Episode 2:“Make Money Online”
Now that we are talking to one another, how can we make money online? Methods are discussed; sacred cows are thrown into volcanoes
Summary
Nick and Kai examine why ‘Make Money Online’ carries such negative baggage, tracing it to practitioners who prioritize fast cash extraction over genuine education. They draw a clear line between that extractive approach and what they and colleagues like Brennan Dunn do: give away substantive free material first, then offer paid products as an extension of that teaching. The episode closes with a longer conversation about defining success on your own terms rather than chasing a Lamborghini scorecard, including why people with $10 million in the bank are often miserable.
Highlights
- Kai switched away from calling himself an SEO consultant after a prospect opened a sales call by saying the two types of people he hated most were attorneys and SEO consultants.
- Kai points to Brennan Dunn’s WP Freelancing as the clearest example of education-first marketing: podcast, books, and free material that stand on their own, with paid products offered only to people who already find the free work valuable.
- Nick’s vetting filter for coaches: ask what gives them the right to teach you. If ‘I make you feel good’ comes out first, leave. The person you want thinks at the 300-things-over-six-months level, not five tactics for today.
- Nick flags mailing-list behavior as a reliable signal: an aggressive, un-closeable sign-up popover is the same kind of red flag as a website full of Lamborghini photos.
- Nick says every person he knows with over $10 million saved is miserable, and cites research that puts the happiness ceiling around $70–80k, after which additional income does not increase happiness.
- Kai describes a friend who coached startup founders after acquisition or IPO: people who hit their financial target found themselves unhappy because they had never answered what would actually make them happy.
- Nick’s practical advice: set the goal before you make the money, so the income has a specific job to do rather than sitting in an account with no destination.
Read the transcript
So when we hit 500,000 downloads, we could have a gold record of Make Money Online. Are those actually made out of gold or are they just spray-painted gold?
I have no, I highly doubt they’re made out of gold. The music industry is very poor. Very poor. Beyoncé’s even started podcasting. Really? No.
So, for this episode, we’re talking about Making Money Online.
This is the Make Money Online episode that is called Make Money Online, and it’s about the practice of Making Money Online. What do you think of the words Make Money Online, Kai?
I think warrior form, shitty e-book, hucksters, scammers, make money online, I think is a phrase that has been Parodied and adopted and burned by serial hucksters. Yeah.
I think there’s a lot of like snake oil shilling in the practice of starting an online business. And And I have a business and I sit online and I take a lot of business practices from those things and Use them. I’m a marketer. They have some genuine marketing tactics in there. But I don’t even know what a warrior forum is. I don’t think I’m a warrior.
It’s a very, very interesting, interesting in quotes, online forum where it’s people selling $3 ebooks to each other on how to sell $3 ebooks to each other.
Under belly of. You know, we’re selling a $5 e-book.
We’ve beaten their price point.
We’re value-based. It’s very we’re boutique. We’re of a blend good. It is a handcrafted e-book. I crafted it with my two hands. I typed it into this keyboard right here that I’m holding. And I bled into the keyboard. That was literally how it was very grim. It was a black metal ebook. And I’m going to make money online with it. But like, there’s. I feel like there’s it’s very hard for I’ll just be very charitable and say novice people, people who are just starting out in their business. And both of us started out in our business at some point. That they look at all this stuff and they look at it and they either rightfully recoil from it because it looks horrible, or they look at it and trust it and get swindled by it. And in either of those situations, it’s hard to make legible what’s legit or not. And frankly, it makes a lot of my colleagues and myself look bad, right? A lot of people come to me on my mailing list and they’re like, well, you’re marketing to me and you’re clearly selling stuff to me and I’m buying it, but I don’t feel like you’re a jerk. You’re not like all those other jerks. And I’m like, I’m like, great. Thanks. I’ll take your money now. I mean, I don’t. There’s something ineffable within the way that you put your name out there and encourage people to buy things from you that you can do in a way that builds genuine relationships and is kind and loving, really. I never see it from any of the Make Money Online people. I never see it. Even the people I know that are competent and capable of doing what they do, they have to adopt a certain tone and tenor that makes them look like all of the other shills. And you end up going for like whichever tone sounds best, which as a consumer is confusing, and as an industry, again, makes everybody look bad. So I worry about that division probably more than I should or have any right to, because that’s their thing, right? Like I should just focus on my thing. But I worry about being lumped in with them. I worry about being lumped in with marketing people too. Like I don’t I market, but why do you I mean, you’re in a little bit of a different scenario because marketing is kind of your industry, but like I feel I’d market just ‘cause I have to.
