The Digital Economy 9 Over the past decade, there has been a big shift in how we do work. More opportunities have opened up, remote work is common, and technological advancements have begun to replace labor-intensive jobs with creative work. There is more opportunity than ever, but only for those that are open to shedding their prior beliefs on what "work" is. During this shift, you may have picked up beliefs that make you think: * You need startup capital You need a Lot of experience You need a lot of followers You need a physical product or service location You need to avoid competition and saturation * You have to be neurotic about profit margins, operating costs, and supply chains All of this could not be further from the truth. If you are more exposed and open to the digital economy, you may also think: * You have to be extremely good-looking to build an audience * You need to be insightful, wise, and produce Jordan Peterson level ideas * You have to be a skilled writer, speaker, video producer, and have all of this fancy equipment that is reserved to those that have money to spend on it. Again, none of these are true. All of this really is as simple as you make it, but we all know how hard that can be. In the coming sections and modules, | will be helping you shed these limiting beliefs while giving you simple systems to help you thrive in this mew economy. Oo Assumptions Are Your Worst Enemy If you have not experienced a common saying or piece of advice — you have no business adopting that as a hardset belief or assumption. Open your mind, test it out, and find out for yourself whether it is true or not. The Reality Of The Online World We Have Created This course is focused on the digital aspect of all of this. While physical products are great — and can 100% be sold from your brand — it is almost a no brainer to have a digital product and service stack as your foundation. Why? * They cost close to nothing to create. * They can have 90+% profit margins (on the low end if you are a one-person business). * They don't have a cost for replication. Once you know they sell, all you have to do is increase the amount of traffic being sent to them. * For something like a freelance or consulting service — you can decrease the amount of time you spend on client work as you build leverage. This gives you full control over your income. Want to make more? Invest time or money into building free traffic sources. Like an on / off button for making money. But how do you get people to see those products? Thankfully, you don't need to invest in a physical location. In fact, you don't need to invest anything at all. The coders of the world got bored of building websites & landing pages and made that skill accessible to anyone. What about hosting the product, booking calls, and setting up your "store front?” Free as well. No-code tools have made this a possibility. "No-code tools" is just a fancy way of saying software that does the work for you. Like little salesman that are up and running 24/7 without costing you a dime (until you are growing fast enough to invest). Things like: Gumroad for hosting eBooks, courses, and memberships * Calendly for creating a call calendar and booking link * Carrd for building fast landing pages to sell your offers better * Revue or Convertkit for building an email list * Website builders for building a personal site * Social media platforms to build an audience (a traffic source like Facebook ads but at zero cost if you know how to use the platform). All of them are free, and those are just a few. Most of them only have a cost once you are at a point where you *should* be making more than enough money to justify it. But Dan, what about experience? Don't I have to be super skilled or an expert in a specific field? Well, yes, but there are ways around that. In fact, its more beneficial to start as a beginner. ABIG part of building an audience is educating your audience to get to the point that you are at. That's what they want. They want to become a higher value individual using the methods that got you to that point. And who else is better to learn from than someone that is 1-2 steps ahead of you? Someone that is 10 steps ahead of you won't give you the right advice. They are operating on a different playing field. But someone that is 1 step ahead of you knows exactly how to navigate whatever roadblock someone is facing. There are tactics and strategies that will help you grow rapidly as a beginner. Example: teaching about a topic that you love studying. Let's say you listened to a podcast on marketing. You create high-performing content on that (teaching people about it). You then tag the podcaster that you learned it from. Why? * Citing your sources makes your argument more credible (authority). * The podcaster may like, comment, or retweet — meaning you may gain followers from their big audience. * The podcaster will remember you, especially if the content was good, meaning you may work with them in the future. I've worked with YouTubers and podcasters that | grew up listening to. It is truly surreal when you understand that everyone online is a normal human like you. They just put in consistent reps that made them seem like some sort of celebrity. We will learn more about this zero-experience strategy when we talk about Learning In Public. Oo From Zero To Infinity You can start from zero. You can scale to infinity. Do not let any thought that tells you otherwise live in your psyche. Better yet, if you have that thought, write about it online to understand it deeper. The Age Of Information One big limiting belief that many have is that they think information is not inherently valuable. This shouldn't have to be said — but all we do as human beings is process information. That is literally it. We go about life, process the information from our experiences, and it either contributes to a better or worse life. That's why we spend more time than we should soaking in educational, inspirational, and entertaining content on social media and TV. * When you are socializing, you are exchanging information with others. * When you are walking down the road, you are exchanging information with the environment. * When you are alone, you are exchanging information with yourself. Any and all of this can (and should) be turned into content. Information is everything. It is the foundation of all communication and connection. This is no different online. However, information overload is a thing. When we go over the APAG persuasive writing framework — you will learn how to produce memorable information that improves others' direct human experience. The human experience is partially determined by information. Is there anything more worthy of your time than producing information that improves the very foundation of the human experience? Oo Make It A Habit Be intentional and conscious of all information you are exposed to. Think critically about how that information can be applied to everyday life. An entire brand can be built from this alone. The Shift From Corporation To Community People are losing trust in the "system." * Formal education is overpriced. * People are craving human connection and intimacy. * Everyone is getting tired of centralization in every industry. This isn't difficult to notice. If you follow me on socials and other similar accounts, you should be well aware of this. You can learn more practical information by watching 20 hours of design-related YouTube videos than with a 4 year design degree. This goes for any discipline, not just design or industries that you have been exposed to. Small "boutique" brands with a ~3 person team are pulling in multiple 7-figures per year. Personal brands that know what they are doing can pull in $20K per month with 4 hours of work per week. As you will learn, your personal brand is what sets you apart. Now think about it. Do you really want to have a ton of employees and a billion-dollar company? Or do you want to do what you love and eventually make one million a year (or however much you want to live the life that YOU want). To me, it's a no-brainer. My job is to educate, entertain, and inspire my following. However, | am not creating followers, | am creating new leaders that can evolve as | do. That is one thing you will learn — individuals evolve. The information, products, and services that | used to give out have evolved over time — when I leave, it opens up room for others to take my place. Oo Take Responsibility Focus your attention on helping yourself and your community. Pay no mind to those that don't vibe with your message. Pay all mind to those that you can impact the most — encourage them to spread the message — and start to leave your mark on the world.