作者：Dan Koe（@thedankoe）
译文说明： 本文根据用户提供的英文文本翻译，保留作者的观点、数据表述、推广内容和提示词。文中的预测、收益估算与产品能力描述均为原作者的说法，未作独立核实。原文提及的链接、视频及配套文档未包含在所提供的文本中，译文未补造链接。
最赚钱的技能，一直都是吸引注意力。
原因很简单。
如果你的目标是赚更多钱，那么，无论你开发的软件有多好，无论你为了写一本书花了 3 年、推翻了多少稿，也无论你多么努力工作、提升自己以争取更多职业机会，都不重要。
如果没人知道你是谁、你能提供什么，他们到底要怎么付钱给你？
这意味着，无论你从事什么工作，或者创办什么企业，吸引注意力和获取客户，都会是决定你能否成功的首要因素。
这既适用于你自己的生意，也适用于别人的生意。
而且，别人愿意花大价钱，请你替他们做好这件事。
随着工作的稳定性下降，人们面前有 3 个选择：
- 抱怨生活不公平，然后什么也不做。
- 提升技能、重新学习，寻找更好的工作机会。
- 开始做自己一直想做的生意。
会有多得惊人的人选择第三条路。
你大概也猜到了，正如社交媒体上所有人都在大声宣扬的那样，他们会通过打造个人品牌，来开启这门生意。
为什么？
因为注意力是一种有限的资源，而且只会越来越稀缺。人可以赚到更多钱，却永远无法收回已经花出去的注意力。
在这封信里，我会教你如何掌握在社交媒体上吸引注意力的能力。这样一来，至少在未来几年，你都不会为赚钱发愁。
利用这些知识，你可以创办自己的生意，用社交媒体为它带来增长；也可以成为其他公司的“一人创意团队”，让它们为你的技能组合支付高额报酬。
推广：“第二次文艺复兴”工作坊
我将与 Hussain Ibarra 合作——他的 Substack 订阅人数从 2,600 增长到了 20,100——教你写出人们真正想读的邮件通讯和文章。
如果你考虑过经营 Substack，或者想把 X 文章写得更好，可以在这里报名。费用为 49 美元，但它会教你掌握能赚回远超这个数目的技能。
一、你要么成为创作者，要么付钱给创作者，要么靠为创作者工作赚钱
这些数据已经让人很难忽视。
高盛预测，创作者经济的规模将接近翻倍，从 2023 年的 2,500 亿美元，增长到 2027 年的 4,800 亿美元。
2025 年，创作者获得的广告收入约为 1,850 亿美元。这是他们首次超过传统媒体。
2021 年，美国品牌在创作者身上投入了 139 亿美元。美国互动广告局（IAB）预计，到 2026 年，这一数字将达到 439 亿美元，也就是在 5 年内增长到约 3 倍。
太夸张了。
我自己既是创作者，也为创作者工作过，还会付钱给创作者。从我的经历来看，大家的报价确实惊人。大量风投资金被砸进来，一条 Reels 短视频，或者 YouTube 视频里一个 60 秒的广告位，就能拿到数千美元——而这些投放有 90% 的时候甚至带不来效果。
关键在于，如今注意力聚集在社交媒体，而不再是广播、电视或新闻媒体。当你想做任何一种生意时，无论是围绕个人兴趣、服务于理想生活方式的小生意，还是下一家独角兽创业公司，发布内容几乎都已经成了吸引付费受众的必选项。
公司想要扩张时，会向联盟营销和合作推广投入数百万美元。我不断刷到 Hormozi 的广告，他说他们每个月向创作者支付超过 100 万美元，用于推广 Skool。更不用说，Hormozi 自己就是创作者，这也极大地帮助了 Skool 的增长。
“创始人主导的营销”如今已经成了创业圈的流行词。它的意思基本就是：让你的创业公司增长的最新、最厉害的方法是……你猜对了，打造个人品牌，然后发布内容。顺便说一句，他们中的大多数人做得都很差。你大概应该开始用 Eden 来做研究、建立差异化，并发布内容。
这对你意味着什么？
无论你打算为自己工作、已经有一门生意，还是想为其他企业工作，最值得学习、最能赚钱的技能，都是吸引注意力。把它放到数字世界里，最赚钱的技能就是创作内容——优质内容，而不是无穷无尽的垃圾内容。
遗憾的是，你可以掌握吸引注意力的方法，却不代表你已经真正抓住了注意力。
如果一条推文或短视频获得了 100 万次浏览，但其他帖子每条都只有 1,000 次浏览，那这次爆红并没有什么用。这说明你的内容还不错，但你的品牌根本没有建立起来。两者我们都需要。
你可以一味追求爆款。大多数人都在这么做，这也是大多数人惨败的原因。或者，你可以建立一个让人忍不住不断探索的内容世界。
我会教你怎么做。
二、一人创意团队
内容行业正在发生一场巨变。
我是 Eden 的创始人。这是一款工具，创作者和数字业务经营者可以用它研究爆款创意、规划内容并安排发布、销售数字产品，以及运营邮件订阅名单。
我这么说不是为了推销，而是想指出：我们掌握着几乎没有其他人拥有的相关数据。通过数十亿条帖子，我们知道哪些主题、开头钩子和内容风格有效。
此外，自由职业者和服务机构也会使用它来运营客户的个人品牌，涵盖内容、邮件营销、数字产品发布，以及营销转化漏斗的搭建。
我们与这些内容服务机构和媒体团队交流时，听到的说法都差不多。以下是大意：
“我们还没有裁员，但我们可以在不扩充团队的情况下承接多得多的工作，因为每个人的产出都提高了。”
