How to spot a creator Ponzi scheme 101

· Notes

  1. Always ask, why would this person share their “secret to success"? What’s in it for them?
  2. If you love the thing you do so much and you’re really that successful at it as you say you are, would you spend your life doing that, or would you spend it turning this thing into a seminar/course/membership/self-help book and then marketing the soul out of it? You know the answer.
  3. If petting a donkey every day for 100 days is really so revolutionary and your entire life has changed since you’ve started doing it, YOU WOULD NOT be posting weekly podcasts and hosting zooms and selling $$$ closed cohort training programs about the importance of said life-altering activity. You would be outside petting the damn donkey.
  4. Hustle porn feels good to watch but it’s never like the real thing.
  5. A disproportionate amount of the so-called “creator economy” is people who have become financially independent creators by selling courses and resources that profess to show other people how to become financially independent creators. It’s creators all the way down, baby, don’t fall for it.

Note: Not all courses, Notion templates, self-help books, and memberships are scams. Some teach you real skills and help you feel more confident -- hell, I might launch a course myself one day, who knows! -- but they are drops in a deep, deep ocean and I want you all to swim safe.