WRAP #134: Ryan Holiday's Interconnected Business

Hey Reader, Happy Mother's Day and a special delayed version of the WRAP. I told you last week that May is the busiest month of the year for my family, and it is already playing out that way!

I did want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Mae Beth. She's the best, homeschooling 5 kids, supporting all of our sports, school, and church activities growing up. Great parents are one of the most important things in life, and I'm grateful to have a mom like Mae-Mae (what my kids call her).

Thanks as always for reading, let's get started!

In this issue:

💡 The Big Idea

Integrated Creator Business

👨‍🏫 Free Creator Training

How to Make Your First $1,000

👀 A Video to Watch

Why You Buy Books You Don't Read

💡 The Big Idea

Integrated Creator Business

Last week I went to Austin, Texas to meet with friends and clients. While I was there I visited Ryan Holiday's bookstore, The Painted Porch, just outside of town in Bastrop. It's one of the prettiest little bookstores I've visited, and the book chimney is a sight to behold.

What impresses me about Ryan, besides the great writing, the prolific output, and cool bookstore — is how well everything in his creator business connects. He writes a book every 18 months, but also 2 emails per day, a monthly reading list email, makes YouTube videos, and records 2 podcasts (also daily).

These parts of the business connect because the book writing informs the email writing, and vice versa. If he writes an email that resonates with readers, it has a better chance of making it into a book. As I've said before, newsletters are an idea lab for authors.

The business is even more integrated than content though. His newsletter also promotes affordable emails courses on stoic philosophy and living a good life. Every book he recommends in the newsletters and podcasts can be found at The Painted Porch. You can get all the courses bundled together in the Daily Stoic Life membership community.

Most everything Ryan does is connected, multiplied in different formats, and sold at different price points and product types so everyone has access to something to learn from Ryan and support his work. It's a really cool business, and I talk about it in more detail on this clip from the HeyCreator Show.

👨‍🏫 Free Creator Training

Make Your First $1,000 with an Online Course

I'm hosting an encore training this Wednesday, May 15th that helps you build and launch your first (or next) course.

I made this for you because I kept seeing a lot of common misconceptions about courses from HeyCreator members and subscribers to this newsletter. Things like:

Courses take a lot of time to create
Courses take a lot of equipment, i.e. nice video and audio
Courses have to be a lot of lessons and cover a lot of content
I’m a coach/consultant/freelancer/agency and don’t need courses

So I want to show you that none of that is true and a course is actually a lot easier than you think.

Come hang out with me on May 15th (that’s this Wednesday) at 2:00pm ET, 1:00pm CT, 11:00am PT, 6:00pm UTC and I’ll give you all the info you need to build and launch your first (or next) course.

Courses are a key piece of the creator business because it allows you to teach your best stuff to an unlimited number of people at their own pace. Having a course shows people “I know what I’m talking about and I can help you.”

It also gives you a helpful price anchor for other offers, like coaching. I’m excited to share these ideas with you, they’re steps that can become the foundation of your creative business!

👀 A Video to Watch

Why You Buy Books You Don't Read

A good title will draw the right viewer in immediately, and this was the case for me and this video! I have lots of books I've bought but never read — but to me that's not really a bad thing. I buy books because even though lots of books can be expensive, compressed knowledge from smart people is absolutely worth $20-30.

What I liked about this video is that it talks about a few methods for getting more out of books, how to sort through interesting books, and a bit about the book business.

Watch more here!

Watch on YouTube →

The WRAP is sponsored by

Mighty Networks
🤝 Daily Stoic Life

In the Big Idea 💡 I mentioned Ryan's Daily Stoic Life community, and you already know that I run my Dad community, Father Fire, on Mighty Networks!

As a member of Daily Stoic Life (DSL), you get bonus weekend emails from Ryan, access to all his courses, regular Q&A sessions with him, and a really cool DSL gift box that you can't get anywhere else!

If you're curious about the how of a community then you should know that Daily Stoic and thousands of other communities run on Mighty Networks!

It has all the features you would expect from a community platform, like spaces for posts, chats, and the ability to go live. But my favorite little feature are the AI-driven polls and questions.

If you're a person building community with others over a common vision or goal (like living a great life) — then check out Mighty Networks and see what they can do to support your mission.

Check out Mighty Networks →