This is the start of a series called The Micro Business.

So for the next few weeks (and months) it'll mostly be about the creator economy and how you can start and grow your micro business with 2-4 hours of work a day (with a few self-improvement letters here and there).

The Permissionless Age

We live in a permissionless time.

You no longer need degrees, certifications or fancy labels to build something unique.

The term "expert" is a sign of slow progress.

You're being called an expert because you stayed the same for a certain number of years (this just makes you more prone to be replaced by AI)

You're always learning something new. You're always becoming something new. You're always evolving — being called an expert means you haven't evolved.

And with layoff culture, you can't risk staying the same.

Microsoft announced it's going to lay off 6,000 employees.

Companies will continue laying off their employees. AI will keep replacing jobs (375 million jobs by 2030).

This will only keep getting worse.

You need to become irreplaceable.

You become irreplaceable by doing things without permission.

You pursue something you deeply care about, learning skills that help you do the thing you love better, writing content that educates people on the thing you love, building a product that helps people do it as well, and attracting people who are similar to you.

Just the other day, I saw a guy create an app in 5 minutes with AI because he felt like it.

This proves 2 things:

• How crazy good AI has become

• You don't need anyone's permission to do anything

You can learn new skills faster than ever before.

You can find the knowledge you need to do anything you want.

You can run a profitable one-person business that would've taken 20+ employees to run 20 years ago.

You don't need a degree.

You don't need a certification.

You just need to be able to get results.

That's the beauty of the permissionless economy. The creator economy.

It blows my mind just how few people realize the opportunity that the internet (and AI) has given the individual.

The internet has leveled the playing field. Small one-person businesses are making millions.

You no longer need institutions or investors to start a business.

The internet connects everybody to everybody.

You can reach anyone in the world with just a phone. You can send an email. You can write a tweet. You can write a blog post. You can create YouTube videos. You can record a podcast and reach millions of people. You can build an audience. You can build a product that serves your audience and start a business and create wealth and make people happy and make yourself happy.

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If you'd like help on how to start your own one-person business, in 14 days, The Modern Creator Bootcamp starts. In there you'll get personalized help to start, build, and grow your one-person business with just 1-2 hours of work.

It's currently 33% off (early-bird sale ends in 2 days)

Click here to join.

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The 3 Evergreen Skills

When I first started writing online I obsessed with learning new skills.

I fell into the trap of "skill stacking".

Every day I would spend hours learning.

I would spend 6+ hours building and doing things, thinking that I would make progress faster.

But if you want to start and run a profitable micro business…

Make money by talking about ideas you're passionate about…

Work 1-2 hours a day…

And see results consistently…

You only need 3 skills.

They are going to be your lever movers, anything else is just a "nice to have".

These 3 skills are what allowed me to reach 20,000 followers and make $4,000-$5,000 a month

And it's the same skills that have helped Dan Koe make $4M+ a year and Tim make $1.2M+ a year and Kieran to make $500k+ a year.

And they're all micro businesses.

You don't need to have a crazy skill stack like most people would think. You don't need to work all day to replace your current income (and make more)

I don't obsess over how much I'm making — if I wanted to make more money I would take on more 1-on-1 clients and ghostwriting clients and start making $10,000+ a month but I value my time.

I started my micro business because I wanted the freedom to do what I want and work when I want.

This month, I'm expecting to make 2-3x the amount I'm making.

But before I tell you the skills, I want to preface the fact that these skills aren't just related to micro businesses.

They also apply to your career and life.

If you want to have a successful career, want to lead a team of people to build a project, or do anything in life that requires you to deal with other people…

These skills are a necessity.

Audience-Building

A business without customers is not a business.

A business that is not making money is not a business.

An audience is leverage.

An audience is potential customers.

An audience is the fuel for your business.

When you have an audience, you can start a music career without a record label.

When you have an audience, you can publish your own book.

When you have an audience, a world of opportunities opens up to you.

Just look at the 18-year-old influencers. They're not smarter than you. They don't have more experience than you. The only reason why they might be more successful than you is because they have an audience.

Your ability to build an audience comes down to how well you can capture, hold, and convert scrollers into followers and customers.

Gurus love to tell you that you don't need an audience to make money, but they're doing it to sell you a dream.

