The Digital Path Identity Crisis: How To Never Burnout While Working On Your Online Business — Become A Creator-Catalyst
The ultimate solution to eliminating self doubt & distractions in your digital business
Wake up, do the asks that move your business forward, get distracted by other business models, change “niches”, doubt yourself, repeat
This cannot continue → There’s a better way..
You’re stuck in the same bubble, day after day
You decide to focus on one business model because it’s lucrative
You get started with it and you make progress
Then you see a different lucrative business model and wonder..
“Should I do that instead?”
Or you see countless business models, but you can’t find one you like
All while you’re afraid to pick one you like, because what if you lose interest and then you’re stuck in a niche that does not connect with the audience you built
Sound familiar? I bet it does
What you’re experiencing is something I like to call “Digital Identity Crisis”
First you need to understand the thing holding you back, is your frame of mind
Your limiting beliefs are deciding your future for you → Erase them
Imagine for a second, you enjoy writing articles
Imagine for a second, you’re passionate about doing admin
Imagine not being stuck to a single topic or niche
Imagine not worrying about shiny object syndrome..
Because all the shiny objects are in your area of expertise
Imagine not worrying about what’s going to happen to your audience..
Because you know the majority of them will follow you everywhere
Imagine never “pivoting or burning out”, because your business is YOU
And now, I will show you how..
Step 1 — Become A Creator-Catalyst
When people think social media brand, they think “Niche or Industry”
An organization that does one specific thing, to solve one specific problem
And this organization is usually run by one specific person
What most people think, is that this person is the organization
This is what you most likely believe
They are not. They are the catalyst for it, but not the purpose of it
A creator, is just that, a creator
A catalyst, is a powerful influence on something’s creation or development
A creator-catalyst, is the fusion of the 2
Let’s look at a real life example
Elon Musk is the catalyst for Paypal and Neuralink, and X..
But the creator of SpaceX and Tesla
When some says the word “SpaceX”, people immediately think “Elon Musk”
But they are not thinking that because Elon IS SpaceX
They are thinking that because SpaceX IS Elon
He is a Creator-Catalyst
He is not stuck to a specific niche or industry..
But instead creates the solution to a problem, creates an organization around it, then moves on → Whether he claims ownership of that organization or not
Elon is the perfect example of a business philosophy I hammer on — Being Nicheless
And remember, without him, those solutions might not have existed
This is exactly why the solution he created IS HIM
Now ofcourse, not everyone has 44 billion dollars to acquire a company
But you don’t need to. You can do what Elon is doing, with nothing but an X account, a Gumroad account, a Paypal account, a Notion account, and a video call software
All of these software are free
If you like the depth of this information, this article is the introduction to one of the courses in my coaching program “Digital Philosopher University”
10 Spots are full for this month, but you can join the waitlist here
1.1 How To Become A Creator-Catalyst
Forget about your niche → Become nicheless
Instead, pick 3 broad topics that include all your interests and skills
Now under those 3 topics, pick 3–5 skills you want to learn or have already learned
Now turn those skills into 3–5 projects
A project, is a business model you’re working on, by learning it, producing results with it, then turning it into a digital product..
You can further advance this to coaching and consulting services based on the business model
For example..
Project: Web-design
Business model: Landing Page Building
Digital Product: Landing Page 101
Consulting: Landing Page Strategy Call
Coaching: Sit With Me 1 on 1 As I Teach You How To Build A Landing Page
Do this 3–5 times → At all times, have 3–5 projects you’re working on
Remember, you do not have a niche, you have a set of skills that can be turned into projects
If you don’t have skills, then develop them using online courses, YouTube videos, and coaching
Now you have 3–5 projects you’re working on, meaning you will never feel like you need to change “niches”
Because you no longer have a niche, you have topics, skills, and projects
“But Ian, what do I post on X?”
3 posts a day
- 1 personal take
- 1 opinion or insight
- 1 project based tip
As for comments..
Make them laugh or teach them something valuable related to their post
Do this 10–30 times a day → guaranteed 5–30+ new followers a week
Congratulations, you now have 3–5 services, 3–5 digital product ideas, and a content strategy that is guaranteed to work (some posts will flop, this is part of the process)
If you’re interested in building a 90% automated creator business using this method, you can checkout my article called “The Nicheless Creator” here
Step 2 — Welcome Transformation
Over time, your topics will evolve, and as a result your projects, skills, content, and services will change → Don’t panic, this is supposed to happen
Your mind is transformative
The more we learn and experience, the more we change
No single human being stays the same their entire life
And for an entrepreneur learning new skills is normal
As time goes on, you will gain new perspectives and skills
New perspectives turn into your passions changing
That’s okay, now your projects can change or expand as you see fit
As a result, you will never feel stuck to one place again
Self-doubt happens, because you want to stick yourself to one industry, topic, or niche
As a human being, there’s nothing natural about this
It’s better identify where you want to be in 5 years from now, and based on that, decide your 3 topics
And the 3 topics decide everything else, as previously discussed
Step 3 — Advance Or Learn The 2 Most Valuable Skills
Product Development
To sell something, you need something to sell
Assuming you’re not going the affiliate marketing route, you need to know how to develop a digital product that makes sales, WITHOUT an audience
Because not everyone has 30,000 followers on social media, and even if they do, it doesn’t mean those 30,000 followers are trained buyers
Instead what you need to learn, is how to borrow or exploit the traffic system
I teach you a full masterclass on digital product development, and how to make sales (I made $2000 doing this), without an audience here
3 things you can sell → Affiliate products, Digital Products, and High Ticket Services
I go into detail on selling each in my article “The 3 Digital Career Paths That Can Replace Your 9–5 In 3–18 Months” here
Direct DM Sales
To sell services and digital products, you need to know how to sell
Instead of giving you a DM script, I will give you a framework
It works, and it’s not going to get saturated because a bunch of people used it
Instead of using crappy methods, my framework is based on human psychology (I closed $1200 clients and built a 263,000 follower network using it), get it here
Step 4 — Decide If You Want To Scale
If you’re offering a service, eventually you’ll want to hire a team, get appointment setters, get closers, and turn your little project into a fully fledged agency
But should you do that? If you’re having no trouble getting clients and hitting your revenue goals, why would you want to scale?
Scaling means increasing your workload and making more money, but at the cost of your own sanity..
Of course, there are streamlining methods you can use to reduce problems, but every agency owner I talked to says the same thing..
“I’m so busy putting out fires all the time, that I barely have enough free time to enjoy the money I make”
Following this business model, means not worrying about that
I know guys with 2 employees making over $100,000/mo using this business model
Yes, it took them years to get there, but they didn’t have this article
When it comes down to it, scaling is all about your personality
These are instructions: Answer the following 3 questions truthfully
- Do I have enough money to live a fulfilling life?
- How attached am I to money?
- How good am I at handling high stress environments?
If your answers were:
- Yes
- Not much
- I’m bad
Then you don’t need to scale
If your answers were:
- Yes
- Very
- Good
Then scaling is not such a bad idea
In the end, if you have enough money to do whatever you want, then there is no reason to scale
I release in depth educational articles on business, personal development, and writing like this one every week -> Read the original article here
