The Dangerous Way I Made a Lot of Money This Year

YOUTUBE  📚 THE READING LIFE  📚  PATREON

Read on The Competitive Advantage.com | Read Time: ~3 Minutes

📚 Hey, good morning! Time to win.

The change that made me the most money this year in my business also comes with the biggest danger.

The change was that I started taking my business more seriously, and ran it as a business, and not a hobby that paid me money, which was kinda how I was approaching it before.

It’s funny: I was still doing this even after I made the switch to being a full time creator.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about turning a profit. I did, very much so.

It was more that I assumed it would happen “just because.”

Business, the economy - life - doesn’t work that way. Results always follow intention. Very few people succeed in grand fashion by accident.

So I did things like set up Stripe invoicing instead of using my personal PayPal, documenting my entire process and hiring freelancers to help me complete various projects, systemizing my creative process, etc.

“Systemizing my creative process.” A contradiction in terms, I know. But it worked. “Turning pro” in this way made me a lot more money.

The danger, however, was/is that by “professionalizing” my business and how I was showing up online, all the fun would be sucked out of it for me, and I’d come to resent “having to read for work.”

It just so happens that reading a lot of books and sharing what I’ve learned on the internet allowed me to build a life-changing business, but the danger is the same for all of us no matter what we do.

Don’t let business kill what you love.

Don’t let the drive to “monetize” drive all the fun out of what you do.

Whether that’s swimming, teaching people how to use Notion, personal training - literally anything people might pay you for online.

Take it seriously; earn what you’re worth; try to be better every day. Be a professional and stack some serious cash.

But don’t let the money kill the fun.

PROGRESS ON APRIL GOALS:

Read 20 Books | 13 Books Left

Publish 12 New Time Mastery Videos | 12 Videos Left

Publish 28 YouTube Videos | 26 Videos Left

Publish 140 Medium Articles | 131 Articles Left

Get Monetized on YouTube | 3,729 Watch Hours Left

Completely Update My Social Media | 7 Platforms Left

Completely Update My Patreon Page | Incomplete

Completely Update My Newsletter Platforms | Incomplete

Completely Update My Welcome Email Sequence | Incomplete

Get Down to Inbox Zero | Embarrassing Number of Emails Left

Negotiate 10 Newsletter Partnerships | 10 Partnerships Left

Do 12 Instagram Collaborations | 12 Collaborations Left

Reach 110,000 Instagram Followers | 4,783 Followers Left

Reach 20,000 Threads Followers | 5,700 Followers Left

Reach 9,000 X Followers | 1,390 Followers Left

Reach 3,000 Medium Followers | 1,158 Followers Left

Reach 2,000 Facebook Followers | 764 Followers Left

Reach 1,000 LinkedIn Followers | 356 Followers Left

Reach 5,000 YouTube Subscribers | 3,796 Subscribers Left

Reach 5,000 Reading Life Subscribers | 1,378 Subscribers Left

Reach 1,000 Competitive Advantage Subscribers | 565 Subscribers Left

Reach 50 Competitive Advantage Members | 12 Members Left

Reach 30 Patreon Supporters | 10 Supporters Left

Update 25 Patreon Book Notes | 18 Book Notes Left

Introduce Myself to 280 Authors | 254 Authors Left

Fill 4 Author Promo Slots for May | 1 Spot Left

Fill 1 Open Business Coaching Spot | COMPLETED

Fill 5 Open Fitness Coaching Spots | 2 Spots Left

Note: I’ll update follower counts once per week, since it’s such a waste of time to go through all of them every single night. Also, Threads annoyingly doesn’t give exact numbers. Oh well.

As always, at the bottom of this email I’ll lay out everything I did today to move closer to my Ultimate Vision. This is to keep me accountable and to show you that I’m working as hard as I’m encouraging you to work…

Forward this to a friend you think would love this post!

If you were sent this, click here to subscribe.

To read past editions, click here.

​Click here to recommend The Competitive Advantage on Twitter (X).

Woke Up: 12:00PM

Sleep Quality: 79%

Pages Read: 78

Workout: Rest Day

Work Completed:

Posted 1x on Instagram

Posted 1x on Facebook

Posted 1x on LinkedIn

Posted 2x on Threads

Posted 1x on Twitter

Organized All Upcoming Author Campaigns

Worked on My New Affiliate Program

Worked on My Email Welcome Sequence and Marketing Funnel

Worked on Updating My Skool Community

Recording Next YouTube Video

Organized My Raw Footage for Next Course Updates

Messaged 5 New Authors Regarding Book Marketing

Followed Up with a Few Author Leads

Solid Sunday! I’ll have more to say on this later, but I’m really getting everything organized when it comes to the backend of my business.

Still lots to do on the FRONT end haha. And several of my April goals have gotten away from me, but the future of my business is so bright that it hurts my eyes to look at it :)

But now, I’m going to bed!

Until next time…happy reading!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are five more ways I can help you:

1. Work with me personally to take control of your schedule, grow your business, and enhance your learning, performance, and productivity

2. Become a Premium Member of The Competitive Advantage and enjoy exclusive, early access to new posts and videos, plus discounts on all my courses and memberships

3. These are 50 of the greatest books I’ve ever read (out of more than 1,250+), along with complete breakdowns of all the key ideas

4. Get my summaries and book notes from all 1,250+ books

5. Join The Reading Life, my other newsletter where 3,600+ people are gaining wisdom and strength from the greatest books that have stood the test of time