Ever notice how much content is actually content-free-content?

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m a friend to the different and am  best known for Play Bigger, Category Pirates and being a Godfather of Category Design.
🏴‍☠️

I help startup founders, CEOs, marketers, creators, and ambitious professionals category design legendary markets and careers in a post-AI world.

**Why Category Design & Creator Capitalism?**

Category designers create markets, not competition, capturing **76% of the value** in the spaces they pioneer. 

Creator Capitalists unlock their different **superpower**—that unique edge only they bring—to build wealth and impact in an AI-driven economy. 

Whether you’re launching a company or redefining your career, I’ll show you how to own your niche and thrive.

**What I Do:**

With my partners at Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ I empower you to:

*Design & dominate new markets through writing, courses, and community.

*Discover your superpower to become a Creator Capitalist, mastering your career in the AI era.

*Build legendary businesses & careers with strategies from our #1 Amazon-charting books.

Join us at **www.categorypirates.com** to start pirating.

**My Track Record:**

*Author: Co-authored 14 #1 bestsellers, including *Play Bigger* (the first book on category design), *Niche Down*, and *Snow Leopard*.

*Podcaster: Host of Follow Your Different* (“Best Business Podcast” – Podcast Magazine) and Lochhead on Marketing (#1 charting).

*Newsletter: Run Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ Substack (top 0.5% paid business newsletter).

*Career: Former 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO, advisor, and VC limited partner.

**What People Say:**

*Play Bigger is required reading for entrepreneurs altering the landscape.” *Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
*“A quasar of energy and ideas.” – Bill Walton, NBA Legend
*“Off-putting to some, but undeniably brilliant.” – The Economist

*The Future Needs You

If you’re ready to category design a market or unleash your superpower? 

Connect with me or visit **www.categorypirates.com**. 

Let’s build something legendary—together. 
🏴‍☠️

Christopher Lochhead🏴‍☠️

LinkedIn is drowning in content-free content.

Symptoms include:
• Sh!t you’ve heard 100 times
• Lists with no consequences
• Long posts that say nothing
• Frameworks that explain zero things
• Obvious "insights” your mom already knows

If your content can’t:
• piss someone off
• change a decision
• force a tradeoff

…it’s not content.
It’s LinkedIn oatmeal.

Say something dangerous.
Or stop posting.
🏴‍☠️

Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️

“A quasar, a godfather of category design” Bill Walton | “Off-putting to some” The Economist | 15X #1 author Play Bigger & Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️| #1 Charting Apple Business Podcast

I’m really glad I didn’t listen to them nine years ago. And neither should you. Nine years ago this month, I started podcasting.  

For three reasons:
1) I believe different is a superpower
2) Authentic dialogue is a force for good
3) The business world was already drowning in content-free content

So I decided to do something about it.
They told me it was too late.

They said:
•“You missed it.”
•“Podcasting is played out.”
•“You should’ve started five years ago.”
 (Which—ironically—was 14 years ago.)

They were wrong.
Very wrong.

What actually happened.

In nine years, the podcast has:
•Helped sell 500,000 books
•Reached the top 0.5% of podcasts worldwide
•Been downloaded millions and millions of times
•Won Best Business Podcast from Podcast Magazine
•Helped create Category Pirates, now a top business newsletter
•Helped launch the first Category Design Academy in the world
•Helped power the category design movement across 190 countries

And here’s the part most people miss:
The podcast didn’t just build an audience.
It helped create a movement.

Of category designers building different futures.
Of people who refuse to accept the status quo as inevitable.

Everything is the way it is because someone changed the way it was.
We serve the people who do that:
•The pirates
•The dreamers
•The innovators
•The legends, and the losers (who get knocked down and get back up)

The goal was simple:
1) Empower the different
2) Flip the bird to the status quo
3) Make the world actually different

The lesson.
If you’re waiting for permission, consensus, or perfect timing.
Don’t.

You are not too late.
You are not too late.
You are not too late.

The people who say “it’s too late” are (almost) never the ones building anything legendary.

So if you’re thinking about starting:
•a book
•a podcast
•a category
•a business
•a movement

Ignore "them".
Go for it.
 
