My road map for the next year, 2024 edition | #41
The goal, the why, the roadblocks, the solutions, the plan, the environment, the manfesting
Hey everyone!
I was hoping to have this done by New Years day, but, well, life happens.
I've been doing a lot of journaling, thinking, and planning. So, if you're wondering what I'll be up to for the next year, you came to the right place!
In this issue, you'll find my career and financial road map:
The Goal: make $100k/year working a few hours a month
The Why: it's not obviously impossible, so why not?
The Roadblocks: ignorance debt and self-awareness debt
The Solutions Brainstorm: thumbnail design, scriptwriting, youtube, buying websites, newsletter
The Plan: learn more AE, make videos for my dance teachers, then make videos for folks with hold-cos
The Environment: establishing a routine, setting goals within my control
The Manifesting: my videos do well, I impress people who are where I want to be, I get to work for them
The Goal
I want to
make >= $100,000 a year
by "working" minimally
and "playing" a lot
I'm defining "work" as stuff I
don't want to do, but
I have to do it because it's part of a long-term goal that I rank above my short-term desires
I'm defining "play" as stuff that
when I'm doing it, I'm not thinking about what else I could be doing, and
given adequate preparation, it doesn't feel like work (see above).
I expect to spend a lot of time earning money for the first few years.
I also expect that the amount of work to start out high, but decrease over time.
But my end game is spend very little time running the business. Maybe a few hours a week. And I want most of the journey getting to that point to be playing.
The Why
As you know, living costs money. As you also know, most things that pay money are not things people would be doing if they didn't pay money.
But, there are plenty of people making a living doing what they enjoy. Who's to say I can't be one of them?
Going even further, who says I can't do what I enjoy AND also be well off? Enough that I can give my family a great life (if/whenever I have one)? Enough that I can frequently do nice things for my friends and community?
What if I could have all that by only spending a few hours a week or less running the business?
Ambitious, I know, but not obviously impossible.
If I died of old age without ever having tried, I'd be a very restless spirit.
But what does "trying" mean? What has to happen for me to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say, "I tried my best"?
For me, that means:
identifying the roadblocks,
brainstorming solutions,
coming up with a plan that I feel in my bones could work,
setting up my environment for success, and
executing!
The Two Roadblocks
The way I see it, there are two problems:
I don't know the ways I could make a lot of money (ignorance debt)
I don't know which of those ways I would enjoy the most (self-awareness debt)
Alex Hormozi refers to problem 1 as ignorance debt:
It costs me a billion dollars a year to not know what to do to make a billion dollars a year.
I want to pay that ignorance debt down as quickly as possible.
As soon as I have that knowledge, I'll be able to sky rocket to $20k, $30k, $50k, $500k a month, etc, because I know how to do it.
Many other rich and successful people say similar things. MrBeast (a YouTuber with 225 million subscribers) says:
the thing is... it's all knowledge
every time I say this, people debate it but I don't care
I could start a new channel tomorrow, not using my face or my voice, without ever promoting it and in six months I could have 20 million subscribers
I live through people vicariously all the time and help people just get a couple million subscribers here and there
if you knew what I knew, you could get 10 million views on a video or 10 million subscribers, no matter where you are right now, within six months
it really is just knowledge
Given that
there are probably a bunch of ways to make a lot of money, and
I already have a pretty good idea of what I enjoy and I don't,
I'll tackle the 2nd problem first.
What do I enjoy vs dislike?
