The Creator Business Model (how to build a fulfilled life)

Before we dive in: A reminder that MasteryOS is open for enrollment.

If you want to unlock your true potential, smash every goal you set, and achieve Self-Mastery, click here to get access whilst it’s open.

This is a long one, so strap in.

I’ve always had an obsession with living a fulfilled life, one where I’m progressing, making an impact, have options and freedom.

But for most of my life, I had no clue how to get there, how to craft a life I’d love.

So I took the traditional path, the only path ever presented to me.

I got good grades, went to university in England on an unconditional offer to study Sport and Exercise science.

Let’s just say that wasn’t for me.

So I dropped out after 2 years and started studying Finance in Belfast.

I tried different things and none of them were for me.

None of them lit a spark inside me.

And with finance, the last thing I wanted was to be stuck in an office for 80 hours a week, being told what to do.

I hate being told what to do.

I hate authority.

But, as fate would have it, during my short break between dropping out of Sport and starting Finance, I stumbled across this platform called Twitter (now known as X).

I had a Twitter account but I never used it.

In my eyes, it was just filled with news, politics, blue-haired fanatics, and some sport.

Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.

I came across this small corner of Twitter untouched by the ideological extremes of politics and the negativity of mainstream media.

Money Twitter.

I was hooked.

I was shown another path, a path where you could live on your terms, a path where no one tells you what to do, a path that would allow me to craft a life I’d love.

The creator business.

Fast forward 3 years and here we are.

I’ve grown my audience to over 500,000 followers across platforms and built a 6 figure business that I run in 2-4 hours a day.

All thanks to my problem with authority.

Since you follow me on social media and are on this newsletter, I imagine you’re more similar to me than you think.

You likely want to craft a life you love, make an impact, and see progress.

Heck, you might even hate authority as well.

But maybe you’re lost.

Maybe you don’t know what to do, what path to follow, or how to even take the first step toward living life on your terms.

My friend, don’t panic.

The best part about being lost? You don’t have to wait for direction.

You can create it, you can take the same path that I took.

You can create a creator business.

Creator businesses are the future.

Think about it…

The world is moving online, people are buying more and more from companies based solely online and they’re buying more and more from the people that they know, like and trust - that is the creators who’s content they consume.

Think about how many people over the last 3 years have started their own creator business.

And we’re still early. Most people don’t even know this is an option, they don’t even consider it.

Whenever I tell people in “real life” what I do, they’re always a bit shocked.

“Wait, you can do that?”

The world is moving online.

But we’re only beginning.

 

The creator business is the way of the future for anyone wanting to live a fulfilled life on their terms.

 

Now you might be wondering how on earth a creator business leads to a fulfilled life.

Well, before I explain, understand this:

You need 2 things for a fulfilled life.

 

1. Holistic Improvement

You need improvement in each area of your life. Humans are goal and progress orientated creatures.

We need to see this improvement and progress to feel good.

And it needs to be in every area, you can’t improve your body, not improve your mind and expect to be fulfilled.

You can’t improve your finances, not improve your relationships and expect fulfillment.

You need holistic improvement.

 

2. Impact

You need to make an impact on something greater than you and build something meaningful.

You don’t have to change the world, cure cancer (although if you can, please do it), or stop world hunger.

But to feel fulfilled you need to make an impact.

 

Now how does the creator business model tie into this?

A creator business requires 2 things for you to succeed.

 

1. Holistic Improvement

Your brand is nothing but a reflection of you.

If you lack a certain skill, your brand will suffer.

If you’re lacking in a certain area, your brand will suffer.

To improve your brand, you must improve yourself.

 

2. Impact

If your content doesn’t make an impact, you won’t succeed.

You won’t grow or make any money.

So you’re forced to learn how to make an impact through your chosen medium (writing or video - but really writing is the primary medium as even videos are based on writing)

 

Hence, what’s required to succeed with a creator business is what’s required for a fulfilled life.

Few things, and I mean, very few things, out there in life will give you the freedom to dedicate yourself to both holistic improvement and impact and actually require both whilst also allowing you to live life on your terms and craft a life you love.

But a creator business does.

 

Why the creator business model is for everyone 

 

I believe everyone can be a creator.

Everyone.

Now that doesn’t mean everyone should be or that everyone will be.

But if you’re reading this, then I believe you, yes you, should be.

In a world where everyone experiences and processes everything differently, even the same event, everyone pulls different lessons and beliefs, allowing them to resonate with some and not with others.

There is no saturation when everyone is authentic and in a niche of 1.

Plus, there are a tonne of selfish benefits (that isn’t a bad thing) for a person to become a creator;

 

1. It forces self-improvement and self-mastery

As we covered earlier, you MUST improve yourself to improve your brand.

Not making money? You need to improve your offer, marketing, or sales skills

Not growing? You need to improve your writing, editing, or networking skills.

So by improving yourself to improve your brand, you improve your entire life.

 

2. It requires self-reflection and self-awareness

To be unique and to actually grow and attract your own individual tribe on social media you need to post content that is a distillation of you.

A distillation of your life, your experiences, your beliefs, lessons, and opinions.

There is no other way to do this than to be self-aware and to self-reflect.

2 key skills that will improve your peace, calmness, and quality of life.

 

3. It provides freedom, autonomy, and options

This is what everyone wants.

Everyone wants the freedom to do what they want when they want.

Everyone wants the option to choose.

Whether you want to work from home, a co-working space, an office, the beaches of Thailand, or from a coffee shop in Italy (a personal favourite), you can do it.