Hit record.
Make the thing.
Follow your different.

Let time do the rest.

Nine years in.
Just getting started. 
💪🏻🏴‍☠️

Ps. Massive thank you to: Jason DeFillippo & Jaime Jay 💥 for making it all happen. Love you boys. 🙏 🏴‍☠️

MLK said: “Judge not by the color of skin but by the content of character.”

That not a kindness quote. It’s a challenge.

•Skin color is a shortcut
•So is political party •So is ideology •So is title •So is tribe
•So is sex

It is time to end proxy judgment.

I don’t care what group you’re part of. 

I do care (a lot) about what quality of person you are. 

Character can’t be assumed. It must be observed. 
Over time. Under pressure.

Character is about actions. 
(Not words.)

We don’t want less judgment.
We want different judgment.

Based on 100% on character.

No alternative text description for this image

Yesterday, evil showed up in San Jose. A violent, armed madman turned a city into a crime scene. A carjacking. A chase. Gunfire. Chaos. Fear. And when that moment came..... 👇🏻🚔

Yesterday, evil showed up in San Jose. A violent, armed madman turned a city into a crime scene. A carjacking. A chase. Gunfire. Chaos. Fear. And when

Open article: Yesterday In San Jose. by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 2 min read

Different is the only advantage that still matters. 

1) Not better. 
Better is table stakes. 

2) Not faster. 
AI is already faster than you.

3) Not cheaper.
That’s a race to the bottom with AI agents who don’t get tired.

Different is the only thing AI can’t from humans.

Different is:
• What you frame, name and claim. 
• What you notice that others don’t.
• What you reject while others chase.
• What you believe that others won’t say.
• What problems you believe must be solved.

AI can generate answers.
It cannot decide which questions are worth asking.

AI can optimize inside a frame.
It cannot choose which frame should exist.

That’s a human job.
And not a comfortable one.

Here’s the shift nobody is prepared for:
•In the old world, value came from knowing more.
•In the new world, value comes from seeing differently.

Taste beats tools.
Point of view beats process.
Judgment beats intelligence.

Today, the market doesn’t reward effort.
It rewards clarity.

This is why most AI-generated content feels like LinkedIn oatmeal.
Technically correct.
Emotionally dead.

Designed to offend no one, and (therefore) matter to no one.

If your thinking sounds like everyone else’s.
AI won't replace you. You will let yourself be replaced.

The future doesn’t belong to the best executors.
Execution is becoming free.
It belongs to the people who:
• see earlier
• decide faster
• commit harder
• and create radical new value

Because in a world where everyone can execute at the speed of AI.

People who are different.
Make the biggest difference.
🏴‍☠️

Few people tell the CFO how to do accounting. Or R&D how to do build. But everyone tells the CMO how to do marketing. So marketing gets a lot of “help.”

Sales: “Make it sexier.”
Finance: “Where’s the ROI?”
Product: “Just talk about the features.”

And marketing lets it happen.
It bought the lie that marketing can’t be tied to revenue.

That it’s “too hard to measure.”
That it’s "more art than economics."

That’s how marketing ended up at the kids table.  
Time to flip the damn table.

Not with decks or dashboards.
With revenue that shows up uninvited.

Because the only way to reject the premise.
Is to show them the money.

Marketing isn’t a cost center.
It’s a profit engine: if you design it that way.

Companies like Tesla don’t pay for attention.
They get paid for experience.
That’s the shift.

At the bottom, marketing shouts.
At the top, customers do.

Once you see it, there’s no neutral position left.

You’re either fighting gravity.
Or deliberately climbing.

So ask yourself.
"How can our marketing generate revenue?"

“In business you need to be professional, not emotional.” That one sentence has killed more companies than bad strategy ever will.

Let’s call it what it is.
That advice isn’t wisdom.
It’s fear disguised as maturity.

Humans don’t buy, build, follow, or believe because of spreadsheets.
They do it because of emotion.

•Love.
•Hope.
•Identity.
•Ambition.
•Belonging.
•Fear of being left behind.
•Desire to make a difference.

