Let’s quickly recap the topic, because we covered a lot in the previous articles of the series. We unraveled the myth about 100,000 followers. We went through several monetization tactics that work from the beginning — the first three here, the last two here. In the last article, we dove deeper into the tactical stuff and started building the framework for monetizing your personal brand. In this article, we’ll continue to do so. Let’s begin.
The First Version Will Suck (Do It Anyway)
Let me tell you something that might save you months or years of delay: Your first product will not be perfect. It won’t even be great. It will, in fact, probably be kind of shit.
This is not a reason to wait. It’s a reason to launch.
Every successful digital product you admire – every polished online course, every seamless membership experience, every professional-looking guide – started as a rough first version. The creators behind them launched something imperfect, got feedback from real customers, and improved iteratively.
This is how products evolve. Not through endless planning and perfecting in isolation, but through rapid deployment and continuous refinement based on actual market feedback.
I can’t stress this enough: Market feedback is infinitely more valuable than your assumptions about what people want. You might spend six months building what you think is the perfect course, only to launch and discover that people are confused by the structure, or they wanted different outcomes, or you priced it wrong, or the problem you solved wasn’t actually their biggest pain point.
Or you could spend two weeks building something “good enough,” launch it to your small audience, make a few sales, gather detailed feedback from actual customers, and use that information to improve version 2.0. Then improve 3.0 based on the next batch of customers. Within six months, you have a genuinely great product refined by real-world usage.
Guess which approach leads to better outcomes?
How I Failed My First Product
That’s exactly what happened to the first version of my ANTIghostwriter content creation system. My first client complained about the quality of my speech during my screencast recordings. Since I’m a non-native English speaker, that wasn’t a big surprise to me. So I used AI to correct my speech and writing in all 24 lessons, reshot all the videos in the course, and released it as an updated version. Now I can iterate and polish the next things.
The iterative path is more effective because you’re optimizing based on reality rather than guesses.
This means your first product should be:
- Simple enough to ship in 2-4 weeks
- Focused on solving one specific problem
- Priced to sell (you can change prices later)
- Clearly “version 1.0” in your own mind (perfection comes later)
Launch it to your existing audience, however small. If you only have 100 followers, that’s fine – you only need 5-10 customers for meaningful feedback. If nobody buys, that’s also feedback (probably about positioning, pricing, or product-market fit, not about your worth as a creator).
Most likely, a few people will buy. They’ll go through your product. Some will love it despite its imperfections. Some will have questions or suggestions. All of this information is gold for improving the next version.
And here’s a secret: Those early customers become your biggest advocates. They’ve seen the product evolve. They feel like they’re part of its development. They’re invested in your success. Many will leave testimonials, refer friends, and buy your next product too.
So ship version 1.0. It’s better to have an imperfect product generating revenue and feedback than a perfect product that exists only in your head.
The Four Eternal Markets (And Why They Matter)
Here’s a framework that will help you position almost any product or service: the concept of eternal markets.
There are four (arguably five) fundamental human needs that drive nearly all purchasing decisions:
- Health: Physical wellbeing, fitness, longevity, medical solutions
- Wealth: Money, career, business, financial security
- Relationships: Romance, family, friendship, social skills, influence
- Happiness: Fulfillment, purpose, mindset, emotional wellbeing
I’d add a fifth that many consider a subset of happiness but I see as distinct:
5. Spirituality: Meaning, consciousness, enlightenment, philosophical understanding
Every product or service you can imagine falls into one of these categories. People spend money to:
- Feel healthier
- Become wealthier
- Improve their relationships
- Find happiness
- Discover meaning
This matters for your personal brand monetization because you need to connect your expertise and offerings to at least one of these eternal markets.
“How to use Photoshop” isn’t compelling by itself. But “How to use Photoshop to build a freelance design business earning $5,000/month” connects to wealth. “How to edit photos to document your family memories beautifully” connects to relationships.
Same skill, different positioning, different markets.
Application To Products
When building your product ladder, explicitly identify which eternal market each offering serves. This helps with:
- Positioning: You can articulate the transformation in terms people instinctively understand and value.
