Building Leverage On The Internet [Sep 6th edition]

Hi there,

Saying hello from Atlanta. It’s the Labor Day long weekend here in the U.S. so I am excited to have an extra day off.

Hope you’ve had a great week.

Anyway, since the last edition, this newsletter subscriber count has gone up from 198 to 210 people so join me in welcoming the new readers :) 👋

Let’s get rolling with this edition:

䷉ TOP ESSAY ON MY RADAR:

[credit for the beautiful graphic goes to @reddy2go]

Wanted to share a few thoughts on being a creator on the Internet. Here’s a simple method called “The Creator Curve” that I use to evaluate someone’s influence in building an audience on the Internet. I often use this to measure my own journey as a creator. Some notes on the curve:

Stage 1: POTENTIAL

At this point, you just have raw potential. You may think you are very creative and talented but it doesn’t matter to the market. Because your talent hasn’t served anybody in an objective way. You’ve added no net value and hence you won’t have an audience yet. A lot of makers/creators I know are stuck in this stage and turn frustrated and sour because they believe they have a lot of potential and wonder why the market isn’t responding.

Stage 2: PROOF OF WORK

When you add value and show proof of work, you’ll gain evidence that you are in fact working to help/benefit others The world doesn’t care for true talent (the cold truth) but only wants to see evidence that you can help solve problems or add value. This also cannot be a one-time affair. You have to consistently deliver value and build a volume of work that acts as proof. Great examples from recent times are Jack Butcher, James Clear, Dru Riley and Anne-Laure. They are not just creators, they are prolific!

B+ content and A+ consistency is the winning formula for email newsletters. Most of the value comes from consistency, not content. — David Perell

Stage 3: LEVERAGE

After a period (could be months or years) of repeatedly adding value and showing proof, you will start to understand leverage. Leverage is a result of expanding your surface area of luck by shipping often and staying top of mind to thousands of people. You will have a substantial amount of audience and they’ll grow organically along with your consistency. New doors will open, people will invite you on podcasts/video chats, your Twitter threads will land you job offers and overall you will be incredibly shocked at how many opportunities surround you. Building in public is the best possible way to build leverage on the Internet. People will trust you and you become a light house.

Stage 4: PERSONAL BRAND

Over time, leverage compounds into personal brand. Personal brand is the most valuable asset of our generation. In a busy noisy world, a strong personal brand allows you to scale massively and help even more people. This is where the legends operate: Garyvee, James Clear, Tom Bilyeu and more.

🐦 TOP TWEETS ON MY RADAR:

The power of cold emails:

Justin Mikolay 💻 @jmikolay

Write the note and send it. It just may work. This one did, and it was the start of Gumroad Creator Spotlights:

Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo

An email that worked. This is how it started: https://t.co/uLKeRbHfSd

KP @thisiskp_

Being a maker is 1% ideas, 99% mindset I’ve always struggled to turn ideas into products Excuses piled on: lack of coding skills, lack of leverage, lack of money etc Once I won over my limiting beliefs, I shipped 8 no-code projects 🏆 Here’s how I did it: (a thread) 🧵

Brandon Zhang @brandonthezhang

After working as an understudy @jackbutcher for a month, I have learned a lot. I have also just completed both courses. Today, I am going to reflect on some of the biggest lessons I took away from @visualizevalue's "Build Once, Sell Twice." Time for a thread 👇

Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo

Rehash: Forms of self-employment income 👇 🟢 info products: volatile, potential for extreme ROI. 🔴 product as a service: slow ramp up, potential for extreme scale. 🔵 you as a service: doesn't scale, predictable, stable, choose your own hours. Mix together for max effect!

Brandon Zhang @brandonthezhang

Mindsets that prevent us from starting: - "I don't have enough reach." - "I don't have enough experience." - "I don't have the skills." Instead, think: - Start where you are. - Use what you have. - Do what you can. You will soon gain the reach, experience, and skills.

Harry's Marketing Examples @GoodMarketingHQ

How to write a landing page title:

💰 TOP RESOURCES ON MY RADAR:

• 100 ways to get your first 100 users by Olly

• Asking your audience to upvote your product on Product Hunt is an art. It has to be authentic and genuine. Here’s how I do it.

🚀 TOP LAUNCHES I’M STOKED ABOUT:

• Musk On Mars, reserve any day in the future for $1. If Elon lands on Mars that day, you keep the pot of cash!

• Shoutout, give a permanent home to the Twitter shoutouts you get.

• Pheedback, get actionable, unbiased feedback from other makers in <15 minutes

👀 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:

• As I’ve shared last week, we are building a newer version of LetterDrop that will be mobile-friendly so that is launching on Sunday Sep 6th

• I’m learning daily about the value prop we can deliver via LetterDrop by talking to real users both on Twitter and on Zoom

• We also switched from LetterDrop daily digests to weekly. Take a sneak peek here.

• Last week, I shipped a special edition of Build In Public (the community edition) that highlighted the projects and content sourced from the community. This received a lot of encouraging feedback from people. I plan to do this every 2 weeks.

I always love sharing my playbooks openly and answering any specific questions about building in public or building an audience so feel free to DM me anytime.

That’s all for now. Hope you have a fantastic week!