§ 01 · The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Neel Dhingra opens with the exact pitch a stuck creator wants to hear — I'll save you two years — and then earns it by reframing the entire creator economy as a video game where each level is a different problem with a different unlock. The hook isn't a list, it's a map.
What the video promised.
stated at 00:18“I'm gonna show you the full map, tell you the four levels I've personally lived, and give you the exact skill I'm working on right now to break through.”delivered at 19:28
Where the time goes.
00:00 – 00:32
01 · Cold open + credibility + the six-level promise
Two-year time-save promise, two multi-7-figure businesses, has coached top creators. Sets up the central metaphor: building a personal brand is a video game with six levels and one skill to unlock at each.
00:32 – 01:19
02 · The biggest mistake: level mismatch
Most creators are stuck because they're applying level-four skills to level-one problems. You cannot skip levels. Figure out where you actually are.
01:19 – 03:06
03 · Level 1 — Invisible: the unlock is perspective
Level 1 creators sound like everyone else. Posting more, better lighting, or trendier reels won't fix it — only inserting your unique point of view will. Neel's real-estate 'good debt vs bad debt' video is the case study.
03:06 – 03:55
04 · Commodity content vs perspective content
Commodity content (tips, hacks, market updates) builds consumers. Perspective content builds believers — people who adopt your way of thinking and then hire you when it's time. Two prompts: 'what do people keep coming to me for?' and 'what did I learn the hard way?'
03:55 – 04:13
05 · Level 1 → Level 2 transition: perspective is the bridge
Camera, hooks, posting cadence are not what moves you up. Your perspective is. People don't just consume — they adopt your way of thinking, which is what wins the eventual hire decision.
04:13 – 05:47
06 · Level 2 — Posting but nothing lands: the unlock is packaging
You have the ideas but not the wrapper. Best packaging beats best content. Same idea, different package, can do 5x–10x the reach. This is the definition of working smarter, not harder.
05:47 – 07:12
07 · Packaging tactics: visual hook, text hook, the threads example
A/B-test how you start the video — visual, on-screen text, music. One line removed from a flopped threads post made the next version take off. Same idea, different packaging.
07:12 – 07:53
08 · The Quote Flip method
Lead the video with a quote of what's already being said in the market, then respond with your unique perspective. Psychology: you're not lecturing, you're answering an idea already in the viewer's head.
07:53 – 10:21
09 · Level 3 — Content works but the business doesn't: the unlock is a bridge
Views and growth are happening but clients aren't. The fix isn't more content — it's a bridge between content and a transaction. Social media generates trust and attention; it's not designed to close. The 'not yet' audience is the largest group online.
10:21 – 11:44
10 · Webinar case study: selling out the Forward event in one day
Normally takes 2-3 months to fill the annual Forward Academy event. This year a single bigger webinar sold the whole thing out. Lesson: don't sell the end thing — sell the step before it. Back up the truck.
11:44 – 13:34
11 · Level 4 — Bottlenecked: where Neel is right now
Multi-7-figures, reaches millions monthly, conversion events working. Real bottleneck is people. Can't work harder, can't AI your way out. Need a real team — leadership, training, onboarding, ownership.
13:34 – 14:40
12 · First real hire: executive assistant / chief of staff
References Dan Martell's 'Buy Back Your Time'. If you're still doing tasks an assistant could do, you ARE the assistant. Even a VA forces you to see what should be delegated.
14:40 – 15:15
13 · Second hire: content creator who can shoot, edit, post
Took the bottleneck off Neel personally. Hands off filming and final platform posting — anyone crushing it has this role, often multiples of it.
15:15 – 16:31
14 · Systems + bringing roles in-house
Task management in Airtable connected to Claude, Asana for project management. Bringing media buyer in-house instead of relying on agencies.
16:31 – 18:13
15 · Full team breakdown + helpers vs leaders
Chief of staff, VA, long-form creator, short-form creator, freelance editors, freelance graphic designer, trusted event vendors. Multi-7-figure net income on a small team. The unlock: stop hiring helpers, start hiring leaders who own outcomes.
18:13 – 19:28
16 · Google Sheets CRM + personal-brand recruiting flywheel
Used Google Sheets as CRM until 7 figures. Build the plane as you fly. Brand-name advantage: talented people opt-in to work with him because they've followed the content.
19:28 – 20:22
17 · Levels 5 & 6: real CEO and brand-outlives-you
Level 5 = no longer the bottleneck, you're a real CEO. Level 6 = enterprise value, sellable business. Neel openly opts out of level 6 — he has 'key man risk' and is fine with it.
