Ditch Productivity: It's About Leverage [1 Ecosystem, 7 Income Streams]
Productivity vs Leverage
Productivity is great. In fact, I’m a fan and my new book, The Anti-Procrastinator is about getting stuff done.
But do you know what’s better than productivity?
Leverage.
My personal definition of leverage: doing A while building an advantage for B.
When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, they built leverage for smart technology. So when the Apple Watch was released in 2015, they already had a market advantage they had built years ago. Same with the cloud: they have developed a mindblowing ecosystem where you have music, storage, photos, chat, family sharing…and everything is connected.
Whether you like their fancy gadgets or not, 60% of Apple users own either three to four of the main devices.
Doing A while building an advantage for B.
Genius.
There’s a lesson in there: it’s not always about doing more but connecting the dots to build an ecosystem and capitalize on the power of leverage.
Let’s bring it home
When you start your entrepreneur journey, you have an abundance of ideas and inevitably a scarcity of resources (time, human capital and/or money).
The default answer is to do more because we have been sold into the productivity fallacy: invest more hours, add more services, try more things. The result is often disheartening: we create more and get some short-term gains but struggle to see any sustainable return. The (burnout) writing is on the wall.
The answer is leverage:
Instead of writing 3 articles, you can write one and give it maximum exposure across multiple platforms.
Instead of publishing 10 disconnected newsletters, you can find a common theme and bundle them into a digital course on Gumroad.
Instead of just publishing a book on digital marketing, you can repurpose the content to create webinars and templates and coach new writers who need a marketing strategy.
In the past 2 years as a writer, creator and speaker, I have developed 7 income streams. Some generate a significant sum while others are marginal, but they all play a role. The key thing is, they are all connected.
I’m not going to bore you with “my 7 ways of making money online” because Chat GPT will do a much better job at it. What I will tell you is how I’m connecting the dots so that every piece impacts the next and the sum is bigger than its parts.
Don’t get me wrong: creating is fun. It’s the most fun part of it all: let your hair loose and write, create, innovate with full freedom, hoping that people will love it.
However, if you want to take things to the next level (and by that I mean pay the bills with what you create), you need a strategy that allows you to maximize your impact and revenue.
That’s where you need to think bigger and create an ecosystem where one piece activates the next.
Below is the ecosystem I have built and continue to grow. It didn’t happen overnight and I used a building blocks approach, investing in one pillar at a time.
Start with the first piece but zoom out to think how that piece could help you with the next.
1. Books
I have published 3 books (2 self-published and 1 with an indie publisher) and the next one is scheduled for January 2025 with Penguin Random House.
My books always lead my readers to my other channels, particularly my Substack newsletter so that they can continue their journey with me.
I also use them to give me authority and credibility as a professional speaker and I always offer my corporate clients the option of bundling it with the workshop.
Books → Newsletter + Public Speaking
Tip: leave a note/ link in the back matter of the book with a CTA.
2. Paid newsletter
Most people think that the way to monetize a newsletter is via paid subscriptions. That’s partly right but misses the entire potential of growing an email list:
Sales of digital products & books:
I sell most of my ebooks and digital products through my newsletter. Instead of investing in paid ads, I create free content that generates clicks. It’s cheaper and more effective because I’m talking to people who already enjoy my work.
Clicks on a Substack newsletter
In this example, my free newsletter generated a total of 51 clicks for my products on Amazon and Gumroad and my sponsorship offer.
In the digital world, you need clicks to sell, but clicks are expensive. Here are some 2024 stats on Cost per Click (CPC) across various platforms with zero sales guarantee:
Google Ads CPC rate (Search) – $2.69
Google Ads CPC rate (Display) – $0.63
Facebook Ads CPC rate – $0.63
Instagram Ads CPC rate rage – $0.40 – $0.70
X Ads (former Twitter Ads) CPC – $0.38
LinkedIn Ads CPC – $5.58
Pinterest Ads CPC range – $10 – $1.50
Amazon Ads CPC rate – $0.91
Using your newsletter to generate free clicks is leverage.
Coaching Services
I only advertise my coaching services through my newsletter. My ideal clients are already there (writers and creators who want to grow and monetize their work), so I focus on communicating the value of my offer:
“1:1 strategy sessions to help writers and creators build a strategic ecosystem and monetize it.”
It works. I currently have 35 Founding Members.
Newsletter → Book sales + Coaching + Affiliate Marketing
3. Blogging
If you want to get paid for blogging, Medium is still the go-to platform.
