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make money with your mind, not your time
how to turn thoughts into high leverage workers
Taylin John Simmonds
January 18, 2024
Make money with your mind, not your time.
Hot Take: It’s Okay to Work a 9-to-5
But there is a down side that most people don’t know.
One that’s a silent killer.
And no, it’s not:
❖ A lack of freedom
❖ Your dick head boss
❖ Or the inability to set your own hours
It’s something much worse…
The Secret Downside of Working Your 9-to-5
You need compound growth to get ahead.
There is no exception to this rule.
Most 9-to-5’s, unfortunately, offer linear growth.
Let me explain…
As a college teacher, I got a 1% raise each year (if I asked).
With an annual salary of $42,000, that’s $420 per year…
…$33.3 per month.
I had no equity in the business - couldn’t exit or sell shares.
Wasn’t attracting new job opportunities.
And wasn’t building a personal brand.
Meanwhile, life continued to get more expensive
↳ Rent, pickles, travel, Netflix, lattes, etc… All inflating in price.
Even if I saved 20% of each paycheque, I’d still never get ahead financially.
Cause the thing is…
In 2024, linear growth is a slow death.
Compound growth is how you get ahead.
Work at most 9-to-5’s; you will always struggle and fail to reach your potential.
Which leads to the biiiiiiiigggggggg question:
What should you do instead?
The Secrets of Compound Growth
Compound growth comes from:
❖ Writing online
❖ Building a business
❖ Creating a magnetic digital identity - personal brand
These 3 vehicles all come with ‘asymmetric rewards.’
↳ Your outputs are greater than your inputs
My 9-to-5 college teaching job:
Input 2 year of work. Output $84,000.
Building my online business:
Input 2 year of work. Output $500,000+.
See what I mean by greater outputs?
That’s compounding, baby!
Making money with your time is out.
Making money with your mind is in.
Even crazier, I did this using the power of ‘Thought Mechanics.’
Here’s how you can use it too…
Making Money with Your Mind
In the digital world, people only see what you think, not what you do.
Read that again.
This is due to the nature of social media.
At the core, social media is one big library of curated thoughts.
A place where creators share thoughts in exchange for attention.
This means, your ability to build an online business is determined by the quality of your thoughts.
The more attention your thoughts can capture. The more money you can potentially make.
Thoughts → Content → Attention → Offers → $$$
Investors use money to make money.
Marketers use thoughts to make money.
Your thoughts are digital employees.
Working and marketing for you while you sleep.
↳ Building brand, attracting followers, and increasing your influence
You just need to know how to turn your thoughts into workers…
Use Thought Mechanics
Thought = A mental observation
↳ “Coke Zero is 10x better than Diet Coke”
Idea = A combination of thoughts that leads to a desirable transformation
↳ “To make money with your mind, turn your thoughts into ideas that attract customers.”
See the difference?
⇢ Thoughts you accept as true become beliefs.
⇢ Combined beliefs lead to new ideas.
⇢ Ideas lead to new actions.
⇢ Actions lead to new habits.
⇢ Habits lead to new transformations.
⇢ Transformations lead to new identities.
Put simply:
The quality of your thoughts determines who you become (and who your customers can become).
This is ‘Thought Mechanics’ at work.
And the system works like this:
Write down your thoughts
Refine them into rough ideas (advice)
Apply ethical persuasion tactics to create compelling ideas (thought workers)
Capture attention by deploying your ‘thought workers’ online as social media content
Test which ‘thought workers’ do the best job (capture the most attention)
Turn the best ‘thought workers’ into digital products or services by offering desirable transformations in exchange for money
If done right, your ‘thought workers’ will perform ‘inception.’
Penetrating deep into the psyche of your customer.
Changing them on the identity level.
This new identity will transform their life for the better.
Making you their Cobb - the one who planted the idea that changed their life.
(Let’s ignore the fate of Mal and just run with the analogy 😉)
If this all sounds too abstract, here’s an example:
Mark Manson is my hero.
His ideas changed my life.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is the most important book I’ve ever read.
It helped me reframe my negative thinking and adopt healthier, more constructive core values.
These changes made me happier, improved my relationships, and gave me the confidence to pursue writing online.
In a weird psychological way, Mark Manson is a part of who I am.
He’s inside of me…
At least… His idea’s are.
Thoughts → Ideas → Attention → Book →$$$
Mark Manson makes money with his mind.
So does Dan Koe, Dickie Bush, Kieran Drew, Dakota Robertson, Lara Acosta and all the other creators making money on X and LinkedIn.
And guess what?
You can too.
Implement my 6 point list above for 1 to 2 years.
You’ll have hundreds of high value ‘thought workers’ making money for you while you sleep, party, and play Call of Duty.
It won’t be easy. But hell. Nothing worth pursuing in life ever is.
Until next time,
Taylin John Simmonds
P.S. This an article from my private community - The School of Thought.
Last week we met for 2 hours to write content together.
And guess what?
Having a group of passionate creators provide feedback on your writing before you post it, is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your social media growth.
Since I’ve been doing it, my average retweet has 7x’d and I’m now close to 80,000 followers.
This works because everyone else is selling knowledge.
But at The School of Thought we focus on implementation.
Actually using the knowledge you have to grow your audience and increase your income.
Hell, Brandon Frederick used our tips and made $2,500 last week off a single consulting call (he got the lead from our X space).
If this sounds like something you f*ck with, reply to this email to see if you qualify.
See you in the next issue,
T.S.
P.P.S. There’s free “goodies” below ;)
Oh. Are you still hungry?
If your mouth is salivating for more goodies, check out these free courses and cheat sheets (more coming soon):