20:22 – 21:27
18 · Why the video-game frame works
Cuts the overwhelm — instead of staring at the whole map, you focus on one level at a time. Finish your level, then move. That's how he played games as a kid and how he plays entrepreneurship now.
21:27 – 22:09
19 · The 'new rich' + fun-at-work competitive advantage
Winning isn't a $100M exit — it's a great living with a great life. If you're having fun at work, imagine the competitive advantage over people who consider it work.
22:09 – 22:29
20 · Design your life first, then the business
Coach's line: design the life you want, then design the business that produces it. Otherwise you climb the wrong mountain and find a prison you didn't sign up for at the top.
22:29 – 23:01
21 · Comment CTA + sign-off
Asks viewers to drop their current level + their #1 struggle in the comments — promises to read them all and build future content from the answers.
Visual structure at a glance.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:21list
The Six-Level Creator Game
- Level 1 — You're invisible (unlock: perspective)
- Level 2 — You're posting but nothing lands (unlock: packaging)
- Level 3 — Content works but the business doesn't (unlock: a bridge)
- Level 4 — You're the bottleneck (unlock: people + systems)
- Level 5 — Real CEO, no longer the bottleneck
- Level 6 — Brand outlives you (enterprise value / exit)
Reframes the entire personal-brand journey as a video game. Each level has exactly one skill to unlock to advance. Stops you from applying level-four advice to a level-one problem.
Steal forany long-form 'roadmap' video — pick a domain, define the levels, and name the single unlock per level
03:08concept
Commodity Content vs Perspective Content
- Commodity = tips, hacks, market updates → builds consumers
- Perspective = your unique take on a known idea → builds believers
Commodity content trains people to learn FROM you. Perspective content trains them to adopt your way of thinking — so when it's time to hire, you're the obvious pick.
Steal forevery solo creator deciding what to post tomorrow — kill the market-update style post, ship the opinion
02:34list
Two Prompts for Finding Your Perspective
- What do people keep coming to me for? (the market telling you where your expertise lives)
- What did I learn the hard way and what do I now tell everybody? (ChatGPT can't make this — too much vulnerability)
Two questions to mine perspective content from your own life. Repetition isn't random — it's signal.
Steal forKilling Excuses scripts, Notes-to-Myself series, any Joe-Lee-vs-Joe-Lavery monologue
07:05model
The Quote Flip Method
- Open the video with a quote of what's already being said in the market
- Respond to that quote with your unique perspective
- Format: written, video, or both
Lead with a quote of the prevailing narrative, then flip it with your take. Psychology: you're not lecturing, you're answering an idea already in the viewer's head.
Steal forany short-form opener where the topic feels 'too expert' to teach cold — let the marketplace set you up, then disagree
08:55concept
The Not-Yet Audience + Bridge
- Most viewers aren't ready to go from short-form video to a sales call — they're the 'not yet' group
- You need a bridge: lead magnet, long-form video, or (best) a free 30-minute webinar
- Sell the step before the thing, not the thing
Webinars compress trust-building into one 30-minute window — the largest single driver of both Neel's businesses. Don't sell the event, sell the webinar that fills the event.
Steal forMCN+ launch — instead of pitching membership cold, sell a free 30-minute training that ends with the offer
17:43concept
Helpers vs Leaders
- Helpers = you tell them what to do, they execute well
- Leaders = they own the outcome, come back to you for direction but drive their own output
What gets you to level 4 (helpers) won't get you to level 5 (leaders). The hiring transition is the single move that stops you being the bottleneck.
Steal forany solo founder hiring their second-or-third FTE — stop hiring task-doers, start hiring owners
13:34concept
Buy Back Your Time — First Hire = EA/Chief of Staff
- First real hire is an executive assistant or chief of staff
- Even a VA forces you to confront what shouldn't be on your plate
- Highest-leverage hire you'll make
Cites Dan Martell's Buy Back Your Time. If you're still doing assistant-level work, you ARE the assistant. The unlock is delegation, not capacity.
Steal forJoe's current bottleneck moment — VA hire would force the audit of what's actually on his plate
22:09concept
Design-Your-Life-First Principle
- Design the life you want first
- Then design the business that produces it
- Most people do the reverse and end up in a prison they didn't sign up for
Neel's business coach gave him this. Climbing the wrong mountain is worse than not climbing — the stress, the bags under your eyes, then realizing you don't even want the view.