While the income is unpredictable because there’s no correlation with your followers, and you are in the hands of boost nominators and elusive algorithms, you can have articles do really well and generate 3 and 4-digit figures. Some writers are able to bring home 2,000+ US$ every month, but keep in mind they are the outliers: most struggle to make 100 US$ a month, so manage your expectations.
In my case, I have turned Medium into a digital amplifier of my work. I now use it to repurpose my free Substack Posts. That way, I get more eyes on my articles and make extra cash by getting exposure to a bigger pool of readers.
Medium has also become an incubator of new subscribers as the only CTA in all my articles is an invite to subscribe to Substack.
Medium → Views + Subscribers
4. Digital products
Digital products can be anything from courses to templates, worksheets, and more.
In my case, I have published 2 digital guides on Gumroad:
Besides selling them online, I have previously used them as welcome perks for new paid subscribers.
The Personal Brand Studio was a series of lessons on Substack before I turned it into a digital course.
From Zero To Amazon Bestseller was then turned into Medium articles to generate extra income.
See, one piece is making noise somewhere else with an amplifier.
I also invite my paid subscribers to become affiliate marketing partners on Gumroad and make a juicy 50% commission on sales. Yep, they get 50% of the sales they generate and we all win.
Digital products → Newsletter + Medium articles + Affiliate Marketing
5. Sponsorships
Having an audience where you control the distribution is gold. That’s the business model of most social media platforms: they make money by selling ads to companies that want to get exposure to that public.
Let’s be real: that’s freaking annoying and it can ruin a business, so you don’t want to sell your soul to advertisers and fry your readers. However, you can do it the right way and partner with creators and businesses that offer products and services that you genuinely enjoy and think can add value to your subscribers.
The most important thing as a creator is trust and you want to honor that trust by being authentic in what you recommend.
Once you have a few thousand subscribers, sponsors become interested, especially if they see a strong overlap between your audiences.
I launched my sponsorship program 2 months ago using Passionfroot and have had a couple of sponsors so far. It’s usually other creators who want to launch a new product or course or authors publishing a new book. As long as the topic is related to mine and they provide value, I’m happy to promote things I believe you will find interesting.
Newsletter → Sponsorships
6. Public Speaking
Public speaking, whether it’s keynotes, workshops or webinars is my number 1 income stream because it’s my high-value ticket. I would have to sell 800 book copies to match my fee for 1 hour of public speaking and I’m not there (yet 😉).
Even when you do it for free (I spoke at the Hong Kong Literary Festival in 2024 for instance), speaking in public creates a massive leverage, although it’s often intangible: it builds your credibility as an author, allows you to sell more books and raises your profile and your brand overall.
Some subscribers discover me through a podcast, some readers find out about my books through an author interview. The power of speaking in public is huge and most people are afraid of it, so take that fear to your advantage.
Public speaking → Book sales + Authority + Author Brand
7. Coaching
My coaching business is the best example of leverage because it was born organically out of leverage. I never planned to launch 1:1 sessions but my paid subscribers asked me for personalized support. They wanted a customized strategy and someone who could help them build an ecosystem like the one I’m creating for myself.
I started with 1 person and I now have 35.
Many of them refer me to other people or simply write testimonials about the session generating more organic clients.
Coaching → Referrals
Your ecosystem
In case you are still thinking about doing more, more and more, and punching the next article out, I invite you to take a long, deep breath and pause with me for a moment.
There’s a thin line between productivity and burnout. Having an ecosystem with strong leverage allows you to draw that line thicker so that you can keep doing what you love - and get paid for it.
I know it can be overwhelming, so if you need help with it, you can join my October Workshop where we will do exactly that: build a funnel and an ecosystem.
And remember: the SEO keyword of solopreneurship is leverage.
Lemons & Lemonade 🍋
Are you struggling to get views and subscribers?
Do you need help to build a digital ecosystem to make a bigger impact?
Do you want to build an effective funnel to convert readers into paid subscribers and customers?
If the answer is YES, then you will love my October Webinar:
A hands-on workshop for writers and creators who want a strategy to scale and monetize their work. Super actionable and based on my first-hand experience growing a digital ecosystem and becoming a Substack Bestseller.
Upgrade now to have unlimited access to all my webinars:
Self-publishing
An Athlete’s Mindset
Becoming a Substack Bestseller
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My brain is spinning! As soon as I can afford this, I am becoming a paid subscriber. Your work for "free" subscribers makes so much sense and is so helpful that I am thinking I really need to know all that you are offering!