Being a Soul Proprietor in "The Creator Economy" (And Avoiding Bullshit Metrics)

The Soulpreneur Series Free Issue No. 13

It’s impossible to find, support, and operate in life with Soul if we are violating our own ethics and morals.

With that in mind, it can often be a critical exercise to dig deeper into why we have certain ethics, morals and values:

• Where did they come from?

• Are we living in alignment with them?

• Why did we adopt them? Do we want to keep them, or re-evaluate?

• Do they potentially need a re-visit and re-defining?

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Authentically Genuine?

Over this past year or so, the word Authentic has blasted all over the place. I’ve explored it in previous issues here on Box Cutter Co. and across several social media platforms and posts.

It was deemed ‘word of the year’ in 2023 by the folks at Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This was related to common usage, internet searches, and in direct relation to the flood of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools — mainly OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

It’s a fascinating word. Its etymology is comprised of the root words ‘auto’ and ‘hentes’. “Auto” refers to the Self. “Hentes” is related to ‘doing and being’.

That last bit, I find a fun paradox.

‘Authenticity’ is essentially intended to mean each of us (as a Self) doing and being in our individually authentic ways.

Related to this, in the history of the word authentic, are Greek roots: authentikos meaning "original, genuine, principal," which comes from authentes "one acting on one's own authority."

And so a big question has cycled around in my head, and in my personal Learning Journals, for the last while…

• How does one authentically ‘create’ authentic content (in The Creator Economy or otherwise)?

Meaning, how can each of us as individuals acting on our own authority, create original and genuine material?

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Escape from Soul-Shrivel Mountain

In a couple of weeks, I will be free and clear of salaried employment in the corporate sector for 2 years.

I walked away from a well-paid career in the corporate public sector. Cold turkey.

I had reached a breaking point of inauthentic, individual moral-challenging, personal-values testing workplace engagement that had gone on for over a decade.

And, I’ll remind you, this was in the public sector — meaning I was a “civil servant” (so the saying goes).

I worked in higher education institutions and healthcare organizations. Two sets of institutions many of us might consider to be on high moral ground, bastions of integrity and ethics, solidly values-based, and supportive career-building enterprises.

(And, that would be a sadly mistaken set of assumptions).

Yes, healthcare institutions (like hospitals) continue to save lives and provide medical care for the ill and injured.

Yes, higher education institutions continue to train engineers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and government officials (and more).

Yet, many are also paradoxically toxic, hostile, and hyper-competitive cesspools or automaton mediocrity.

Operational Un-Excellence

I don't intend to paint with a broad stinky brush, as there are still pockets of good, and good people trying to do good work. And, yet, there is endless bullshit jargon, fluffy meaningless metrics, and empty horseshit policies and procedures.

There are prevalent diseases such as “we’ve-always-done-it-like-this-antitis” and “you-better-shutup-or-you-lose-your-job-icitis”.

Or as a friend of mine calls it… “Operational Un-excellence.”

These are the types of places (sadly) where many Souls go to shrink and shrivel. Where ‘creativity’ goes to curdle. And Spirit is something that only arrives on ‘anti-bullying day’ and the pink shirt brigade

Or on Friday, at that moment one exits the elevator salivating at the first wobbly-pop that will be consumed to quell the inside voice screaming “THIS IS BULLSHIT!”

That can be a spiritual moment…

• “Oh, come on Dave, it’s not that bad”, some will tsk-tsk with a finger waggle

No, it’s bad (and not something I apologize for expressing).

It’s not an arrangement I ever intend to return to and hence why I’m building in The Creator Economy. However, it’s not all roses and rainbows here either.

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Watch out for Soul-Shrivel Mountain II (the sequel) in The Creator Economy

In almost two years of building online in “The Creator Economy,” I have seen far more people disappear than I have seen "make it".

(And the stats support this… for example, about 50% of ‘Creators’ make around $15,000 per year.)

I’ve watched as the majority of folks I see come on to the scene all full of vigor and vinegar, dissipating away within months like farts in a heavy wind.

Much Online is Bullshit Mountain Metrics

Here’s a paradox.

I’m not saying that engaging online and having folks ‘like’ your content, or ‘connecting’ or ‘following’ or ‘subscribing’ is a Bad thing.

I’m simply saying it’s Not “THE THING”.

Social media is a powerful marketing tool. No more, no less.

However, in almost 2 years of navigating this ecosystem, I have seen far too much pushing to secure Bullshit Mountain Metrics.

You might as well be catching farts in a jar or gnat-dung in summer and tabulating these. (Those two might actually be more helpful for your long-term sustainability in The Creator Economy than ‘likes’ and ‘followers’.)

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How Can Posting Online Be Beneficial?

Writing and posting online is a valuable thing and a potentially soul-filling (not soul-shrivelling) exercise.

About 6 months into my walking away cold turkey and trying to recover and replenish my soul after a decade+ of it being shrivelled like a raisin… I had a former colleague reach out on LinkedIn to ask if I was available to do some writing.

This was a colleague who worked in an area, a sector, and building a non-profit organization — that I support and agree with.

“Sure,” I said.

One small-ish project grew into another project, grew into another project, grew into a contract that is now a solid part of my consulting and services side of the business (18 months later).

But!