Emotion is not the enemy of business.
Emotion is THE engine.

Every legendary company was started by someone who gave a sh!t.
Loudly.

Apple wasn’t born from “professional restraint.”
It was born from obsession.

Tesla wasn’t built by calm consensus.
It was built by conviction.

Nike didn’t say “Just Be Reasonable.”
They said Just Do It.

Here’s the dirty secret the donkeys won’t tell you. 
“Don’t be emotional” usually means:

• Don’t care too much
• Don’t risk being wrong
• Don’t challenge the status quo
• Don’t make others uncomfortable
That’s not professionalism.
That’s corporate anesthesia.

Emotion is how humans signal commitment.
Emotion is how leaders create belief.
Emotion is how movements are born.

Want a room full of emotionless executives?
Passion isn’t sloppy.
Apathy is.

Caring isn’t weakness.
Indifference is.

Vision is emotional.
Purpose is emotional.
Category design is emotional.

If you’re not emotional about what you’re building, why should anyone care?
So here’s the non-obvious advice:

•Be clear, not cold.
•Be convicted, not cautious.
•Be emotional with intent, not emotional by accident.

Wear your passion on your sleeve.
Wear your beliefs on your chest.
Wear your dreams like a badge.

Because the leaders who create different futures don’t hide what they feel.
They leverage it.

And the people telling you to “be professional, not emotional”?
They’re not leaders.
They’re spectators.

Build with emotion.
Lead with conviction.
And let the donkeys bray from the sidelines. 
🏴‍☠️

Most people are taught WHAT to think. Almost nobody is taught HOW to think. That’s why so many people are great at consuming ideas. And terrible at creating them.

Thinker’s High is the dopamine hit you only get when you actually think.
•Not scrolling. 
•Not summarizing. 
•Not asking for the hack.

Real thinking.
The moment you stop absorbing ideas and start generating them then turning them into something that changes lives, careers, or companies.

We’ve built a world optimized for instant relief:

• “Just tell me.”
• “Summarize it.”
• “Give me the shortcut.”
• “DoorDash everything.”

Thinking became optional.
And uncomfortable.

Until you ask the dangerous question:
“Why do I think what I think?”

That question breaks the spell.
And once it does, you realize something powerful:
You can take a raw idea in your head and build something that didn’t exist yesterday.

That feeling? That surge of clarity, courage, and momentum?
That’s Thinker’s High.
It’s unlimited.
Unstealable.

And the fuel you need to design your future instead of reacting to it.
Which is why we released our newest book, Thinker’s High and didn’t put it on Amazon.

We wanted a book that felt legendary.
One you return to.
Not speed-read and forget.

Inside: 50+ Category Pirates proverbs. 
Designed for repetition.
Read one quote a week.
Sit with it.

Jam with the AI prompts.
Let the thinking compound.
This isn’t a business book.

It’s a coffee-table dojo for people who want to think clearly, act boldly, and build what doesn’t exist yet.
•52 weeks.
•52 quotes.

One year of training your brain to think like a Category Designer.

That’s not a book.
That’s a transformation system. 
(L!nk in c0mments)
🏴‍☠️

You're (probably ) a creator capitalist. And don't know it.  A Creator Capitalist doesn’t apply knowledge. They create net new value. That’s the line.

Legacy knowledge workers get paid to execute inside existing systems.
Creator Capitalists get paid to invent what didn’t exist before.

One maintains the machine.
The other builds the next one.

Legacy knowledge workers get paid to apply what’s already known:

•Software engineers developing software they didn't design
•Marketers optimizing campaigns they didn’t design
•Product managers shipping roadmap items
•Analysts producing decks and dashboards
•Consultants implementing best practices
•Lawyers interpreting precedent
•Accountants closing the books
•Operators “driving efficiency”

Now. Are executives managing someone else’s strategy Useful? Yes. And replaceable? Also yes.

Creator Capitalists get paid to create net new things of value:

•New points of view
•New frameworks
•New categories
•New language
•New products
•New revenue
•New demand
•New assets

They don’t ask, “How do I do this better?”

They ask, “What shouldn’t exist anymore, and what replaces it?”

