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The One-Person Business Model (How To Productize Yourself) | Dan Koe | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The One-Person Business Model (How To Productize Yourself)
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Summary
Core Theme
The core theme is advocating for a "work less, earn more, enjoy life" philosophy through the development of a sustainable one-person business model that leverages individual skills, interests, and self-reliance, rather than traditional employment or unsustainable "hustle culture."
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work less earn more enjoy life that's my
motto that's my value proposition if you
were to go to my website and success is
counterintuitive and that motto has
brought me the most growth in my life by
living by that motto because working
less and forcing myself to try to work
less and build Solutions so that I can
work less rather than just be like oh
you can't work two to four hours a day
you can only work eight hours a day it's
like no I can work as much as I [ __ ]
want to if I build the systems that
allow me to do that and it's just
obvious working less leads to higher
quality rest or more rest which leads to
higher quality work and so myself and
others that are on this whole four hour
work day kick are usually producing
better work than most of the people that
are working 12 to 16 hours a day just
being the hustle and grind entrepreneur
that is a bit too promoted on social
media so it's worth less but earn more
earning more is subjective it's up to
the individual right I would say that
most people want to earn more but they
want to do it doing what they enjoy so
that's another thing that I live by
another rule where I have to build I
have to create a way for myself to do
that and not just expect it to fall into
my lap so earning more is subjective but
over time I truly do believe that anyone
that has the dedication or at least the
will or want and consistency to do what
they enjoy for the rest of their life
and make a good income doing it they can
do that why wouldn't they be able to and
then the last part of the motto is enjoy
life and that is usually a byproduct of
both of working less resting more
earning more and just having the time
and location freedom to be able to do
what you choose to do with your life
that's what I'm all about and it's so
weird when I see people in the comments
or other things like challenging this
notion it's like dude like do you just
believe that you have no [ __ ] control
over your life like yeah you're not
gonna have it right now it takes some
time I could go on about this all day
but like dude like just believe in
yourself as simple as that sounds just like
like
work towards a better future for
yourself but the thing is I also fell
into the Trap of wanting to live the
life of other people beachfront views
and the sand in my toes and a tan like
David Hasselhoff and sipping Coconuts on
the Beach while working from my laptop
and that was until I experienced that
life I'm not here to kind of [ __ ] on the
digital Nomad culture I think it's great
I really do think it's great but like
who wants to do that it kind it gets old
very quick where you're trying to work
on the beach and you can't even see your
screen because the glare from the sun
and it gets too hot and you have to
reapply sunscreen and you're like I'm
[ __ ] thirsty I'd rather just be
inside working and so I don't know that
kind of stuff it's like yeah you have to
go through trial and error to understand
what you want you have to figure out
what you don't want in order to figure
out what you want but you have to
understand that the the glamor and the
different Lifestyles that people promote
it's for it's dopamine right you're
you're seeing something that you want
and then one once you achieve it if you
don't appreciate it and make it a part
of your life then that is going to fade
very quickly the Wi-Fi connection in
those areas gets old the partying and
the language barrier and doing the
things that you see on social media as a
highlight reel they really do get old
and so the purpose of this video I want
to talk about moderation and
sustainability because we just talked
about how some of those things or at
least the Glamorous things are not truly
sustainable so I want to present a
business model that allows you to create
your ideal lifestyle through practice
experimentation and iteration it's a way
to make a creative income source with
your skills interests and expertise but
it's not limited to people that already
have those things business in the modern
day with social media and the internet
and it being so accessible and low
startup costs you don't have to pay
money to post something online and ask
for money in exchange for a valuable
service like a freelance service or
Consulting service or even just a
coaching caller something that is very
beginner level that you can then build
up and increase from there as you gain
experience and so it's kind of A New
Path it's a new business model because
of all the technological advancements
but the thing is is that people still
consider it taboo because they aren't in
the game it hasn't been around for that
long but it's here to stay you're going
if you decide to pursue this way of like
social media and digital products and
Digital Services and all these things
that are growing and growing over time
there's some statistic about the
education industry increasing by XYZ and
you understand that I am an educator
whether I like to label myself as that
or not uh every single person on YouTube
that is a value Creator rather than an
entertainment Creator is an educator
they are teachers this is a new method
of Education that college and formal
institutions cannot keep up with because
because their curriculum cannot be
updated to match
something that isn't going to put them
into a job because the school system and
just corporate government stuff is all
tied together they're training into one
another and so the internet it threatens
that because it gives the individual the
power to make a creative income on their
own and so the education around that
from individuals on social media and
course platforms and other things you
know where they are the school system