- Pricing: Products in the wealth category often command higher prices because the ROI is calculable. Health products also price high because the value (your wellbeing) is priceless to you.
- Messaging: Your marketing becomes clearer when you understand the deep need you’re addressing.
- Product Development: You can identify gaps in your ladder. “I have three products serving the wealth market, but nothing for relationships. Maybe I should develop something there.”
Now, ideally, your products align with your personal brand’s themes. If you’re a fitness creator, health products make obvious sense. But you could also create wealth products (“How to become a certified personal trainer and build a $10k/month practice”) or relationship products (“How to work out with your partner to strengthen your relationship”).
The eternal markets framework gives you flexibility while maintaining relevance to your core audience.
Why Most Partnership Advice Is Wrong (For Some People)
I need to share something personal here because it radically changed my approach to business and might resonate with some of you.
Conventional wisdom says you shouldn’t start a business alone. You need a cofounder, a partner, someone to share the load and complement your weaknesses. This advice is so common it’s practically gospel in startup culture.
I followed this advice like a law. Every significant business I started, I had a partner. And every single one eventually failed.
It wasn’t until I went through therapy and talked about these repeated failures that someone outside the situation could see the obvious pattern I’d missed: The common thread in all my failed ventures was having a partner.
The only business I’ve built that’s still running profitably years later, even without my active involvement is the one I started alone (my web-development agency).
Now, I’m not saying partnerships are inherently bad. They work well for many people. But for me – for my psychology, my work style, my decision-making process – they were poison. I didn’t need a partner. I needed to work solo.
This realization freed me. Now I focus on building my personal brand, which by definition can’t have a partner because it’s centered on me. This feels right in a way partnerships never did.
What’s That For You
Why am I telling you this?
Because the “100,000 followers before monetizing” myth isn’t the only dogma holding people back. There are dozens of “rules” about how to build a business, grow an audience, or create products. Many are good general guidelines. But none are universal laws.
You might succeed precisely by doing what everyone says not to do.
Maybe you should have a partner (most people probably should). Maybe you shouldn’t niche down narrowly (which I believe). Maybe you should monetize immediately rather than growing first (which we’ve argued throughout this series). Maybe you should build in public even though everyone says wait until it’s perfect (I’d argue yes).
The point is: Test the assumptions. Question the dogma. Be willing to discover that your path looks different from the conventional wisdom, and that’s okay – maybe it’s even optimal for you specifically.
This is especially true for personal brands. Your brand, by definition, is unique to you. So the strategy that works for someone else might not work for you, and vice versa. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find your own path.
Practical Implementation: Your Next Steps
Alright, we’ve covered a lot of theory and framework. Let’s get concrete. Here’s what you should do next to start monetizing your personal brand, regardless of current audience size:
Stage 1: Identify Your Transformation
- Complete the Zero-to-One Exercise (list your transformations)
- Choose one specific transformation to build your first product around
- Write down exactly where you started (Point A) and where you are now (Point B)
- Identify the key lessons, frameworks, or insights that enabled that transformation
- Determine which eternal market this connects to
Stage 2: Validate and Outline
- Talk to 3-5 people who are currently at your “Point A” (before the transformation)
- Ask them: What’s your biggest challenge? What have you already tried? What would success look like?
- Use their language in your product positioning
- Create a simple outline for your product (guide, course, or service)
- Don’t overthink the structure – just brain dump everything you’d want to teach someone
Stage 3: Build Version 1.0
- Create your first product in its simplest form
- For a guide: 20-30 pages of clear, actionable content
- For a course: 5-10 video lessons (10-15 minutes each) or written modules
- For a service: Clear description of what you’ll deliver, timeline, and process
- Make it good enough to deliver real value, nothing more
- Set a price that feels slightly uncomfortable but not absurd ($47-197 is a good starting range)
Stage 4: Launch to Your Audience
- Announce your product to your existing audience (email list, social media, wherever they are)
- Explain the problem it solves and the transformation it enables
- Share YOUR story of going from Point A to Point B
- Make it easy to buy (easy-to-use checkout, remove all the unnecessary friction)
- Set a deadline or limited spots to create gentle urgency
- Follow up at least twice during the launch period
That’s it. It might take just about thirty days from decision to first product launch.
