It started with this Tweet.
The rest of the thread explains the frustration of not having the resources that a lot of the gurus have. If you’re a mother with a family to take care of, you can easily see that your life doesn’t allow for the advice many give.
It’s easy for the bachelor or person with no kids to talk about how they can disappear for 6 months and come back with something amazing.
But there is a group of people (don’t know if it’s the majority or minority) that don’t have that time or the resources.
It’s like playing baseball with less than 9 players. Sure batting isn’t a problem, but when it’s your turn to pitch how can you pitch, catch, and field all at the same time?
So does that mean all of this is impossible? Of course not.
You decide if something is possible and if you decide that you want to make it in this game, that you really want to make a business work for you then it’s possible.
You just have to understand the rules of the game.
I think it’s time someone shared the hidden rules of the game that you don’t see. The rules that are holding you back only because you didn’t know they existed.
The Rules
Before I jump into them there are always exceptions to rules. You could probably find me someone that has gone against a rule and found massive success.
That’s just how it plays out.
1. More Money, a Better Appearance, or Unlimited Sex
Here are your 3 niches. I call them the 3 Egos.
Do not try to go outside of them. It’s not that you can’t make money outside of them. It’s the fact that you’re stacking the deck against yourself.
And if you have a limited amount of time to work, there is no point in making your life harder.
But shouldn’t this say Health, Wealth, and Love? I used to think so but it isn’t true.
People want more money, a better appearance for themselves, and more sex.
If you can show that you can give them one of these things, they will give you money.
But this doesn’t mean you have to talk directly about these things. However, whatever you do talk about has to be easily linked back to these things.
For example, I don’t go around shouting that you can make $100,000 a month, but I do talk about building funnels that make you feel good. From there you can make the connection that money can be made.
My friend shows you how to write an eBook in just 12 hours. From there you can connect the dots and know that writing a book means you can sell a book.
If you don’t know how to do one of these three things do you fake till you make it?
I’d prefer you didn’t. I can point to plenty of examples of people that do and some do end up succeeding because people are desperate and they leverage that desperation.
If you tell someone you can help them quit their job and work for themselves, then a lot of them are going to believe it without questioning things. And the ones that do question can easily be ignored.
So what do you do if you’re starting from scratch? I suggest you take the Craftsmen’s Approach.
2. Live and Die by the Network
I hate this rule because by nature I’m a loner. I like to do things myself without the help of others and there have been times where I’ve pulled it off.
But that was in the past when we didn’t have networks connecting millions of people.
Now, you have access to billion of people with a couple of key presses and because of that, it’s not the smartest or most skilled or most helpful that win.
It’s the most prolific.
And that sucks, but that’s the game.
What does this mean? It means that a lot of the people you look up to, used networks to build up their following and therefore their authority and social proof.
That’s not fair!
But it is fair because you can do the same thing. I’m not saying you can enter the inner circle of the big dogs, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enter any circle or create your own.
You’re not losing your mind. Chances are, your content is just as good as the big dogs, but you don’t have the network backing you. We’ll get to that in a little bit.
3. Shame Loses You the Game
There is a clear difference between those that rise and those that stay stagnant.
The ones that rise have no shame. This might mean they don’t stop promoting their stuff (you don’t have to do that) or they have no problem speaking with authority (you do have to do that).
You can’t be scared to post. You can’t be scared to voice your observations.
If you stick around playing it safe you get lost in the weeds. There are 1000s of others who are terrified about what people will think of them and they are hoping one day a magic formula will appear that will save them.
It never comes.
Instead, there is one new Creator that shows up every single day and decides to play the game to win. They’ll consciously or subconsciously understand these rules and they’ll use them to their advantage.
And what happens?
Other Creators sit on the sideline trying to figure out what happened. It won’t seem fair, but to quote my favorite TV series…
The game is the game.
The Wire
How Do You Win?
So going back to Christina’s tweet above, when you don’t have the resources (time, money, or network), do you stand any chance of success in this game?
Of course.
But you can’t play it in the same way the gurus you follow play it. You have to find where you can take advantage of things and play it that way.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging.
Before I give you a strategy I need to give you some background on myself real quick. I have 3 kids all under the age of 6 and a stay-at-home wife. These kids are banging on my door constantly. I get very little sleep. And I’m the sole breadwinner.
I make it a point to give my kid’s attention because who knows how much time is left.
So I’m not in my wife’s shoes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t plan like I was so here’s how I would tackle this Money Game if I was starting from scratch.
Your Plan to Win the Game
There are two types of people reading this:
- They have a skill or knowledge that they can leverage
- They don’t have one that fits within one of the 3 Egos above
If you’re #2 that’s okay. You can make this work without faking it. It might take a small bit longer, but you can do it.
As I mentioned you should take the Craftsmen’s Approach to make things easier and build up some knowledge. I won’t go into that approach in this post, but read it and then come back here when you’re ready.