Generally, I enjoy
explaining things; making complicated or boring things simple and interesting
categorizing and measuring things; understanding what makes something "good" or "bad"
finding patterns, identifying similarities and differences, examining cause and effect
understanding what motivates people, what makes people feel things
bantering; creating scenes, jokes, vibes
making things more efficient
When I recall times I disliked my job, it tended to be because of at least one of these reasons.
the task had a due date and it wasn't obvious to me how to complete the task in that timeframe, causing me anxiety
the task was too mentally taxing. A few examples:
it involved a ton of context switching
it required learning a bunch of stuff at once
it meant holding a bunch of stuff in my head at once
the importance of the task was not obvious and/or the audience didn't feel "real", hence I had no motivation to do it
I wanted to be doing something else that I did enjoy
the task was tedious. A few examples:
completing the task involved navigating unhelpful documentation
completing the task involved using uncooperative equipment, like a slow computer or website
the task had to be done in a less efficient way because of bureaucracy
the amount of attention required to do the task didn't seem to shrink over time
doing the task had too little of a compounding effect for me. A few examples (inspired by Nathan Barry's Creator Flywheels blog post):
the task was a one-off: not relevant to the general narrative of what I was doing.
I felt like I would soon hit a ceiling as far as how much better I could do the task (e.g. limit on speed, output quality/quantity)
I didn't feel that I could take what I learned from doing the task and apply it to other tasks
Admittedly, when the reason was one of the first three, it was often my fault. I didn't know how to manage projects. I also wasn't asking enough questions to piece together an inspiring narrative.
I'm better at it now, but I still have a lot of room to improve in that regard.
What makes money?
I wrote a lot about this in The video that changed how I think about money | #37. In essence, a business must
build an audience that would buy things it offers,
put an offer in front of the audience that adds value to their life, and
fulfill the offer
So: audience, offer, fulfillment.
If whatever I do helps with those things, then I think it's safe to say it can make money.
The Solutions Brainstorm
I've done a lot of things professionally.
When I was a software engineer, I enjoyed it because of reasons 3 (examining cause and effect) and 6 (making things more efficient). When I disliked it, I disliked it for all the reasons mentioned, but mostly reasons 3 (no obvious importance) and 5 (tedious).
When I was a data analyst, I enjoyed it because of reasons 1 (explaining things), 2 (categorizing things), and 3 (finding patterns). I tended to dislike it for reasons 3 (no obvious importance) and 6 (too little compounding).
When I taught and tutored math, I loved it because of reasons 1 (explaining things), 3 (finding patterns), 4 (understanding motivations and feelings), and 5 (bantering). When I disliked it, it was only because of reason 6 (too little compounding). I could get better at teaching, but it wasn't obvious how I could scale the value-add to the students. At least while working at the university.
As I do freelance video editing and motion graphics, I find that I enjoy it because of reasons 1 (explaining things) and 4 (understanding motivations and feelings). I find that I dislike it because of reasons 5 (tedious) and 6 (too little compounding).
That being said, I think it's only tedious because I'm not as good at it as I want to be, yet. And I think it's only too little compounding because I don't own the videos I make.
Looking at the next thing I'll do, I'd like it to
have qualities I enjoy
avoid the qualities I dislike
and help with at least one of: audience building, offer creation, and fulfillment
Some possibilities:
Sales
One idea I've considered is taking a sales job. I think it would scratch my 1) explaining things, 3) finding patterns, 4) understanding peoples' motivations, and 5) bantering itches.
If I didn't like it, I suspect it would be because of 5) tediousness (e.g. repetitive cold calling) or 6) too little compounding.
Ultimately, I'm ruling it out because I don't see a path towards working a few hours a week. (Is freelance sales a thing?)
YouTuber
I've also considered being a YouTuber. Seems like it could have all the "enjoy" qualities except banter.
I could make content explaining things (1), measuring things (2) (e.g. product reviews), or finding patterns (3). Understanding viewer motivations (4) would be built in.
Seems like it wouldn't have much of the "dislike" qualities. Maybe tediousness (5) in the sense that it has tedious parts and it's a lot of work. Video editing, scripting, animating, etc, can take forever.
The biggest roadblock for me here is not feeling like I'm an expert enough in anything. The previous videos I've made took a long time because I was learning as I made the videos. Arguably too long.
