I want to live a flexible life, live between the U.S. and Southeast Asia, be financially secure and free within the next 3 - 5 years, starting from not quite zero at the age of 54 (4 months until 55).
I had the idea of joining the creator economy. Building a website/blog, newsletter, focusing on remote work, digital nomadism, and mindful tech use.
I have the domain, web hosting, and a half-finished website with about 4 articles on it.
But as I worked on it all I could think about was how I would monetize and scale to reach the income level for my main goal: time and location freedom as fast as possible.
Fortunately, I haven't bought any of the courses you mention in the article, although I was considering Justin's Creator MBA, but not anymore.
Right now, I’m building upon my 10+ years of IT experience and pivoting into a career as a freelance IT specialist focusing on Azure Cloud Security/IAM in the next 3-6 months.
But the website still matters, especially since I am a techie to the core, tech life balance is really important, especially for remote workers and tech professionals.
Just ultimately trying to find my "Pathless Path" while I still live and breathe.
I don’t want a perfectly optimized day. I want a messy, human one. With moments that don’t scale. That don’t go viral. That don’t even make sense on paper. Just real life. Felt fully.
Your Dan Koe article was great. The only caveat I have with Justin Welsh is he’s very upfront that he got into the info product space.
It could be marketing and a founder story that’s true, he openly talks about using social media to grow his own consulting for SaaS as a way to leave his job.
He talks about proving a service to make money, not just write about what you like or what you’re doing
Totally agree. I find that Koe and Welsh communicate very differently. Koe is philosophical while Welsh is very action-oriented and honest about how he makes money.
Brother, your no BS words & writing style hit a six in my 'writers as batters' opinion (I'm a Kiwi in Australia - we love cricket in place of baseball). There's an Amazon River slurry of motivational feel goods coupled with 'buy my course' neon lighting out there, but you my friend offer that rare respite. Like stumbling into a quirky book shop with a warm, cosy log fire on a cold and dark, rainy night. Looking forward to Monday, cheers mate.
Just found this article. Because I just also found the Dan Koe article you wrote in 2023. They're both gold dust! Thanks for 'keeping it real'.
A lot of people say you can learn anything for free on the internet just by going to Youtube. In my fairly long experience, you can find 'advertorials' on most of the free internet. Long form content that just about fails to feed you enough to actually succeed...
...and then the offer of paid courses to see you over the finishing line. I have bought a ton of courses in my time, none of which came to anything at all. Thankfully none were any of those high-priced premium ones.
The other trap is 'success stories' in courses, of people who made a ton of money or otherwise succeeded, due to a course.
I don't really want to see the outliers who succeeded. I want to know how many people have enrolled on the course; what's the median earnings of these people due to doing the course; what percentage of course-members have made zero from it.
Glad to have found your Substack. I'll be subscribing.
I'm new on the path and have only in the last few weeks started to wonder where all the ACTUAL creators are who have done these courses? Every time I look at people commenting on X who follow these Dan Koe types and you look up their Profile summary, they are a business selling "how to be a creator on social media" too. It really does feel like a Ponzi scheme. I am curious, but also excuse my skepticism for wondering if you're just going to be offering the same thing in yet another package.
I didn't see this in 2023, but when I needed it. Your article is "a sledgehammer to fantasy revealing reality".
Thanks for this Josh!!
Nice what are you building my friend?
Honestly, Josh, I don't know!
I want to live a flexible life, live between the U.S. and Southeast Asia, be financially secure and free within the next 3 - 5 years, starting from not quite zero at the age of 54 (4 months until 55).
I had the idea of joining the creator economy. Building a website/blog, newsletter, focusing on remote work, digital nomadism, and mindful tech use.
I have the domain, web hosting, and a half-finished website with about 4 articles on it.
But as I worked on it all I could think about was how I would monetize and scale to reach the income level for my main goal: time and location freedom as fast as possible.
Fortunately, I haven't bought any of the courses you mention in the article, although I was considering Justin's Creator MBA, but not anymore.
Right now, I’m building upon my 10+ years of IT experience and pivoting into a career as a freelance IT specialist focusing on Azure Cloud Security/IAM in the next 3-6 months.
But the website still matters, especially since I am a techie to the core, tech life balance is really important, especially for remote workers and tech professionals.
Just ultimately trying to find my "Pathless Path" while I still live and breathe.
I don’t want a perfectly optimized day. I want a messy, human one. With moments that don’t scale. That don’t go viral. That don’t even make sense on paper. Just real life. Felt fully.
Love what you’re doing here Josh - it’s much needed
Your Dan Koe article was great. The only caveat I have with Justin Welsh is he’s very upfront that he got into the info product space.
It could be marketing and a founder story that’s true, he openly talks about using social media to grow his own consulting for SaaS as a way to leave his job.
He talks about proving a service to make money, not just write about what you like or what you’re doing
Totally agree. I find that Koe and Welsh communicate very differently. Koe is philosophical while Welsh is very action-oriented and honest about how he makes money.
loved this idea. interesting!
Brother, your no BS words & writing style hit a six in my 'writers as batters' opinion (I'm a Kiwi in Australia - we love cricket in place of baseball). There's an Amazon River slurry of motivational feel goods coupled with 'buy my course' neon lighting out there, but you my friend offer that rare respite. Like stumbling into a quirky book shop with a warm, cosy log fire on a cold and dark, rainy night. Looking forward to Monday, cheers mate.
Waiting for the next post...
Coming on Monday
Please don’t stop posting.
Thank you for the encouragement, I’ll be back next Monday!
Just found this article. Because I just also found the Dan Koe article you wrote in 2023. They're both gold dust! Thanks for 'keeping it real'.
A lot of people say you can learn anything for free on the internet just by going to Youtube. In my fairly long experience, you can find 'advertorials' on most of the free internet. Long form content that just about fails to feed you enough to actually succeed...
...and then the offer of paid courses to see you over the finishing line. I have bought a ton of courses in my time, none of which came to anything at all. Thankfully none were any of those high-priced premium ones.
The other trap is 'success stories' in courses, of people who made a ton of money or otherwise succeeded, due to a course.
I don't really want to see the outliers who succeeded. I want to know how many people have enrolled on the course; what's the median earnings of these people due to doing the course; what percentage of course-members have made zero from it.
Glad to have found your Substack. I'll be subscribing.
I'm new on the path and have only in the last few weeks started to wonder where all the ACTUAL creators are who have done these courses? Every time I look at people commenting on X who follow these Dan Koe types and you look up their Profile summary, they are a business selling "how to be a creator on social media" too. It really does feel like a Ponzi scheme. I am curious, but also excuse my skepticism for wondering if you're just going to be offering the same thing in yet another package.
If you have something to share Ingid, you can share it right here. I'm not going to message you on What's App.
I’m interested…🤔