Everyone Should Be A Creator
Yes, Even You
Hi, I’m Michael. And this is Crypto Creatives. The best newsletter about the Crypto Creator Economy. If you’re new here, consider subscribing. 1-2 free emails a week.
The Only Way to Build Wealth
What is the difference between the rich and the poor? There are many. But the most important difference is where the money comes from.
Poor people make money by selling hours of their life. The work isn’t easy. And when they get paid, most of it goes directly to living expenses.
This is a stark contrast to how rich people make money. It basically falls into their lap. Why? Because they own things that are constantly working for them.
Think of it as profit-producing property. Basically, anything you own that makes money.
Businesses
Real estate
Stock
Intellectual property
Life gets easy once you own enough profit-producing property to cover your living expenses. All you have to do is not mess anything up.
And more often than not, rich people want to keep making more money. There is no logical stopping point. Why stop accumulating profit-producing property?
This eventually leads to rampant wealth inequality. But that’s a topic for another time.
The difficulty for us is getting started. Buying profit-producing property is expensive. There’s a huge barrier to entry that most people struggle to break down. Not to mention the risk.
Let’s say you’re working class. You save up enough money to buy a second home to rent out. If the housing market crashes tomorrow, you’re screwed.
Back to square one.
But luckily for us, there’s an overlooked way to build profit-producing property without any upfront capital.
Content Is Profit-Producing Property
We don't think of things online as property. But they are. And the important part is that you can create it for free.
In many cases, owning digital content is actually a better bet than owning a real business or real estate.
Think about it.
Authentic - create something that you genuinely care about. That the world doesn’t have yet but seriously needs. It might not be for everyone. But it doesn’t need to be. If it’s your own weird niche obsession, there’s inevitably someone else that will care about it online.
Ownership - your creation is your property. It belongs to you and only you. It doesn’t belong to your boss, company, or anyone else. And even if it never goes anywhere, it’s internally satisfying to own the product of your labor.
Freedom - we’re raised in a system that crushes creativity. A system that forces you to abandon anything you care about because the only way to make a living is optimizing SEO for a mid-tier healthcare company. By creating content on your own time, you can experience something you may not have ever felt before. Freedom.
But the truth is, most people mess up before they get started. There is a right way to do content creation and a wrong way.
If you’re naïve, you wanna treat it like a job. Show up every day. Make YouTube videos reviewing new tech products. Make enough money to live. And repeat until you die. This doesn’t work for one reason.
We are not robots.
This whole idea that we specialize in one thing and never do anything else is a sick holdover from the industrial revolution.
Feel frustrated by having too many interests and hobbies you want to pursue? Don’t. That is natural. But if you start treating a creative project like a factory job, guess what happens?
It feels like a factory job.
This is why you should only ever pursue passive income. Something you can create. Put out in the world. And you never have to mess with it again. Or at the least, not much.
YouTube channels are the perfect example. A single popular video will bring in the vast majority of the income for the entire channel. Despite there being hundreds or thousands of videos.
When I was a full-time YouTuber, my most popular video brought in half of all the money I ever made.
Despite this, I still forced myself to keep a regular upload schedule. Which didn’t make me more money. It only contributed to my burnout.
Never associate a creative project with your identity. That’s where the trap begins. You start turning it into your own factory job.
And it’s only a matter of time before you start hating it. You’ll waste your time. Kill your passion. And likely won’t make money anyway.
So, you want to avoid turning a creative project into a factory job. Ok. What do you do instead?
Dabbling and Exploration
When you start treating things like a factory job, you’re doubling down on specialization. And you know what? Specialization is for insects.
There are infinite wonderful things inside of you. Just bursting to come out. Embrace your inner renaissance man/woman.
Have a passing interest in chemistry after watching Breaking Bad? Do an experiment and make a video about it. Get really obsessed with Albert Camus? Start a free podcast on substack and talk about what makes you excited about his work.
“But I’m not an expert.”
I’ve got good news for you. Nobody is. Paying thousands of dollars and wasting years of your life doesn’t make you an expert. It might make other people think you’re an expert. But in the grand scheme of things, it changes nothing.
And the best part? Your audience won’t be experts either. Introductory level content is always the most popular.
You could pick any random niche, start learning about it and make content based on what you learn.
The idea you need to waste years of your life to master a domain before you can create content is a mental shackle you must smash.
And once you’ve started, do it as long as it’s interesting to you. You might wanna take a break for a few months. Might never wanna come back to it. So what? Nothing wrong with that. It’s your life.
Dabble with everything you have even the slightest interest in. And when it gets stale, take a break. You might wanna come back to it later.
One of my weird side hustles is a history YouTube channel. I research a topic. Make a PowerPoint presentation. And make a video talking about what I found interesting.
At first, I treated it like a factory job. And it got boring. Do you know what my upload schedule is now? Whenever I want. Sometimes I go months without making a video. So what?
There are 2 ways I make money here. Ad revenue, and bonus episodes. If a topic calls for it, I will make an additional episode behind a paywall. And sell it on Gumroad.
The important part is that I never have to create when I don’t want to. I could work nonstop for a week. And then take a break for a year. And that channel will still be there. Making money. Slowly but surely.
And it’s only one of many things I do online. And you know what? Literally, anyone can do this. And you really should.
Building a Portfolio
Rich people diversify their portfolios. If a single profit-producing property fails, they’re not completely ruined. This is where that notorious “multiple income streams” comes from.
We can follow this exact strategy with content creation. Most creative side hustles fail. Why would you want to chain yourself to a single one and invest all your time into it?
You should be building a portfolio of small side hustles. Make them as niche as possible. And only make money passively.
It might be a while before you have a big win. But you will have explored so many interesting ways to create.
Here is a short list of a few things I’ve dabbled with.
An Instagram meme page
Programming tutorials
Political cartoons
Animated documentaries
Book reviews
Psychology podcasts
Gaming montages
And if I had to break down this portfolio by success, it would look like this:
50% - total failure
45% - lukewarm success
5% - life-changing/serious impact
It took years of dabbling and exploring to find the 5%. Hell, I still dabble with some that are complete failures. Not because I’m desperately trying to make it a success. But because it’s fun.
Treating creation this way isn’t just more profitable. It’s more enjoyable. And if you can bring back genuine joy, you might change your life.
Get a list of the Best Web3 Creator Platforms. It’s good. It’s free. And you might find the platform that changes your life.
I really needed this today. Thank you!