Given how early I am in this journey, I want to learn as much as I can. I want the feedback loops to be quicker. For them to be quicker requires some combination of
a tighter focus (e.g. a specific niche or audience)
shorter videos (since they take less time to make on average)
more expertise (the more I know, the more I know what I don't know)
I think at this point I'm ruling out YouTube unless I can partner with an expert in something I want to learn. I think that would bring in the focus and expertise to make it worthwhile for me. They could get access to valuable labor (video editing and motion graphics). For cheap or maybe free, depending on our arrangement.
That being said, I do think one of my biggest competitive advantages is in explaining things. It's an interest I've had since I can remember, so I think I can count on myself to be great at it down the road. I want to leverage that somehow. Maybe YouTube, Tik Tok, or some other similar platform?
Thumbnail Designer
Designing thumbnails for YouTubers seems appealing as well.
It scratches the explaining things (1) and what motivates people (4) itches. Getting feedback about how many people clicked on the video scratches the measuring things (2) and finding patterns (3) itches.
It also seems to avoid most of the dislikes. The two I question are: how tedious is it (5) and what compounding effects (6) would it have?
From my limited experience with photoshop, it seems to take far less time to make a thumbnail than to script, animate, or edit a video. Not including coming up with the concept itself. I don't see any obvious tediousness, except maybe polishing masks.
What I'm excited about is that I see a lot of potential for compounding effects.
Since I'm interested in drawing, it's a great excuse to learn color theory, composition, etc.
Learning to do thumbnails will also teach me a lot about what gets peoples' attention, which I think would carry over to content in general.
Once I know photoshop well and I understand the creator's audience, I suspect the actual thumbnail (and its alternates) itself won't take too long to make. (But also maybe I'm wrong?)
One concern I have is that it seems like a crowded market. Lots of supply of thumbnail designers.
But I do think I could stick out. I think there are plenty of thumbnail designers that are good at design. There are probably less but still a fair amount good at the psychology of thumbnails.
But I bet there are few that can think from the perspective of the creator's business. For example, how does the YouTuber's monetization strategy affect their packaging? If I know the design, psychology, and the business, I bet I could be formidable.
Scriptwriter
Being a scriptwriter for YouTubers is appealing for similar reasons as being a thumbnail designer.
The weakness (or strength?) is that it seems more involved. Seems like it takes a lot more time and has a lot more variables. I'd have to be more familiar with and personally invested in the YouTuber's content.
Also seems less prone to systemization. Following a template for a thumbnail and adding your own twist seems doable. Following a template for a script and adding a twist seems like it'd still be a crappy script.
But then again, it also seems like because it's harder, it'd be more lucrative if I got good at it. Maybe being a great scriptwriter is better than being a great thumbnail designer from a financial perspective.
I don't have a lot of conviction about this idea yet, I'll have to look into this more.
Flipping Websites
I like the idea of buying, growing, and then selling websites as well. I've been on the nano flips newsletter for a while now, and it seems to align with my enjoyments, dislikes, and goals.
Like other content related possibilities I've mentioned, it would scratch most itches except the banter itch.
Like scriptwriting, it seems pretty involved. Flipping sites based on a niche I don't care about would make writing new content for those sites tedious. But if I only bought sites with niches I was interested in, it could be fun. The question is whether it's workable to have the rule that I be interested in the niche.
What I love about flipping sites is that I can put however much leverage behind it as I want. The better I get, the bigger deals I can do, the more money I can make. In that sense, it compounds.
I also love that the skill of learning to flip websites is so valuable from an entrepreneurial perspective. By proxy I learn sales, marketing, and biz intelligence.
I imagine if I ever wanted to
buy other digital assets like newsletters, YouTube channels, etc, or
do any kind of private equity investing
the knowledge would transfer well.
A pro and a con is cashflow. Assuming I know how to cold email, do due diligence, and close deals, I can do deals whenever I want. Which lends me a lot of freedom.