Yeah, you market as a way of advertising your services. I market carte blanche everything. You hire me as a marketer. I think you’re right. Like, there’s a fear of getting lumped in with the people who are, oh, what phrase to use? Who are not doing it poorly, but doing it with a bad attitude, let’s say, who are approaching it with the perspective. So I think, like, The division in my mind, and I’m figuring this out on the fly as I say it. The division in my mind is the people who are doing this primarily to make money, to just get the cash out of people’s hands as fast as possible. and the people who are marketing to educate people. And what they’re selling is just a continuation of that education. I look at our mutual friend and colleague, Brennan Dunn. Of W Freelancing is a great example of the second category where he’s teaching people, he’s educating people, he has a podcast, he has books, he has lots of free material available. And if you like that free material, if you feel he’s speaking your language, teaching you valuable things, hey, here’s some paid things you could buy. And it’s very different than the people who you maybe you sign up for their list or you go to their site and it’s just like buy the thing, buy the thing, buy the thing. It feels like their intent is very much separate the money from the person’s hand as fast as possible. And if there’s no chance of a financial relationship, I don’t want to talk to you. Where I and you and our colleagues, I think, fall more on the second side, where it’s, well, we want to teach people, we want to educate people, we want to. Leave people better off than when they found us. And if that means they just consume like some free material, they’re on the mailing list, they read a couple of articles and their life improves. Wonderful. If they decide to buy a thing, wonderful. If they decide to hire us to work for them, even more wonderful. But no matter which path that audience member or that person picks, we’re just happy to help educate them, help teach them, help move them forward. The buying the thing, well, yes, we’re going to say, hey, I have a thing for sale and you could buy it if you like the free things I’ve sent you. But It doesn’t end there. There’s going to be more free education, more teaching, more free sharing of knowledge beyond just giving them a taste and then saying, well, you should buy the thing now.
There’s a certain amount of generosity to that too, right? You give away a lot of your best work for free and you put it online in a way that tries to help people. And you’re showing, hey, I want to help you. Have I helped you? Great. Here’s another thing that might help you even more, and it happens to cost money. And I know that’s very first principles for a lot of the people that are listening to this that run their own businesses, but a lot of people skip that first step. They just say, Subscribe to my email list, my drip campaign. I will sell you things in 10 days. And it’s like, that’s not really the point. So you need to develop a relationship with the person. And They need to perceive that a relationship has been developed, right? And you can’t fake it. You really can’t. I feel like there’s that aspect to it. And then there’s also like the more industry-based aspect. And I think you would be great to talk about this because you when I we first met about a year and a half ago, Kai, you identified as like an SEO consultant. Is that fair?
Yes, entirely.
And what do people think of when they think of SEO consultants, Kai?
They think scum of the earth. I love sharing this story. I got on a call with a prospect who signed up for my mailing list, was on there for a month, emailed me, said, I want to work with you. We set up a call to chat about his business. And I say, hey, it’s great to talk with you. I’m excited to learn more. And he started off by saying, I just want to tell you, there’s two things I hate, two business types I just hate: attorneys and search engine optimization consultants. And meanwhile, my site is like SEO consulting. I do SEO consulting. Would you like some SEO consulting? And from the get-go, this guy just had said, Hey, I hate SEO consultants. And I realized The way I was identifying, the way I was branding myself, inadvertently lumped me in with a category of people that were not respected that well, were not sought after in a proper way. And It was an interesting bit of cognitive dissonance to realize that the word I was using to describe myself, well, might not be the right word, or might inadvertently make people think $500 getting to the top of Google, or spammy backlink building, or I hate working with these types of people.