Steal forany 'why are you building this' Killing Excuses script or LFB intro talk
Lines you could clip.
00:01
“If you're trying to build a personal brand and you're getting conflicting advice, I wanna save you two years of your life.”
00:41
“Most people aren't stuck because they're lazy. They're stuck because they're doing level four skills when they're still on level one of the game.”
01:16
“In 2026, if you're saying the same thing in pretty much the same way that everybody else is saying, especially in your industry, it's just noise.”
01:38
“Being consistent is dangerous advice if you don't have the right strategy.”
03:16
“Commodity content builds an audience of consumers. Perspective content builds an audience of believers.”
03:55
“Do not discount the value of the information or advice you have.”
04:40
“It's not the best content creators that win. It's not the best ideas or the most valuable content. It's the best packaged content.”
08:42
“It's not that social media doesn't work. Social media is generating the trust, the views, and the attention that you need. This content is not designed to close.”
11:26
“Don't sell the end thing that you actually wanna sell — sell the step in the middle.”
13:57
“If you are still doing things that could be delegated to an assistant, then you are the assistant.”
21:30
“If you're having fun at work, just imagine the competitive advantage you have over people, because what they would consider work, you consider fun.”
22:12
“Design your life and then the business. Most people design the business and then end up with a prison that maybe they didn't sign up for.”
How they spent the runtime.
Hook length32s
Info densityhigh
Filler8%
Things they pointed at.
14:05bookBuy Back Your Time — Dan Martell
15:18toolAirtable (task management, connected to Claude)
15:35toolAsana (project management)
10:22productForward Academy / Forward event (Neel's B2B business)
How they asked for the click.
22:29next-video
“In the comments, let me know what level you're currently on, and what is one skill or thing you're struggling with in order to get to the next level. I read every single comment. My team and I are gonna go through all of these, and we're going to make future content based on what you guys actually need help with.”
Soft CTA — no product pitch, no link, no lead magnet. Pure engagement bait that also seeds future content. Smart for a top-of-funnel video aimed at YouTube algo + comment lift; weak for direct conversion.
Word for word.
HOOKopening / re-engagementCTAthe pitchmetaphoranalogystory
00:00HOOKIf you're trying to build a personal brand and you're getting conflicting advice, I wanna save you two years of your life. I've built two multi 7 figure businesses using my personal brand, and I've personally coached with the top creators that many of you look up to and follow. And what I've learned is this, the people who are winning are necessarily working harder than you, they're just playing a different game. . There's six levels to the game and each one has a skill you have to unlock in order to advance to the next one. I'm gonna show you the full map, tell you the four levels I've personally lived, and give you the exact skill I'm working on right now to break through. Now first, here's the biggest mistake I see, and it's probably the reason why you're stuck right now. See, most people aren't stuck because they're lazy. They're stuck because they're of the game. They're listening to creators that are three or four levels ahead of them and then wondering why nothing's landing. So you cannot skip levels of the game. You have to play and master the level that you're on. So let's figure out which level you're currently on and what you need to unlock to move up to the next one starting at the bottom. Now level one is you're invisible. You're just starting. Nobody knows you really exist. Maybe you're not posting consistently or if you are posting, it's not really getting anywhere. And what I found is people at this level are always looking for the hack. Maybe it's posting more or different times using a new trial reels on Instagram or a camera or lighting setup, but that's not the issue here. The real issue at this level is you sound just like everybody else and you do not have a unique point of view. In 2026,
01:19if you're saying the same thing in pretty much the same way that everybody else is saying especially in your industry, it's just noise. Now I've personally lived this in the real estate and mortgage game. I was posting content like three ways to buy a house or here's a new program or a market update, and everything I was saying was pretty much the same as everybody else. Now sure, it's better than nothing, but the truth is nobody really cared about this content. I could post every single day for the whole year and not really get anywhere. This is why being consistent is dangerous advice if you don't have the right strategy. Now the big shift for me happened when I stopped sharing generic advice and started inserting my unique point of view or my perspective. I'll give you an example. I posted a video about how wealthy people use debt to their advantage. They use debt in order to acquire more assets, and this makes them more wealthy. I simply showed people the difference between a good debt and a bad debt and how to apply this to investing in real estate. Now this video took off, but more importantly, it changed the way people thought of me. I went from somebody like, hey. It's nice information to, hey. I need to work with that person. I really value his opinion. He taught me something in a new way or I finally get it. And as a result, I got more respect which leads to more referrals and clients. I remember somebody in my industry said, hey, do you mind if I share your video with my clients? And that's when I knew I was onto something. Now that was just one example, but there's so many more ways that you can insert your unique perspective or point of view into your content. What do people keep coming to me for? Why are people being referred to me? What's the reason there? This repetition is not random. That's the market telling you where your expertise lives. Now the second question, and this might be your most powerful piece of content right now, is asking yourself, what did I learn the hard way and what do I now tell everybody as a result? Like the mistakes you've made or the lessons that truly cost you something. That's the piece of content that nobody else can make. They can't go to chat GPT for that one. That's your unique perspective. And because it takes a little bit of vulnerability to admit you made a mistake at some point in your growth or your career,
03:06this is something that most creators won't even share. And here's why all of this matters more than anything at level one. Commodity content, the tips, tricks, hacks, this just builds an audience of consumers, people who wanna learn from you. Now it's better than nothing, but when you shift over into perspective content, it builds .