“创作者和创始人之所以雇我们，是因为他们根本没有时间思考内容。他们要管理团队、经营企业，这些都需要专注。AI 可以替他们写内容，但他们仍然知道，自己需要一位比他们更善于利用 AI 的策略师或创意总监。这件事依然需要创造力和思考。”
“AI 仍然写不出最好的帖子，而且我认为它永远也做不到。但它可以研究哪些内容表现好、理解策略，并写出已经比较接近要求的初稿。如今，我全部的工作就是审阅和改写初稿。现在每天花 4 个小时就能做完，以前则需要 12 个小时。”
在我看来，一个人可以开展的、最赚钱的 AI 生意，有两个方向。
第一，成为自己的创意团队。 打造个人品牌、积累受众、开发数字产品、建立邮件订阅名单，诸如此类。你就专心做这些。相信我，即便有 AI，这也是一份全职工作。如果你是创作者，没有团队的话，你大概也没法同时去开发软件。
第二，成为别人的创意团队。 帮助那些缺乏足够创作精力的公司、创始人，甚至创作者，产出不可替代的内容。大多数创始人还在发布“公告式”的内容，根本不知道在网上建立影响力需要什么。
换句话说，你要成为自己品牌或别人品牌的创意总监。
如果你能做到，我看不出你为什么不能收取一笔相当于完整团队成本一部分的费用。服务 1—3 个客户，每月收入 1 万—7.5 万美元，并非遥不可及——前提是你擅长这件事，而且持续练习。别让自己以为，这又是一个快速致富的机会。对于那些向营销投入数百万美元的企业主来说，这个价格不会让他们眨一下眼。
那么，这种一人创意团队究竟是什么样的？
你需要学习哪些技能？
职责 1：品牌策略师
品牌策略师负责定位，以及人们如何看待这个品牌。
他们会第一个告诉你：不要只追逐趋势，也不要试图让每条帖子都成为爆款。增长和互动固然重要，但不能以牺牲信任和权威为代价。
顺便说一下，下面我会展示如何做好这些事。
职责 2：内容策略师
这和品牌策略师不是一回事。
内容策略师会研究不同主题和细分领域里哪些内容表现好，并提出创作者接下来应该发什么。他们会深入研究帖子形式、YouTube 缩略图和标题结构、观众留存，以及内容的传播性。
他们擅长让账号增长，但如果不考虑品牌策略，那么一旦创作者停止更新，根本不会有人问他们去哪儿了。
职责 3：内容写作者／社交媒体运营
这个人负责起草推文、YouTube 或 Reels 视频脚本、X 文章和 Substack 邮件通讯，并进行规划和发布。
他们接过内容策略师的创意和品牌策略师的方向，确保最终内容与两者保持一致。
你大概已经看出来，为什么大多数人无法借助 AI 做出任何持久的东西。他们仍然把 AI 当作快速致富的手段。他们觉得，只要让 Claude 在没有方向、没有数据的情况下不断生成脚本，就能神奇地与受众建立联系。
几乎没人考虑品牌策略。
有些人会考虑内容策略。
大多数人只是把随机想到的点子变成帖子，然后祈祷它们表现不错。
这些就是你的竞争对手。想从中脱颖而出，并不难。
三、如果你是我的客户，我会这样为你打造一个不可替代的个人品牌
我们来做个有意思的演练。
我会假设你是我的新客户，正在进入合作流程。
这样，如果你想成为创作者，就可以自己执行这套流程。如果你想为别人提供内容服务，比如代写推文、为品牌撰写 Substack 文章等，这也是你接待新客户的方式。稍后，我还会分享一种拿下首位客户的绝佳策略。
第 1 步：通过启动访谈，梳理客户独特的思想标识
要让客户的品牌和内容与众不同，你需要了解大量与他们有关的背景信息。
拿下客户后，安排一次通话，通过访谈收集你需要的全部信息。录下通话，保存转录文本，方便之后借助 AI 调用和参考。
如果你是为自己的品牌做这件事，我已经准备了一份可以使用的问卷／提示词，还附带一门为期 30 天的创作者冲刺课程。它会把当前正在走红的内容与你的独特之处结合起来，为你制定策略。可以在这里试用。
下面这些问题，可以用来问客户，也可以用来问你自己。你还可以把它们粘贴到 Claude，让它通过提问从你这里获取信息，再保存成一份品牌文档，方便你随时借助 AI 参考。
所有这些问题都在塑造你的品牌。
它们可以延伸出内容主题，成为你在未来 6—12 个月持续发布的内容。有人看到这里会问：“我怎么才能在一条帖子里把这些都讲清楚？”
你做不到。这是一场长期游戏，也正因如此，大多数人才会惨败。他们想迅速获得注意力和权威。那就祝他们好运吧。
因为内容很长，我已经把这些问题和更多内容整理成了一份完整的提示词，你可以保存下来，或复制到自己的工作区。
你帮助谁
- 你最想帮助谁？描述一个真实的人。
- 对他们来说，目前糟糕的一天是什么样的？
- 他们向朋友抱怨时会说什么？使用他们的原话。
- 他们已经尝试过哪些没有奏效的办法？
你的故事
- 你的受众正在经历的事情中，有哪些是你也经历过的？
- 哪个时刻让你的处境发生了改变？再微小也可以。
- 你做成过什么、尝试过什么、在哪些事情上失败过，又弄明白过什么？从大到小列出来，每一项都有价值。
- 对你自己或你帮助过的人来说，你有哪些可以拿出来展示的成果？
谁塑造了你的思想
- 哪些人的书、帖子或视频，你从来不会错过？列出具体的人名和作品名称。
- 他们的哪个观点让你反复回想？为什么？
- 谁改变了你的思考方式，即使你现在已经不再认同他们？
内容支柱与独特视角