Legacy workers sell execution.
Creator Capitalists build equity in ideas.

They don’t climb ladders.
They build new buildings. 

They don’t wait for permission.
They design the game, and charge admission.

In an AI world, applying existing knowledge is collapsing to zero.
Creating net new meaning, direction, and value?

That’s where the money is 💰.
That’s a Creator Capitalist.

Let’s be candid. If your 2026 career plan still depends on:
 • a boss saying yes
 • an algorithm behaving
 • a company “seeing your value”

That’s not a dream career.
That’s a lease. With a termination clause.

Creator Capitalists don’t chase roles.
They build (net new) value.

Here’s the shift:
•Employees think in ladders.
•Creator Capitalists think in assets.

Not just money. Four kinds:
 1) Intellectual → how you see the world
 2) Audience → people who trust your POV
 3) Product → things you build once, sell many times
 4) Financial → cash flow + optionality

Posts don’t compound.
Assets do.

Using AI to “create more content” is table stakes.
Using AI to turn experience into owned assets is the game.

•Apps
•Agents. 
•Courses. 
•Mini-books. 
•Frameworks. 
•Communities.
 
Build once. Sell forever. Update occasionally.
And one rule that decides everything:
If you don’t own the relationship, you don’t own the career.

The flex in 2026 isn’t virality or titles.
It’s the ability to walk away.

Stop asking:
“Who will hire me?”

Start asking:
“What do I own?”

That question is how dream careers are built. 
🏴‍☠️

The most important promotion is realizing the ladder you’re on goes nowhere.

Just recorded and dropped an explosive podcast with Sharren Haskel, Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. We sat down on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. As the world watches Iran descend into chaos.

For over a month, brave Iranians have flooded the streets in massive protests demanding an end to the oppressive regime. In response, the IRGC has unleashed deadly violence.

Killing and capturing their own people, with reports of hundreds to thousands dead in the crackdown. 

They've imposed a near-total internet blackout to hide the atrocities and silence the uprising.

US President Donald Trump declared to the Iranian people: “Help is on the way”. And he's clearly signaling potential use of force if the slaughter continues.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel stands with the Iranian people's struggle for freedom, liberty, and justice.

And that this could be the moment when Iranians finally “take their fate into their own hands.”

In this raw, unfiltered conversation with Deputy Minister Haskel, we dive deep:

•The escalating crisis in Iran 
•The shifting balance of power in the Middle East
•Her direct message to the Iranian people amid the bloodshed
•Her vision for a freer, more stable future in the region
•The lasting scars and transformations from October 7, 2023
•The current reality on the ground in Gaza
•How dramatically the Middle East (and the entire world) is changing right now, in real time

This isn't just talk.

It's frontline insight from one of Israel's most outspoken leaders on the regime change possibilities, the threats from Tehran, and what comes next for global security.

If you're tracking the biggest geopolitical shifts of our era, this episode is must-listen. 

Drop a comment: What do you think happens in Iran next?
L!nk in comments to listen now.

#IranProtests #MiddleEast #Israel #Geopolitics #RegimeChange #Freedom

Can We Have A Thoughtful Conversation About Immigration On LinkedIn? 🤔

I’d love your thoughts on this. I’m attempting a thoughtful conversation about immigration in the digital world. Let’s see if that’s possible in 2026 

Open article: Can We Have A Thoughtful Conversation About Immigration In The Digital World? by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 2 min read

Can We Have A Thoughtful Conversation About Immigration In The Digital World?

Most people are taught what to think. Not how to think. That one sentence explains why so much modern work feels hollow.

We train people to repeat answers.
•To memorize frameworks.
•To sound smart instead of see clearly.

Then we act surprised when:
•Creativity dries up
•Strategy turns into slide theater
•Everyone has opinions, no insight
•AI just scales average thinking faster

Thinker’s High exists because thinking is a skill.
(and most people stopped practicing it.)

This isn’t about being smarter.
Plenty of smart people are stuck.