At the same time, it could be months to years before I end up finally getting paid from the sale. So I'd need to be prepared for volatility from a revenue perspective. Depending, of course, on how much the site itself cashflows.
Creating my own content site
Same idea as buying a content site, only I'd be starting my own.
Not surprisingly, the pro is also the con. I have the freedom to make it however I want, but that also means no established audience.
The strategy would be some version of
pick a niche
pick SEO keywords to target
write pages to target those keywords
add affiliate links, ads, etc where it makes sense
wait for Google to bless me with traffic
Definitely not a short nor medium term play, but in the long term it could be a great income source.
Writing a newsletter
Writing a newsletter seems like it would scratch a lot of itches as well, depending on the content. Specifically doing breakdowns of some kind. I bought the domain whyisthisgreat.com back in July 2023, thinking I might do something like that someday.
Part of me thinks that I should only do this (or anything) if I can confidently identify my competitive advantage. Another part of me thinks that if I just did it consistently for a year, it would emerge.
But also, if it doesn't within a couple months, what if I abandon it? And then that effort was for nothing. Then again, the whole point is that it will emerge if I don't give up, so I have to tell myself that.
Maybe I should let go of looking for a competitive advantage entirely because of the compounding effects alone.
Writing a breakdown newsletter could have tons of flywheels:
built-in opportunity to learn about stuff
potential to attract an audience interested in stuff I talk about
content creation in a format that I can leverage elsewhere (e.g. blog posts, tweets, videos)
people replying to the newsletter could be a source of new content
Some general themes that sound fun to write and learn about:
here's a funny tik tok, why is it funny?
here's a viral tweet, what factors could have lead to it going viral?
here's a great ad, why is it great?
why does this thumbnail or title or headline make me want to click?
wow this movie made me cry, how did they make me feel this way?
that was such good world-building/improv/scene creation, what made it good?
damn this song slaps, why is it so good?
this is one of my favorite stories, what's so memorable about it?
that was such a lucid explanation, why was that so clear and easy to understand?
Some formats to experiment with:
here's a principle for good comedy, here's how it pops up in other areas like drama, advertising, etc
here's a principle for good storytelling, here are examples of it across different forms of media like tweets, videos, blogs, etc
here's a great video, it's great because at 0:33 they do this, at 0:46 they do this...
here's a pretty good tweet, thumbnail, or video, and here's how I'd make it better
if i had a business selling x and i wanted to make content about y, here's what i'd do
here are some lessons I've learned that I haven't seen anywhere else, that you wouldn't expect
how much money did this business earn from this tweet, video, or ad?
I know for sure I'd an in an accountability or progress section. Something with
my big picture goals
how far I am in the plan
what i've done the past week/month
what i'm struggling with, maybe
In fact it'd be cool to do some kind of 2024 Wrapped thing. If I formatted it as a tree or progress bar somehow, I could make it a flip book. Like those people who take a picture of themselves every day for a year and then make a montage.
I've also already bought
Jake Thomas's 103 YouTube Title A/B Tests - which compares YouTube titles to see which ones people click the most
George Blackman's Retention Hub - which looks at hundreds of YouTube videos and analyzes where people drop off
1of10 - a tool for identifying trending YouTube videos, creators, and topics
Jamie Whiffen's The Thumbnail Vault - a database breaking down and dissecting thumbnails
So if I were to do a newsletter and I wanted to niche down (which I probably should), I could focus on YouTube videos, specifically. To niche even further down, I could focus on business-ey videos like marketing and business intelligence.
I could also use Scott DeLong's Facebook Page Likes strategy to get my first few hundred email subscribers for 10-50 cents a pop. I wouldn't depend on that as a long term strategy, but it'd be nice to have data right from the start. For dopamine purposes.
Let's say I did grow this newsletter to, I don't know, 10,000 engaged subscribers. What kind of people do I want to attract? Off the cuff, people interested in
what makes content great, out of curiosity
justifying the ROI for investing in content creation
getting started making content for their business
improving the content they make
buying or selling websites (and maybe other "content" businesses)
And what would I do with the list?