03:23They don't just consume your videos, they adopt your way of thinking. And you might even be thinking, I'm not a thought leader or a true expert yet. I'm just on my journey trying to build my personal brand. Well, here's the thing. If you are able to do this for a small group of people and you've gone from a to b, that means you are uniquely qualified to help more people. The biggest mistake I see people make is they discount the value of the information in their brain. They say no for the audience. They say, well, who's really gonna care about this? Or that's not really a big thing. Remember, if it actually worked for you or it's actually worked for your clients in the past, this is something that the audience needs. Do not discount the value
03:55HOOKof the information or advice you have. When you do this correctly, people don't just consume your content, they adopt your way of thinking. Then when it comes time to pick the person they wanna work with, you're the one that makes sense. So again, the thing that gets you from level one to level two is not gonna be camera quality posting more or some new hook you saw on Instagram. It's going to be your perspective.
04:13HOOKPerspective content is the bridge from level one to level two. Yeah. Level two is you've got your point of view. You've got your unique content, but you're posting and nothing's really landing. You're getting some views and likes and maybe even growing. You're getting hundreds of followers, even thousands of followers, but nothing's really moving the needle for you. Now most people here think the problem is I need to go viral. I need to post more. I need to double down. But the actual problem here is you need to package your ideas. You need to package your content in a way that truly connects. So you've got the ideas, you've got the substance, but you don't have the packaging. The packaging is the way that you present your content to the audience. I've learned over the years that it's not the best content creators that win. It's not the best ideas or the the most valuable content. . Now you could also think of packaging as the format or the framework that you put your ideas in to present to the audience online. Now when this finally clicked for me, this is when things took off in terms of views, follower growth, and reach, especially on platforms like Instagram. It also works right here on YouTube. I mean, I've changed just a title or thumbnail, just one or two words or shifted things around, and it's literally changed the trajectory of that particular video. We've seen the same idea that would have normally been stuck here get hundreds,
05:17even thousands, even a 100,000 plus views because of one shift in the packaging. When you do this correctly, you will add a minimum double your views, but I've even seen it with myself and people in our programs, five x, 10 x the views from just small shifts in how they present. Same content, different packaging, and this is the whole definition of working smarter, not harder. You're gonna take the time to make the video anyways. Wouldn't it be better if you just changed a few things and got two times, three times, even 10 times the amount of people to see that piece of content? That's literally the definition of working smarter, not harder.