Lower Your Expectations
Will you make $10,000? Probably not from your first launch. But you might make $500, or $1,000, or even $2,000 if you have an engaged audience and positioned well. More importantly, you’ll have proven to yourself that monetization is possible at your current size, and you’ll have feedback from real customers to improve version 2.0.
Once you have one product launched and selling (even modestly), you can add another. Then another. You build your product ladder one step at a time, and each addition increases your overall revenue.
Within 6-12 months of following this process, creators with just a few thousand followers often reach $1,000-3,000 per month in revenue. That’s $12,000-36,000 annually – meaningful money that can supplement or even replace a full-time income depending on your cost of living.
And it all starts with launching version 1.0 of something simple.
The Anti-Niche Strategy in Practice
Let me bring this full circle with how the broad personal brand approach enables better monetization over time.
When I started creating content online, I went extremely narrow. First, it was systems analysis – super specific, highly technical. Then I moved to software development, which was broader but still very defined. I built audiences in both niches.
But here’s what I discovered: Staying in those narrow lanes felt suffocating after a while. My life isn’t only about systems analysis or coding. I’m also interested in business models, philosophy, personal development, psychology, science, cosmos, travel, and how these things interconnect through systems thinking.
The narrow niches worked for getting initial traction. But they limited the kinds of products I could authentically create and the kinds of conversations I could have with my audience.
Now, as I build a broader personal brand that encompasses business, development, philosophy, and lifestyle, I have far more product opportunities:
- I can sell a course on business model analysis (wealth market)
- I can offer coaching on building one-person businesses (wealth market) – of course, after I build one, not at this stage; otherwise, it would be a flop from a real impostor
- I can create content about productivity and systems thinking (wealth/happiness intersection)
- I can write about finding meaning and purpose (spirituality/happiness market)
- I can share frameworks for making better decisions (applicable to all markets)
Find The Connective Thread
Each of these draws from different aspects of my knowledge and interests, but they’re all coherent under the umbrella of “systems thinking applied to life and business.” Someone might follow me initially for the business content, then stay for the philosophical perspectives, then buy a course on productivity.
This wouldn’t be possible if I’d stayed narrowly focused on just web development or just systems analysis.
The key is finding that connective tissue I mentioned earlier – the throughline that makes your diverse interests feel cohesive rather than scattered. For me it’s systems thinking. For you it might be optimization, creativity, psychology, storytelling, or something else entirely.
Once you identify that thread, you can explore widely while maintaining brand coherence. And that exploration creates more opportunities for products, services, and income streams than any narrow niche could provide.
The Compound Effect of Starting Now
Here’s the final truth I want to leave you with: The best time to start monetizing was when you started creating content. The second best time is today.
Every day you wait for that magical follower count – whether it’s 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 – is a day you’re not learning what works, not building your product ladder, not generating revenue, and not developing the business skills that matter more than audience size.
The creators who succeed aren’t always the ones with the biggest audiences. They’re the ones who started selling early, learned from their mistakes quickly, iterated constantly, and built sustainable businesses rather than just large follower counts.
Some of them have massive audiences now, sure. But many built those audiences after they’d already figured out monetization, using the revenue from their first customers to fund growth. The money came first, then the scale – not the other way around.
You Already Have It
You have everything you need right now:
- A transformation you’ve undergone (your product)
- Some people who trust you (your audience, however small)
- Platforms to reach them (social media, email, content)
- Tools to deliver value (courses, guides, services)
- The only thing missing is the decision to start.
So make it. Today, not tomorrow.
Choose one transformation. Outline one simple product. Launch version 1.0 in the next 30 days. See what happens. Learn from the results. Iterate and improve.
Six months from now, you could be earning your first $1,000 per month from your personal brand. Twelve months from now, maybe $3,000-5,000. Two years from now, potentially full-time income from work you love, serving people you chose to serve, on your own terms.
Or you could still be waiting for 100,000 followers, convinced you need permission to start – permission that was never required and will never arrive because it doesn’t exist.
The gates are open. They always were.
The only question is: Will you walk through them?
I’ll see you on the other side.