The income stops being spiky and starts being a staircase that never backtracks.
Why affiliate money is fast then flat, what capabilities the transition to offer owner actually required, and how Carter handles the money once it's real.
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Two income shapes
As an affiliate, two or three months of the year make 90% of the profit. "You just kind of have to keep showing up and eating shit for a bit till something works again." The brand chart looks nothing like that: slower to start, but it only goes up.
The shape of brand income, in numbers.
"the longer you invest time in something before you're like reaping the rewards of it typically the rewards are going to be higher towards the end of it"
What I've noticed with pretty much all the top guys in the space, if you pay attention, they are doing one thing for a long fucking time.
Three things affiliate life never taught him.
He'd hire someone, wait a week, and if they weren't as good as him yet, fire them and do it himself. Growth was capped by his own hands being in every part of the business.
Medicare, seven years. Ringba, six years before it blew up. The affiliate instinct — no money in a week, forget it — doesn't survive a twelve-month brand build.
Adam Young's line: if a competitor can find your ad in the library, rip the video and the link, and clone your whole operation in ten seconds, it isn't a business.
you don't have a business dude you have a cash machine but if someone can just copy and paste your business in 10 seconds you don't have a business
you can't really grow a business when you have your hands in basically every section of the business.
Stop making money. Build the machine that makes money.
Jason ran the sawtooth himself, 2003 to 2008: "hit it, make a bunch of money, back to zero, start over again, hit it, right?" Carter's affiliate years matched it — fast, but it never compounds. Systems move 0→1→2→3→4, without resetting
Early on it's mostly time and effort. Later, money buys speed. share
Same conclusion, different vocabulary.
Carter
0 to 4 in a week is seductive
Affiliate work gets you 0 to 4-5 out of 10 in a week, fast, and hard to walk away from. Building systems takes you 0→1, then 1→2, 2→3.
Jason
I want the machine to make money
Ran the sawtooth himself, 2003-2008: hit it, make money, back to zero, start over. Now: “i don't want to make money i want the machine to make money”
i don't want to make money i want the machine to make money
the most successful businesses aren't sexy. Like people assume like they're very boring, like they're very boring, very systematized.
Handling the money once it's real.
If you can't buy it with the passive income from your investments, you can't afford it. Want a Lamborghini? You'd better be clearing about $40k a year from investments to cover the payment.
Before buying something flashy: “if nobody knew that I had this thing, like, would I care that I still had it or would I still care that I had it?” For Carter, the answer on cars was no.
if you can't afford to buy something with the passive income from your investments and you can't afford it.
if nobody knew that I had this thing, like, would I care that I still had it or would I still care that I had it?