05:47HOOKNow this doesn't guarantee that your videos are gonna go viral, but what it does is it allows your ideas to reach more of the right people. The first thing to do is test two ways of starting the same video. This is also known as your hook, but it's more important than that. It could be things like the visual of how you start the video. We've seen a different visual hook, which is the text that appears on the short form video in the beginning. If you change a few things there, we've seen the video double or triple views just off that one change. Now this combined with how you start the video, different music, different backgrounds, this is how you can actually move to the next level. What you're trying to do here is to find the version of the video that makes people stop. Now you can even do this when you're testing written content. I do this a lot with my ideas on x and threads before I turn them into videos. And so I recently posted something on threads and it kind of flopped for me, and then I took the same exact thing two days later, posted it, but I took one line out in the beginning of the written post and it took off for me. This is the exact proof of what I'm talking about here. It was the same idea. It's the same brain my thoughts put out there, but I just changed one thing in the packaging and boom, took off. People do this with trends on short form content all the time, but it's so much more than that. It could be taking your idea, and it might be even a boring idea. But when you put it in validated content packaging, all of sudden it can take off. And remember, you're not ripping off other creators here. You shouldn't be doing things word for word. What you're doing is taking a proven concept and putting your perspective in it. I'll give you an example on this. Okay? And by the way, this idea is still working right now. It's blowing up, so feel free to use this one right away. I saw other creators on the platform responding
07:12HOOKto other people's comments or quotes, And so they would start the video with a quote of what was already being said out there, and then they would put their response or teaching below that. This could be done in written format or in a video. So then I had a concept that I was trying to teach, and I wasn't really getting anywhere. So what I did was I put the quote of what people would say about the thing I wanted teach. Maybe it's the narrative that's out there in the marketplace or what someone would think about what I'm about to teach. So I put that quote up there, and then I responded to it with my unique perspective. Now I call this the quote flip method, but when I did this personally, I had a piece of content just blow up right away. I had multiple hits after this, and then people in my community have been doing this with success as well. The psychology behind it is you're not coming across as an expert. You're not lecturing people. You're simply responding
07:53HOOKto what's already out there. It might even be an idea that was already in the viewer's mind, and then now you respond to it. I've seen this idea work across multiple niches, so give this one a shot. So again, this skill that gets you from level two to level three is better packaging. Not coming up with a 100 new ideas, but taking the perspective and ideas that you already have in here and putting them in a format that reaches way more people. That's what's gonna get you to level three. Okay. Now we're into level three. You're getting more views, more engagement, even the follower growth is happening for you right now. But here's the issue. You're not getting enough clients. You're not getting paid from your content. Now what you and many people think at this stage is I need just need more followers. I need to do more of this. I need to put my foot on the gas. But that's not the issue. The issue is you do not have a bridge from your content to a transaction. People are watching your content, but they're not taking the next step with you because there's no bridge. And I see this problem so often right now. Creators are making a call to action or a CTA on social media and very few if anybody takes them up on it. And then you hear them say social media doesn't work for my business. It's not that social media doesn't work. Social media is generating the trust, the views, and the attention that you need. This content is not designed to close. This is why you need a bridge. See what I found is most people on social media are not gonna take this huge leap from watching your videos to working with you because they're not ready. I call this of social media and it's the largest group of people on the Internet. Now many of these people might be open to working with you, but they're just not gonna make that huge leap. So what they need is a next step. This is why we call it a bridge. Now this next step could be a really good lead magnet. These still work by the way if you do it or it could be a longer video where they learn more from you. They started with the thirty second video, now they get to seven or twelve minute video and they learn more, or it could be a conversion event like a webinar. Now this is the most powerful next step I've ever used and it's honestly been the single biggest driver of both my businesses over the years. So you people are watching your short form videos, maybe they're even getting your emails if you put out a newsletter, but now you're gonna invite them to a specific training and this is gonna be online. It's gone Zoom for free. And what happens there is now they get immersion. You're gonna teach them more. You're gonna break some beliefs and you have an opportunity to go from zero to hero with that person in a short compressed period of time. So what a webinar does for you is it allows people to learn a specific framework from you or some lesson that you could teach them that would help them. And then they don't have to buy anything. They can just come there for free and learn. But in a thirty minute window, they leave with real value. Now you can stay longer than that, but I found that thirty minute is a small commitment that people will actually sign up for today. And even more recently, did this for a b to b audience. This was for my business Forward Academy,
10:21which we put on an annual event every year. It's called the Forward event. And so typically, I promote this event. I announce it, and it takes two to three months to fill this thing and sell it out, and it sells out every year, but it's a big task for me to do this. Well, what I did different this year was I did a big webinar where I brought on special guests. I talked about different things I taught, brought value, and I also sold tickets to this year's event. I called it a launch of this year's event, and we ended up selling out the entire event in one single webinar. Now this was a much longer webinar than my normal ones, but in any case, what happened in that window in one day, I was able to do the work that would typically take me two to three months. And so this was just yet another example to me at even the highest level of not selling the end thing that you actually wanna sell, but selling the step in the middle. Just getting people to come to this webinar before they actually came to the event was they unlock for me to fill the entire event in one single day. Now again, that's a b to b example, but this also works for b to c or whatever it is that you're offering at the end. Just think about what would be the step before that, and then sell that thing instead of your actual end goal. Just back up the truck a little bit and watch what happens to your business and your conversions. So again, the skill that gets you from level three to level four is a bridge. The thing that sits between your content and a transaction. Alright. Now we're in level four, and I'm just gonna be straight with you. This is the level that I'm currently at right now. At this point, the business is working. We're generating multiple 7 figures a year. The content is doing well. I'm reaching millions of people every single month on Instagram.