- 哪些事情你可以聊上几个小时？全部列出来，即使它们看起来互不相关。
- 其中哪 2—3 项对你最重要？
- 对每一项，你切入的方式与别人有什么不同？例如“从心理学角度出发”，或者“以一名前护士的身份来看”。
- 别人最常在哪些事情上向你征求建议？
- 哪些事情你总是在一遍又一遍地向别人解释？
使命与信念
- 用一句话说，你想帮助人们做到什么？
- 你相信什么，而你所在领域的大多数人并不相信？
- 你认为所在领域有哪些常见建议是错的？
你反对什么
- 哪种生活方式正在伤害你想帮助的人？
- 你想帮助他们摆脱什么样的生活？用你自己的话回答。
- 如果可以，你会消除哪个错误观念或习惯？注意，是习惯或观念，而不是某个人或某家公司。
为什么这件事现在很重要
- 世界刚刚发生了什么变化，而大多数人还没有注意到？
你要带他们去哪里
- 关注你 5 年之后，他们的日常生活会是什么样的？
- 他们会在个人简介里自豪地如何称呼自己？
- 在他们的故事里，你扮演什么角色？是引路人、记录旅程的人，还是已经走出来、又带着地图回来的人？
规则与用语
- 你理想中的读者相信什么，每天又会做什么？列出 5—12 条准则。
- 你有没有为自己的观点、方法或问题起过名字？写出每个名字及其含义。
把这些信息妥善保存在某个地方，比如 Eden 的品牌看板里，这样每次构思帖子时，你都能随时参考。
第 2 步：如果客户已经在发布内容，就抓取他们表现最好的内容
我想我们都能同意，AI 无法完全复刻一个人的表达风格。
即便已经很接近，也总会有某个细微的地方让人觉得不对劲。
但这并不是我们的目标。AI 可以很好地处理企业的表达风格，但个人品牌之所以是“个人”品牌，自有它的原因。它需要那一点独特的味道。
我们访谈客户、收集他们最好的内容，并不是为了把整个流程都自动化。我们是在建立一个知识库，收录这个人所有独特或值得注意的东西。当你使用 AI 进行头脑风暴、起草或构思时，这会比从零开始容易得多。
要收集客户在所有平台上表现最好的内容，可以通过 MCP 将 Eden 接入 Claude 或 ChatGPT，让它能够获取客户的帖子，或其他人正在走红的帖子。提供客户的社交账号，然后使用类似这样的提示词：
请从 [@账号列表] 中获取表现最好的内容。他们在哪些平台上活跃，就从每个平台各提取 10—20 条帖子。然后，记录使他们与众不同的核心观点、表达风格中具有个人特色的部分，并推测他们有哪些能够凝聚他人的世界观或人生理念。简而言之，记录促成他们增长的所有要素，并整理成一份文档。
你也值得亲自看看他们在各个平台上表现最好的帖子，从中识别可以复用的模式。
第 2.5 步：如果你还没有开始发布内容
对于初学者来说，这可能是你最值得做的事情。
你必须明白，你的思想一直受到那些对你影响最深的人的塑造。你最好的想法——那些会推动你成长的想法——来自你如何理解和诠释从别人那里吸收的观点。
这有点像“像艺术家一样偷师”，只不过，这本来就是思维的运作方式。
当你接触到一个新观念时，能够替换掉主导自己思维的旧信念和旧想法，是智慧的一种核心表现。而对那些无法带来有利结果的信念或想法始终不肯放手，则是一种愚蠢的表现。
我的思想在很大程度上，是由 Naval、Leo Gura、Mihaly C、Steven Kotler、Ken Wilber 等人的观点混合而成的。这些观点在我头脑中的相互作用，再加上我自己的生活经历，才让我的想法成为“我的”想法。
所以，如果你还没有发布内容，就列出对你影响最大的 5—10 个人。
如果他们是创作者，那就更好了。把他们整理进一个列表，方便集中查看他们的全部内容，或围绕这些内容与 AI 对话。
然后，使用上面同样的提示词，只是把账号换成他们的。如果他们没有社交媒体账号，就让 AI 从网络和他们的书中收集最好的观点。将结果保存成文档，妥善保管。
第 3 步：创建一份有研究依据的内容地图
到目前为止，我们已经：
- 获取了足够的品牌背景信息，能够创作出独特的内容。
- 记录了可以再次使用、重新定位和复用的最佳观点。
现在，我们需要切换到营销者的视角。
其实，更准确地说，是切换到艺术家的视角。
大多数“创意工作者”一想到要研究爆款帖子、表现最好的 YouTube 标题，或者基于更有可能取得好成绩的东西来创作，就很排斥。但这是因为你的看问题角度，遮住了这件事的本质。
你是在收集参考资料。
艺术家就是这么做的。他们会建立灵感板、收集参考资料，用来帮助塑造自己的作品。他们不会一比一照抄，而是提炼模式和原则，让自己的作品更有可能取得好的表现。
因为说到底，你希望自己的作品成功。你只是觉得，看数据这件事有点令人反感，好像它不属于创作过程。别再这么想了。
具体可以这样做。
（说明一下：我在这封信里多次提到 Eden，是因为坦白说，没有其他东西能完成这项工作。社交内容抓取工具无法同时查看多个账号中哪些内容表现好；GrokBot 这类应用虽然很棒，却只能用于 X。而且，要获得独特的创意，你最好去研究自己没有发布内容的平台。）
做法很简单：使用下面这段提示词，并把此前做好的两份文档一并提供给它。