just can't keep up with that so that's
the main thing is it is completely in
your hands and if you do not like that
if you do not value self-reliance or
personal responsibility or just taking
control of your own life then this isn't
for you yet until you come to the
realization that if you want true
happiness those are going to have to
become values of yours so if you're
watching this or listening to this I'm
assuming that you're between 18 and 35
years old that's what it shows on my
analytics I have your age I have your
demographics I'm going to steal them all
and sell it to private third-party
software I'm just kidding I don't do
anything with it aside from look at this
but 18 to 35 years old
and some outliers I see you if you're
like 40 50 you're trying to get into
this space when you're older that's
[ __ ] awesome props to you but 18 to
35. now the problem is that most people
don't see those 18 to 35 years as past
experience that they can leverage to
help other people you haven't
self-reflected enough to see your own
value and the problems you've overcome
and that you are genuinely equipped with
information that can help other people
that you can educate them on and just
help them so the first thing is that you
don't think you have enough experience
the second thing is that you think
you're too boring you think your life's
too boring when this is the cause of
social media and what we were talking
about earlier with the Glamorous
Lifestyles you don't need a glamorous
lifestyle to do this stuff you need to
be interested enough to make your
interest interesting to other people I
always recommend starting with writing
like Twitter newsletter blog even
YouTube I'm reading
my newsletter from this but that's the
thing you don't need to even put your
face on the account you don't have to do
any of that stop letting the limiting
beliefs what I'm saying is the very
thing first thing I said at the start of
this video is that if you want to
accomplish something then you need to
build a solution in order to accomplish
it if you want to start a business
without having to show your body then
build a [ __ ] business without having
to show your body like it's that simple
stop convincing yourself otherwise that
you can't do something because you're
not doing it like everyone else and from
my experience the highest paid
individuals aren't the ones with the
looks and glamor those people are
banking on sponsorships and other things
and they're not making very much money I
know that the the people that make the
most money are the generalists they
aren't one-dimensional they're
multi-dimensional because they're the
generalists that hire the Specialists
everyone tells you to become a
specialist when that's the worst thing
you can do why because Specialists mean
that you do x y z you go ABC you do a
specific thing you do a specific thing
and that is just
primed for automation it's being
automated out left and right right you
are not a robot you are not I performed
this specific task with this specific
skill because that's where that's where
you get automated right that you're able
to be trained into that you need to be a
generalist and be able to move artfully
and gracefully within a specific domain
of interest that you have so I guess
general rule of thumb is that if you
work like a robot then you are a robot
and you will be outsourced to robots and
your job will be replaced a human being
should be able to change a diaper plan
an invasion butcher a hog con a ship
design a building write a sonnet balance
accounts build a wall set a bone Comfort
the dying take orders give orders
cooperate act alone solve equations
analyze a new problem pitch manure
program a computer cook a tasty meal
fight efficiently die gallantly
specialization is for insects that is a
quote from Robert a Heinlein so even
more of a problem than not seeing your
own personal experience as valuable is
ineffective communication because that's
all people on social media are doing is
just effective and persuasive
communication to make their own
interests valuable and interesting or at
least perceived as valuable and
interesting to other people that is the
skill that you have to master is writing
effective communication and also
Effective Thinking because writing is
how you clarify your thoughts the one
person business model has always
appealed to me over having employees
a simple website as a storefront a
digital product stack with high profit
margins for our work days and potential
one million dollar years control over
what you work on and who you work with
hard to beat the one person business in
my eyes is for those that value
self-reliance time freedom and location
Freedom sovereignty autonomy just being
able to do what you want and having
enough money to do so while impacting
the world and having a purpose behind
your life so one person businesses they
use social media for building an
audience building a community and
attracting people of like Minds right so
they have so they have leverage for the
future by building an audience because
you see a freelancer and they just send
cold DMS all day well it's like I build
an audience and I can like sell
different offers whenever I want as long
as they're helpful to my audience and
they want to purchase them willingly and
so they use social media as traffic and
then in order to host their products or
their content or even their newsletter
we use no code tools right which is just
software so a website builder maybe a
social media scheduler things like that
where those do specialize tasks
that other people got replaced from
doing like social media managers as a
whole are going to be outsourced to just
software that can
do those repetitive tasks at a much much
much cheaper price and so that is
opening up room for individuals for
solopreneurs for one person businesses
to have every aspect of their business
managed without them having to do
anything aside from oversee the software
and add their mind or their creative
ability to those softwares together in
order to create a successful business
and so another important aspect of the
one-person business is lifestyle design
because if you work for someone else you
have a manager they manage you but when
you work for yourself you can sleep in
until 1 pm but are you going to get your