11:44And so everything's just kinda clicking, the conversion events, we're getting the sales, all the next steps are in place. They could be better and I'm always making tweaks, but at the end of the day, there's just one thing that's kind of keeping me stuck at this level and that is people. Right now at this level, if I'm being straight up with you, there's periods, and I'm I'm not complaining by the way. I love what I do, but there are periods where I'm just exhausted because there's just so much on me. I'm becoming the bottleneck at this stage of the business. Everything is like I have a bunch of helpers, but everything comes back to me and runs up on my shoulders. So at this level, you cannot simply work harder. Like, can't I put in any more hours and I don't wanna put in any more hours because that would take away from my family time. And honestly, I've done the periods where I've worked sixty eight hour weeks in the past and I just don't wanna do that life anymore. The other thing is you cannot simply AI your way out of this step. I've already done that too. I've got Claude working. I've got all the different things going. You actually have to build a solid team at this stage, and that's the one thing I'm working really hard on right now is acquiring more talented people to come to our team, leadership, training, boarding, all the different things that you do in your business, and just getting people to take ownership of their role here within our company. Now I've done this with salespeople, especially in the mortgage game over the years where we brought in loan officers and salespeople and helped them and developed them, and then they crushed it. So in turn, we crushed it. So I've done that part. But when you get into the higher levels of the game with systems and leadership roles, it's a totally different animal. Like, what got me to level four in terms of both businesses, mortgage real estate and also with Forward Academy and the b two b game, what got me here is not going to get me to levels five and six, which is the next levels of the game. I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you I've already graduated level four because I'm in level four, but what I can share with you is the things I'm actually working on right now. Now, will tell you that beyond salespeople, the most important hire, the first real hire that I made in this business was an executive assistant or this can also become your chief of staff. Now you can even start with a VA, but the thing is if you are still doing things that could be delegated to an assistant,
13:34then you are the assistant. Actually, Dan Martell wrote an entire book on this. It's called Buy Back Your Time, and he tells people that the first hire needs to be this role. You need someone that can just manage the day to day ops of your life, your calendar, your appointments, your bookings, all the different things. And what happens here is even if you're truly not ready to bring on this person, you could bring them on like I said, a virtual assistant. But what happens is when you bring this person on, you start to actually go through your day and see what you shouldn't be doing, what you should be doing, and what you could delegate to this individual. This will be the highest leverage hire you make, and it will change the game for you. Trust me. It's probably the most valuable thing I've done in my business. Now the next hire that I made as I'm scaling the current business I'm in right now is a content creator. I did this a few years ago, and it was a game changer. See, in the beginning, you're doing all the content. Maybe you hire some editors. Maybe you hire some freelancers to work on stuff, but it all comes back to you, and again, you become the bottleneck. What you need is a content creator. Like even right now, this video that you guys are watching on YouTube, I filmed it of course, but then it was handed off to a content creator that's on my team right now. This person edited the video package. They got it up on YouTube, and was I just doing my day to day. I'm on to the next thing. Right? And so this person can shoot, edit,
14:41and post. More importantly, they can actually post content to your platforms that you want them to work on. And again, you can give your approvals at first, but at some point, they need to take ownership of the role and actually push content out there. This is what will remove the bottleneck and get more stuff out in the world. If you look at anybody who's crushing it with not just content but an actual business, they have this role and probably they have multiple of these people in their business right now. Now at this level, there's also systems that are gonna be required. Right now, we're actually building a task management system in Airtable. It's actually connected to Claude, we're working on all that stuff. But in the past, it was like, hey, man. We're just writing notes,
15:15losing stuff in between. There was a whole mess of just stuff getting lost in the sauce, things falling through the cracks, and we're fixing all that now with an actual system to run the business. We're also doing task management and project management using a tool Asana. So there's just different things that you have to implement at level four that are gonna get you to the next level, and what I'm doing right now. The other thing I'm doing right now, which might help some of you, is if you're running ads, you might be working with an agency. You might be hiring people to run your ad campaign,
15:41and then you don't really have full ownership of this process. These people for many different clients, and maybe you might be low man on the totem pole. Who knows? And so what I'm doing right now is actually bringing a media buyer in house so that way we can do this internally. And this is the big shift that I've seen people make when they're going from level four to the next level is they start hiring these people internally and not just relying on freelancers and agency, which in the beginning, that's totally fine. I've been doing that for many years, but now as we transition, I just need to bring these roles in house. I'll actually break down what my team looks like right now because many people have asked me this. So first of all, it's a chief of staff like I told you, EA. We also have a VA for customer support and other administrative tasks. We have a long form content creator, a short form content creator. These are all people on payroll. And we also have freelance editors. These are not people on payroll, but these are people that we reach out to when we need editing help over and beyond what we can handle internally.
