Love the ideas here but I have a genuine question - is this sustainable?
It seems that the end game of these personal brand building endeavors is to eventually see your own product which teaches others how to do a similar thing. I see so many creators offering similar courses and wonder, if this were such a profitable area, why do so many creators resort to selling courses about said process?
🧨 DEAR DAN KOE — HERE’S THE REALITY CHECK YOU WON’T TWEET:
You spin a good yarn, I’ll give you that. Talk of leverage, shortcuts, AI-augmented one-person businesses?
Sexy as hell. But here's the rub:
None of this matters unless people already trust you.
Let me break it down for the folks at home who don’t have 100K followers, a slick landing page, or a SaaS cash buffer.
1. 🔥 "VALIDATE IN 2 WEEKS" IS A LIE… IF YOU HAVE NO AUDIENCE.
You say:
"Just test an idea on social. Turn it into a product. Bam. Profit."
Reality:
If you're a nobody on the internet, that social post will get 3 likes — two from your burner accounts and one from your mom. There’s no feedback loop without distribution.
Dan, you didn’t test an idea. You test your influence.
You had a crowd. You had trust. You had attention.
Most people don’t. Especially not in week one.
That’s not a shortcut.
That’s privileged positioning.
2. 🧠 YOU PREACH ATTENTION AS THE CURRENCY — THEN SKIP HOW TO EARN IT.
Your gospel sounds like this:
“Just build a brand. Make good content. Have a story. AI will help.”
Cool. But here’s the inconvenient truth:
“Building a brand” is a multi-year grind of publishing, iterating, failing, and showing up when no one gives a shit.
The average dude working nights and trying to launch a side hustle with 67 followers is being sold a dream, not a plan.
3. 📉 MOST PEOPLE WILL QUIT, NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE LAZY — BUT BECAUSE NO ONE’S LISTENING.
You frame it like this:
“They weren’t serious. They quit too early.”
Bro… they’re screaming into the void while you’re surfing virality on X.
It’s not that they’re unserious — it’s that they’re invisible.
You should be teaching people how to build a signal from silence.
How to earn trust before they try to monetize.
How to engage 1:1 before they try to scale.
How to bootstrap credibility in niche communities before they write sales copy.
Instead, you hand them a dream wrapped in a PDF and call it strategy.
4. 🎭 PERSONAL BRANDING ISN’T JUST A "COACHING FUNNEL" — IT’S A TRUST ECONOMY.
And guess what?
Trust can’t be AI-generated, PDF’d, or 10x’d.
It’s built one DM, one honest post, one real win at a time.
5. 📢 HERE’S WHAT YOU SHOULD BE SAYING:
If I were Dan Koe with a conscience, I’d say:
“Look — I have distribution. I can test ideas fast because you already trust me. You can’t shortcut trust. So, before you sell, build your signal.
Serve people for free. Make friends online. Prove you care. Then sell. That’s the play.”
However, that doesn’t have the same appeal as "get rich in 30 days."
Dan, You create so much free content and I really appreciate you. Thank you. Also a little over my head by a lot but just consuming it in small increments and have learned quite a bit take care
Great post Dan! I love what you are teaching here and I have been doing some of the AI stuff here manually.
I am trying to sign up to Kortex but I seem to stuck on the credentials bit (after verifying my email). Just a heads up on this plus also want to log in and see what's Kortex is about.
Most people won’t fail because of tech... they’ll fail because they skip the hard parts: focus, testing, storytelling, and patience.
Love the ideas here but I have a genuine question - is this sustainable?
It seems that the end game of these personal brand building endeavors is to eventually see your own product which teaches others how to do a similar thing. I see so many creators offering similar courses and wonder, if this were such a profitable area, why do so many creators resort to selling courses about said process?
your intuition is right, and this is a Ponzi Scheme.
Education will always be a 'reseller' industry, and will always be an appreciating asset.
Be happy these people aren't gate keeping, if not, a lot of people will spend years in trial and error before they win.
People like Elon Musk could create a course and triple his wealth, but he won't, because he wants to be the only one at the top..
As far as they've DONE IT, I don't see any problem selling the road map!
Thanks for the free game.
We will collaborate in the future.
if theres someone here who will take Dan’s course, would be great to get real feedback, to have it before comitting 175$
Excellent! More of this please!