work done if you can get your work done
how are you going to systemize that how
are you going to structure your days for
both maximum productivity and maximum
creativity how are you going to design
the life that you want to live through
trial error experimentation and just
self-reflection and understanding the
problems that are blocking your quality
of life so you have to understand as
well that there is no such situation in
a one-person business because if it is a
one-person business it means it evolves
with you I used to sell digital products
and I no longer sell them because I
evolved I changed I pivoted a bit and I
changed what I offer I started a
different business whatever it may be
but that's the thing is I desaturated
that market because I can only take on
so much right this is the one person
business model is everyone taking their
piece of the pie by doing what they
truly enjoy and if everyone did that you
would have to understand that every
single interest every single person is
going to study different interests
they're going to explore the the crevice
of reality that they are the most
curious about and distill their
learnings to the people that want to
learn about those things and so if every
if every single person was authentic and
honest with what they wanted to pursue
and their ability to monetize that so
let's say I want to start carving out
like Woodworking and selling cutting
boards right and so I study woodworking
I study uh like design kitchenware
design or something like that right you
can see that
like your interests are not the only one
that exists because that's the Trap that
a lot of us fall into as well like well
everyone's doing self-improvement
everyone's studying self-improvement
everyone's a programmer it's like no
dude it's because you're interested in
those things and you're following the
five to seven hundred people that talk
about those things only so that's all
that's in your brain you haven't broken
out of that bubble or and that's fine
because you're supposed to be exploring
that and you're supposed to be creating
your own unique perspective to
further understanding in those areas to
educate people in a better way than
schools can do so there are two paths to
starting a one-person business with zero
experience and first I want you to stop
thinking of business as some like
billion dollar company or something like
that business is what you do business is
your life's work business is the vessel
to create your ideal lifestyle while
impacting The World At Large so money is
a modern byproduct of living with
purpose and passing down your teachings
it's self-actualization and
self-transcendence it is a vessel for
that I like to think of it there's like
mindfulness techniques and spirituality
there's Zen techniques for achieving
this actualization or Enlightenment for
me because you're not supposed to become
ideological or dogmatic about one method
to achieving one specific outcome that's
not how it works business business to me
is that method of doing it it's a way of
exposing myself to the world practicing
mindfulness clarifying my thoughts with
writing and putting out a meaningful
message and now we're going to bring up
the experience thing or imposter
syndrome here again I just want to make
it very clear that if you could go to
your friend right now and you could
teach him about something that you are
studying on social media or in school or
whatever it may be you're more than
experienced you're already doing this
[ __ ] you just need to do it in public so
the first path is skill base this is the
one that most people take where the
common advice is learn a skill sell a
skill teach a skill or however within
that many however you would organize
those from one to three and this is
great but as I said you don't want to
end up one-dimensional you don't want to
sell only one skill so that way you're
automated it's a great starting point
but you have to be working to get past
that or else you're just going to be
that freelancer that's making the same
income built themselves into a new nine
to five consistently on the verge of
losing every single client than just not
having a backup or some form of Leverage
built like an audience to to Pivot and
do whatever they want and are able to
pursue their genuine Curiosities that
are going to change and evolve over time
so path two the one that I like is
development based so the development
base is based around the four Eternal
markets the Eternal markets are where
most people are trying to achieve lofty
goals but there are many problems in the
way of those goals then that's where the
most money is made those are the
profitable burning problems that people
have the four Eternal markets are health
wealth relationships and happiness so
path one by choosing a marketable skill
usually only pays attention to wealth
but with path two
it's just built for the business of you
the one person business because he quite
literally pursue your own goals which is
your brand which we'll talk about you
solve your own problems as you are
pursuing those goals by uh researching
your Curiosities that allow you to
achieve those goals faster which is the
content the information and the value
that you're passing down and you create
a system to help others do the same so
you self-reflect and you look back how
would I have done this better how can I
how did I do this and what results did I
have now how can I help other people
step by step in a faster way get to
those results so you're advancing human
evolution you're helping people evolve
and trans or actualize and transcend
much faster and that's why I said
business to me is this vessel for
self-actualization and even spirituality
and self-transcendence and so that
system that step-by-step system is your
offer or your product and so that is how
you be yourself improve yourself and
profit off of yourself you may be
wondering like but but Dan I'm I'm just
starting out and it's like you don't
have to write posts or create a product
where it's like how to make a million
dollars in three days you don't have to
do that you have to pay attention to
where you are now where you're going and
how you're going to get there right so
where you are now you may have made zero
dollars and so how do you position your