我希望你创建一份有研究依据的内容地图：设置 3—4 个独特且覆盖面较广的内容支柱，每个支柱向下延伸出 5—7 个主题。这些主题既要建立在已被证明有效的观点上，也要结合 [@品牌文档] 和 [@内容文档]，体现我独特的视角。每个主题下，再延伸出 5—10 个可能取得良好表现的创意；每个创意下，再延伸出 4—5 个切入角度。
阅读我的品牌文档和内容文档，从中提取潜在的内容支柱以及我的视角，然后使用 Eden，研究这些主题在不同平台上有哪些表现出色的内容。我们需要一份独特的内容地图，同时也要融入过去 6—12 个月中已被验证有效的模式。
将结果整理成一份易于阅读的文档。
现在，你手里已经有了大约够用 6 个月的内容创意。你可以让 Eve 或 AI 根据之前整理好的背景信息起草内容，并参考表现出色的内容来验证帖子的结构。
我认为，很难否认这样一套流程会带来成果；它也会让你远远领先于那些没有这样做的人。
如前所述，这里有一份可以复制使用的文档／提示词，包含完整流程。做完可能需要一些时间，但它很全面。
四、如何拿下你的第一位客户
几年前，我的朋友 JK Molina 给我发了一条私信。他基本上就是带起“做推特代笔”这股风潮的人。
他的消息大意是：
“Dan，我知道你不想让别人替你写内容，不过我还是给你写了 10 条帖子。你可以试着发一下。如果你喜欢，就让我继续替你写，或者给我一段推荐评价也行。”
在做社交媒体之前，我是一名自由职业者，而陌生客户开发对我来说简直是地狱。我讨厌它。
但收到这条私信之后，我意识到，这一定是拿下每月支付 2,500—5,000 美元的内容客户的最佳策略之一。你可以把目标放在那些忙碌的创作者、创始人，或者正在为增长发愁的人身上。
你可以把我们前面提到的所有事情整合进一个提示词，为目标客户走一遍流程，让 AI 起草 10 条帖子，再认真打磨，然后每天发出 10 条私信。
如果你真这么做，我很难相信你一个月内会连一位客户都拿不到。
这就是“不请自来的学徒”（Permissionless Apprentice）方法。
你先免费替理想客户做些工作，再想办法让他们看到。
如果私信不起作用，就像下面这样公开展示。在 X、Substack，或者其他任何平台上，基本都可以这样做。
在那条短视频里，他用这样一句话吸引了注意：
“Grant Cardone 需要一位新的创意总监，这就是我的求职作品。他的内容看起来还停留在 2016 年。”
Grant Cardone 回复说：“联系我吧，我确实卡住了。”我认为，这句回复加上这条帖子的互动表现，已经证明了这封信中大部分观点。当下，这是一个巨大的机会。而你已经拥有了拿下这些客户、启动合作，并为他们创作出色内容所需的全部工具。
希望这对你有帮助。
——Dan
再次提醒，关于如何写出让人忍不住读下去的邮件通讯／文章的工作坊，将于 11 月 10 日举行。如果你想把长篇内容创作学成一项技能，可以在这里报名。
本文由 AI图鉴自动抓取并翻译，版权归原作者所有；如需查看原文请点下方链接。
By Dan Koe (@thedankoe)
Translation Note: The text is translated in English based on the English text provided by the user and maintains the author ' s views, data presentation, outreach and prompt. The projections, revenue estimates and product capability descriptions in the text are the original author ' s statements and are not independently verified. The links, videos and supporting documents referred to in the original are not included in the text provided, and the translation is not supplemented by a link.
The most lucrative skills have always attracted attention.
The reason is simple.
If your goal is to make more money, no matter how good your software is, no matter how good it is, no matter how hard you work, no matter how hard you work, no matter how hard you work for more career opportunities.
If no one knows who you are and what you can provide, how the hell are they gonna pay you?
