“I want to build a $1M/yr creator business,” you say.

“Productize yourself,” everyone responds.

“But how?” you wonder.

“I’m a complete beginner, why would anyone listen to me — let alone give me lots of $$$?!?!”

Listen… I too, was once like you, my friend.

Ambitious and full of potential, but unsure what my next move was.

But fear not - because today I’ll be revealing the STAR Blueprint to go from: “Just heard about this digital creator thing” to “Profitable creator business”.

Sound like fun?

Sweet. Let’s get to it…

I talk to a lot of creatives online, and the one thing they all have in common is the inability to switch from “creator” to “entrepreneur”.

They’ve got a sizeable audience. They want to ride the wave of momentum to create their first offer. But they either lack the clarity on how to do it — or they've tried to launch an offer and nobody bought from them.

If that sounds like you, you’re not alone.

And it’s not your fault.

Many “gurus” preach that it’s as simple as building an audience.

But what they forget to tell you is this:

Building an audience and building a business are two different skills.

And to be completely honest…

I fell into that same trap.

“I just need a bigger audience.”

“I just need more distribution.”

“I just need a better network.”

But the real reason why you struggle to become a well-paid creator isn’t your lack of distribution — it’s because you’ve gone about building a creator business the “wrong” way.

(I say “wrong” because in reality there is no wrong way. This is simply the way that worked the best for me.)

The Two Pitfalls

Pitfall #1: Trying to build trust without skill

When I first started writing online, I would curate other people’s advice.

• 7 lessons from X
• 10 ideas from Y
• 5 threads on Z

And it was great to gain early traction and learn how social media works.

But if all you do is curate other people’s ideas — then your audience will follow you for other people’s ideas.

The harsh truth is this:

Audience-building ≠ skill-building.

So what’s the solution?

Practice your skill.

Shocker, huh?

It sounds obvious, but people vastly underestimate how good you can get if you commit to working at your craft for 90 days straight.

Because here’s another obvious insight:

Great writers write more than just tweets and threads.

Great writers practice writing deep dives, short stories, poems, and everything in between.

It’s not one or the other… it’s both.

Build your audience AND hone your skills.

As my friend Kieran says, “The fastest way to get paid is to get good.”

(Learn how to learn effectively with the DRIIP Method)

Pitfall #2: Trying to build income without trust

The second pitfall I see creators make is trying to “productize” themselves before they’ve proven their system.

You can’t “productize” yourself if you have nothing to turn into a product.

The best products aren’t built over one weekend…

They’re proven systems tested with many people and much time that then get turned into products.

Here’s the simple roadmap:

1. Talk with your audience

2. Identify a common problem

3. Build your system

4. TEST YOUR SYSTEM

5. Turn it into a product

(Learn how to launch your first offer with the P2P Business Model)

So how can you avoid these two pitfalls to become a well-paid creator?

Follow “The STAR Blueprint”

S- Skill

Step one: Build a marketable skill

What’s a marketable skill?

Well, truthfully it can be anything.

But I’d start with these four skills:

1) Marketing
2) Sales
3) Writing
4) Design

Notice a common theme?

Yep, they’re all communication skills.

Why? Because learning a communications-based skill forces you to learn human behavior and psychology.

The better you understand how we humans make decisions — the better you’ll be able to do step two…

T- Trust

Step two: Build trust with your audience

Where does trust come from?

Trust comes from the 3 C’s: consistency, compassion, and competence.

Consistency: do you show up with compassion and share value through your content every day? Or do you post inconsistently, switch niches often, and hop trends?

Compassion: can your audience feel that you care about their well-being? Or do you just try to sell them stuff and exploit them?

Competence: are you good at what you do? Why should your audience listen to you?

Most people skip trust and immediately try to sell to the small audience they have.

As Alex Hormozi said, “Goodwill compounds faster than revenue.”

But let’s zoom out…

The fact that you’re reading this newsletter means that you’re ahead.

99% of the world doesn’t understand the power of content.

Content allows you to build trust that would normally take hours of 1:1 time.

Leverage content to build trust on a massive scale.

A - Assets

Step 3: Build assets

We all know the power of assets.

We’ve heard Robert Kiyosaki say, “Buy assets, not liabilities.”

But the assets I’m talking about aren’t the ones you buy — they’re the ones you build.

Yes, I’m talking about digital assets.

Digital assets allow you to disconnect your time from your income.

If you wanted to build a physical clothing brand…

You’d have to:

• Worry about inventory
• Stress over shipping
• Maybe even manually pack orders 🤢 

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound very fun.

Instead, digital assets allow you to create something once and sell it infinitely many times.

Record a video course once → Sell it 1,000 times

Write a blog post once → 1,000 people read it

Write and record your way to a portfolio of digital assets.

R - Revenue

Step 4: Build your revenue streams

Okay, so now you have a valuable skill, an audience that trusts you, and a portfolio of assets… what next?

Next, you take this bad boy to the next level.

• You create better systems
• Outsource and automate
• Build product ecosystems

I won’t get into the weeds on this point — because chances are you aren’t super close to this step.

But don’t worry, I’ll deconstruct this step to a tee in the coming letters.

Invisible Compounding

Most people chase revenue before they build valuable skills, grow trust with their audience, and build digital assets.

And that’s predictable.

Because revenue is easy to track.

But there are things that compound even faster than money.

Can you guess what those things are?

I’ll give you a hint: we just talked about them.

Yep, skill, trust, and assets compound in an invisible way that most people can’t see.

Until they can’t NOT see it.

If you’re stressed that you’re not achieving “digital freedom” and not building the business of your dreams…

Zoom out.

Realize that this is a long game.

As cliché as it may sound, the process of improving yourself and going through the STAR Blueprint is the reward.

I wasn’t going to add this, but there’s actually another letter to the STAR Blueprint…

It’s S.

Savor.

As in, savor the journey.

Because being a well-paid creator is cool… but doing what you love every day (reading, writing, thinking, & building) is even cooler than having a few more dollars than your neighbor.

(Assuming you love those things, again this biz model isn’t for everyone…)

But enough of my rambling…

One final message:

Skills. Trust. Assets. Revenue.

Jay “Follow the STAR” Yang

JAY'S PICKS: 🔥

• I’ve been loving Jason Levin’s content marketing blog Cyber Patterns. He talks about content, digital apprenticeship, and the future of the creator economy.

• Secret link 1

• Secret link 2

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