The creator’s edge
(This is your time to build a lasting, trust-based business)
In 2013, Ryan Holiday walked away from a high-paying marketing career to focus on writing.
He didn’t have a huge audience or corporate backing; he just had a belief in his ideas and a commitment to sharing them.
He started small, publishing blog posts and emails, slowly building trust with readers. Over time, his books, The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, turned him into a household name. Today, his personal brand—not a company, algorithm, or trend—drives his success.
That’s the creator’s edge: when people trust you, your words will always have value to many, no matter how the world changes.
When you choose a career centred around an online presence, a newsletter, a brand, there are no gatekeepers.
There is no one you need to ask to get started. You just start. It’s all you. You have full freedom, without reliance on any one platform, because you can choose where and how you share your ideas.
I see many who start writing with high hopes. They don’t see immediate results and they are soon nowhere to be seen.
This is why this craft requires finding a love for the process. Because without that, you’ll always have a good reason to quit. But as you continually show up, no matter how you feel, people will see this.
They will begin to trust you. With trust, you are honing the most important component of what you’re building.
Trust makes you sticky and attractive, and gives you the edge in an AI-dominated world.
Writing is your tool for building trust, but you need faith, and you need to take the long-term view.
I wrote hundreds of articles before anyone started really engaging with my work.
That’s fine because I was willing to use that time to get better, and I knew I wanted to write for a very long time.
Over time, you will develop a unique voice and set of perspectives that people know you for.
They will associate you with certain ideas. They will attach particular emotions with your work. This is what building a personal brand looks like.
The more you do it and the larger your body of work becomes - those tweets, posts and other pieces of content that proliferate - the stronger your foundation becomes. It requires some patience.
Writing under your own name this way, where you are the central character, creates leverage that will set you apart in a world where most content will no longer be human-created.
With leverage, more time will open up for you to solidify your presence further.
Like a flywheel, the more you create, the more your brand grows, the broader your impact, and the more creative you become.
This is what I have found in the last fifteen years. As I watch my brand grow, I’ve seen its effect, and my enthusiasm and love for this craft only grow. But you do need to start, and you do need to keep it moving.
When you build trust with an audience who are familiar with you, you can pivot, evolve, move platforms and experiment without losing too many. Because many will stick with you.
Yes, many will leave, but many others more will join your cause. That’s part of the game. You must expect it.
The only real failure here is deciding to stop because you were somehow disillusioned. Those who thrive have staying power. They hold on longer than most. They create an edge.
That’s when they see the rewards.
Will you stay in the game?
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: ‘The Never Retired Writer: How to Turn Your Ideas Into a Life of Freedom, Income, and Purpose’ coming soon.
If you’d like further support with your writing, where I show you the 16 secrets I learned over 15 years of online writing to take your writing to even higher levels, you’ll want my Online Writing Alchemy course.
The course shows you everything you need to know to improve your engagement by 50% or more (beginners and intermediates welcome).
If you’d like access to hundreds of locked articles like this one, you’ll want to become a paying subscriber here on Substack for less than the price of a couple of coffees each month:
Excited about this. Can't wait to dive into your book!
One of the key insights the Category Pirates make (in their snow leopard book) is that Ryan Holiday did so well because he created/dominated a category: stoicism, particularly for a modern age. He was probably the first, and now most famous, person of the 21st century writing about stoicism for a modern age.
It's definitely the case for me: if asked about stoic personal development to instantly think Ryan Holiday, and I'm sure that's true for many others out there.
The category insight was a great learning from the Category Pirates, about owning/dominating/creating a niche/category to separate one self from others, thereby reducing/removing competition.
Cheers again, Alex, your email newsletter is one of the few that I keep an eye out on a weekly basis.