This means that whatever job you do, whatever business you start, attracting attention and getting customers, is the primary factor in your success.
This applies both to your own business and to others' business.
Besides, people are willing to pay a lot of money to do this for them.
As the stability of work has declined, there are three options available to people:
- To complain about life being unfair and then do nothing.
- Upgrading skills, re-learning and finding better jobs.
- Start doing what you always wanted to do.
How many amazing people would choose the third way.
And you probably guessed that, as everyone in social media was saying so loudly, they would start this business by building personal brands.
Why?
Because attention is a limited resource and it will only become scarce. People can earn more, but they can never recover the attention they have spent.
In this letter, I will teach you how to draw attention to social media. So, at least for the next few years, you won't be worried about making money.
With this knowledge, you can start your own business and use social media to bring it growth, or you can become a “one-person creative team” for other companies to pay a high price for your skill mix.
Promotion: Second Renaissance workshop
I will work with Hussain Ibarra -- his Substack subscription has increased from 2,600 to 20,100 -- and teach you to write emails and articles that people really want to read.
If you've thought about running Substack or trying to write a better X article, you can sign up here. The cost is $49, but it will teach you skills to earn a lot more than that.
First, you're either a creator or pay the creator or earn money by working for the creator.
These data are already difficult to ignore.
Goldman Sachs predicts that the size of the creator economy will nearly double, from $250 billion in 2023 to $480 billion in 2027.
In 2025, creators received about $185 billion in advertising revenues. This is the first time they have surpassed traditional media.
In 2021, American brands invested $13.9 billion in creators. The Interact Advertising Agency of the United States (IAB) projects that by 2026 this number will have reached $43.9 billion, or about three times that in five years.
It's too much.