It’s about permission.
Permission to:
•Follow curiosity over consensus
•Trust your own pattern recognition
•Sit in confusion without rushing to resolution
•Question the premise instead of optimizing inside it

A Thinker’s High moment is quiet.
•The noise drops.
•The obvious answer collapses.
•A different question appears.

That’s the drug.
Once you feel it, you can’t unsee how rare real thinking is.

You start noticing how many people are:
•Mistaking speed for depth
•Performing intelligence instead of practicing it
•Borrowing language instead of forming thoughts

This is why Thinker’s High isn’t for everyone.

It’s for founders, builders, and creators who feel the friction.
People who don’t want to win by copying.
People who want to see first.

Because the future doesn’t belong to better executors.
(AI took that job.)

It belongs to people who can:
•Frame the right problems
•Think independently under pressure
•Create non-obvious solutions

That isn’t taught.
It’s trained.

Thinker’s High is the reminder.
The practice.
The reset.

A love letter to thinking as an act of courage.
And now the line in the sand:
If this resonated, stop scrolling.

📘 Thinker’s High isn’t a book you consume.
It’s a book you work with.
It won’t give you answers.
It will take away the wrong ones.

Buy the book.
Train your thinking.
And stop letting the world decide your thoughts for you.

Once you experience a real Thinker’s High,
there’s no going back.

Welcome to the crew. 
L!nk in comments
👇🏻🏴‍☠️

If your income depends on:
• one boss
• one platform
• one company
• one algorithm

You don’t have a career.
You have a dependency.

And dependencies break fastest when the world changes.
Which is exactly what’s happening now.

Trust in institutions collapses.
Platforms change the rules.
Jobs get automated.
Org charts flatten.

Most people panic.
They cling to titles.
They wait for clarity.
They hope stability returns.

Creator Capitalists do something else.
They harvest the chaos.

Here’s the non-obvious shift:
•Entrepreneurs optimize for risk.
•Employees optimize for stability.
•Creator Capitalists are optimized for change itself.

They don’t “create content.”
They don’t “grow a following.”
They don’t “monetize attention.”

(That's what hustle porn-donkeys do.)

Creator Capitalists turn thinking, framing, taste, and judgment into digital economic engines.

A Creator Capitalist doesn’t ask:
“What should I post?”

They ask:
“What confusion is getting expensive right now?”

Then they:
 • name it
 • frame it
 • package it
 • productize it
 • compound it

Confusion → Clarity → Cash → Digital Asset → Leverage.

This is the line that matters:
Creator Capitalists don’t build audiences.
They build clarity people will pay to reuse.

That’s why:
 • IC beats influence
 • podcasts beat interviews
 • newsletters beat résumés
 • books beat business blogs

Old career advice belongs to a slower era:
Climb. 
Specialize. 
Wait.

Creator Capitalists live in a faster one:
Move early.
Sell before consensus.
Publish before permission.

They don’t wait for demand signals.
They create them.

Creator Capitalism is how you turn what you notice.
Into what you own.
🏴‍☠️

The Agentic CEO:  Execution used to be expensive.

•Process. 
•Headcount.
•Meetings about meetings.

That era is ending.

Every day, AI agents are making the ability to execute closer to free.mAnd here’s the shift most leaders haven’t internalized yet:

📈Soon, companies will have 10× more agents than people.

Creating, deploying, and managing agents is becoming a core company capability. Right next to finance, product, marketing and sales.

Not an innovation lab.
Not an AI project.
A foundation.

When execution is abundant, the constraint changes.
The scarce resource is no longer labor or tools.
It’s clarity.

•What matters?
•What outcome do we want?
•What problems are worth solving?

The Agentic CEO doesn’t manage people to do tasks.
They design systems of agents to produce outcomes.

The winners won’t have better prompts.
They’ll have different agent architecture.
2026 won’t be the year of AI.

It’ll be the year execution stopped being the excuse.
Choose accordingly.
🏴‍☠️

There is another consequence to the California asset seizure tax. That few are discussing.

Every billionaire that leaves.
Takes jobs and tax payers with them.
(I’ve heard rumors 50% of billionaire wealth has already left)

It stands to reason. That when a billionaire leaves California, they will (likely) stop building new products, companies and categories in California.