I loved how much of a cat and mouse game existed with SEO in the early and mid-aughts, where like All of a sudden, Google exists. Okay, great. And then people are like, well, I’m going to optimize for Google. And then they do it in this incredibly black hat, horrible way. And then there’s people who are like legitimate SEO consultants that are like We’re SEO, but we’re not like that SEO over there. And then all the bad SEOs just started adopting that and came off as wolves in cheaps’ clothing. And then everybody was like, but we’re really. We’re really not that. We do SEO for like Fortune 500 companies and etc. , etc. , etc. And it just kept building up, and it became this game of like he said, she said. And I’m so grateful to my lucky stars every day that that never happened to A-B testing or interaction design. Like, knock on wood that it’s not happening to A-B testing right now because then you end up getting tarred with the same brush. And as two people who both like to make money online, and are running a podcast right now called Make Money Online that is, you know I love making money online. I I love it. I love that I can type into a computer and money comes out every day. Like that’s literally what I’m doing in In engaging in my job every day. And you end up getting lumped in with all these people that are like, Do you want to run a business from home and never take off your pajamas? And well. I don’t know. I’m dressed kind of nice right now. I don’t really think of it that way. You know, it’s very weird. There’s the public optics, and then that ends up interfering with the practice.
Now, that’s a wonderful way to put it. Like the perception of the industry as a whole inadvertently Tars and feathers you when you try to teach people these things in a realistic way. We both have coaching practices where we teach business owners and consultants how to improve their business and make money online and da da da. And there’s so many people out there who advertise a similar service, but they’re selling hopes and dreams and wishes instead of hard work. They’re not so much a personal trainer as they’re a personal cheerleader. And, well, I’ll cheer a little harder and maybe it’ll get you to the finish line. But it doesn’t work that way.
I’ll have an anecdote that’s an extremely tortured metaphor for you right now. I once co-ran my college’s radio station, and we were doing our annual phonathon pledge drive. And when they do this, they have two higher-ups of the radio station pair together and talk about it, and they have. The news director and me who ran the like dance music electronic music format. And so, like, I was like dressed in all black techno guy, being very baritone, like. You really need to donate right now. And they paired me with a five-foot-one lady from the cheerleading squad. And she was like, Yeah, oh, donate to WNUR. It’s great. And they’re both Actually, good marketing tactics, but when they were paired together, it became like b-roll like parody for everybody forever. Cause it was like alternating phrases where it was this like dude who’s just like, hello. Dear listeners, please give us your money. And the other person was like, rah, rah, rah, right. And the point of this horribly tortured metaphor is: I know who I am, and I am not there to give you the warm fuzzies. You are not coming into this situation to feel a false sense of security about your business. You’re coming in because you have to work. And I’ve never encountered a situation where people got cheerled on in businesses and succeeded at least In a traditional MBA sense of business, it might succeed at making you feel good, but you won’t be running a business, you know? There’s that one Simpsons episode where Burns is like, Religion, family, friendship, these are the three demons you must slay to succeed in business. And there is sadly a tiny amount of truth in that. A tiny amount of truth in that. I’ve not slain those three demons, but you don’t do it by being fun. You know? You might promote the impression of being fun. There are a lot of people I know who look like, oh, yeah, we’re fun people to work with. Well, okay, great, but you made a business decision to be fun to work with. There’s something behind that. It was a long ramble, but I feel like it was important.
I think of the shitty. Not shitty. I think of. People like Marie Folio, who have a very well-designed business that makes her a lot of money. But from people I know who’ve gone through her material, It doesn’t teach like it doesn’t give hard homework. It doesn’t force you to build new skills or exercise your weakest muscle to build a better business. Focused on surface level stuff. It might be focused on platitudes. It might be focused on the easy stuff. And it makes you feel like you’re moving forward. Just like, I don’t know, you order a Diet Coke instead of a normal Coke and you feel like you’re losing weight and you’re eating healthy. To really get to that next level, you need to invest time, invest energy, do it until it hurts, and push yourself to. Improve. And in my mind, that’s always been the distinction between the cheerleader type and the trainer type. And whenever I work with a friend or a colleague, I always try to be The trainer type and say, well, great, here’s some homework. Go do the homework. And if they don’t do the homework, it’s the question of, well, why weren’t you able to do the homework? There’s no Easy outs, it’s saying, well, what do we want to get better at? Okay, here’s a plan to get better at it. Let’s go do that. And you either do it or you don’t.
