We live not in an age of change, but in a change of age.
It’s no secret to anyone that life in the modern world poses a painfully unique set of challenges. Yet paradoxically, the same elements of modernity that most threaten to oppress you also provide the means by which to liberate yourself from their tyranny.
Let me explain.
Since the arrival of my daughter a few weeks ago — and thanks to my co-author James holding down the fort with articles and interviews in my absence — I’ve had the chance to reflect on the trajectory of my career up to this point. In many ways, I find myself living the dream of my childhood: I work from home, write for a living, and get to share lessons from literature, history, and Scripture with a score of thoughtful and enthusiastic readers.
None of this would be possible, however, if I hadn’t actively sought to break out of the so-called “the matrix”, i.e. the traditional path to material success in modern-day America, or as Seneca would call it, “the preoccupied life.” While there are many ways to do this, one avenue in particular helped me more than any other — social media.
For all the havoc that social media has undoubtedly wreaked on society at large, it has also provided the opportunity for many creators (like myself) to earn a living online, move wherever they like, and, if they choose to do so, homeschool their children. For those who are intentional about raising their kids outside of society’s normal constraints, therefore, the online world presents an opportunity unlike any other.
That’s why today, I want to share the top ten things I’ve learned on my journey to earning money online and winning back freedom for my family. Although my personal experience entails doing this via social media, what follows isn’t a playbook on how to grow your account. Rather, it is a guide to the principles I’ve learned to adhere to throughout the journey — my hope is that it proves useful to you regardless of how you choose to go about “escaping the matrix”…
1) Know that No One is Coming to Save You
This is the crucial first step of the journey, but it’s one that’s not immediately obvious to all. I indeed struggled with this a bit myself, thinking that as long as I put in the hard work, one day my effort would be recognized and rewarded by someone who could help me take things to the next level.
Alas, this is almost never the case in reality. I’ve seen tons of guys, especially those in the non-profit or educational sectors, unknowingly hold themselves back because they don’t accept this hard truth early on.
The fact is, no one is coming to save you. Don’t hold out hope for a patron, a mega-donor, or anything else. Understand that if you are to do this, it has to be — indeed, only can be — done through your effort alone.
2) Free Yourself from the Office Job
After coming to terms with Point #1, freeing yourself from an office job becomes your top priority. Doing so is critical for winning back time and building on your own terms.
For most people, this might begin by leveraging work-from-home. You can renegotiate a work contract to become a private contractor instead of an employee, and then gradually reduce the hours spent on “official work” while increasing those spent on what you’re building.
A word of caution, though — don’t quit your job too early. Speaking from experience, there is much value to be had in getting up early and building the foundation of your new project outside of work hours, while saving up financial runway for when you finally quit.
It’s a fine balance: if you quit too early and don’t have the cash runway you need (and you’ll need more of it than you think), things can come crashing down terribly. But if you don’t go all-in at some point, you’ll never hit the critical threshold you need to really take off.
3) Start Creating Online
Of course, content creation is not the only way to achieve independence. Real estate investments, flipping houses, etc. are other common ways people break away from the 9-to-5.
But for most, building a profile on social media is the best way to begin. My framing here is intentional: don’t start by building a business online, but a social profile. At the end of the day, all business comes down to how many customers you have — if you have none, your million-dollar idea is worth nothing.
This is why you must begin the opposite way around: build the audience, then the business.
The best way to build your audience, by the way, is not to simply share info that others find interesting, but to help them. How does what you’re sharing about actually help the people you’re talking to?
To be clear, this doesn’t mean you can only discuss self-improvement topics. I’ve helped creators who discuss everything from linguistics to medieval liturgy figure out how to tie their content back to the reader. Doing so is simply a question of creativity.
4) Connect with Other Creators
I’ll let you in on a secret: as valuable as your online audience might be, it’s nowhere as valuable as the relationships you build with other creators.
These relationships will fuel both your professional (see Point #5 below) and personal success. Getting to know other like-minded oddities — because let’s face it, you’re a statistical outlier if you’re creating content online — is what helps you break further out of the matrix. They are the ones who will open your eyes to new life paths, business ideas, and ways of raising your family that fall far outside the bounds of the status quo.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your audience is the most valuable aspect of what you’re building. It is valuable indeed, but nothing compared to the relationships you make with other creators.
5) Build Businesses with Others
In my experience, building partnerships is the fastest way to succeed at earning a living online. At first, this might feel counter-intuitive: how does building something with another human and having to split 50% of your profits benefit you more financially?
The secret lies in this: accountability to others is one hell of a drug. I am speaking from experience here — before partnering to create the Culturist, for example, I often found excuses to miss writing my weekly email. Since partnering up, however, I’ve never missed one email in over a year and a half.
Partnerships are especially valuable when you work from home and set your own schedule, as it is impossible to overestimate the value of social pressure in ensuring you do what you say you’re going to do on time. For me, at least, proper success came once I stopped trying to go it alone: Imperium Coffee, INVICTUS, the Culturist, the Ascent, and my summer retreats are all examples of partnerships that paid off — and ones I never would have managed half as well by myself.
But how do you determine who to partner with, and on what?
This is actually easier said than done, and it all comes down to one thing…
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