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Deep Dive with Ali AbdaalHow Writing Online Will Make You A Millionaire - Nathan Barry
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Nathan Barry on Writing Daily, Setting Pace, and Building Creator Wealth
- Nathan Barry argues that making money is a learnable skill made up of many small skills, and that he set his own pace from childhood, moving from a design job to iOS apps to ebooks.
- He credits a 600-day streak of writing 1000 words a day with building his career, and says the habit is simple but not easy, requiring his day to be designed around it.
- He describes his mantras of create every day, teach everything you know, and work in public, and how sharing launches and the ConvertKit journey drew attention and help from experienced founders.
- He lays out his Ladders of Wealth Creation, from time-for-money work up to products, software and marketplaces, warning against jumping several ladders at once.
- He explains the billion-dollar creator idea and the three laws of flywheels, using Primal Kitchen, Glossier and Sahil Bloom's newsletter growth as examples.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasMaking money is a skill built from many small skills
Barry says that, like music, business involves a thousand little skills such as sales, pricing and design, and the skills look natural only because experts have practiced for years.
You set the pace
Barry says his homeschooling taught him that work is fixed in amount rather than time, so he finished high school early and did his day job in three hours so he could spend the rest of the day learning iOS apps.
Pick goals by who you must become to reach them
Barry says he sets goals by asking what skills he will learn, and tells Ali to test ideas by asking whether he would still do them knowing he might fail.
A daily writing habit compounds across everything
Barry says 1000 words a day built his career, producing three books in seven months and a growing email list, and that missed days can be made up by writing more on other days.
Working in public turns your process into marketing
Barry says writing up how his ebook launch went and blogging the ConvertKit journey drew new readers and attracted experienced founders offering help, even though it wasn't designed as marketing.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesYou set the pace, right? Do you want this to take multiple years? Sometimes it should, and sometimes it's best for you. Or do you wanna get it done very quickly?
— Nathan Barry
I think it's because we say things to ourselves like, "Ah, this should be easy." And because we're conflating simple and easy. It is very simple, and it is not at all easy.
— Nathan Barry
We don't teach because we're experts. We perceive them as experts because they teach, right? It's chicken and egg, and we have it backwards.
— Nathan Barry
The shift that has been most helpful for me is to fall in love with the process of building and scaling a company rather than to fall in love with the theoretical destination and whatever that might buy me.
— Nathan Barry
Leverage is neither good nor bad. It just is. And it just amplifies what already is going to happen.
— Nathan Barry
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SPEAKERS
Ali Abdaal
hostDoctor-turned creator and entrepreneur, host of Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal and author of “Feel-Good Productivity.”
Nathan Barry
guestFounder and CEO of ConvertKit, entrepreneur and writer focused on creator businesses and email marketing.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
