When Time is Overpriced (This is Costing You Money)

Author

Matt Karamazov
May 13, 2025

YOUTUBE đź“š THE READING LIFE đź“š PATREON

Fact-based news without bias awaits. Make 1440 your choice today.

Overwhelmed by biased news? Cut through the clutter and get straight facts with your daily 1440 digest. From politics to sports, join millions who start their day informed.

📚 Hey, let’s talk about winning.

I didn’t want to lead with this and “bait” you into opening this email, but I haven’t been sending these newsletters recently because my dad’s been in the hospital.

He’s going to live (hopefully for a very, very long time!), but it’s been a stressful few weeks for sure. Both with that, and in general.

You’re a creator, you know what I’m talking about! Never a dull moment when you set out to make money teaching people stuff on the internet.

Anyway, the Book of the Week inside Creator Launch Academy is $100M Leads, by Alex Hormozi, where he says that a person who pays with their time now is more likely to pay with their money later.

That’s fine as far as it goes - I’m all about giving, serving, and educating, regardless of whether someone chooses to go deeper with me and pay me to gain the knowledge inside my head.

But not all time is valued equally. As Hormozi explains:

“People will give you time before they’ll give you money. But, time is still a cost. If your lead magnet isn’t worth their time, it’s overpriced. And, free, or not, they won’t buy from you again. So look at it this way - if they think your lead magnet is worth their time, they’ll think your core offer is worth their money.”

In the quote above, he’s talking about your lead magnet, but the same basically goes for anything you’re offering for free in exchange for someone’s attention.

Sometimes, free is too expensive, because it’s costing them TIME, and their time is worth more than what you’re giving away.

Basically where you want to end up is with a variety of lead magnets, free material, marketing and teaching assets, etc., that are so good, people want to pay you money.

Not only that, if you go hard enough with the free value in the beginning, you’ll make people start to think that your paid stuff must be even better.

Making it even better is a whole different process (I can help), but whatever you do, you do NOT want to give away anything for free that’s not EASILY perceived as worth their time, AND their money.

Does this take extra work?

Yeah of course it does.

Will most people neglect this step?

Absolutely. Few care about excellence.

But is it the price of entry now, in a world where excellence can be delivered faster and easier with AI and other tools?

You know the answer. Excellence is the baseline around here. You can do it, but you have to be intentional about this stuff. Gone are the days when you can just toss something out for free and expect people to care.

Make them care. Demand their attention. Make your free stuff so good that it’s worth their infinitely valuable time.

If you want my personal help to add between $1-5K/month in monthly recurring revenue to your creator business, and grow your audience and authority exponentially at the same time, Creator Launch Academy is exactly where you need to be. Join here.

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).

Yeah, it’s been a long week! A long month! But I’m still here. And so are you, and that’s why we’re both gonna make it.

Another thing I failed at today was getting this newsletter out on time, before the advertiser deadline, so I had to trim it a little bit. But next time I’ll update you on my May goals, where I’m at in my business, what I’m working on now, etc.

Lots to cover! And I’ve got some exciting updates (ACTUALLY exciting, I’m not just hyping you up for no reason) with respect to Creator Launch Academy, and I’m working on some things that are really going to help you add a few bands to your monthly creator revenue.

All that’s coming later. Talk soon!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

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

  1. Book a 1-1 strategy call with me and we’ll get you up to $5K/month in revenue by following a custom plan we’ll build together.

  2. Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life newsletter and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,300+ books, exclusive discounts, and more.

  3. Join Creator Launch Academy, my private business mastermind for educational content creators who want to stand out in their niche, build multiple revenue streams, and go full-time with their creative passions.