16:31We also have a graphic designer that we use. Again, on a freelance basis, we're not using this person all the time, so I can't hire them full time. And then we have trusted vendors for big moments throughout the year. So for example, when I do my big event, I don't need a huge media team all throughout the year, but I need them on those three days. So we have to bring in vendors that I trust, and these are vendors that I've worked with for years. There's people that I have in like a a trusted circle that I can hire. And so if you don't need someone all the time, at least have those trusted contacts that you can reach out to at specific moments when you actually have things that you need to hire for. Now this is a small team, especially when you compare it to some of the bigger companies and organizations, but I'm really proud of the fact that I'm able to generate a net income of multiple 7 figures off of a relatively small overhead. And I'm reinvesting a lot of the profit back into the business so that I can graduate to the next level. Now I'll share with you one thing I've learned most recently. A lot of the people that I've hired over the years have been what I would consider helpers. These are people that you tell them what to do and then they go do it and maybe they can do it at a great capacity and they're they're on they're awesome. This is a great role. But what you need at a certain point is leaders, people that actually own the outcomes. Like, you could give them a task and they could take ownership of it. Yes. They come back to you for certain things and meetings,
17:43but at the end of the day, they're responsible for their own output and their own outcome. This is the single move that would stop me from becoming the bottleneck and get me from level four to level five. Move that would stop me from becoming the bottleneck and get me from level four to level five. So again, the skill that's going to get you and me out of level four is hiring the right people and having the right systems in your business. People get this twisted and they start working on this stuff first when the reality is you should work on this last. I remember I make this joke, but it's so true. I see so many people working
18:14on this elaborate CRM system and all these things, and they don't even really have any business. Yeah. You should have like a foundation system for yourself to actually grow, but I will tell you the truth, in the very beginning of both of my businesses, we literally used Google Sheets as our CRM. We just duct tape things with Zapier to make it work. Right? And so that actually got me to 7 figures using Google sheets. And so I'm not ashamed to say that because I truly think that when you should actually dial in all these things is as you grow. I'm a perfect example of building the plane as you fly because not everything was perfect, honestly, in the very beginning. It was kinda messy, but I learned these things along the way, that's what I wanna share with you guys in this video. And another thing I'm noticing right now, finally, at this stage of building my personal brand is your personal brand increases the quality of people that will reach out to you. Like, you can actually attract talented individuals to come work with you because maybe they've been following your stuff for a while. Maybe they've watching your videos. Maybe they've been reading your emails, coming to your events. And so at that point, now I'm getting a better quality individual to come on the team, that and I think is going to be the unlock for me long term. And so guys, I am not done with this game. I'm actually playing it right alongside you, but I'm sharing with you the real life things that I'm working on today to get to the next level. So when you truly get to level five, which I should be at soon, then you're no longer the bottleneck. You're actually a real CEO
19:28running an organization. And then the next level is gonna be level six where your brand outlives you. That's where you've actually built something real with maybe enterprise value that you could even sell in the future. I'm not really worried about that. I have this thing called key man risk where I'm truly involved in the business. Like, my personal brand drives a lot of the business, and I think that's okay for most creators. But at some point, you may want to build a business that you could eventually exit, and that's where level six would come into play. Now the reason why I love teaching this as a video game, I think about content as a game. It's just like how do we hack attention? How do we get more people to watch our videos? Because when you focus on it like a game, you can just focus on the level you're at instead of thinking about this huge overwhelming structure. I think most people right now are extremely overwhelmed. You have so many ideas. There's so many things you could do. You're hearing a new AI tool, a new strategy every other day. It's like squirrel. You go here, there, everywhere. But then at the end of the day, you're not making progress towards your end goal. But when I broke it down in this structure, that's when I truly got results.