Whether you want to work solo or build a massive team, you can do it.

Whether you want to sell digital products, coaching, a service, or a physical product, you can do it.

When you build an audience, you build a traffic source that allows you to build ANY business whilst still making a massive impact on a massive number of people.

 

And there are a tonne more benefits, from your creator business being something meaningful to dedicate yourself to, to your brand holding you to a standard, but enough benefits.

I know some of you are liking the idea of having a creator business.

You’re thinking, “You know what, I would love to make content that helps people and then build a business around it”.

But there’s something holding you back from starting.

What is it?

 

Maybe you think “But Ross, I don’t have anything to talk about, I’m not an expert”

My friend, you don’t have to be.

I wasn’t an expert in anything when I started.

All you have to do is choose 3 large areas of interest that you have, set some goals, chase those goals, and share what you learn along the way.

As you do research to help you make progress, as you fail, as you succeed, take what you learn and turn it into content.

Don’t pretend to be an expert and you won’t need to be one.

 

Maybe you’re thinking “I don’t how to write”

Neither did I.

But guess what I did? I practiced.

I’ve tweeted every single day for over 1200 days. I’ve written something every single day for over 1200 days.

I’ve also taken a tonne of courses and haven’t stopped learning.

Here’s the thing;

When you’re starting out, nobody will see your content.

And when you’re starting out, your content will be crap (you can’t expect it to be good if you’ve never done it before)

So by the time you’ve managed to grow and have gotten eyeballs on your content, your content and writing will have improved and will be good.

Don’t let being crap at writing stop you from starting.

Practice, learn, practice.

 

Or maybe you’re telling yourself “I’m not creative”

My friend, every single person on this planet is creative.

Every single one.

Some of us have just pushed our creativity so deep down inside of us that it’s hard to see.

You my friend are creative.

But the only way you will unlock this inner creativity is by creating.

 

Okay, enough of that.

Any objection you have to starting a creator business, I can help you overcome.

Any. Every. It doesn’t matter. Your objection is just a self-limiting belief that will hold you back from living a life you love.

So ignore them.

You want a fulfilled life, right?

Then don’t let the limiting beliefs that other people have imposed on you stop you from living it.

 

How to start;

Okay, enough theory.

Let’s talk action motherfucker.

How can you start building your creator business?

 

1. Platform

You need to choose a platform to create on.

I highly recommend X (Twitter), for a few reasons:

• You can put out as much content as you like without being penalised (hence, more reps, more practice, faster improvement)

• It’s beginner-friendly (all you’re doing is writing a single tweet, not making a 15-minute YouTube video)

• Writing is the base of all content (IG reels, YT scripts, Instagram posts are all based on writing, so learn how to write on X [a writing-based platform] and you’ll build a skill that’ll carry over to every platform)

• Great carryover (people who start on say for example Instagram, struggle to grow on other platforms. Everyone who nails Twitter growth blows up on other platforms - Me, Dan Koe, Dakota Robertson, Ben Meer, Dan Go, etc)

But as much as I recommend X, choose whichever platform you’re most likely to stick to, whichever you consume the most.

 

2. What to talk about

Your brand is you. You can talk about anything.

But, with that said, especially when starting out, I would recommend choosing 3 large areas of interest, these are your content pillars.

Break each of these 3 areas into 3 subtopics, eg. Fitness -> training, nutrition, recovery

You now have 9 topics to create content around.

And yes, you can talk about other things that interest you, just make sure the majority of your content is in these 9 areas.

 

3. Create

Block off time to create content DAILY.

How much content you create is up to you and depends on the platform.

If you’re on X, you need to write at least 3 tweets a day, on any other platform, 1 post a day is the max.

I recommend creating daily for 1 main reason;

• If you batch all your content into 1 day of the week, you practice creating 52 times a year

• If you create daily, you practice 365 times a year

After 1 year, who’s going to be better?

 

4. Grow

You now need to start growing and figuring out how to grow depends on the platform.

But in general, social media growth comes down to 2 things:

1. Good content

2. Networking

So for X (and most platforms), prioritise making great content, start networking with other people, and engage on other people’s content.

You’ll grow.

 

5. Earn

Now you need to monetise.

When you do this is up to you.

You can monetise from the get-go or leave it until you have x number of followers, it’s up to you.

But when it’s time, here’s what I would recommend you do;

• Talk to your followers, and figure out what problem they have

• Distill it into either a coaching or service program

• Work with some people for cheap to figure out what works and get testimonials

• Work with some more people for full price

• Distill what works into a course

If you don’t want to do coaching, you can skip right to the course, but I would highly recommend doing coaching/group coaching for just a few months to figure out what problems people have and what actually works to solve those problems so you can make a course people actually want to buy.

 

6. Improve

Spend your life building, sweating, learning and exploring, acquiring knowledge and experience to relay to your audience.

Live and live hard.

Do whatever you want and craft a life you love, whilst seeking progress.

 

The Creator Business model my friend - the ultimate business model for a fulfilled life.

Enjoy your day and go create

- Ross

By the way, I’m building out a course to share how I run my creator business in 2-4 hours a day.

If you’re a creator and want to spend less time working and more time living, you can sign up for the waitlist here and be the first to get access

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you

• Achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential, and smash every goal you set with MasteryOS

• Learn how to build a multi-6-figure audience and business with Personal BrandBldr

• As a subscriber, you can get 50% off my Get Shit Done Productivity System by clicking here