I think that there is a small place, but a place for the the kind of cheerleading content that you’re talking about though, because some people just despair so much about starting a business and it holds them back so much that they need Like a psychological kick in the teeth in order to actually go ahead and do everything. And if you need that from somebody who is Going to give you that sort of stuff, that’s not their worst fates, right? Like, whatever causes you to get up in the morning and actually do the work. Is valuable. So I don’t know if I fully agree that it’s like the most utterly valueless thing, because we’re both kind of far along in our progression that we I can get that motivation from myself. I don’t have to find external sources for it every day. But if you are in a position where you have genuinely no idea where to like Figure out how to run a business, that’s a first place to start. I will say that if you are the person who’s creating that content. You’re far more liable to get people who are super inexperienced and hence much more difficult to support meaningfully. And that’s just going to be an enormous problem for you as a professional coach. I prefer to work with people who are further down the line and like have an established mailing list and have built an audience effectively and want to know how to take it to that next level. Because I like working with them more. You know, Alan Weiss, he’s a consultant, he says the first sale is to yourself. You aren’t able to actually make sales in your business until you tell yourself that you deserve a seat at the table. And whatever you can do to get out of bed every morning and tell yourself that you’re worthy for it, that’s tremendously important.
And I think there definitely is a place for the cheerleader mentality, but I just detest it when That’s all that’s being presented. Or I’ve bought business books before, and it’s empty platitude after empty platitude. And it’s the idea of like Just have the vision board and focus on your success in your business. And sure, if that gets you over the hump, wonderful. But If that’s all you’re consuming, it feels like all you’re consuming is candy bars. And like, sometimes you need a candy bar to get a quick fix of energy. And that’s great. If all you’re doing is eating candy bars, well, something’s going to go wrong down here.
Yeah, you’re probably not going to have a good diet if you end up eating only candy bars or only burgers or only something that’s Yeah, you’re eating empty calories. You’re putting something in that doesn’t, and it makes you feel good, but it makes you feel good in this very like lizard-brain way. And that’s that’s what That’s just what you’ve been taught, you know. That’s what you’ve evolved to understand. Like, you have to recognize that you’re just a sack of chemicals and you don’t have The ability to get past your own physical limitations. The book Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman, whom I know and is wonderful, he. Basically, spends a third of the book talking about your own physical limitations and like all of your cognitive issues that you have, and like the fact that you need a good diet in order to run a business. I’m looking at all this stuff. It’s like this has nothing to do about a business. This has nothing to do about making money and spending less than you make and like building a profit. This has nothing to do about how you retain clients and continue delivering value to them. And I thought about it. I was like, Yeah, but if I ate a burger from Kumas Corner every single day, I would probably die within five years and get depression within six months. You know, I wouldn’t be able to. To maintain my diet effectively, I looked at that and thought, well, maybe I should eat a little bit healthier. And I started doing that, and it was helpful. That’s just something that you have to recognize: like, okay, well, I’m a body and I’m doing this, and maybe my body is telling me something that’s wrong a lot of the time. Maybe it’s telling me that the burger is good because we evolved in a scarcity climate and didn’t have burgers in front of us every single day. I could go eat a burger for dinner if I wanted, and it would be delicious. But, like, I could also do that every single day. You know, I could go and not run a business every single day. I could go get hired by Google Softazon or whatever I wanted. And be comfortable, but that’s that’s not what I set out in life to do.
I’m wondering, like slightly higher level, when people look around and try to pick a path, a mentor, something to follow, someone to follow. How can people tell the snake oil from the real stuff?
Great question. I would go by referrals. If you know people that have benefited from this person, ask what they’ve done. Interview them if you offer to get on a call. Like, usually most professional coaches and stuff like that will offer to get on like a half-hour Skype call just to get to know you. And you should ask them kind of in more polite terms than this, what gives you the right to drive my business with me? And what’s your background around it? And if anybody says Well, I make you feel good about running a business, and that’s like the first thing that comes out of their mouth. Run. If they talk about Specific tactics. Like, here are the five things that you need to do to run a successful business. Run. You want somebody who’s going to think strategically, really burrow under your skin about your business, and Teach you very broad things to look at. Like it’s not about the three things you need to do today, it’s about the 300 things you need to do in the next six months. And if they’re not adopting big picture thinking with you, then they might not be that great of a professional coach.