I myself have worked for and paid for creators. From what I've been through, it's amazing what you're offering. A large amount of wind investment money is thrown in, a Reels short video, or a 60-second advertising spot in YouTube -- thousands of dollars -- and they don't even work when they're 90%.
The point is that attention is now focused on social media rather than on radio, television or the media. When you want to do any kind of business, whether it's a small business that revolves around personal interests, serves an ideal way of life, or the next unicorn business, the content of publish has almost become a necessary option to attract paid audiences.
When companies want to expand, they invest millions of dollars in union marketing and cooperative outreach. I've been doing ads in Hormozi and he says they pay creators more than $1 million a month to promote Skool. Not to mention, Hormozi is the creator himself, which has greatly contributed to the growth of Skool.
The term “founder-led marketing” has now become popular in the business circles. What it means is, basically, the latest and most powerful way to get your start-up company to grow is you're right, make a personal brand, and then publish content. Most of them, by the way, did poorly. You should probably start using Eden to do research, create differences, and publish content.
What does that mean to you?
Whether you want to work for yourself, have a business, or do you want to work for other businesses, the most worthwhile and profitable skills are to attract attention. In the digital world, the most profitable skill is to create content — quality content, not endless waste content.
Unfortunately, the fact that you have the means to attract attention does not mean that you have really captured it.
If a tweet or short video gets 1 million views, but every other post is only 1,000 hits, then it won't help. That means you're good at it, but your brand isn't built at all. We need both.
You can just go after the money. Most people are doing this, and that is why most people lose. Or you can build a world of content that people can't help but explore.
I'll show you what to do.
II. A Creative Team
The content industry is undergoing a major change.
I'm Eden's founder. It is a tool by which creators and digital operators can study explosive ideas, plan content and arrange publish, sell digital products and operate mail subscription lists.
I do not say that for marketing purposes, but rather to point out that we have relevant data that virtually no one else has. Through billions of posts, we know which themes, initial hooks and content styles work.
In addition, freelancers and service providers will use it to operate the client ' s personal brand, covering content, mail marketing, digital products publish, and marketing funnel construction.
We hear the same things when we talk to these content services and media teams. Here's a message:
“We have not yet reduced our staff, but we can do much more without an expanded team, because everyone's output has increased.”
“The creators and founders hired us because they had no time to think about the content. They need to focus on managing teams and running businesses. AI can write for them, but they still know that they need a strategist or creative director better than they can use AI. It still needs creativity and thought.”
“AI still can't write the best post, and I think it can never do it. It could, however, look at what was a good performance and understanding strategy and write a first draft that was closer to what was required. Now all I do is review and rewrite the first draft. Now it takes four hours a day to finish, and it used to take 12 hours."
In my opinion, there are two directions in which one can conduct the most lucrative AI business.
First, be your own creative team. Build individual brands, build audiences, develop digital products, create mailing lists, etc. You just focus on that. Believe me, even with AI, it's a full-time job. If you're an creator, and you don't have a team, you probably can't develop software at the same time.
Second, be someone else's creative team. To help companies, founders and even creators who lack sufficient creative energy, produce irreplaceable content. Most of the founders also had a “publicity” content of publish that did not know what was needed to build influence online.
In other words, you have to be the creative director of your own brand or someone else.
If you can do that, I don't see why you can't charge a portion of the total team cost. Service for 1-3 clients, with a monthly income of $10,000-$75,000, is not out of reach -- if you're good at it and practice on an ongoing basis. Don't let yourself think that this is another opportunity for quick enrichment. For those who invest millions of dollars in marketing, this price does not allow them to blink.
So, what exactly is this one-person creative team?
What skills do you need to learn?
Duties 1: Brand strategists
Brand strategists are responsible for positioning and how people see the brand.
They will be the first ones to tell you: "Don't just follow the trend, and don't try to make every post a charge." While growth and interaction are important, they cannot be at the expense of trust and authority.
By the way, I'll show you how to do it.
Responsibilities 2: Content strategist
It's not the same thing as brand strategists.
The content strategists will look at what is performing well in the different themes and subdivisions and suggest what the creators should do next. They will study in depth the form of the post, the YouTube thumbnails and title structure, the audience retention and the dissemination of content.
They are good at increasing the number of accounts, but once the creators stop updating, no one will ask where they are.
Function 3: Content writer/social media operation
This person is responsible for drafting tweets, YouTube or Reels video scripts, X articles and Substack emails, planning and publish.
They take the direction of content strategists, creative and brand strategists, and ensure that the final content is consistent with both.
