I had a 90-minute call with @dickiebush, who has:

• Made millions of $ writing online

• Helped 10,000+ people kickstart digital writing career

Wait... I couldn't afford a call with Dickie. But luckily, @calum_johnson9 dropped a podcast episode with him, which felt like one.

I listened to this gem twice, and here are 5 insights that I feel were illegal to give away for free ↓

Quitting should be strategic, not spontaneous 

The worst thing you can do is just quit your job.

First, ask yourself: "Is this this job something I will enjoy doing in 20-30 years?" 

If the answer is "No," – that's the first sign you need to do something about it.

The are two reasons for that:

1. Living a fulfilling life is hard when 1/3 of your existence doesn't bring you any excitement and joy.

2. You can't give your best to something you're not invested 100% into. Therefore, becoming great in this endeavor is a priori impossible.

But don't rush to kick in your boss's door to give him a resignation letter. Instead, start investing your energy into something that sparks joy and has the potential to bring in money regularly.

Be strategic with your approach.

It took Dickie almost 3 years to leave his job at BlackRock.

His first thought about quitting was in January 2019. He handed in the resignation letter in March of 2022.

AND, the most important part: "I didn't leave that job until the income from my side hustle was two times as much as my current full-time job." 

🌀 Quite ironically, I unconsciously adopted the same approach when I quit my first 9-5, but it took me 6 months, and I earned 1.5 times as much as my paycheck. The point is – IT WORKS. 

Right product, wrong distribution method 

Once Dickie picked up digital writing as something he wanted to pour his energy into – he started practicing immediately.

He kicked things off on Substack with the simple goal of sharing weekly insights into what he read, watched, and listened to.

This lasted from January to around May. He had about 300 subscribers over 30 editions. "Painfully slow growth." 

So, after the world shut down due to the pandemic, he pivoted to summarizing podcasts on Twitter starting in July 2020.

He committed to a 30-day challenge of a daily thread with a summary.

And it sucked. Until the thread #29 went live...

🌀You can be kicking ass with your writing, videos, podcasts. But if you don't take content distribution seriously, you are doomed to painfully slow growth.

Nothing happens (slow), then everything happens (fast) 

Dickie was close to giving up after 28 days into his challenge: "I said okay this, this is enough writing for me. I tried Substack, but that didn't work. Twitter – like, yeah, I had a couple of threads that went mini viral during the time, but now no one's reading again. I'm done. But I didn't want to give up after 28 days. I said I'm going to finish all 30 here." 

Day 29 – Dickie woke up, wrote something, didn't think it would go anywhere.

Hit published, went to bed, and woke up the next day.

@naval himself retweeted his post. Life flipped on its head. INSTANTLY.

"It took me 9 months to get to 300 subscribers and 12 hours to go to 700." 

🌀That "one more try" could be the one that hits. You're always one more rep from making it work. Don't quit. It pays off if you're ready to work long enough without seeing results. 

The skillset you have is worth more than you think 

After the 29th post went viral, Dickie got a DM from some CEO.

This inbound lead had seen Dickie's ability to distill complex ideas into engaging content on Twitter and wanted him to do the same for his own work.

He asked Dickie if he could summarize and distill the essence of his keynote speeches, podcasts, and all the content he had been putting out on the Internet, similar to what Dickie had done for others.

Dickie didn't know how to price this service, so they agreed that he would send the thread his way, and the client would pay him whatever he felt it was worth.

A week later, after sending a piece of content to the client, Dickie was hoping to get $500 for his first online writing gig.

This exact day, $5k hit his PayPal account.

"He makes a lot more money than I was making at the time, so his time was worth way more." 

🌀You've got gold in your brain without realizing it. You just need to make your skills known to the world and sell them to the right people.

Self-reflection is the foundation of great content 

Dickie said it best: "The easiest way to get started writing or creating content of any kind is to look at the work you're already doing." 

You don't need to come up with unique ideas all the time.

• Analyze your actions

• Do retrospective work

And find those valuable things that you are already doing or have done in the past to start laying the foundation of your personal brand.

It also circles back to @OneJKMolina's quote that cash creators don't create content, they collect it.

🌀Your journey is your content. If you understand your journey, you create great content. Understanding yourself starts with self-reflection.

That’s a wrap, have a nice weekend!
- Nick

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here's how I can help you:

1. Steal my “Content Factory” Notion template and 0→1000 followers X growth guide for FREE.

2. Use my A-Z ghostwriting service to create quality content for your web3 brand.  

3. Promote yourself to 105+ subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.