Historically California got 50% of all startup investment in the US.

Expect that number to much lower going forward.
Expect job creation in California to fall off a cliff.

Most people don’t lose their careers. They slowly abandon them.

It's fascinating how many people do not know the basics of our laws. Let’s break it down. It is illegal to try to stop any LE (law enforcement) action of any kind. 

If you don't like what LE is doing, you can do a lot of things. 

(Like vote, call your mayor, congressperson, organize a lawful protest, etc) 

But you cannot. 
Legally. 
Interfere with LE. 
Period.

If you do. 
You'll be arrested. 
Or worse.

The male nurse in MN who got shot, was standing in the middle of the street. Blowing a whistle. Interfering with LE. 

The female in the car who got shot, was doing similar things. 
Then she resisted arrest. 

ALL of that is illegal. 
That’s not a political statement.
It’s long-standing US law.

If you’re convicted of crimes/ misdemeanors of LE interference you’ll face fines and the potential of prison time.

Lethal force is lawful only if ALL of the following are true. The officer reasonably believes the person (law-breaker) right now poses a threat of:

* Death, or
* Serious bodily injury to the officer, or
* Another person

This is also true for citizens when using self defense.

You can debate IF the conditions for lethal force were present in the two MN cases. (And we should)

But there is zero debate about the law. 
Or the fact that both people who got shot were breaking laws.

As a matter of fact, stopping ICE was exactly what they were doing, when they lost their lives.

These are objective facts.

The only debate.
Were the conditions for self-defense / lethal force present in these two MN shootings. 

The reality is. 
NONE of us know all the facts about these two shootings. 

There needs to be investigations / evidence before these killings are ruled legal, or not.

I spent about 13 weeks last yr, in three murder trials, (three out of the four killers of a man I love. )

In EVERY trial (same killing) different evidence, facts and arguments were presented and made.

And in all three cases. 
The killers were found guilty on all counts and got life w/o parole sentences. 
(The fourth trial starts soon)

Politically you might agree or disagree with what our governments do. 
But the laws in this domain are very clear.
You can not interfere with LE.

Ps. If you want to test these laws. 

Next time you see cops pull someone over for speeding. 
Get out of your car. And start screaming at the cops. 

Stand between the cops and the person they are ticketing. 
And see what happens to you.

This is Chicago police chief Larry B. Snelling.
He makes it very clear 👇🏻

The Mini Book Guy | Smart Book Author | 21x Amazon Bestselling Author | Founder @ IA Path

95% of people who read nonfiction books never do anything with them.
Not because we're lazy.
Because books weren’t designed for action.

I don't want to simply create more courses either... who has time for another course.
Books and courses are designed to be consumed, not implemented.

With my last book, Mini Book Flywheel, I wasn’t trying to inform people.
I was trying to help them build momentum.

I wasn’t writing a book to be read.
I was building a system to be used.

That’s when it clicked.
I didn’t want readers.
I wanted doers.

Books aren’t broken because the ideas are bad.
They’re broken because nothing happens after belief.

So I started building Smart Books.

Where books are written for readers, Smart Books are created for doers.
They’re interactive and integrated, so action happens inside the experience.

The book responds.
The guidance adapts.
The system remembers.
Belief turns into behavior.

Smart Books collapse the gap between knowing and doing.
They turn ideas into systems.
Systems into outcomes.
Outcomes into momentum.

Books shouldn’t end with “The End.”
They should end with “Do this now" and "Done"

I build and teach Smart Books, bult on the back of short, focused Mini Books, for business owners and authors who want their ideas to actually work.

If you know how to improve the lives of your potential clients and don't want to dance on TikTok, get stuck chasing virality of video, if you'd rather use words to be a Revenue Writer, then lets talk.

I've built a business serving a micro niche of independent auto insurance adjusters to $700k/yr on the backs of Mini Books. 

I love sharing what I've learned.

Chris Stanley 🌀🏴‍☠️

Today I've been married 20 years and here is my biggest tip on having a marriage that lasts.

You must let go of who you are to become who your spouse needs you to be.

That's what the agreement of marriage is...

