels and TikToks are taking off, you have to understand that just by time and character limitation constraints, it's going to be shallow. If you are going on top of funnel social media, you have to be able to think with depth, not them.

And as we'll talk about in another video and kind of in this video, long form is how you actually stand out. Long form is how you actually make a change. Long form is how you stop relying on social media algorithms for the security of your future and you start owning your audience and something like an email list. But we'll talk about all of those things later. Now let's touch on the last one of personal brands.

There's influencers, creators, personal brands. Personal brands seem to be an archetype that are simply obsessed with making money and don't care about anything other than that. They become glorified search engines by choosing and sticking to a niche and their followers churn. They don't actually grow an audience because they're so focused on the high performing topics or just the same topics over and over again that funnel people to their email list or their product or

or their funnel and whatever they say online doesn't matter as long as that funnel is growing and as long as they're making money. It's just a constant. They're just like this vessel, this empty vessel for people to run through and get put into a product and there's no depth behind it. So before we move on, of course, this isn't necessarily bad, but the question to ask yourself is are you helping people do something that actually matters? Because in order to do that,

You can't stagnate. You must personally continuously improve and evolve. Because if you understand entropy, you understand that by stagnating or doing nothing or staying the same, that you aren't doing any of those things. You are declining into chaos.

you are unraveling and that thing isn't going to last very long you're going to be a flash in the pan sass like most people are building right now but again nothing wrong with that temple run and flappy bird were great games on your phone it's good quick pump and dumb cash but is that really what you're here for so let's talk about the opposite let's talk about the vision where do we want to take this whole creator thing what do we want to be

What is the path to doing what you want and having a fulfilling line of work? 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 and you can't help but wonder why your life is so toxic. So in a nutshell, where we want to go with this is the ultimate goal of getting paid to be yourself. These new forms of technology, everything coming up, AI, social media in general, the internet in general, are tools to help people.

and display your work, your art, and your experience so that others can benefit from it. As an example, Jordan Peterson isn't a content creator. He isn't an influencer. He isn't a personal brand. That's not his title. That's not his role. That's not his identity. He goes on tours. He writes books. He leverages social media as a base. He uses all of the tools at his disposal to further his life's work.

He isn't worried about the latest content idea trend because his mind outperforms any of those. The quality of his ideas and his critical thought is what sets him apart. And this is regardless of your opinion on Peterson's highs and lows over the years. This just...

You didn't start on this path to become a quote-unquote personal brand on the internet. 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 stand out, even if you feel like you're late. I'm proposing that you aim higher.

higher because I personally don't see social media as this shallow place with online business models galore and cheap advice. I see it as a new way of life as I've illustrated many times before in previous videos. You're already online most of the day. You're already here. Why not just change your perspective of it and change what you're doing so that it actually benefits

you. 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're already spending on the internet to make your creative work a success. You have knowledge and skill that other people can benefit from. That's not a false statement. You do. You could help another person right now.

That's all you need. Now, by the way, in terms of creating your life's work or doing all of this stuff or seeing the creator economy in a different life or building a one person business, I would check out my course, Digital Economics. Link is in the description for that. The question now is how do you pursue your life's work on the Internet? So if you understand the levels of purpose that we talked about in the last video, the brutal truth about money,

You understand that your life's work at some point in the job to career to calling evolution will require you to start a business. Now, if thinking of a business or a one-person business as independent work helps you swallow that pill, then please do that. When I mention things like internet and

business and these things that may cause you to close your mind off because you haven't been exposed to the information that shows you what those things are, that's when you should think about it more critically and try to see the depth behind those things. Is the internet just this shallow thing that you open on your phone and get distracted in all day?

No. The first thing you need to create your life's work is a positive aim for your life. Because 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're still moving toward a positive aim. Your life's work is in 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. So if you aren't sure on how to orient yourself in a positive direction, deeply understand what you don't want in life.

Two quotes that explain this quite well. Is that what you don't hate? You tolerate, by Malcolm X.

