⚡ 💡Jack Butcher's One-Person, Million-Dollar Company - IdeaEconomy 💡⚡

Learn how Jack Butcher built a seven-figure, one-person business by productizing himself.

Jack Butcher has gained over 200k Twitter followers through black and white images explaining complex ideas. He sold more than $1m of courses last year.

Big Idea: A simple idea that resonates with people can be an audience-building rocketship. Not enough creators have a big idea like this.

via @ebizfacts

"Nathan is a creator, author, speaker, designer, and founder of ConvertKit, an email marketing platform. Nathan has been cutting his teeth since 2010 by blogging online and selling various digital products to his growing online audience. He has become an authority on audience building and email marketing. This episode is a treasure trove for anybody thinking of building an online audience, establishing themselves as an authority, and packaging their knowledge as information products."

Big Idea: The key to building an audience is to create every day and build in public.

via @GrowthCurrency

One of the best personal development resources I've found is Optimize.me. I purchased a lifetime membership a few years ago, but it is now completely free. There is no catch. It is a B-Corp trying to make an impact on the world.

Optimize.me offer summaries of hundreds of personal development books on topics like productivity, creativity, leadership, sleep, stoicism, and every other topic imaginable.

I really like the Optimal Living classes that combines ideas from many different books into one 10 step lesson.

Big Opportunity: This same idea can be done for business books. It would be a lot of work, but there is a clear blueprint to follow. The ultimate goal would be to build a team of business coaches.

The Klem family started creating online content early in the pandemic.

"And thanks to the action-packed, short-form videos that chronicle the competitive games they play against each other, this family of six has since become an internet sensation.

A little more than a year later, their TikTok account has grown over 1 million followers and generated more than 71.9 million likes. Meanwhile, their YouTube channel has amassed more than 2 million subscribers and close to 3 billion views."

Related Links:
Noodle Stands: Daily videos checking whether a dog will stand or not have amassed 3.5 million followers on TikTok

2M followers on TikTok thru Star Wars remakes

Big Idea: You don't need to do anything complicated to build a social media following. Simple and silly are a great combination.
 

Pete McPherson of DoYouEvenBlog.com is starting a new niche site that he plans to get to $1000 per month. He walks you through his thought process in choosing and researching the niche.

Big Idea: Affiliate niche sites like this are a great business model for creators. It's much easier to generate ongoing income and niche sites typically sell for about 35 months of earnings.

Interview with Russ Henneberry of The Clikk.com.

Here is a great interview on what it takes to build a larger-scale curated newsletter. There are good ideas on using paid ads, referral software, reengaging cold subscribers, and more.

via @jesspicks

Psychologist Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, dives into the 7 principles of influence in this interview with Shane Parrish.

Big Idea: Understanding how to influence others is a superpower all creators should master.

Here are the 7 principles of influence:

1: Reciprocation
2: Liking
3: Social Proof
4: Authority
5: Scarcity
6: Commitment & Consistency
7: Unity

Here is the story behind Lambda School. It's a great example of how a big business can be created from small beginnings.

Lambda School gives free developer training in exchange for a percentage of your future income. The company has raised more than $100m in funding.

The business started with a Teachable course on an obscure programming language. This was followed up with a 3-month bootcamp. After a student dropped out at the last minute, founder Austin Allred, ran a promotion of free tuition to fill the newly-opened spot. The catch was, the recipient would have to pay back the tuition through future earnings. 200 people applied leading to the current Lambda School business model.

Big Idea: This is a great example of why trying new ideas is so critical to business success. 

Andreessen Horowitz whitepaper on Web3.

"Decentralization is a solution that lets creators connect directly with fans and communities at scale, and reduces the role and power of middlemen. web3 is an internet of value. For creators, this means that they now have the technology to make their digital content one-of-a-kind and therefore more valuable, leading to a new universe of opportunities in the creative economy."

Further Reading:
A conversation about crypto - New York Times

NFTs 101: A Useful Beginner’s Guide for Content Creators - The Tilt

Here is a selection of the best links I've found this week to level up your creator skills.

How I turned 100k views to 3m+ views within a week by changing the YouTube thumbnail - paddygalloway via @fortheinterested

Storytelling Superpower: Love Letters - Kat Kole

Content Marketing Guide - crowdspring

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Marketing Genius - David Perell

Using Video to Improve Your SEO - thehoth

One cold email can change your life. Here's how to write a great one - sahilbloom

7 Principles Of Marketing For Creators