If I stick to who I am and refuse to change I'm not becoming one with my wife.

This led to me letting go of sports, video games, and a host of bad habits.

In return I got the best friend and love of my life,  3 beautiful boys, and a life filled with awe, wonder and adventure.

It wasn't easy or a quick change and the change continues.

To celebrate our anniversary we got our ring tattoos expanded.

I love holding my books in my hand for the first time... 

I dislike how often I find errors, but it's part of the journey.

The great thing with self publishing is that you can quickly update and fix any mistakes you find for your future customers.

This cover might be my favorite yet.

If you have a book you've been wanting to write don't let the Big Book Lie, that it takes months or years, and has to be 30k+ words, stop you.

If you know how to solve someone's problem you have a book that can be written in days... not months.

You can write a 5-15k word Mini Book and begin helping people fast while building your leads and credibility.

Big goals are a joke...I once set a goal to write 12 books in 12 months... then gave up.

Like most New Year's goals I set a big goal because I wanted to, but had no practical way to make it happen other than sheer will.

I woke up and wrote 6 days a week for 2-3hrs.

In 6 months in I'd written 5 books and gave up... I knew the goal would burn me out and break me.

What I didn't give up was the daily writing habit.

I kept writing but released myself from the audacious goal.

Month 11 I looked up and I'd written 11 books and smiled knowing I'd hit my goal and I did.

Not because of a big goal, but because I'd built the habit to make a big goal possible.

Lesson is this, a big goal without a system, without a habit, is likely just choosing a new thing to fail in.

Don't focus on the goal, focus on the habit that'll make it possible.

If you have a big goal of wanting to write a book, I have a system I've developed across my 32 published books.

Happy to share and answer any questions. But I don't have secrets, I publish what I discover in my Revenue Writer's Newsletter and in my Mini Books on Amazon.

Most people quit writing a book as soon as they say "I'd like to write a book."

The reality of what it takes to complete and publish a manuscript crushes their inspiration.

The Big Book Lie tricks people into giving up making them think,
- It has to be 30,000 words+
- You need a publisher
- They must spend months or years for it to be "good"

The reality is you can write a 5-15k Mini Book in days... not months.

My top 3 sellers (and top rated) of my 3 different book series all were written in less than a week, in 3 totally different genres.

- Independent Insurance Adjusting
- Christian Devotionals
- Mini Books

If I can do it, a college drop out, anyone can do it.

You just need to know who the book is for, what problem is solves, and how it solves the problem.

If you can help someone solve their problem, you can write a Mini Book about that process.

Quick thinking it has to be SO BIG and SO HARD.

Because it doesn't have to be, to be effective.

How to get hired without being famous, flashy, or even read...

A guy DM’d me about coaching.

He didn’t know me.
He hadn’t read my book.
He knew other, more established people.
And yet, he reached out anyway.

Why?
One thing in my tagline: Mini Books.

That category did more work than any website, video, or pitch ever could.

Most people think category design is “overkill.”

“I’m already in a market.” 
“I already have an offer.” 
“I don’t need a new label.”

That’s how you stay invisible.

Categories create mental shelf space.
If you don’t have a shelf, you’re crammed next to everyone else.

I didn’t invent Mini Books.
I just wrote books that built my business and borrowed the term when I found it.

I named it.
I framed it.
I built around it.

And now the category attracts clients for me.

That’s not marketing.
That’s category design.

If you want to learn how to do this for your business you can check out Mini Book Flywheel: How to Design a Category That Makes Your Business Unforgettable that was released this week.

Last year I was blessed to work with great people, clients, coaches, and mentors.

If you need help in any of these areas check them out!

Category Pirates teaches how to design a category for your business so you can earn 76% of the eventual market share. The team of Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ Eddie Yoon with their rockstar support team including Bri Clark 🏴‍☠️ 

Ryan Musselman helps you build a pipeline that closes clients predictably (yes, it works it did for me)

Stuart Corrigan if you have an operations pipeline like a project or service (like a claims bucket) that is over budget, behind schedule, he can help you diagnose and fix it fast

Al Ramadan the legend in category design will walk you and your team through creating, designing and dominating your category with a lightning strike and avoid falling into the Existing Market Trap.