That’s very, very well put. And I think that applies. Root across the spectrum for any sort of material that somebody wants to buy, somebody wants to consume to help them become a better person or a better business owner, just asking that question of Like you said, what gives you the right to teach me how to do this? What are your bona fides? What are your credentials? And seeing what they say and seeing how they react. Since some people will try to squirm out from under the question, some people will say, I’ve done X, Y, and Z, and that’s what gives me the right. Some people will be able to point to referrals and testimonials and case studies, and that’s what gives them the right. But just asking that question, even just to yourself, and saying, Well, let me do a little research and find. What I can about them on their website? Is it full of photos of them in front of their Lamborghini? Is it full of case studies and people talking about, you know, they helped me triple my really important business thing? Okay, well, that’s a little more impressive than photo in front of Lamborghini God.
Does their mailing list sign up this insane intrusive popover that won’t close no matter what you try and do to it? Or are they trying to actually teach you something before they ask for your email address? Like, how aggressive are they being? How do they carry themselves? Is it with humility and generosity, or is it with arrogance? I think that people put too little stock in How people actually carry themselves on the internet. I put a lot of stock in it, and I think it’s benefited me a lot.
And that’s a really interesting point, and something that I’ve often struggled with. I will frequently get on calls with people, and they’re like, oh my God, it’s so exciting to talk with you. Like, I’ve listened to a number of episodes of you on this thing, and I’ve been following you online. And my initial reaction, and what I usually say is, thank you so much. I’m touched and honored. I’m a nerdy Jewish guy in my office in Eugene, Oregon. Like, there’s not that much separating you from me. I want to see how I can help you grow your business or improve whatever we want to talk about. Let’s throw aside any like hero worship or like glamour that may have inadvertently been dropped onto me because I’m in my workout clothes and after this, I’m going to go cook lunch. There’s no magic. There’s no miracle there. It’s just a guy who might be able to help you do something better. Yeah.
I mean, you and I, and all the people that puff themselves up online, we’re just people. That’s it. And we’re all. Nerdy, fairly approachable people. That giant call to action on Patrick McKenzie’s website, where he’s like, I will meet with anyone. It’s not a lie. It is not a lie. He will meet with you. He will meet with you no matter what journeyman developer position you find yourself in, no matter how, if you’re fresh out of college, he will still meet with you. And And he’s considered one of the most like luminary people in the industry. You did not get there by being cloistered and reserved. And people fail to understand that. I emailed somebody a few months ago whom um because I’m going to Melbourne in a month. I emailed them and they live in Melbourne. I’m like, hey, you want to get a coffee? I’m just going to be down there. And they thought it came from my mailing list because it had my same from name. And they had been following my mailing list for two and a half years, and they were like, oh my God, I can’t believe you personally emailed me. I almost archived this. I was like. No, but I I just wanted to talk. Like, are we friends? Can we be can we hug? Is that Like, I felt really weird about it. Honored, and really gratified that my work had touched him in that way. But, like, also, it was really weird. And it’s just weird. You’re a nerd on the Internet making money online, and you are able to touch people in that way. And it’s kind of wonderful.
No, the most gratifying part of what it is that I do is when I get an email from somebody like, hey, I read a couple of articles of yours and they really helped me with this thing, or I work with a client or somebody in a coaching program and We’re talking about how it helped them improve their business. And I’m like, I get more joy out of the fact that I’ve been able to help somebody grow or help somebody overcome a challenge than any amount of money. Like the money, we talked about on the last episode a bit about How you track like what success is. And for me, it’s definitely partly lifestyle and partly: am I helping people? Are people Improving? Are people enjoying what I have to share? And if yes, that’s the glory for me. Like whatever number ends up at the end of your income report or in the bank account, that’s great. I’m happy for that. Like I want to give sincere thanks for that. But more so, it’s: am I touching people? Are they improving? Is what I’m doing valuable and helpful for them?
