The Mission: Monetize Everyone

Friends have been asking me what the hell I’m doing with this newsletter.

What’s the angle? Is this a business opportunity? Are you trying to become Tim Ferriss? Are you joining the manosphere media?

The truth? I have no idea right now. I’m just writing this damn thing, irregularly it seems as of late. This is due to paid writing work taking up my day, cleaning lunch boxes and folding laundry at night.

But I’m keeping this thing going as a form of writing practice. I’ve been journaling since I was a kid. Writing helps me make sense and creates structure out of my inner mind, a place that often feels like a bunch of pigeons carrying messages and screaming at each other simultaneously.

Writing is also my way of recording important memories and milestones, and an impetus to create more of them. If I’m an experience junkie - this newsletter is the travelogue. And you came along for the ride. Thank you.

I spotted this New Yorker cartoon recently.

Friends are nice, but what I really want is a large fan base I can monetize.

This cartoon goes hard.

The recipe for success today looks simple:

1. Self-brand yourself

2. Cash in on your influence

3. Squeeze the juice of your relationships and get rich.

Seems to be how we’re operating now, isn’t it?

Everything is a subscription.  

I subscribe to Touchstone Climbing, Netflix, and AI newsletters. 

I subscribe to monthly coffee clubs and protein powders.

I opt-in to marketing emails from REI. I said yes to notifications from my kid’s daycare and City Councilmen.

I subscribe to podcasters who talk about fitness and interview people who argue that social media is destroying our society.

And people subscribe to me.

They subscribe (for an hourly fee) to my writing brain, they smash the subscribe button on my friendship, to invitations to backpack in the Sierras to swim naked in lakes and not get eaten by brown bears.

Opt-in. Subscribe. Get our weekly e-mails. More content every Monday and Thursday. Don’t miss out. Join the 40,000 followers who get life-changing tips every week.

The creator economy is a modern manifestation of the American Dream. The sky’s the limit. Make yourself. Be whatever you want to be. Anyone can do it.

If you have a basic grasp of hatmaking or Notion templates, turn that into a course! Then offer it in bite-sized pieces of content to the world for only $14.95 a month and rake in stacks of money while you sleep. Sounds easy.

It’s wise to remember that 95% of the miners who sought riches during the California gold rush didn’t make a dime. The investors and those who sold the pickaxes got rich.

I don’t think it’s that different now. The ‘creators’ churn out the content, while the platforms (Meta, Kajabi, Spotify) take the loot. Only difference is that we don’t work in underground tunnels that can collapse on us – we work out of coffee shops. This capitalism streamlined for the modern age. 

I’d love to say that I’m immune to falling for the dream. But I check my open-reads and what gets traction. And it’s all so stupid. Once I start tailoring these posts based on what the group seems to like, the whole project is dead. And I’m certain it will die once I start asking people to ‘Support my Work’ for the price of coffee. I know that I can’t really compete with a flat white.

Writing to please a group is like shouting from an open-air window facing the street. No one understands anything and I’d sound crazy.

I have someone in mind that I write to, and the best part is they have no idea who they are. I intend to keep it that way as long as possible.

I’m not monetizing this. The goal, if I have one, is to give you a break from the noise of life and read something that’s mildly interesting. Thematically, this newsletter is a dive into the beautiful parts of life that seem to be in short supply since AOL entered our house on a CD-ROM. 500 free hours, then only $19.95 a month. We all said yes, and that’s when things changed.

The best things in life are free.

xo,

Aaron