content or your product how do you
position or what perspective are you
giving about yourself so how do people
perceive you right you can you don't
write a post on how to make a million
dollars in three days you're right
here's how I'm going to make a million
dollars in five years
yeah I mean it you know and then you
give out your plan and then people
follow along because you are a leader
then and people follow leaders you are
positioning yourself as a leader you're
helping people achieve the goals that
you are trying to achieve and you're
kind of leaving breadcrumbs along the
way and then path three is both both
skill and development based and this is
kind of a given because when you start
and you haven't learned any skills yet
this is how you learn fast if you're
going to start on social media as your
way of generating traffic then you're
going to have to learn how to design a
good profile picture how to design a
good Banner how to write a compelling
compelling bio you're gonna have to
learn how to write social media posts so
you could become a Twitter ghost writer
you could become an Instagram post
Creator how whatever you call that you
could become a video editor you could be
you could design uh banners for people
you're building skills as you grow your
business and that means you can help
other people grow their business and
offer a freelancer service so you can
start monetizing pretty close to from
the start and you're doing it in such a
way that you're you're actually getting
results for yourself if you get results
for yourself in a real world setting
rather than just building out portfolio
pieces and never getting paid what you
deserve because you don't know how to
apply your skills to someone's actual
business then you practice your skills
on your own business you build your own
website you build your own landing page
maybe you build a landing page from a
for an affiliate product to see how good
you are at copywriting because then you
don't even have to create the product
you just build an affiliate product
build your own landing page see how good
you are at that and then you can offer
selling landing pages for one to two
thousand dollars to other creators you
see what I'm saying here all you have to
do is just [ __ ] start so now let's go
over the four pillars of the one-person
business so for those that want to do
what they want and help the people that
they can help the most traditional
branding marketing content and offer
advice is not going to fit very well
because in the case of this one-person
business that I'm talking about in the
next video we'll go over what a value
Creator is it's a style of one person
business and I'm breaking these down
because it takes more than just one
video to do but in this case the
experience model that I'm talking about
you are your customer Avatar you are
your brand you are your Niche you are
your content you are your offer you are
everything and self-awareness and
self-reliance is going to be the
greatest skill that you have and those
are the people that thrive the most in
this one-person business model is those
that take responsibility for their
future and help others get to where
they're going so to break down the
one-person business very quickly your
goals are your brand so what do you want
out of life and what are you leading
people towards now the problems that are
standing in the way of your goals turn
into the content so what roadblocks will
your followers encounter and how are you
going to help them overcome it and now
there's a lot more that goes into
content than that but that's a great
starting point right and so systems are
how you solve the problem turns into a
product so how can they solve their
problems faster because that's what
people want and now the benefits how has
this entire Journey impacted your life
that turns into your marketing so why
should they care about your message
right why do I write every day and how
can I turn that into a persuasive
argument anyone who studied marketing
understands that benefits Rich language
is extremely powerful and persuasive so
if I wake up and I write not only to
earn an income think much more clearly
systemize all of my other content I
could go on day like all day long but
you can go and look at those benefits
and how exactly I'm doing this on any of
my landing pages so what you do as I
mentioned in a previous video on how to
solve your own problems or how to find
Purpose By solving your own problems is
that that's exactly what you do you
pursue a goal you solve your own
problems you teach others how you did it
and that's your business right and then
when it comes to building out a product
or a service that you can sell in
relation to that then it just works out
and this is of course oversimplified
there's many many nuances here but if
you take these foundational principles
and apply them then figure out and test
and experiment and do exactly what I'm
telling you to do by figuring it out for
yourself so you actually have unique and
genuine knowledge on how to do it it's
going to take time but that time is
going to pay back tenfold aside from you
hiring someone to build your brand for
you because then you're just
relinquishing all potential leverage and
just power all right so branding is is
fairly understandable that's where you
work towards a goal and that is your
brand message that's what you're helping
people do if your goal is to make a
million dollars then your mission or
your message that you can start with and
iterate from
is helping a thousand people
make a million dollars by 2025 right who
wouldn't want to follow that so the next
pillar content is where people have the
most problems it's like Dan what do I
write about so let me introduce you to a
topic that I talk about in digital
economics called the domain of Mastery
so what you do is you pick three
interests one that makes money which is
almost any of them that's just your
priority interest interest two excites
you and interest three is development
based so like psychology
self-improvement self-development
metaphysics philosophy something that
helps you understand just the
progression pattern of every single
thing anyone could ever do so you can
have a unique perspective on those
things by applying spirituality
principles philosophy psychology that