Truth is, the bigger your audience is, the more money you'll make (and the easier it will be).

Last week I had a mini launch and made $1,600+ with just 4 hours of work.

That $400/hour.

Which is insane because just 12 months ago I was making less than $500 a month…

That just goes to show the power of having an audience.

The best part?

You've already built an audience, just a small one, your friends.

Now you just need to do it on the internet, where you can reach millions of people with just a simple idea and a tweet.

Building

Having an audience is potential customers.

To make actual money, you need something for them to buy.

After all, money is just an exchange of value.

You give value (product or service), and they give you value in return (money).

It's as simple as that.

You don't need to build the next Facebook, Google, or ChatGPT.

You just need to build something that your audience finds valuable.

This is where most people go wrong.

They spend hours of their day building a product that no one wants or finds valuable.

If you don't know what to build, build something your previous self would've found helpful.

Build products that help people solve their own problems faster.

You learn faster. You understand yourself better. You're forced to think about your process which makes you more aware of your systems and daily actions and realize the gaps you have.

Selling

An audience is potential customers. A product is potential money. What makes it all a reality and a business is the sales process.

There's a huge stigma around money.

You've been conditioned since you were a kid that people with money are evil.

Society has always painted the picture that people who are wealthy are always drug dealers, criminals, evil corporations, a corrupt politician, judge, lawyer, doctor, or a wealthy family that has been corrupted for years.

But you never saw the other side of the coin — people with money are doing good — so all you know are the evil corporations who are exploiting their employees and customers to make a quick profit.

If you think money is inherently evil, what message are you sending? Good people are supposed to suffer and be poor?

I refuse to believe that that's the case.

If you think money is evil, you will never create wealth. You will always find ways to self-sabotage (you'll do it unconsciously)

If creating wealth is the goal and you're constantly self-sabotaging, that means you're going in the opposite direction, poverty. And there's nothing noble about being poor.

You're not Jesus. Stop glorifying poverty as if it's some great sacrifice you're making.

The best sacrifice you can make is to dedicate your entire life to helping people solve their own problems and improve their lives. You need money to do this for your entire life. You make money by knowing how to sell.

Even charities sell. When they host fundraisers, that's them selling.

Truth is, if you don't have money, you can't do much in this world.

If you don't shamelessly promote your products or offers, you won't sell. You'll spend the rest of your life working for someone else (doing a job you hate) and they'll do the selling for you and you'll get paid pennies for what they're making.

If you don't promote yourself every day, you're doing a disservice to humanity.

Because you're not helping people solve their own problems and helping humanity advance as a civilization.

Selling is not you being greedy. Selling is not you being anti-spiritual. Selling doesn't make you "less noble".

Selling is how you convince people to solve their own problems. Selling is how you get to do what you love for a living. Selling is how you show people your value.

And the craziest part is people don't realize that they've sold stuff before…

When you told your friends to buy a video game so you could play together, or when you tried to convince a friend to hang out with you.

That's selling.

The reason it worked because it came from a genuine place.

The same thing is when you sell your own products. When you sel,l it needs to come from a genuine place. Because that's how you help people.

If you're a lifeguard and saw someone else drown, would you let them drown and di,e or would you go and help them?

The same thing is with selling.

If you have a solution to a problem and you see someone struggling with the same problem, would you not help them?

Look…

If you don't sell, you're exploiting yourself.

You're consciously making the decision to spend money (for equipment), spend time to create a YouTube script and film it, spend effort recording and editing and you're telling me you're doing all of this to not make money?

My guess?

You say you don't want to make money so people around you don't judge you when they see you fail.

But deep down, you're doing it because you want to make money — you're just afraid of people seeing you as a failure, so you downplay yourself.

This is a self-limiting belief you have that you need to get over.

The sooner you can go from the mindset of "this is not a hobby or a side-hustle" to "this is a business and my life's work" the sooner you'll get what you want out of life.

And if you'd like help to build a one-person business with just 1 hour a day talking about the things you love and get paid to do it (without having to go through the hassle of figuring out your path), inside the Modern Creator Bootcamp I'll help you do it in 5 weeks.

It's on a 33% early-bird sale (sale ends in 2 days).

Click here to join.

- Hussain