MICHELLE B GRIFFIN helps you own your lane so you have clarity of direction and message.

Tinsley English, CRM, CIC helps women executives navigate menopause 

Katrina Kirsch helps you get your frameworks and expertise out and into Mini Books that'll build your credibility.

Fernando Labastida 🏴‍☠️ positions you as memorable expert without the content treadmill with Strike Marketing (such a brilliant idea)

Peter Cooke can show you how to build a business cleaning grills for a living... and your grill will never look so good.

Luis Derechin will show you how to build a team of experts at a fraction of the cost using an offshore team.

Thank you all for working and helping me and allowing me to help you.

P.S. Hope I didn't miss anyone but will do a follow up post with others if I did.

We often overcomplicate what writing a book really is.

There’s a simple strategy for writing a book that I call the Book Bridge.

Instead of trying to “come up with content,” you document your process.

The Book Bridge works like this:
you take the steps you followed to get from being stuck to getting results, and you lay them out in order.

That’s the book.

Each step becomes a chapter.
Each chapter shows what actually worked.
And the full book becomes a clear path someone else can follow.

This is also why it works so well for attracting customers, because the Book Bridge naturally becomes the process you’ll coach others through.

You’re not selling ideas.
You’re showing the bridge.

And the best part?
You can write a Mini Book using the Book Bridge strategy in under 30 days.

I’ve seen it done in as little as 7 day.

After 10 years of having online businesses…. I realize business is not complicated, it just isn’t easy.

Here are 10 things I’d tell someone starting today about how to make $$$ online.

1. Before you start, you must know three things: the person you help, the problem they have, and your POV on how to solve it.

2. The easiest business to start is helping someone solve a problem you already solved.

3. If you can’t finish this sentence, you’re not ready: “I help ___ with ___ by ___.” (person, problem, POV)

4. If you’ve helped one person get a result, you can build a business.

5. Customers buy when they know you, like you, and trust you. That’s the whole pipeline, funnel, and business.

6. Content helps people KNOW you exist.

7. Consistent, quality content helps people LIKE you.

8. Helpful, actionable content helps people TRUST you.

9. Social posts disappear in hours. Books stick around for years.

10. Be radically human and radically accessible, it’s a superpower in the AI age.

Funnels don't work… unless you do this first.

If you’re trying to build a business with your words, it can feel frustrating.

You post on social.
You write newsletters.
You launch your first product…

And no money shows up.

At least, that’s how it went for me.

Everyone online was screaming about funnels.
“Build a funnel!”
“Launch a funnel!”
“Funnels make you rich in your sleep!”

Here’s what I learned the hard way:

Funnels only work when people already believe in you.

That stat we all hear, “it takes 6–8 touches to make a sale”, is about leads, not strangers. So you need something that spins and makes an impact on someone over and over again.

But most funnels go:
Ad → Funnel → Cart

That’s a one-and-done interaction with a random person who doesn’t even know you yet.

So what happens?
You throw up a funnel.
You drive traffic.
You get crickets.

Funnels don’t create belief. They borrow it.

Here’s what actually works:

A flywheel.

A flywheel is what builds belief and momentum around your category.
It makes your name, your offer, and your value unforgettable — even when you're not online.

I explain this in detail in my book Mini Book Flywheel: How to Design a Category That Makes Your Business Unforgettable, but here’s the core idea:

Funnels are like tornadoes. Flywheels are hurricanes.

Tornadoes spin up fast, then disappear.
Hurricanes build slowly, but they spin for days and reshape everything in their path. (hurricanes last 1000x times longer than tornadoes)

You don’t want to chase tornadoes (funnels).
You want to build the kind of system that spins for years.

I don’t have a massive audience.
I don’t run many ads.
But I’ve built a business through writing mini books in two different niches.

How?

I built a flywheel that generates trust, content, and customers, even while I’m anchored off a sailboat with my kids swimming nearby.

If you're tired of chasing the next hack or funnel...
If you're ready to build something that lasts...

Begin to build a flywheel.

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The Battle

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