I guess the monetization plan would be affiliate links and sponsorships that I can confidently and morally recommend.
The Plan
Okay, I've tossed A LOT of ideas around. What's the actual plan?
I know that I want to
be great at something extremely useful that I enjoy doing (at least most of the time)
be able to think from a business perspective (e.g. CAC, LTV, TAM, ROI, cashflow, etc) so I can identify opportunities for myself and others
do things that compound, can be leveraged, and/or snowball over time
If I think of what I like doing (explaining and analyzing things, chatting, etc) and what makes money (audience, offer, fulfillment), it seems like that puts me generally in the realm of
due diligence (here's why you should or should not buy this business)
sales (our advantage is x, our competitor's advantage is y, so if you want z you should go with us
content (here's a video explaining the pros and cons of this thing)
data analysis
Content and due diligence seem to be the most obviously compoundable. Content because building an audience lowers customer acquisition costs. Due diligence because the more sure I am about buying a business, the more leverage I can put behind it.
Conveniently, they're the two I'm most interested in. In fact my interests highly correlate with "what compounds the most".
I think my best bet looks something like,
establish myself as someone great at making content
partner with someone who buys and sells businesses of some kind
make content for them, learning at the same time
use that knowledge to buy businesses
use my content knowledge to grow them
retire
Past experience tells me that it's good to have a rough idea what the long term plan is, but planning specifically isn't worth it, since the plan will almost surely change.
So, let's just consider step 1: how to become great at making content.
How do I know I'm great at making content?
To me that means that, given a business with a goal, I can create and execute a content strategy to achieve that goal.
So the question is: what's the best way to get practice doing that?
My knee-jerk thought is to help my dance teachers with their content.
Seems like a great idea since
dancing is a hobby I've come to enjoy
dancing is complicated
I have a great relationship with them and I want to see them succeed
There are a lot of video tutorials I wish they would make. It's possible that if I did all the dirty work, it would be justifiable from a business perspective for them to invest their time as well.
If they aren't interested or it doesn't work out, I'll just make some videos for fun to get enough practice in.
Then I'll create a list of folks who buy businesses and make content for them until one of them hires me.
Okay. So, to make the video tutorials I'd want to see exist, I have to learn
motion tracking
rotoscoping
time warping
a few text animations
and maybe some color grading
The goal for next Friday (01/12/24) is to have 3 videos that use all of those. They can be any videos but ideally they're "dance video" prototypes for my dance teachers.
The Environment
How can I set up my environment and social context to
increase my motivation,
avoid frustration, and
avoid temptation?
A few things come to mind:
planning every day, either the night before or the morning of
setting goals within my control (e.g. "I will write for an hour" as opposed to "I will have 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year.")
unsubscribing from email lists that sell me on paths that aren't my current plan and encourage my shiny object syndrome
solidify my daily routine (I have one but I haven't been consistent about it. If I'm consistent about it then I'm more likely to be consistent about everything else.)
The Manifesting
This is basically my dream section. If it were to work out the best possible way it could, what would that look like?
First, I spend a week making 3 dance videos. My teachers love them. We put them out there. Viewers love them. We establish a routine where I make videos and I learn a bunch of dance stuff.
After a few months, I've learned a lot more Premiere Pro and After Effects here and there. I've learned to make pretty good videos. A few of the videos I've made take off. My videos have generated a bunch of business for my dance teachers.
I take those results to someone like Codie Sanchez, Michael Girdley, James Camp, Kurtis Hanni, or Alex Hormozi. They're impressed enough that they hire me to make videos for them. I get a front row seat to how they do business.
Over the next year or two, they're extremely glad they hired me, I learn a bunch, I make money.
I start either investing in or buying businesses and helping grow them. I start helping people do the same.
A few years later, if I'm ready to move on and retire, I do so. But if I'm having fun, I keep doing what I'm doing.