You've probably seen why most people can't do anything with AI. They still use AI as a means of quick enrichment. They felt that if Claude was able to generate scripts without direction, without data, it would be magically connected to the audience.
Almost no one is thinking about brand strategy.
Some consider content strategies.
Most people just turn random ideas into posts and pray that they do well.
These are your competitors. It's not hard to get out.
Three, if you were my client, I'd make you an irreplaceable personal brand.
Let's do an interesting exercise.
I'll assume you're my new client, entering the cooperative process.
So, if you want to be a creator, you can do it yourself. If you want to provide content services to others, such as tweeting, writing Substack articles for brands, that's how you receive new clients. Later, I'll share an excellent strategy to take down the first client.
Step 1: Combine the unique ideas of clients through start-up interviews
To distinguish the brand and content of clients, you need to know a lot of background information about them.
Once the client is taken, arrange a call to gather all the information you need through an interview. Record the call, save the transcribed text, and then use AI for call and reference.
If you're doing this for your brand, I've prepared an available questionnaire/prompt with a 30-day sprinting course for creators. It combines what is now going red with what is unique to you, and it sets your strategy. You can try it here.
The following questions can be used to ask clients, or to ask yourself. You can also paste them to Claude, get them from you by asking questions, and then save them into a brand file so you can use AI for reference at any time.
All these questions are shaping your brand.
They can extend the subject of content to the content of publish over the next 6-12 months. One would say here, "How can I make this clear in a post?"
You can't. This is a long-term game, and that is why most people lose. They want to get attention and authority quickly. Well, good luck with that.
Because it's a long story, I've organized these questions and more into a complete prompt, and you can save them or copy them into your workspace.
Who are you helping?
- Who do you want to help? Describe a real person.
- What's a bad day for them?
- What do they say when they complain to friends? Use their words.
- They've tried what didn't work out?
Your story.
- What are your audiences experiencing?
- At what point did your situation change? Smaller than that.
- What have you done, tried, failed, understood? From big to small, every one has value.
- What are you going to show for yourself or someone you've helped?
Who shaped your mind?
- Which books, posts or videos you never miss? List specific names of persons and works.
- What's their point of view? Why?
- Who changed your way of thinking, even though you no longer agree with them?
Content pillar and unique perspective
- What can you talk about for hours? All of them, even if they don't seem relevant.
- Which 2-3 items are most important to you?
- For every one of them, what's the difference between the way you cut in? For example, “from a psychological perspective”, or “as a former nurse”.
- What's the most common advice you get?
- What do you always explain to people over and over?
Mission and Faith
- In a word, what do you want to help people do?
- What do you believe, and most people in your field don't?
- What common advice do you think is wrong in the field?
What are you against?
- What way of life is hurting someone you want to help?
- What kind of life do you want to get rid of them? Answer in your own words.
- If so, which misconceptions or habits would you eliminate? Note that it is custom or perception, not an individual or a company.
Why is this important now?
- What just happened in the world, and most people haven't noticed?
Where are you taking them?
- Look at you five years later, what's their daily life like?
- What do they proudly call themselves in their profile?
- What's your role in their story? A guide, a recorder of the journey, or a man who has come out with a map?
Rules and terminology
- What do your ideal readers believe, and what do they do every day? Lists 5-12 guidelines.
- Have you ever given a name for your views, methods or questions? Write every name and its meaning.
Keep this information in a certain place, like Eden's brand board, so you can look at it whenever you think about it.
Step 2: If the client is already in publish, grab what they're doing best.
I think we can all agree that AI can't completely reset a person's expression.
Even when it's close, there's always something that's not right.
But that is not our goal. AI can handle business expressions well, but the individual brand is a “personal” brand for its own reasons. It needs that unique taste.
We do not interview clients and collect their best content to automate the process. We are building a knowledge base that captures all the unique or noteworthy things of this person. When you use AI for brainstorms, drafting or conceptualization, it's much easier than starting from scratch.
To collect the best customer performance on all platforms, Eden can access Claude or ChatGPT through the MCP so that it can get the client's post or someone else is walking red. Provides social accounts of clients and then uses prompt like this:
Please fetch the best performer from [@account list]. They are active on any platform and extract 10-20 posts from each platform. The record then brings them to the core of their visions, to the parts of their expression style that are personal, and speculates about what they can congregate with others' world views or ideas of life. In short, all the factors contributing to their growth are recorded and documented.
And you deserve to see for yourself the best posts they've ever done on every platform to identify patterns that can be reused.
