- The Competitive Advantage
- Posts
- What's Your Minimum Viable Income?
What's Your Minimum Viable Income?
YOUTUBE đź“š THE READING LIFE đź“š PATREON
đź“š Hey, good morning! Time to win.
I’m a full-time content creator, coach, and book reviewer. You may know that already. I support myself completely through internet dollars, and I don’t have anyone telling me what to do or when to do it.
But I had to work up to here, and I’m nowhere near where I’m going to end up.
There are levels to this game.
What I found extraordinarily helpful in the beginning though was to get VERY clear on what the exact minimum amount of money I’d need to bring in if I wanted to quit my job completely and go all-in on this “internet thing.”
$2,000 a month. Canadian. Which is something like $1,500USD and NOT a lot of money whatsoever. I mean, it’s a lot if you’re starting at zero, but what I’m saying is that it’s ACHIEVABLE.
It also helped me tremendously even to HAVE this number clearly specified. To know that $2K was ALL I needed in order to make this work.
Breaking it down even further, if you have just four revenue streams in your business, that’s just $500 from each of them and you’re there!
So if you’re able to live on $2,000 or less, at least for NOW, you can go full time and devote even MORE time to making money online, which will help you earn more money online FASTER, in an upward, virtuous cycle.
I realize that, depending on where you live, $1,500USD may not take you very far at all. And you certainly don’t have to STAY there. By all means, strive for more.
But it’s the FREEDOM this brings you that’s most important.
I have too much to say about this for just one email, but it’s also a key IDENTITY shift when you go from “maybe I can make this side hustle work”, to “full time business owner/professional creator.”
It all comes down to knowing your number, though, and realizing that it’s not THAT far away. And it’s CERTAINLY not unattainable.
For me in my business, $1,500 is like 2-3 author campaigns on Instagram. I do at least 1 per week.
There are so many ways to break it down, too.
To earn $1,000 by writing on Medium, it’s $33/day.
Same with the YouTube Partner Program. Your videos earn $33/day, you earn $1,000/month. It’s NOT easy, but it’s NOT out of reach.
Do the math. Run the numbers. Help yourself BELIEVE.
There are still 10 spots remaining inside The Competitive Advantage community and you can grab one of the last remaining ones here.
If you want to surround yourself with a group of ambitious, supportive winners on their way to adding $5K/month in monthly recurring revenue to their business, that’s exactly where you need to be.
Within My Direct Control:
Read 20 Books | 19 Books Left
Publish 8 New Time Mastery Videos | 8 Videos Left
Publish 29 YouTube Videos | 28 Videos Left
Publish 150 Medium Articles | 147 Articles Left
Completely Update My Social Media | Incomplete
Completely Update My Patreon Page | Incomplete
Completely Update My Newsletter Platforms | Incomplete
Completely Update My Email Welcome Sequence | Incomplete
Launch Affiliate Program for My Paid Community | Incomplete
Update 20 Patreon Book Notes | 20 Book Notes Left
Introduce Myself to 600 Authors | 595 Authors Left
Not Within My Direct Control:
Get Monetized on YouTube | 3,660 Watch Hours Left
Negotiate 12 Newsletter Partnerships | 12 Partnerships Left
Organize 12 Instagram Collaborations | 12 Collaborations Left
Reach 115,000 Instagram Followers | 6,013 Followers Left
Reach 20,000 Threads Followers | 4,400 Followers Left
Reach 10,000 X Followers | 2,383 Followers Left
Reach 3,000 Medium Followers | 1,126 Followers Left
Reach 2,000 Facebook Followers | 759 Followers Left
Reach 2,000 LinkedIn Followers | 1,306 Followers Left
Reach 10,000 YouTube Subscribers | 8,705 Subscribers Left
Reach 10,000 Reading Life Subscribers | 6,304 Subscribers Left
Reach 1,000 Competitive Advantage Subscribers | 524 Subscribers Left
Reach 50 Competitive Advantage Members | 10 Members Left
Reach 40 Patreon Supporters | 16 Supporters 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.
Read 5 Books | 4 Books Left
Publish 2 New Time Mastery Videos | 2 Videos Left
Publish 7 YouTube Videos | 6 Videos Left
Publish 35 Medium Articles | 32 Articles Left
Completely Update My Facebook Profile | Incomplete
Completely Update My LinkedIn Profile | Incomplete
Completely Update My Threads Profile | Incomplete
Completely Update My Medium Profile | Incomplete
Completely Update My Email Welcome Sequence | Incomplete
Update 10 Patreon Book Notes | 10 Book Notes Left
Introduce Myself to 140 Authors | 135 Authors Left
Woke Up: 12:00PM
Sleep Quality: 65%
Pages Read: 60
Workout: Back + Biceps
Low Rows - 90lbs, 80lbs, 80lbs, 80lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)
DB Rows - 65lbs, 65lbs, 60lbs, 60lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)
Single-Arm Lat Pulldowns - 60lbs, 60lbs, 50lbs, 50lbs (12 reps, last set to failure)
DB Curls - 35lbs, 30lbs, 30lbs, 30lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)
I’m thinking that’s not enough volume for back, so I may experiment with one more back exercise next time. I want my workouts to be short and intense (and not overtrain my biceps) but I’ll test one more exercise next time.
Work Completed:
Worked on Next Book Breakdown
Worked on Batching New Content
Managed My Skool Community
Met with Head of Marketing at a Publishing Company
Coaching Calls and Other Client Work
Completely Organized My Workflow for Tomorrow
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).
Busy, BUSY day today! I had that meeting with the head of marketing at that independent publisher - THAT was exciting. And had some other calls/etc. Coaching-type stuff. Very productive and profitable, one of my favorite combinations.
But it didn’t leave me a ton of time for other work or reading, especially since I went out to dinner with my dad later on and then went to the gym.
So it was a long, full day with tons of cool possibilities opening up and big things happening, but I didn’t get a lot of “work work” done! That HAS to change tomorrow, though, because I still have sooo much left to do this month.
But hey, it’s 4:30AM here right now and I’m going to bed!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are five more ways I can help you:
Work with me personally to take control of your schedule, grow your business, and enhance your learning, performance, and productivity
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
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
Get my summaries and book notes from all 1,250+ books
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