So the first thing you need is a positive aim for your life. The second thing you need is a way to attract an audience. Now the thing here is that the term followers has lost its punch, and we're going to talk about this in a future video about how followers don't matter anymore.

because you see it all the time. Someone can go viral on TikTok, make a million dollars, and then just continue to repeat that, and they only have 500 followers. So in terms of followers, I prefer the term readers, but since not everyone identifies as a writer, let's just call it an audience because that's the first principle of business. You need people.

in order to pay you for what you do in your business, the value you provide. If you don't have an audience, you don't have a business. Now, there are a few beautiful things about the internet itself. First is how far your work spreads is a skill that can be learned and practiced, not luck. Second is there are people who relate to your anti-vision and aim for your future, meaning you can attract people to the things you talk about. And the third thing is that it's free, accessible, and the majority of the population has access to it. So if you're trying to attract people to your work,

and one of your first options isn't a free and accessible platform on the internet, then you're doing something wrong unless you know exactly what you're doing. This video isn't for you if you just know exactly what you're doing. I'm personally of the belief that social media was created from a deeper desire for human connection

sharing your knowledge and solving problems at scale. And now that it's here and because of shallow human distractions taking over, not too many people see it as that. They don't see it as a vessel to pursue their 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. Yes, it takes 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.

And as Naval said, there are almost 7 billion people on this planet. Someday, I hope, there will be almost 7 billion companies. Now, of course, this is just speculation for the future, but it seems to be the way things are going. And you can also have a company slash business and work a job or do what you currently do or whatever it may be.

We don't know if we're going to end up in a world with UBI, but even then, you're still going to want to work because it's a natural part of life. So the only option then is to actually finally pursue your passions, which I'm trying to encourage you to do right now. The point here is that 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. Because you aren't working for a company that attracts the audience for you, that you just play this specific role that you were hired for and that you can be replaced for.

And the audience doesn't have to come from social media, but it's going to come from media like paid ads or podcast sponsorships or whatever it may be. Social media is just the free and readily accessible route that I believe should form the foundation of all the other things because you can test content on social media before you decide to blow money on ads with it.

So you have a positive aim for your life. You're improving, you're developing, you're gaining value. And then you're to attracting an audience to that value. Now, the third thing you need is 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 toward a goal, like I talk about in mental monetization. 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 cortex or a notion system that helps you write content, take notes, track progress, almost anything. And either way, templates are always beneficial to include in some kind of a product. So if you want to include a template or a worksheet or whatever it may be, consider using Cortex, especially when we eventually offer an affiliate program. And it's just a free app.

It's free for life unless you have a team or other things. The point here is that if you attract an audience with a similar personality and a similar vision for the future as you, aka you are the niche, then the projects that you build for yourself to achieve your own goals can impact

easily be turned into products that other people pay for. That's how you productize yourself. The second point is that if you're just using other people's solutions throughout your life and not experimenting with your own or creating your own like a fitness program or a meditation program or a writing system or whatever it may be, you're

You need to start experimenting with your own way so that you can pass down better ways to do things. And that's how things improve. We're not creating products to completely solve the problems in people's lives because that's not on us. That's on the person that has the problem. It's up to them if they want to solve the problem.

We're simply giving things to people to experiment with to make that process more efficient over time. We're gradually increasing the efficiency that comes from evolution and helping contribute towards that. So you have a positive direction. You're making progress. You're becoming valuable. You're

You have an audience that you're attracting. You have a product, so you have a way to actually make money. The fourth thing you need is experimentation, iteration, and persistence because throughout this entire journey, you never land on the one specific thing. I've launched...

10 products, 10 free downloads. I've had a few hundred YouTube videos, 50,000 plus tweets. I think like 1200 Instagram posts. I've done thousands upon thousands of iterations on my content. You don't just post one tweet and they get famous. You don't just make one product and

and then get rich. The first thing of anything that you do is going to suck. And the longer you delay that, the longer you're delaying actually creating something good. The most powerful mindset you could adopt here is to just put the thing out.

Just publish the thing, get the feedback, and then improve. Once you publish the thing, your journey isn't done. That's the start of the journey. Okay, we understand very big picture how to pursue your life's work. Now, as a personal brand or a creator or these things that we talked about that have lost their punch and lost their direction, we need to learn how to set ourselves apart. We need to learn how to not become those things.