Step 2.5: If you haven't started publish content
This is probably the most worthwhile thing for a beginner.
You must understand that your mind has been shaped by those who have most affected you. Your best ideas -- those that drive you to grow -- come from how you understand and interpret the ideas that you take from others.
It's kind of like stealing a teacher like an artist, but it's just the way you think about it.
When you are exposed to a new concept, the ability to replace old beliefs and old ideas that dominate your own thinking is a central expression of wisdom. It is a stupid manifestation of the persistence of beliefs or ideas that do not produce positive results.
My thoughts were largely mixed with those of Navar, Leo Guura, Mihaly C, Steven Kotler and Ken Wilber. The interaction of these views in my mind, coupled with my own life experience, makes my thinking a “my” one.
So, if you don't have publish content, list the 5-10 people that affect you the most.
If they were creators, it would be better. Put them in a list that allows you to focus on all their contents or to talk to AI around them.
Then, using the same prompt above, the account numbers were replaced by theirs. If they don't have social media accounts, let AI gather the best ideas from the Internet and their books. Saves the results into a document for safekeeping.
Step 3: Create a research-based content map
To date, we have:
- Access to sufficient background information on brands to create unique content.
- Documented best views that can be used again, repositioned and reused.
Now, we need to switch to a marketing perspective.
In fact, more precisely, it's the perspective of the artist.
The majority of “creative workers” are excluded when they think about studying the billboards, the top-performing YouTube titles, or creating on the basis of something that is more likely to achieve good results. But that's because you look at the angle of the problem and hide the essence of the matter.
You're collecting references.
That's what artists do. They create inspiration boards and collect reference materials to help shape their work. Instead of copying, they extract models and principles that make their work more likely to perform well.
Because in the end, you want your work to succeed. You just think it's kind of disgusting to look at data, like it's not a creative process. Stop thinking that.
This can be done specifically.
(Note: I have mentioned Eden many times in this letter because, frankly, there is nothing else to do. Social content capture tools cannot look at multiple accounts at the same time; such applications as GrokBot are good, but only for X. And to get creative, you better study a platform without publish content.
The approach is simple: use the following prompt and provide it with two previously completed documents.
I want you to create a research-based content map: 3-4 unique and broad-ranging content pillars, each extending down 5-7 themes. These themes need to be based on both proven perspectives and to combine [@brand files] and [@content documents] to reflect my unique perspective. Under each theme, five to ten more ideas are likely to achieve good performance; under each, four to five more angles.
Read my brand and content files, extract from them potential content pillars and my perspective, and then use Eden to look at what these topics are doing on different platforms. We need a unique content map, and we need to incorporate the model that has been validated over the past 6-12 months.
Organises the results into an easy-to-read document.
Now, you've had about six months of content creativity. You can have Eve or AI draft content based on previously organized background information and check the structure of the post by reference to the outstanding content.
I think it is difficult to deny that such a process will yield results; it will also lead you far ahead of those who have not.
As mentioned above, there is a copyable document/prompt that contains the complete process. It may take some time to finish, but it's comprehensive.
How to get your first client.
A few years ago, my friend JK Molina sent me a private letter. He's basically the one with the "tweeting pen."
His message to the effect:
"Dan, I know you don't want anyone writing for you, but I wrote you 10 posts. You can try to send it. If you like, let me just keep writing for you or give me a recommendation."
Before social media, I was a freelancer, and strange customer development was hell for me. I hate it.
But after receiving this personal letter, I realized that it must be one of the best strategies for paying 2,500-5,000 dollars a month. You can target busy creators, founders, or people who are worried about growth.
You can integrate all the things we've mentioned before into a prompt, go through the process for the target client, get AI to draft 10 posts, grind them carefully, and send out 10 private letters a day.
If you do, it's hard to believe you won't get one customer in a month.
This is the "Permissionless Apprenticeship" method.
You're going to work for the ideal clients for free and then find a way to show them.
If private trust doesn't work, it's as public as below. This is generally possible on X, Substack or any other platform.
In that short video, he drew attention in one sentence:
"Grant Cardone needs a new creative director, this is my job search. His content still appears to be in 2016."
Grant Cardone replied, "Call me, I'm stuck." I believe that this response, coupled with the expression of interaction of this post, already attests to most of the points made in this letter. Now, this is a great opportunity. And you already have all the tools that you need to take down these clients, start working together and create something good for them.
I hope this helps you.
——Dan
Again, the workshop on how to write hard-to-read emails/posts will be held on November 10th. If you want to learn a skill from long writing, you can sign up here.
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.