• You have multiple interests but don’t how to attract people to your work (for work to be valuable, it needs people that deem it valuable.)
• You already have a one-person business but aren’t confident in the quality of your social media posts, newsletters, or content as a whole.
• You are already writing online but don’t have a systemized way of creating content that stands out (without templates or copying others).
• You haven’t started learning a skill and want to learn one that you can sell on its own, or enhance the impact of every other in-demand skill.
• You are earning with your time instead of your mind and want to build a foundation to reverse that.
• You have followed the common advice of “learn a skill, sell the skill” with little success (because you don’t have attention, authority, or an audience).
• You are sick and tired of learning skills that lead to nowhere — and that you don’t see yourself doing for more than 10 years.

I started out like everyone else.I had no idea what I was doing with skills like Facebook ads, email marketing, web design, digital art, dropshipping, eCommerce, SEO, and almost any other skill you could imagine.But from those failures, I learned 3 things:

1) Writing is the foundation of all valuable communication.

When I say “valuable” here, I mean monetizable.Once I learned to write, I took my freelance web design business (of all things) to 6 figures.Knowing how to communicate your value is important.Think about it, if you don’t want to learn to code, the only other option should be writing.The front end of the internet is media.Writing is the foundation of media.Tweets? Writing.Threads? Writing.Newsletters? Writing.Blog posts? Writing.YouTube videos? Done best with written scripts.Instagram reels and TikToks? Like reading well-written tweets.Images on Instagram? Usually designed from a well-written quote or saying.Captions on any platform? Writing that results in the most followers and conversions (the content itself doesn’t do that.)Any other form of online marketing, advertising, or entertainment? Starts with writing.The list goes on.There’s a reason myself, my clients, and my friends get more engagement, followers, and sales than those that show off their booties and six packs all day:High-impact digital writing.

2) Employers, prospects, and potential customers are online.

It should be pretty clear by now that the world (especially commerce and work) is going digital.Employers are tired of sifting through terrible resumes.Instead, they are reaching out to those that are displaying their value with their “Public Resume” (online writing).This is one of my former students as an example. I guarantee he wouldn’t have landed the design job without writing on Twitter:

In short, you write about what you love and opportunities find their way to you.I’m simplifying here, of course, but it’s the reality of many that are growing their audience with little experience with writing itself.The internet is an interest attractor (just think about the people you follow, could you write what they write? Go and look. I bet you can).

3) The future belongs to the creative.

When I say creative, I don’t mean a creative skill like design. A skill has its limits.I’m talking about the opposite of labor, as others can be trained into labor.Creativity happens at the intersection of your genuine interests and personality.The way you solve problems based on your unique experiences is going to be different from the next guy.If you can cultivate your creative problem solving skills, you shouldn’t have a problem in the emerging digital economy.If you are brand new to writing, take a look at the next Tweet you read.What are they doing with their writing?Solving problems through education, actionable advice, and unique perspectives.How do you pursue your genuine interests full time?By educating and inspiring others through writing online.How do you grow into your authentic self?Through self-awareness and understanding.How do you develop self-awareness and understanding?Journaling.AKA writing.In a public journal (the internet).All. Roads. Lead. To. Writing.If I were to go back and change one thing, it would be to learn writing first.