In essence, we need to learn to be ourselves, but in a structured way so that it actually makes sense to people. Because you can go and be yourself when you're talking to someone else, but...

but they may not like it. You need to learn how to be creative and constrain things. Creativity is in the constraints. Creativity isn't freedom and chaos. It's the limitations that you impose to create that art. So to start with this, the four pillars of creative work are brand, content, product,

and promotion. These are the things that are shaping how you distribute your value to the world. These are the boundaries in which you can start to get creative. Because most people focus on the skill, and then they have no idea how to monetize it, so they become a starving artist. The second problem is that most people just don't know how to stand out. They start, they buy a few courses, and then they never branch out of what the courses teach.

The courses aren't meant to be your mind. They aren't meant to take over. They aren't meant to be an ideology or dogma that you stick to. They're supposed to

help you reach a certain stepping stone, like a job. And if you become a slave to the teachings from a course or a video that you learn, you're not out of the matrix. You just put yourself in a new matrix. So the first one, brand. Brand is an environment. So stop thinking about your brand as just your social media profile picture or your banner or your bio or the designs of your website. It's

everything. It's the world that your readers are coming into with you. 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 isn't illustrated right away when the person just visits your profile. Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader's mind after three to six months of following you. Just have some self-awareness. When you follow someone else, you're like, hmm, interesting. Okay, I'm going to follow. And then you start to get their content. You start to form an opinion about them. You start to identify with certain things that they say. And

then you can kind of decide, hmm, am I in alignment with this person's goals? Should I continue following them or am I not? And are they ruining my life? So when you're thinking of ideas or creating content or building products, whatever it may be, you have to filter that through your brand vision. People will buy from you even if you have the same products at a higher price point as your competitor. So that was brand. It's kind of abstract. It's out there, but you just have to understand that brand is

created as you do things, as you launch products, as you write content. It's not just your static, like when people look at your profile, that's not what your brand is. Your brand is the little digital house that you are inviting people in and the rooms are your content and everything like that. Your profile picture and your banner are the door of the house. So the second thing that we need to understand is content. How do we write good content that stands out? Because

content, you need that to build an audience. Even if you're doing paid ads, you need to write the content. Even if you're creating a YouTube video, you need to write the content of the script. If you want to learn how to write any of those things, consider joining the writer's bootcamp that starts October 28th for Cortex. 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. This is what I've done with my YouTube videos. And I think that's a driving part of my success is that I take these ideas that perform really well that.

Seem kind of shallow on the surface, but I know there's something deeper. And then I write to dissect that and I form a deeper philosophy around that. And that's what people have told me they like. They like that my content leans more toward the depth. So if you want to stand out, find ideas that are already working. Save ideas from books, social media, podcasts, and videos. Then turn them into an original idea by changing the perspectives.

But how do you change the perspective? For knowledge work and creative work and doing all of this stuff, you need to learn how to think with impact. So along with Cortex, the second brain software, note-taking writing software that we built, we have created this system called CoreNotes. Now, this is nothing new. If you've taken my 7 Days to Genius Ideas free course,

That won't be a thing anymore. You have to take the second brain course for free inside of the Cortex community. But over 70,000 people have learned this system and it helps them turn any idea into their own original deep idea. This is a note-taking system for writers, creators,

and marketers, not people who just want to save the same information that they read. They want to transform the ideas into their own creative firepower that can be used as Legos for whatever content they create, albeit a newsletter or whatever it is. So here's what you do. You don't need to use Cortex. It's

free and there's templates and stuff, but you don't need to. You just need to learn how to think like this. So the first thing you do is you have an idea. This can be from conversation. This can be from the video you watch. Pull something from this. Pull the death of the personal brand as an idea. Pull brand as an environment or content as novel perspectives or how to think with impact. Just take any idea. And now you're going to pick three to four of the following things and

Flesh that idea out with these. The first thing is problem. So illustrate a problem associated with the idea and how it impacts people's lives. Second is goal. So write out desirable goals people want to achieve to overcome the problem. Third is example, a personal experience or tangible example to help people understand and grow.

