20. Be Famous Among Friends

How to thrive in a utopic economy of creative people

Frustrating for every dreamy teenager is the realization that the most meaningful activities do not generate income.

• Meditation

• Staying fit

• Going to therapy

• Being a good parent

What if they did?

Imagine a world where people got paid to work on themselves rather than having to pay a therapist.

Apparently, this is how acupuncture worked long ago in China. You only paid your acupuncturist when you were well. If you were sick, he didn't get paid.

Actually, it is possible

You can do whatever you want and earn income by teaching others.

If you like to do something and are good at it, someone else will be happy to pay you to benefit from your knowledge. It gives them a shortcut. It gives you income. Everybody’s happy.

This might mean building an online course, writing a book, or just posting about it on social media.

Teaching can be as simple as "building in public"—in other words, sharing where you are in your process.

The "creator economy" is built around this idea. By creator, I don't mean influencer. Creator is just a recent-ish term for someone who uses the internet to document their learning process, work on themselves, and offer others value. The general idea: offer enough value and the money will follow.

In practice, it's not so straightforward, but there is truth in the principle.

Nerd digression

As an example, I would point to free and open-source software (FOSS). This kind of free software is truly free. It’s something you can freely download, install, and customize however you want. But because it’s not a for-profit service, it’s generally rough around the edges. If you want to use it, you basically take responsibility for making it work.

It’s no mistake that you often find the best FOSS software for nerdy things because this is what engineers themselves like to use.

Case in point: Me.

My preferred operating system: Linux.

My preferred writing app: Emacs, a text editor first released in 1976, which makes it 48 years old(!). I don't pay anything for this application. However, it is actively maintained.

So, how do I reward the efforts of all the developers who have contributed to making Emacs the text editor I love? Well, I don’t. If there was an easy way for me to do this, I would.

Here’s what I do: I pay a few bucks each month to a major contributor via Patreon.

I do the same for other free tools I use.

The takeaway: If you want to earn a living as a creator, make it easy for people to pay you.

When something has a deep impact on me, I will actively look for a way to pay the person responsible.

And I believe other people are the same as me.

As a creator, the impact you make is what matters.

When I live this way, I don’t have to try and convince people to buy something. I can simply be authentic, challenge myself, and offer the best value possible for me at the time.

Magical economics

What's amazing about this model is that it's painless for the purchaser and really helpful for the creator.

A few bucks a month is literally nothing to give.

But a few bucks a month of income is amazing when 100 or 1000 people contribute.

Even a normal-tier person can deeply benefit an audience of 100 or 1000 people.

This is what a scarcity mindset prevents people from seeing. You don’t have to be more amazing than you already are.

No one is an avid fan of more than a handful of things.

• How much software can you use?

• How many musicians or writers can you really follow?

• How many courses can you really take at a time?

Pretty much a handful. That's about the cost of a utility bill or a trip to the grocery store.

Let's start a new movement where we have a monthly creator bill.

The "few bucks a month" creator model is a perpetual motion machine of basic income that supports authentic contribution.

Why does it work?

This model wouldn’t work if everyone wanted to earn a living this way. If I pay you a hundred bucks and you pay me a hundred bucks, we won’t make it very far.

But there will always be more people who want to browse and soak up information. Not everyone wants to build a platform and work independently. Most people would rather pay for someone else’s hard work to learn something and offer entertainment, wisdom, and perspective.

There are plenty of other valid ways to earn income.

The basic model for creators

Have things freely available and a way of getting paid for them.

These are "low ticket" or nearly free things.

To really earn a living, you'd typically want a combination of high and low-ticket items.

For me personally, writing coaching and retreats are high ticket. Courses, books and subscriptions are low ticket.

Why can't we just do things for free?

That's a bigger question than I know how to answer.

Form Community, Not Fans

Most people just want to earn a living and not hate what they do.

In 2008, when the idea of 1000 true fans came onto the scene, I was just launching my retreat business. The idea was revolutionary because being a creator wasn't a valid path at the time. It was more common to assume that you had to "make it big."

But someone did the math and said, no, all you need is 1000 people to give you $100 a year, and that's good enough.

There are billions of people in the world. It's easy to be overwhelmed and conclude that the world is harsh and competitive, I'll never make it, I'm no Bob Dylan, and besides, even Bob Dylan isn’t the Bob Dylan he wished he were, so forth.

But if you realize there's value in being authentically you, the landscape is no longer competitive.

Instead, you are empowered to form a community around shared values.

It becomes a non-zero-sum game.

I'm not naive. I know it's hard out there. The world is growing more divided and polarized.

But there's a way of using that division to connect with people in unique ways.

Market segments exist. You are not a market segment. But you can use your awareness of these market segments to build bridges and connect with people.

These days, it's increasingly common to see people who are thriving at something you never would have thought there was money in.

• Making handmade ceramic cat water bowls

• Selling Google Sheets automation templates

• Being an indie writer

Do the math and see what’s possible

The prospect can be overly emotional for anyone interested in following a dream or having a profitable side gig. And that might make it seem harder than really is.

To help get perspective and know what it takes, I’d recommend the strategy of plotting out some scenarios. Do some basic math, and you’ll see:

• that it's possible

• how it can be possible

Basically, by combining two types of offerings from the same tried-and-true business model (high ticket, low ticket), you can earn a living at something that improves you and makes the world a better place.

You don’t need fans. I, for one, don’t want fans.

All you need is to make an impact. You do this by being yourself and connecting with other people. Bring authenticity and depth, and have ways of getting paid for it, and the rest will follow.