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, I. Every one of the most gratifying moments I’ve had in my life the past year in my career was because somebody thanked me. I got an email back, or I got something really helpful from somebody. It wasn’t when I made money. And I make money online a lot. Like, it’s great. I feel very good about it. It allows me to afford the microphone that I’m speaking into right now. But, like, the microphone is a tool so that I can build relationships with people and Be kind about it. And that’s what I’m going to remember. You know, that’s what you’re going to remember on your deathbed: how you made the biggest bank account. It doesn’t matter if you’re the richest person in the cemetery.
It doesn’t. That’s a beautiful phrase.
Yeah, it doesn’t. It matters that you live a good life and. Actually, manage to be kind to people, and that beyond that, I don’t know. I don’t know what the other secrets of life are. And that’s how you make money online.
No, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with that. There’s so many things that people hold up as proof of Them being the best, or them being a visionary and a leader, and somebody you should follow. And it’s often like that internet trope of guy posing in front of Lamborghini or girl posing, a woman posing in front of Lamborghini. And well, that’s showing monetary success as proof that you’re doing great things. But yeah, I think it does go a level deeper. It’s at least for us getting that thank you note or being able to express thanks to someone else or being able to live a lifestyle that’s fun. And like that doesn’t mean yachts and more yachts and cruises around the world, da da da. It’s like, oh great, like I don’t necessarily have to work forty hours a week or I get to take a week off or two weeks off and travel somewhere interesting. Like, that’s the interesting lifestyle. Not I just bought a second jet. It’s oh, I get to live a nice upper-middle-class life and have fun and Don’t have to worry about buying a round of drinks for my friends.
Yeah, I mean, how many yachts do you own, man? Oh, I lost count. I hired somebody, but they need an assistant. They need an assistant. Okay. Yeah, Maya’s measured in scientific notation. I’m pretty efficient. No, but Pico yachts? Yachta yachts. No, but fuck yachts. I I live a life in a like comparatively middle class neighborhood in a boring Midwestern city. And I could not be happier about it. Like, even even that bar, nothing like completely horrible is happening in my life right now. And I’m pretty okay with that. Like, that’s. That’s how I’m measuring everything and making sure that I’m happy is like it’s a Maslow’s hierarchy thing. Yachts are not on Maslow’s hierarchy. Ferraris are not on Maslow’s hierarchy. Going on net jets is unfortunately not on Maslow’s hierarchy, but maybe it should be. Like, it’s not. You don’t need something that. You necessarily saw in Lifestyles and the Rich and Famous when you were a little kid, you know? Which is basically just cribs for old people.
Yeah, it really is a choose your own adventure or choose your own destination. And we definitely both have colleagues who The money is the score counter that tells them if they’re winning at the game of business. And good for them. Like they get to enjoy that, they get to love that, and it provides them that satisfaction. And I think the wonderful thing about owning your own business, or whatever form that business takes, is that ability to choose what Goal you’re playing towards, be it relationships, be it doing fun things, being it having a lifestyle you want, being it having a million dollars in the bank account. Each of those are wonderful and great and should be a conscious decision that you make. You should consent to playing towards that goal, not feel like, oh, The people that follow online are all playing towards the Lamborghini goal. I better play that game too. Well, no, you don’t need to fucking play towards the Lamborghini goal. You get to play towards the, I want to be able to eat out every night at my like, I have a favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant in Eugene. Everyone there knows me by name. Like, I probably eat there four times a week and I don’t worry about the cost of it. And, like, that is so gratifying to me. And, like, in the big scheme of things, it doesn’t cost that much. Again, whole in the wall Chinese place, but That is satisfaction to me to be able to say, like, okay, I get to eat at my favorite restaurant and support this cool local business. And I don’t have to worry about what it costs to go out there or take somebody on a date there.
Yeah, like have the goal in mind before you make the money, also. That’s another recommendation I would make: is say, okay, well, I want to do this. What do I do to get there? Because that way you don’t say, oh, I have $10,000. How do I spend the $10,000? That’s first off, crazy unhealthy. And second off, you’re probably going to make the wrong decision. You know, if I have a goal in mind to buy a house within the next three or four months, and so I’m working towards that goal. I’m trying to make money online in order to get to that goal. And it doesn’t matter how I get there. It’s just, you know, I know how much the house is going to cost. I know that it’s not going to be a giant, insane mansion. And we’re going to move from there and see what we can do.