ground the idea. The fourth is benefit. So the benefits of overcoming the problem and achieving the goal. The fifth is process, a step-by-step process for overcoming the problem and achieving the goal. And the sixth is concept. So a word or name that helps make sense of everything above. Take an idea, fill out three to four of those things, write it down right now, and you'll see a

how much more powerful it is for thinking in that way. I almost always start anything I think about with a problem. If I have an idea, I immediately think what's the problem related to that? And that leads to so much good content ideas because problem

is the inception of a goal. That's how you frame someone's mind. That's how you capture attention. That's how you show whether or not the idea is valuable from the start. When people are receptive to an idea, they understand the problem. When you watch a video like this, you usually start with the problem because it qualifies whether or not the video is for them so they can stay or they can leave. So if you understand persuasion or content or marketing, you understand how powerful this thinking system is.

can be. And if you do this with multiple ideas and you start to connect them together, you're like, holy crap, I know so much more than I thought I did. And I finally feel like I can write about this stuff articulately. If you want to see examples of those, I have the core notes template and an example in the description. Another thing with this is that one of my most popular YouTube videos that led to 200,000 subscribers in just a few months was the one person business model, how to productize yourself. The one person business is a concept.

from the core notes. How to productize yourself is a process from the core notes. So in order to create my content, I just pull from those blocks. It's like, okay, one person business sounds cool. How to productize yourself, put them together in a title.

Fill out the content of the video with the notes. Now you don't just, you can just write one sentence for each of those things like problem, goal, benefits, example, process, concept. But of course it helps to just continue expanding on it. These notes aren't done once you're done with them. You're meant to capture more ideas into them and flesh them out deeper.

and make more connections. And then once you have them, you just string them together into your writing or you take individual elements and turn them into social media posts. So we've talked about brand. We've talked about content. Both of those I have other videos on if you want to go more in detail with them. The next is how to think, which is kind of how you write content in and of itself. Now the next thing we need to understand is that education is the new marketing.

You can't write or sell whatever you want because you don't understand how becoming interested in something 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 the thing. Second, they're exposed to how a pain point or problem is affecting their life. Third, they're exposed to a solution or goal that creates a desire to change. So in other words, people don't find your topics or your writing or your content interesting.

interesting because you don't use the core note system that we used earlier. You don't talk in problems, goals, examples, benefits, processes, and concepts. 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, et cetera.

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. That's what a lot of people don't understand is that you're being spread to random people on the internet.

Having a niche isn't going to help you much aside from picking a few people up from that. What if I just pick up more people by talking a bit more broadly and then educate them into a niche? Now, the last thing we need to understand is that systems are the new product. So we understand a brand. We understand content, how to attract traffic. We understand marketing, how to market a product. And now systems are the new product. We need to understand how to create a product that people actually want.

At this point in time, we're in the 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, but what makes something like Two Hour Writer special? It's a system that I created through experience. It is novel and original and...

Sure, it's pulled and learned from other people's teachings, but the way that I created it through my own experience is what sets it apart. It doesn't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that didn't help me at all. I'm not including things that didn't help me in my journey because I had a few problems when I started writing. First is I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas. And then second, I didn't want to waste a ton of time creating content for all platforms. So I had to start experimenting.

with my own system. My goal for the system was clear, right? All of the content I need to in under two hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life. So that's the first step to creating a system is having an extremely clear goal.

What is the desired outcome? In what time frame? What's the problem you're solving? So 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. Three posts a day, one thread a week, and one newsletter a week. During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms.

This is a public thing. You can see it happening right before your eyes. I do it every single day. 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 YouTube 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. So that's how you stand out in a world of copy paste products, brands, and content. Yes, it takes time and experience, but now that you have the awareness, you can actually start to work towards it. You may not escape what we talked about earlier about influencers, personal brands, creators, et cetera, but you have something to work towards. That's what you do. This doesn't change in an instant.

So that's it for this video. Thank you for watching like subscribe links in the description. Check that stuff out.