Creator vs 9-5: An honest comparison

So… you came here for 3-4 hour work days.

That’s the dream you get sold when you enter The Creator Economy, right?

You’ve got Dan Koe selling his 2-Hour Writer routine.

You’ve got Justin Welsh flexing earning $10,000 a day from selling courses while he sleeps.

And you’ve got JK Molina shoving $100k/month Stripe screenshots in your face while “only working 3-4 hours/day” every time you open your Gmail account.

And, based on that…

It seems the creator life is a total cake walk.

Well, as someone who has experienced both sides of the coin (the “9-5 life” AND the “Full-Time Creator” life), I thought I’d weigh in on this today.

Because, let me tell you something most other creators (who act like they never work more than 2 hours per day) won’t:

Being a Creator often involves a lot of hard work.

For the past 6-8 weeks, for example, I’ve been nose to the grindstone (working much harder than I ever did in my 9-5)

Between writing these emails to you, writing copy for clients, serving a few coaching clients, and building my flagship course, Client Creator (which launches this Tuesday, FYI)…

I’d say, on average, I’ve been working from 7am until 7pm.

That’s not “flat out”.

I’ve still been taking an hour or two for lunch and going to the gym at 11am most days (much quieter when everyone else is at work).

But to say it’s been an “easy” few months would be total and utter bollocks.

BUT (and it’s a big butt)…

There are 3 key differences between working hard as a Creator versus working hard in a 9-5.

And, as one of the few people who has experienced both sides of the coin, I thought I’d write a “quick” email on these today (and show you why I’d choose The Creator Life every day of the week, and twice on Sunday).

1) Hard-work as a Creator builds future leverage

Building a course is a lot of work.

Not just because you’ve spent 30+ hours hopping on FREE Zoom calls with your audience to figure out EXACTLY what they’re struggling with before you even start building the thing.

Not just because you’ve committed to packing your course full of examples, real-life offers and excruciatingly-detailed explanations to make sure your audience understand EXACTLY how to land clients of their own.

And not just because you’ve been constantly sending “snippets” of the course to creators to get their feedback so you deliver the best possible final product

But also because there’s a fuck ton of other “backend” stuff you have to consider when building the product.

You have to find a great platform to host your course on.

You have to write a sales page to show your audience what they’re getting.

And you also have to figure out how to market the thing!

But once you’ve finished all that?

You are DONE.

Sure, I’ll be constantly refining the course based on what I learn (I plan on doing a monthly “release cycle” with all my latest insights — a throwback to my Software Dev days — where I ping the members with all the juicy new deets).

But, because it’s all based on evergreen principles, 90% of all the work is done.

And then my “creator life” will return to baseline:

• One email to you every morning (60 mins)

• Client check-ins and copywriting (~120 mins)

• Backend systems building (60 mins)

Except this time, I’ll have a low-ticket product which earns me a couple thousand dollars every month and pays for my very inexpensive lifestyle (based on my calculations) with pretty much ZERO work.

You’ve built leverage.

You’ve added another “rung” on the ladder you’re climbing towards time and financial freedom.

In a 9-5, you simply can’t get that:

Every day you start from “zero”, because you’re building someone else’s business, other than your own.

And as much as a steady paycheque is nice, a steady progression towards the life you actually want: freedom, is a whole lot nicer for me.

2) You work on your time, no-one else’s

Let me be real with you.

There have been plenty of occasions over the past 2-3 months when I’ve had one too many G&Ts and, for better or worse, not risen until the sun was shining bright in my eyes the next morning.

In my 9-5 life, turning over to check my iPhone to see a burning white 9:07AM staring me straight in the face (while still dressed in my clothes from the night before) would have been instant panic stations, stress about whether my late attendance would factor into my performance reviews, and desperately trying to come up with an excuse to give my boss for why I was “late” on my scramble to work.

Now?

I just start work a bit later.

The people at the coffee house where I write all my content don’t give a fuck what time I turn up.

They just say hi, ask me if I want my usual (white Americano, decaf) and let me crack on with my day.

It’s difficult to explain the feeling of not having to “explain yourself” to anyone, until you’ve experienced it for yourself.

3) Your personality is an asset, not a liability

One of the things I find most frustrating in life is having to pretend to be someone I’m not.

For example…

I hate wearing a suit (I had to in my 9-5).

I hate not being able to speak my mind (I constantly had to “temper” what I said in my 9-5, especially around the “senior” people).

I hate having to sit in meetings, smile, and ask “fake” questions which make it look like I’m interested in shitty projects I’ve been assigned (if you’re in a 9-5 right now, I’m sure this sounds familiar)

And while none of these things sound awful…

They slowly, but surely, eat away at you until one day you say “enough is enough”.

Enter, the Creator Life:

The life where you can wear whatever the fuck you want while you type out your daily email.

The life where, even though you go through periods of hard work, at least it’s working hard on projects you’re actually proud of.

The life where, instead of being rewarded for conforming, your unique personality suddenly becomes your biggest advantage.

That, to me, is what people really mean when they talk about “freedom”.

Because being a Creator isn’t always “easy”.

You do have to put in some long hours (especially if you’re committed to overdelivering for your audience).

But I can tell you this for sure:

Getting to spend your time ONLY on the shit you want to be doing, work exactly when and where you want to work, and never feel like you have to “hide” who you are, is a life I’ll never be willing to give up.

I want to help you experience this too.

And that’s the reason I built my flagship course, Client Creator, in the first place.

To give you access to all the insights I used to scale my own personal brand from “ground zero” to $15,000/month in under 6 months (and escape the 9-5 life which slowly ate away at me until I couldn’t take it anymore).

We launch this Tuesday.

The beta tester feedback has been phenomenal.

It’s going to give you everything you need to finally land the high-ticket clients you deserve after all the work you’ve been putting in.

And I can’t wait to share it with you over the next few days.

Join 150+ Creators on the waitlist here.

PS. We launch on August 20th (schedule below).

8am: The 150+ waitlist members will receive priority access to the 50 “slots” for the 50% Early Bird Discount ($149 vs $297)

12pm: The remaining 2,500+ subscribers on my email list will receive access to Client Creator. There may, or may not, be any 50% discount slots available at this point. This is why I’m advising you to plonk yourself on the Waitlist today.

4pm: I’ll announce the launch to my 6,500+ followers on X (I want to give you first dibs before I release to “the masses”, because you read my emails every day, which means a lot to me!)

If you have ANY questions about Client Creator before we launch on Tuesday…

Reply “Client”, ask me whatever is on your mind, and I’ll be sure to clear it up for you!

Get priority access to your 50% saving here.