Step -1: Money, Beauty, or Sex
Which one are you going to help your audience achieve?
Step 0: Exploration
I call this Step 0 because there is no timeframe for it and it’s optional. But I think everyone should give themselves time to explore. But what are you exploring?
You’re observing the playing field. You’re looking for patterns to see what everyone else is saying because you don’t want to say the same stuff.
Step 1: Plant Your Flag
This is where you need to plant your flag and establish what you’re about. This is why the exploration phase is so important because if you sound like everyone else, then you’re not going anywhere.
Remember, you don’t get the luxury of having shame here. You have 1000s of others making sure their flag is being seen. Back in the days you could be quiet and let SEO or Pinterest do the work for you.
You don’t have that luxury anymore.
What do you stand for? Why should people care?
When people see your flag, do they know what they’re getting?
This might take some time. Think of it as planting your flag, but it takes a while to move it up the pole.
Step 2: Be Contrarian
You might not like this, but unless you get in with the good ol’ boys Network, then you don’t have the luxury of being plain. You don’t get the luxury of saying the exact same shit as everyone else and getting comments from bigger accounts saying, “Wow, I never thought about it like this!”
Find a side that everyone seems to be on, look at the opposite, and see if you can make it work. Don’t be contrarian just to be contrarian.
There has to be a reason for it.
For example, I don’t like traditional funnels that lie to you and for fake scarcity upon you. I don’t like the way those funnels make me feel.
So I think you can actually create funnels that make people feel good and still make great money with them.
I believe in relationships over conversions.
These takes mean nothing if I can’t make them work (aka show you how they can make you money).
Let’s Take a Break
You’ll notice that so far none of these steps are tactical. Meaning I’m not telling you to tweet 5x a day or send out a weekly newsletter. The reason for that is everyone’s time is going to be different.
The key is understanding the time you have and how you can best leverage it.
So from here on out I’m going to go extreme and let’s say you only have one hour a day. Is it possible to grow at all?
Okay, let’s get back to it.
Step 3 or 1: Write a Book
I know, this sounds insane. You’re limited on time, why would you write a book?
A book is a cheat code for a number of things:
- It gives you an offer to get out there and sell
- Establishes some authority because who would write a book on something they don’t know?
- Helps you build a list of buyers
But what if you’re the person that feels they don’t have the knowledge yet to write a book? That’s fine.
Curate a topic. Compile the best of X and give your opinion.
Also, you can write a really good ebook in less than 12 hours with the help of AI. That’s 12-15 days if we’re sticking to the 1-hour rule.
Two weeks is a very small amount of time in the big scheme of things. Even if you think writing a book is a waste of time here is what you can do with it:
- Sell it. Everyone likes to make money even if it starts off small.
- Package it with another offer.
- Use it as an opt-in.
Writing a book is never a waste of time. 30-70 pages and you’re solid.
(I also list this as Step 1 because maybe you want to write a book first. Nothing wrong with that.)
Step 4: Email, Email, Email
Now that you have your book out you’re going to build a list. But instead of worrying about a freebie or just getting people to sign up for a newsletter, you’re going to send them to your book.
Inside the book, sorry I forgot this part earlier, you’re going to have some type of opt-in. A supplemental thing that works well with the book.
Like a workbook.
People go to download the workbook and to do so they need to sign up for your mailing list. Now you’re building a list of buyers instead a list of freebie seekers. But don’t worry, you can build a list of freebie people later.
Now that people are buying your book and signing up for your list, you know you’re talking to people ready to take action. From there you continue to lead them down the Customer Journey until you’re ready to sell them your bigger offer (whenever you make it).
I’d suggest you email them at least two times a week.
Step Everything: Promotion
This is Step Everything because it’s something you always do. It’s not a one and done thing.
Pick the social network that is great for your niche. Money is Twitter and LinkedIn. Sex and Beauty are Instagram and TikTok, although Twitter is possible.
Post content but more importantly engage with other people’s content. This is the shitty part of the process unless you change your perspective.
Remember, I believe in relationships over conversions and if you take the time to give thoughtful replies to the same people over and over again, you’ll find relationships forming.
And because you have a phone, this is something you can do throughout the day. Whenever you hop on social media, jump into engagement mode. Scroll until you find something you think you can leave a decent comment on and then comment.
Use that person’s audience to build up your own.
Here’s Your Cheat Code
Admittedly, there are a lot of details missing in this post. I mean, it’s just a blog post. The key things that you need to do are:
- Create content. But you need to create content that builds customers. You can’t worry about building an audience (and yes, there is a difference).
- Network. Unless you dive hardcore into SEO or TikTok, then you’re going to need to network.
- Make money. I know this one is obvious but it’s easy to get carried away in trying to build something and forgetting that you need things in place to make money.
That’s a lot to take in.