kind of stuff and then when you look at
this graph you can break them down into
the principles so what are the
fundamentals or the principles of each
interest in getting results with those
in relation to your goal and then from
that you can break them down into other
topics you can break them down into
mentors for inspiration so the people
that you follow
and get your advice from and then the
connections so the connections between
all of them and real world problems and
those are all the starting places that
you can
start writing or creating content around
in a way that is very effective and
educational and valuable so pillar
number three is the offer or the product
that you're creating and no you don't
have to wait to start monetizing I hate
that stupid gatekeeper mindset where
people are like oh you need to be this
experience to start making an income or
you need to start doing this to start
making an income it's like no dude like
you don't you don't [ __ ] understand
you're just gatekeeping and you're
trying to like you're not thinking like
think a bit deeper right how do
Freelancers start making money they
learn the found fundamentals of a skill
very very quickly they start reaching
out to people immediately so they can go
get real world free
real world feedback next they either
charge free or very low cost because
their skill isn't up to par to charge
two to five thousand dollars and then
they gradually work their way up step by
step and the sooner you start selling
something not only the sooner you can
make money but the sooner you can start
failing and you can start iterating the
first product is always going to be [ __ ]
you just need to get it out you need to
get the [ __ ] out so that you can make it
better because you're never ever ever
gonna have a great product the first
time around it's just not gonna [ __ ]
happen put an offer out there build a
digital product sell a physical product
the drop ship if you have to start a
freelance service start a Consulting
service whatever it may be put out
content and just start getting the [ __ ]
out of the faucet so clear water can
flow so it's like okay Dan but what do I
sell so let me introduce to you what I
call the minimum viable offer there's
minimum viable product but an offer is
like all encompassing so the minimum
viable offer is I either a single a
single freelance skill that you sell for
five five hundred to one thousand
dollars so that's web design email
marketing something like that where a
single skill you're not it's not a crazy
offer you're never going to be able to
charge five thousand dollars for that
but you have to start somewhere or
number two is a single
interest Consulting service where you
sell a pack of four calls for five
hundred to one thousand dollars so this
is what most people do and most people
get like get caught up in this it's like
there's some kind of stupid stigma
around freelancing where it's like yeah
I have to do the work I can't just teach
people about it and it's like as a
Creator me I hate paying for work I'd
rather pay you to get on a call with me
and consult me on how to do a specific
thing whether it's a skill or not if
it's health I want to be taught if
you're starting an education business
like this then don't do a freelance done
for you service just offer Consulting
calls or a digital product so Health
coaching Fitness coaching performance
coaching mindset coaching life coaching
business coaching of whatever domain or
Niche you're in those are very broad you
can go a bit more deep into the sub
markets within those like bodybuilding
coaching or uh Nero
neural hacking
Consulting right it's what you're
interested in and you can only find what
it is that you want to teach by diving
into your domain of Mastery or the
crevice of reality that composes the
interest you want to explore in this
life but it's not like Consulting isn't
only limited to those I'm really
surprised that like digital tutoring
offers aren't more of a thing if I learn
web design and I want to teach a Creator
over four calls how to design a great
website for themselves I think that's a
great [ __ ] offer and if I was
starting out I would pay for that it's
the same thing I'll get on calls for
four weeks with you and teach you how to
write compelling emails I'll teach you
how to run Facebook ads it's a
Consulting offer and I think those are
much better
much more scalable than a freelance
offer and so the thing why we start with
a minimum viable offer is that you can
start monetizing immediately you can
start reaching out to people in the DMS
you can write a Twitter thread or a post
and have others retweet it and then plug
your service so you're getting a
thousand to
if it goes viral a million views on your offer
offer
and you start making money because it's
traffic and it's offers and so the other
thing is why you start with this is
because then you can start fleshing out
a digital product and already have
results for it you can teach other
people you can get them results and you
can note the commonalities between like
what you're talking about on each call
and you package it up into a course
ebook a cohort something of that nature
that you can then switch to and so you
can stop taking on so much client work
as your audience grows and you can
switch to a digital product and have
more free time and so that was just a
broad overview of all of this one-person
business stuff I'll go a bit more in
depth in the next video but I want to
get more people primed uh to this whole
idea because I feel like it's it's not
ground shaking or revolutionary by any
means but it is very important so with
all of that like the video subscribe for
the next one and if you haven't already
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I believe when this video goes out it
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people that actually view this video
will be able to get at it when it's live
but later on you can apply uh to the
wait list and you can also check out
other stuff down there like the two hour
writer course or modern Mastery which is
my community and other free creative
challenges a power planner all of that
fun stuff so thank you for watching or
listening and I'll see you in the next
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