20:22Because now I'm only focused on getting to the next level, and then getting to the next level. And that's the way I played video games as a kid, and that's way I'm playing this game of entrepreneurship. People telling you that they need a team of 20 people doing all these things, but you're still on level two. Well, that's not gonna matter. Like you need to finish level two first, and then move on to the next step. Yes. There's some things you could overlap along the way, but for the most part, I would say the greatest advice I can give you today is just to make sure you fix these issues at the current level that you're at, identify where you're at, fix the issue, and then move on to the next level. Like, for me personally, winning the game is not necessarily having a $100,000,000 in this huge exit. I'm just trying to make a really good living while having a really high quality of life. Like, I think the new rich is actually being happy with the way you do your business. Like, so I actually wanna build a business that doesn't completely drain me and just make me feel like totally exhausted at the end of the day. I wanna build a business that I love. And doesn't mean that everything I do every day is I'm gonna love it. Like, half the stuff I do isn't the most fun right now. But at the end of the day, majority of my time is spent doing things that bring me fulfillment.
21:27That makes me happy. That's what makes this whole thing sustainable. I heard this quote from somebody where they said, hey, man. If you're having fun at work, just imagine the competitive advantage you have over people because what they would consider work, you consider fun. That's a huge advantage for me right now. Like, I love making this content. I love putting these videos out there and teaching and going through this stuff. It gives me a of fulfillment. When people leave comments or when people come to our events or when people say, hey, man. I I put I put what you taught into practice and here's the result I got. Like, I know it sounds cheesy, but that is even more powerful than money at many points throughout my career. So I just share this because not everything has to be according to somebody else's plan. Yes. There are structures that I've been teaching you, but you need to define what is success for you.
22:09CTAAnd my business coach taught me this years ago. He said, . Most people design the business and then end up with . Like, there would be nothing worse than putting in all the effort , you know, like all the stress, the sleepless nights, the bags under your eyes. Then you get there and you're like, man,
22:29CTAI don't like this. Like, climbed the wrong mountain or I thought I wanted the idea of this, but I don't like it. It's not what I signed up for. And so I've seen this happen with a lot entrepreneurs, and I wanna see that happen to you guys. In the comments, let me know what level you're currently on, and what is one skill or thing you're struggling with in order to get to the next level. I read every single comment. My team and I are gonna go through all of these, and we're going to make future content based on what you guys actually need help with. So I'll see you guys in the comments. And until next time, I'll see you on the next video.
§ · For Joe
Steal the levels frame.
Killing Excuses + LFB playbook
Map any roadmap into 4-6 sequential levels with one named unlock per level — then film a 20-minute longform claiming the full map and the unlock at your current level.
- Pick a Joe-domain you've actually lived (creator economy, sobriety, $6 Stack, BYOK self-hosting) and define 4–6 levels with a one-line problem at each.
- For each level, name exactly one skill that breaks you to the next — refuse to give more than one. Single-unlock framing is what made Neel's video shareable.
- Open with a time-saved promise ('save you two years') and ground it in your own scars — Neel's real-estate 'good debt' story is what made the abstract concept stick.
- Use the Commodity vs Perspective split as a recurring slide in your own teaching — it's the cleanest binary for explaining why creators stay stuck.
- Steal the Quote Flip method directly for short-form openers — perfect format for Killing Excuses where Joe Lee and Joe Lavery each respond to the dominant narrative.
- Replace 'go viral' advice with 'sell the step in the middle' — perfect MCN+ pre-launch frame: free 30-min webinar that ends with the membership offer.
- Close with engagement-bait that also seeds future content ('what level are you on, what's your struggle?'). Free YouTube juice + a free content roadmap from your audience.
§ · For You
What this could mean for you.
If you're stuck on your own social media
Stop taking advice from people three levels ahead of you — figure out which level of the creator game you're actually on, then fix only that level's problem.
- Diagnose honestly: invisible (level 1), posting-but-no-traction (level 2), traffic-but-no-clients (level 3), or running-on-fumes-from-doing-everything (level 4)?
- If you're at level 1, kill the market-update / how-to / generic-tip posts. Replace them with two prompts: what do people keep asking you for, and what did you learn the hard way?
- If you're at level 2, you don't need new ideas — you need new wrappers. Same idea, different opening line / different visual hook / different first three seconds.
- Try the Quote Flip method as a packaging experiment: take a quote of what people in your space already believe, then post your honest disagreement.
- If you're at level 3 (views without sales), don't pitch your service from a reel. Build a bridge — a free 30-minute training that ends with the offer.
- If you're at level 4 (working too much, burning out), the next hire isn't another freelancer — it's an executive assistant who forces you to confront what shouldn't be on your plate.
- Define what 'winning' looks like for you BEFORE you scale further. Climbing the wrong mountain is worse than not climbing — you do the work and end up in a prison you didn't sign up for.
