Here’s the current influencers’ stick: Just quit your job, move to Thailand, and post reels daily. It’s easy, bro. I’ve seen this gimmick over and over again.
Influencers get a lot of followers and likes and immediately start the “I’ll teach you how to be rich online in 90 days” gimmick.
But the reality of being successful online is the exact opposite. You build a product first, and the audience follows.
This is the thing influencers never figured out. They got online attention from strangers and mistook it for business.
But this isn’t new; this happened already back in 2016.
It was the same package, just a different size.
The Influencer Pipedream: Same package. Different sizing.
I’ve seen this scenario play out since 2016. But back then, “influencing” was called “blogging.” I’ve been around the block. Back then, they’d tell you to post blogs daily and use affiliate marketing, aka selling other people’s products for a small cut, to get rich.
You got tricked into being a commissioned salesman with no salary and no ownership. There’s a winner in this equation, and that, my friend, is not you. Helping someone else get rich by selling their product is the essence of a 9-to-5.
You just took a worse deal and called it “chasing freedom” or “entrepreneurship.” The reality is that it’s a pipedream.
Later on, the scene changed. Instagram changed the algorithm. Suddenly, Reels took over, and the gimmick got a new flower shirt outfit.
Now it’s: quit your job, move to Thailand, post short-form content daily, get followers, and then sell them a course on how to get followers.
The “I made six figures online, and I’ll teach you how” pitch. This is all for an insane monthly fee, of course.
Bonus points if you promote it with a picture working on a beach, lying in a hammock.
Same package. Different sizing.
But here is what they don’t show you from the hammock. They don’t show you reality. I’ve been writing online since 2016 and didn’t turn this into a real business until 2023.
To get there, I had to learn web design, sales, marketing, and how to build a funnel that actually converts. None of that fits in a reel. None of it happens in 90 days.
Sure, the hammock looks better than the cubicle. But you’ll get zero done in both if you don’t know what you’re building. In the end, all these influencers turn into online prostitutes. Selling their dignity to get more shares, likes, reels, …
Real attention comes from people who found you because you made something they needed. They stay because the thing is real, not because you’re entertaining today.
What you really need to offer is value. Every dollar earned is a reflection of a problem solved, a need fulfilled, or a life improved. But people’s need to feel less bored won’t earn you a single dollar, since eventually you’ll be boring to them, too.
Build the thing first.
Through my nutrition coaching, I helped people achieve their goals, and some of them came to visit me in Thailand to train with me and became lifelong friends.
The influencer gets bored followers. I got that instead.
That’s the difference
Alex