• Was this person part of my ‘audience’?

• Was I writing content “to my audience”?

Ummmm, no.

I was simply writing and posting things. It was early days.

I was experimenting and learning how different platforms worked.

I was building a content library and watching to see how different things landed in the digital sphere.

But, more importantly, I was writing (and researching plus synthesizing) things that were important to me and I wanted to be working on. (Within my value system and sense of ethics)

And, probably, MOST importantly, I was identifying things I did NOT want to do in the online world, in The Creator Economy, in my digital writing and consulting business.

• I did NOT want to emulate Gary V. and his suggestions to endlessly plaster the internet with useless drivel.

• I did NOT want to relentlessly DM people and companies that I’d quickly learn did not align with my moral values and sentiments.

• I did NOT want to subscribe to Bullshit Mountain Metrics and endlessly chase my tail on social media blasting out things some Big-time Creator said I “should”.

I wanted to adopt what I've been calling an “Airline Wisdom” approach to creating online. Put my own oxygen mask on first, and then assist others.

A little while back, I learned successful online creator Dan Koe promotes a similar philosophy, something to the effect of “solve your own problems and challenges first, and then write about and potentially sell the solutions.”

For me, there’s some solid wisdom in this — Especially in the online world.

• Why would I exit soul-shrivelling workplaces to then re-create an enterprise that in turn shrivels my soul?

That makes no sense (in my mind).

And, thus, this journey into the idea of being a Soul Proprietor. Of engaging in Soulpreneurship — and engaging the power of the Internet and potential in social media to do so.

I have intentionally designed and built a Business of One — Box Cutter Co. (and my consulting gigs) — to support a soul-filling life and lifestyle (not the opposite).

Similarly, my wife Lisa and I Co-founded Humanity Academy, which is all about supporting the idea that “There is no one right way to live.” We see, for example, a growing gap in ensuring we all stay connected to humanity.

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To Create — Means to Grow

I’ve continued writing, posting, experimenting, and learning for the last 18 months. This newsletter — and the whole concept of Box Cutter Co. — is part of that process.

It’s essentially my public version of my Learning Journals. I’ve posted in the past about how I spent $60,000 and five years to earn a doctorate in Online Education — but have learned far more, for far less in my under 2 years of digital writing.

My writing on Medium is part of this process — as well as, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, and more recently Facebook are also all part of this process.

The word Create — going back thousands of years — comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ker- meaning “to grow.” Thus, to be a ‘creator’ in The Creator Economy is about growth.

However, the critically important distinction is ‘growth’ in what?

• Do you want to ‘grow’ a fluffy, fake metric attached to ‘Followers’ or ‘Subscribers’?

• Or, do you want to ‘grow’ personally and in sustainable business ways?

In this sense, ‘sustainable’ doesn’t only mean in an ‘income’ sense, it also means in a ‘personal’ and ‘soul’ sense. Getting caught, Ghostwriting for example, for someone who wants you to peddle bullshit — is not soul-fully sustainable.

Algorithm Interactions and Reality

There is way too much social media algorithm-driven hustle bullshit.

Social media is an algorithm world. This means there's an inherent bias cooked in. A bias intended to support companies operating social media platforms.

There is a common bullshit saying across social media, inherited from pre-Internet days.

• "know your audience" and "write to your audience"

The problem here is "audience" implies a transaction-like interaction. But that's not how social media operates.

It's an algorithm interaction.

And, thus, many folks equate their measures of creativity and the value of their content, to "engagement metrics" and "likes" and "virality" and "shares".

Yet, many of these are bullshit. Algorithms naturally push into your 'feed' stuff that is already ‘working’ (by their metrics)...that's how they're designed to work.

Thus, any 'creator' is instantly subjected to 'comparison-bias' (if you fall for it).

• "Why is this person's post getting this many 'likes' and mine only gets this many?"

It reduces human connection and creativity to numbers — worse yet, largely falsely manufactured numbers — glossing over more important metrics.

Instead of fixating on 'building an audience', consider nurturing and exploring authentic creativity, engagement, connection and intention (especially in the first months to a few years)

Charging around creating content and implementing strategies that some 'online coach' or 'course' says you should — when they have 100x, 1000x, 10,000x the audience size — is a losing game.

And, it’s why the ‘dropouts’ from The Creator Economy’ vastly outnumber those finding ‘success’ — e.g. creating even a ‘living wage’. Social media inherently promotes a dopamine-fuelled, ‘like my stuff’, bullshit mountain metric mentality.

And, then… when folks find they aren’t ‘going viral’ in the first 2 months, they go back to posting and watching silly cat videos.

Instead, it may be more beneficial and sustainable to focus on solving some problems and challenges you are facing, work on solving them, and write about what you learned (and maybe even solved).

Or, even what you intend to learn next.

Building a library of content is a powerful way to deepen impact and cultivate self-knowledge — especially when this remains connected to your authentic self.

That’s the Auto that is ‘being’ and ‘doing’ things. Authenticity.

And no algorithm can measure that for you. Only you can.

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• What do you think about the challenge of authenticity in The Creator Economy?

Would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or otherwise. Please drop a like, a comment, or re-post on channels you navigate.

The next Free issue of Box Cutter Co. will be out shortly.

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