Quick note: this is not my best writing. The goal of this piece was to reduce my previous 9 essays down to the bare essentials and distill the essence as efficiently as possible. The result is essentially a collection of statements with no supporting evidence. Some of the statements are more intuitive than others. If at any point you find yourself in disagreement, click the link to the respective essay for the full breakdown.
Money is a resource that is required in order to participate in society.
Financial autonomy is having the financial means to do the things you want to do without being tied to the things you don’t want to do.
Financial autonomy is not a number, it’s a scale with 3 levels: survival, participation, and freedom.
Level 1 financial autonomy is required in order to survive, so it is therefore a fundamental human right.
Level 2 financial autonomy enables economic and social participation beyond basic survival.
Level 3 autonomy enables you to solve large meaningful problems, so it’s in humanity’s best interest to get as many people to level 3 as possible.
Financial autonomy can be increased by reducing expenses, increasing income, or finding work more to your liking.
There are a number of ways to increase income, but fundamentally they are all the same. The only way to make money is to sell something.
To make a lot of money you have to sell something at scale. The best mechanism for scaling sales is business.
The primary purpose of a business is to solve a problem. The secondary purpose of a business is to turn a profit.
The primary purpose of the profit is to enable the business to solve the problem more effectively and efficiently at scale. (Paying the owner and employees well is part of this)
A business solves a problem. More specifically it solves one of 4 types of problems: Problem, Pain, Prevention, Pleasure. Everyone has at least one idea in at least one bucket.
Money is a certificate of appreciation. Money exchanges hands because the customer appreciates having the solution to their problem.
The business has a solution to a problem. The primary purpose of a sale is to deliver the solution to the customer.
Thus the primary purpose of selling is serving. Serve your people, and sales will come naturally.
You can serve customers in the physical world, digital world, or both. Make things easy on yourself and start with a digital business.
Digital business increases earning potential and decreases overhead, friction, risk, and effort.
Financial autonomy can be increased further by maximizing earning potential and minimizing investment. Digital business is the best way to do that.
There are lots of digital business strategies, but only 3 are worth your time
Digital products reduce cost by eliminating materials, manufacturing, inventory, and fulfillment costs. Thus, profit margins are inherently higher on digital products.
Digital products exist virtually, so you create once, sell infinitely. That means your margins approach 100% with every sale you make.
Affiliate marketing reduces cost and effort by eliminating product development, fulfillment, and customer service. Your only responsibility as an affiliate is promotion.
You can promote multiple affiliate offers in the same niche to the same audience, effectively multiplying your sales.
Digital products earn larger affiliate commissions because they have higher margins.
Community is the best capture mechanism for your true fans: repeat buyers, raving reviewers and serial referrers. These fans contribute to the longevity and sustainability of your business
Kevin Kelly posited in 2008 that a creator only needs 1000 true fans to make a decent living.
This depends on your income goal and annual customer lifetime value. The higher your goal, the more members you need. The higher your CLTV, the fewer members you need.
If you can earn $100 per year per customer, 1000 customers is $100,000 per year.
But to make it happen, you need a direct relationship with your true fans. You can do this with a hub-centric business.
The hub-centric business model is the pinnacle form of digital business because it creates one centralized home for all your business assets on a platform you own and control.
Host your website, blog, podcast, funnels, live events, CRM, email marketing, and community all from the same place.
This model allows you to leverage digital products, affiliate marketing, and community on a platform you own and control, giving you a direct relationship with your true fans.
Now these fans can serve their purpose. Repeat customers buy your offers without ever leaving the community.
Raving reviewers are vocal about your ability to solve the problem, both inside the community and outside. They help you make the community valuable.
Serial referrers actively send new members to your community. Those new members grow into one or more of these 3 R’s (Repeat customers, raving reviewers, and serial referrers.)
Build a system that facilitates this behavior. Make it as easy as possible to buy your stuff from the community. Integrated checkout, native hosting, subscription models (ethically) etc.
Incentivize community engagement with gamification and digital rewards. You can also incentivize referrals with a similar system. This creates a new member flywheel.
You can take it a step farther by implementing an affiliate program. Now your serial referrers can earn way more from recommending your offers, and you’re making free sales.
Before you can create an affiliate program, you have to build an offer. I recommend building a digital product for all the reasons mentioned above.
Digital products come in all shapes and forms: PDF guides, ebooks, tools, templates, checklists, blueprints, courses, newsletters, memberships, swipe files, and other resources.
If you’re worried about becoming the “bUy mY cOuRse” guy, make sure your product is designed not just to be sold, but to solve a problem.
What used to be marketing is now education and what used to be selling is now serving.
If you already have an audience, poll them to decide which problem to focus on.
If you already have expertise, pick the problem you can solve the best.
If you don’t have either, ask introspective questions. Dig deep.
There is no problem too small to build a product around. Start by creating the minimum viable product (MVP). Run it by someone who has the problem it solves. Get their feedback.
If you still can’t figure out what problem to focus on, start with writing. Whether you publish it or not, writing gives you clarity of thought, beliefs and values.
Once you know what’s important to you, you’ll know what’s worth building. You’ll know what problem it solves, and who needs the solution most.
Long-form writing is your moat. It acts as a reference library for your ideas, arguments, and frameworks. Plant your forest one tree at a time.
This is how you start to build your brand canon. It can’t be copied by a competitor or replicated by AI. It’s what protects your unique perspective.
Thank you for reading. Again, if you’re not convinced and you’re looking for a more robust argument to back up these claims, you can check out any of the essays linked above. If you are convinced and you don’t need any more evidence that the best way to level up your financial autonomy is with a hub-centric digital business, then come join the FOF VIP Community where we’re helping people do just that. It’s free to join.
See you there,
Tim