A friend of mine worked in executive coaching for a while, specifically for startup founders that had been acquired or IPO’s, now had wealth measured in the millions of dollars. And they were profoundly unhappy with their life because the mountain for them was, I’m going to make a million dollars or ten million dollars. And they got there and they realized They weren’t happy. Like they checked that box, and that box was not like, Congratulations, victory music from Final Fantasy VII. You now win. It was like, you did the thing, now it’s Tuesday. You don’t own the business anymore, but you have $10 million. Happy yet? And they were like, No, no, I’m not. What do I do? And it’s a really, it was a really, really big question for these people to work through. Like, whoa. How do I figure out what makes me happy? How do I answer that question? And how do I now construct a life that lets me play towards that goal, whatever that goal is?
Building on that, everyone I know who is fabulously wealthy, like we’re talking over What would it be? Over 10 million in the bank. Let’s just say they’re all miserable. They all hate their lives. And they might not tell you. They might project a veneer of confidence, but you give them two beers and put them in a dark corner of a bar, and secrets come out, man. And it is grim. There’s a ton of studies that say beyond, I think it’s like 70 or 80 grand, whatever it is, it’s like an upper-middle class salary. They say beyond that, most like happiness does not actually increase. You just you’ve fulfilled all of your needs. You’ve done up to like the tip of the pyramid on Maslow’s hierarchy. And that that tip of the pyramid is a motherfucker tip, man. You watch that tip.
And it gets, I think, bleak in a sense when you realize like you’ve satisfied what does happen when you’ve satisfied all of your needs and you find yourself no longer happy? Like, you need to go back to the drawing board and say, well, what actually does make me happy? Like, there’s a tweet I read right before the holiday season about how. The sense of despair that a lot of people get around the holiday season might not be from being forced to interact with family members who hate or eat the shitty Oh, uh loaf thing. Uh meatloaf. I’ll dish that. Meatloaf. Yeah. But is because you’ve suddenly removed the distraction of Work from your life, and you’re confronted with the idea of, oh, I’m not really that happy, and I’ve just been distracting myself for 50 weeks of work. What now? And you get to stare that in the face for two weeks.
Yeah, yeah, that’s actually. spells out most of my holiday seasons. It’s you call it an opportunity for introspection, but that’s really just another way of saying you’re super lonely and then you’re forced to, like, confront your own thoughts. It’s why, if you’ve ever seen Parks and Recreation, there’s a main character called Chris Traeger, and he is like a huge fitness buff, but it comes out in like the third or fourth season that he’s working out in order to escape his own demons that are eating his soul on a daily basis. And like therapy has never worked for him and everything like that. And you just end up like once you once you stop, then you pause to evaluate everything around you. Are you okay with it?
And it gets scary. I have only recently, after I started seeing a therapist, started to take time frequently to pause and say, Well, am I happy with what’s around me? Am I happy with what I’m manifesting around me? And It’s an uncomfortable question to ask frequently, and it’s a good question to ask frequently because it lets you course correct and not get to the point where you’re 20 years down the path and then say, oh, shit, I don’t enjoy this. I wish I had thought about that earlier.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, those sorts of introspective questions, it’s not a whole lot different from the way that you grow your business, is by asking, did this work? and being honest about it. But you’re being honest about yourself and like holding referenda on yourself is never fun. But it’s not supposed to be fun. So, and on that fun note, we’re going to end all of these on a really cheerful note. Business is wonderful. This is great. Absolutely join us down the wonderful and luminous path of starting your own online business with Make Money Online.
And we will see you next time, dear listener.
Notes
- The Simpsons episode which discusses family, religion, and friendship as the three demons you must slay to succeed at business.
- Kai's coaching service.
- nickd's coaching service.
- The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.
- The Goblin Cock from Kuma's Corner, which is a hot dog on top of three strips of bacon on top of a burger, with all of the Chicago dog trimmings. Business owners eat the Goblin Cock… infrequently.
- Patrick McKenzie's standing invitation.
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- NetJets, which is not on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- The victory music from Final Fantasy VII.