🧨 DEAR DAN KOE — HERE’S THE REALITY CHECK YOU WON’T TWEET:
You spin a good yarn, I’ll give you that. Talk of leverage, shortcuts, AI-augmented one-person businesses?
Sexy as hell. But here's the rub:
None of this matters unless people already trust you.
Let me break it down for the folks at home who don’t have 100K followers, a slick landing page, or a SaaS cash buffer.
1. 🔥 "VALIDATE IN 2 WEEKS" IS A LIE… IF YOU HAVE NO AUDIENCE.
You say:
"Just test an idea on social. Turn it into a product. Bam. Profit."
Reality:
If you're a nobody on the internet, that social post will get 3 likes — two from your burner accounts and one from your mom. There’s no feedback loop without distribution.
Dan, you didn’t test an idea. You test your influence.
You had a crowd. You had trust. You had attention.
Most people don’t. Especially not in week one.
That’s not a shortcut.
That’s privileged positioning.
2. 🧠 YOU PREACH ATTENTION AS THE CURRENCY — THEN SKIP HOW TO EARN IT.
Your gospel sounds like this:
“Just build a brand. Make good content. Have a story. AI will help.”
Cool. But here’s the inconvenient truth:
“Building a brand” is a multi-year grind of publishing, iterating, failing, and showing up when no one gives a shit.
The average dude working nights and trying to launch a side hustle with 67 followers is being sold a dream, not a plan.
3. 📉 MOST PEOPLE WILL QUIT, NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE LAZY — BUT BECAUSE NO ONE’S LISTENING.
You frame it like this:
“They weren’t serious. They quit too early.”
Bro… they’re screaming into the void while you’re surfing virality on X.
It’s not that they’re unserious — it’s that they’re invisible.
You should be teaching people how to build a signal from silence.
How to earn trust before they try to monetize.
How to engage 1:1 before they try to scale.
How to bootstrap credibility in niche communities before they write sales copy.
Instead, you hand them a dream wrapped in a PDF and call it strategy.
4. 🎭 PERSONAL BRANDING ISN’T JUST A "COACHING FUNNEL" — IT’S A TRUST ECONOMY.
And guess what?
Trust can’t be AI-generated, PDF’d, or 10x’d.
It’s built one DM, one honest post, one real win at a time.
5. 📢 HERE’S WHAT YOU SHOULD BE SAYING:
If I were Dan Koe with a conscience, I’d say:
“Look — I have distribution. I can test ideas fast because you already trust me. You can’t shortcut trust. So, before you sell, build your signal.
Serve people for free. Make friends online. Prove you care. Then sell. That’s the play.”
However, that doesn’t have the same appeal as "get rich in 30 days."
🧠 FINAL NUGGET:
Tools change. Algorithms shift. Attention spans rot.
But trust + proof of work will always convert.
So Dan, appreciate the optimism — but drop the charade.
If you’re here to help the “average person,”
Teach them how to earn trust in a world where trust is scarce.
Then we’ll talk leverage.
Signed,
@Will Nemo
Certified B.S. detector, builder of sovereign systems,
and an unapologetic defender of those starting from zero.
All fair points I think. We can both appreciate the content but also see through its lack of substance…
Bold of you to talk of AI in a negative manner while using AI to write this🤦 Spend your energy elsewhere
I never said don't use AI.
Dan, You create so much free content and I really appreciate you. Thank you. Also a little over my head by a lot but just consuming it in small increments and have learned quite a bit take care
Amazing! Thanks for sharing
Great topic.
AI has so much potential and everyone wants in.
AI is an amplifier. You teach it from your experience and what you know.
It’s important to make sure you’re letting it do the right things because it’ll just follow your lead.
Knowing exactly what to do with AI is more important than just using it for the sake of using it.
Very true
Definitely a tool
Not a replacement
Yes. If your workflows deliver great results that's the time to let AI shine.
Incredible stuff
Thank you, Dan. Saved.
Great post Dan! I love what you are teaching here and I have been doing some of the AI stuff here manually.
I am trying to sign up to Kortex but I seem to stuck on the credentials bit (after verifying my email). Just a heads up on this plus also want to log in and see what's Kortex is about.
Thanks for sharing this :)
Hopefully you got this sorted because Kortex is incredible 😲
Tried a few times but wasn’t working so left it sadly
Impressive! Thanks a lot!
No matter how much we dread , this right here is the future and the earlier the better
Legendary. Finally signal in full AI noise world
Need to try and master this
It’s the future
Man just changed my life