There is an epidemic in the world, and I'm not talking about the disease, but of people working full time or overtime and barely surviving, let alone creating and building a life for themselves.
Living costs are rising, wages aren't adjusted to inflation, and millions of well-educated people are hurting, living paycheque to paycheque, with no investments, assets, and a lot of debt.
Imagine you go for a year-long vacation around the world with your family, and by the time you come back, you have made more money than the trip cost you.
This is no longer limited to top executives, CEOs, or high-end earners but is available to anyone who dares to go after it.
The internet and technology have imposed a new cultural shift, happening faster than many can keep up with. A new set of rules and dynamics governed by innovation and algorithms. A new way of conducting business. A new way of distributing products. A new economy of clicks, thirsty for attention and dopamine. One that is turning everyday people into millionaires.
How The Digital Economy Has Changed The Game
The new digital economy offers many perks and comfort to the modern human, but it also requires a specific literacy of how it works.
This new economy offers the individual the opportunity to design a new life, automate their work process and enjoy more free time that they can spend with their family, adopt the laptop lifestyle (working & traveling around the world), develop an artistic practice, or start other businesses.
This new economy has changed the job market in radical ways, and more so with AI, machine learning, and all types of automation, making it possible to create riches out of correctly applying certain principles using technology tools.
In this economy, creative work is rewarded. The ideas, brand, and perspective resulting from one's unique skills and experiences give birth to new terrains of innovation, creativity, and opportunities.
Opportunities for collaborations and new creations that were not previously possible.
Traditional education is struggling to keep up as it has become obsolete on many levels. People with higher education struggle to land jobs and are oblivious to today's best practices in their fields.
This has equalized the hireability of individuals based on their skills and current knowledge, removing the need for companies to hire based on traditional education, a practice that has been used as a proxy until now.
Many individuals are turning to online creators, entrepreneurs, and companies for education and skill development instead of traditional education.
Job employers are hiring based on what you share and build online, your public resume and portfolio.
Many businesses are going remote and rely on specific skills to adapt to today's marketing and operation demands.
These same opportunities are now available, not only to big corporations, but to independent individuals as well.
Let's take advertising, for instance; before, only big companies could afford the high cost of advertising their products and services in front of the masses.
Today, this opportunity is accessible to individuals and small businesses via social media platforms and search engines at a fraction of the price and in far more targeted ways. They can test campaigns on a micro-scale and turn the dial-up based on successful conversions.
The same applies to content creators, who traditionally would have to go through big companies and a lot of bureaucracy to get their work published. Now they are able to cut out the middle man, build their own audience and distribute their content on their own terms. This has levelled the playing field in a very powerful way.
These new online economy skills and business models have turned hundreds of thousands of people into millionaires.
Small practices turned into massive companies. And many are run with small teams using no-code tools to carry much of the weight and automate all business operations.
Anybody can set up an ecosystem and have an operational business.
However, you want to offer great value and authenticity to get the audience's attention and money (and potentially lots of it).
Many online entrepreneurs are practically printing money with these models.
There are people today who work a 9-5 job, maybe even a second job. But after paying bills at the end of the month, they find themselves very low on energy and stressed at the thought of running another month on the hamster wheel, then another, without a plan to escape and live the life they truly want.
On the other hand, some teens are making 6-7 figures per month, pressing buttons online, automating sales, flipping websites, building web applications and distribution platforms, buying and selling art, and marketing products and services all from their mobile devices.
How To Get Started In The Digital Economy
The price to get started with online entrepreneurship today is so low anybody can start a business and set up shop for as little as $100.
People then need to offer value to their audience, create content, and offer a quality product or service in any niche.
Value drives money.
Thanks to automation, you can create web applications, physical or digital products, and distribute them at scale.
One can also build a platform solely for content creation and publishing and leverage the traffic to sell their products and/or affiliate products.
To succeed in today's online economy, one needs to get a good grip on specific skills and related tools, to automate their work, free up time, and enjoy their life.
Skill Stack Of The New Rich
Of course, one can follow any career path and become successful. But when you want to be free to work from anywhere, make a decent living by working a few hours a week, then learning online skills and exploiting marketing tools and automation can help you build an independent ecosystem that will allow you to finance the lifestyle you have always dreamed of.
Here is a list of Evergreen Skills that are essential for succeeding in this new digital economy:
- Writing
- Speaking
- Marketing
- Email marketing
- Sales closing
- Graphic design
- Videography
- Web development
- Web3
- Learning (yes, the skill and initiative to learn)
These skills and related tools are the creator economy's building blocks, allowing people to create technology, offer services, offer products and content for whatever niches they are interested in, or create a niche where they see a lack in the market.
These skills overlap and build on each other. A combination of a few of these is the sweet spot; the more you have, the stronger you will be.
Some will say that these tools are too technical, such as web development, but even web development is moving towards a no-code paradigm, where AI and no-code tools make it easy for anyone to get started.
Much like a website, you can drag and drop elements to put them together without an extensive coding background.
No-code tools allow you to get started within minutes when it comes to business models such as content creation, publishing, eCommerce and more.
But why writing, email marketing, speaking, videography, and design?
It's because the hybrid of these skills is what marketing is made of. Marketing will help you expand your mind and expertise in your domain and teach you about psychology and how to communicate with online scrollers and turn them into customers.
These tactics can help you package whatever skill or knowledge you have, no matter what it is, and share it with the world—anything from a broad niche to a micro niche to a new niche created by you.
You could record a video course, share your skill or expertise once, and sell it repeatedly for years.
Previously, most people had the opportunity to offer their skills and services to their local communities, but with the internet, the whole world has opened up as a potential market, exponentially expanding the possibility to capitalize on what you have to offer.
Through the process of building a global community that is interested in what you have to offer, publishing content and creating products that serve them, fortifies your financial resilience in an unstable job market.
Recently, we have seen 165,000 people getting laid off from the US tech sector, triggering a firing wave across all industries.
Relying on a local corporate job isn’t safe. Going international with your business and reach is a must.
People need unique ideas and expertise packaged, branded and consistently distributed.
Content is the new oil.
Overcoming Self-Doubt
But Elias, I don't have ideas and don't know how to create content!
This is something everyone struggles with at first, it’s called Imposter Syndrome, and is only capable of holding you back if you let it.
For a lot of people the problem lies with choosing to consume other people’s creative expressions rather than creating their own.
The dopamine released from scrolling through social media and watching TV is instant, and it is enough to keep you subdued. It is designed for that purpose.
However, creativity is a natural resource that cannot be depleted. The more you produce, the more capacity you have to produce.
There are an infinite amount of things to create and an infinite amount of ways to create them.
You are not an exception to this rule. You have tons of ideas and gifts waiting to be harvested.
Stop consuming and start creating!
Start by touching the canvas, marking the page, and allowing whatever is inside to find its way out, revealing your potential for creativity.
To say you have nothing to create is a cop-out. You don't know it yet.
You may not even need to create something out of nothing.
Many create content based on their interpretations of works that inspire and intrigue them.
Take what you learn and share it from your perspective, filtered through your experiences.
Your job is to make sense of your niche and interests to those who follow and understand you.
You attract a specific audience when you talk about your life experience, pains, benefits, stories, and anything related to your lifestyle.
But Elias, people do not know me, and I don't have experience, so why would they listen to me?
If you don't have experience or expertise, document your journey toward your goals and tell your story. People get invested in stories, and seeing yours play out gives them context of who you are.
Doing it this way also removes the competition and allows you to be authentic and unique with your output.
Your story inspires many people and will increase inspiration as you keep growing.
Finding Your Online Community
There are thousands of new communities built daily on the internet. People gather on different platforms and servers to learn, teach, communicate, collaborate, do business, build, design, innovate or hang out with like-minded people with similar interests.
Thousands of these communities are monetized while creating concentrated spaces of learning and expertise on specific subjects.
Start yours today!
Pick a topic and start writing and collecting emails. If you need help deciding what to choose or what direction to go, download our free guide to help you find your purpose and interests.
The point here is to build your personal economy.
It doesn't matter what the economy looks like.
It doesn't matter who the president is.
There is so much to go around.
The total GDP of the world is 96.5 trillion in 2021, and 103.86 trillion in 2022, and 112.6 trillion projected in 2023.
The question is, what is your piece of it?
What You’ll Need To Get Started
- Your Platform: A closed ecosystem consisting of a publishing platform (website, newsletter, membership site), products or services, and a payment processor. (insert illustration)
- Your Why: Find your "why" asap. Get working on finding it. And sometimes, it needs a few iterations, getting started with your idea, and then refining it. Finding your "why" is crucial; otherwise, you'll have no direction.
Studies have shown that a lack of purpose increases heart attacks, strokes, premature death, and mental illnesses.
The internet has democratized education, entertainment, automation tools, artificial intelligence, and business.
Your duty and responsibility are to figure out and learn how to assemble the legos and build the ecosystem that makes sense to you and your needs, customizing every step to optimize and monetize your creativity & output.
And don’t forget to have fun!
