profile

Nathan Barry

I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.

Earth Mission
Featured Post

Giving without expecting anything in return

Hey Reader, I grew up in a family with six kids where there wasn’t a lot of money. Looking back, some years we lived on $25,000. We had everything that we needed, but it wasn’t until college that I went out to eat for the first time in my life. Money was always stressful. People like to say money doesn’t buy happiness, but a lack of money sure brings a lot of frustration. I vowed at a young age to make sure money wouldn’t be my primary problem. If I’m drowning, I can’t help other people. But...

Hey Reader, Often the hardest thing with creating content is coming up with new topics to write about. Whether it’s a newsletter, thread, or video script, the blank page can feel overwhelming. It’s much easier to start with a topic in mind. But where do you get ideas? I want to peel back the curtain and go behind the scenes on how I create content. Most of us have a core focus we tend to stick to. We usually have 3–4 main topics we cycle through and revisit from different angles. While this...

A full moon is seen over a rooftop

Hey Reader, If the story of your life was a book, how would you title the chapter you’re in right now? My friend and coach Dan Putt likes to ask this question, and I find it so helpful for zooming out from my immediate problems and thinking of the overall season. When Terry Rice asked me the chapter title question on his podcast, an immediate answer popped into my head: "Dreams realized". Surprisingly, I was reviewing my 2024 annual goals, and I think I'm going to miss almost all of them....

Dorie Clark Case Study

Hey Reader, You know that if you want to build a personal brand and connect with an audience, you need to create content. But how often should you post? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? What is the right cadence? Let’s simplify this with a basic formula. The first step is to set your minimum quality threshold. This means defining the least amount of quality you’re comfortable delivering in your content. There’s not a wrong answer. It really depends on your style and the type of brand you want to...

Video: Creator Flywheels

Hey Reader, After a year and a half of refining, I've finally launched the Creator Flywheels course and group coaching program. Free yourself from busywork and reach your full potential: CreatorFlywheels.com The first 50 people to sign up will lock in the best rate. Enrollment is only open for 5 days (or until we sell out). Hope to see you inside! —Nathan P.S. The price increases $500 in 2 days, so be sure to sign up early.

Flywheels help you…

Hey Reader, We’re putting the finishing touches on the Creator Flywheels overview video, and I’m looking forward to sharing the page with you next week that has all of the details. I’ve had a number of people reach out excited to learn more about the program as well as with some interesting questions! I can already tell, we’re going to have some lively discussions in the community, and I’m looking forward to our coaching calls. The beautiful thing about flywheels is they are systems that run...

Kit Studios

Hi Reader, People have been saying I seem to be really into rebranding things lately. Which is fair because last week, I announced that I’ve rebranded my podcast from Billion Dollar Creator to The Nathan Barry Show. I made a little video about it below, but in short… Fun fact, my first podcast was actually called The Nathan Barry Show. So you may be wondering why I didn’t just stick with that, and why we started a whole new podcast with a different name. The reason we started a new podcast,...

Podcast: Nathan Barry, Ali Abdaal

Hey Reader, How do you stand out and build a memorable personal brand? Something I talk about a lot is the idea of “teaching everything you know”. You don’t have to be an expert to teach. People are seen as experts because they teach. And there’s always someone one step behind you who can learn from where you are. But if all you do is teach and create how-to content, your brand will lack soul and people won’t connect with you as much. A good way to think of the content you create is to...

Video: Lex + Kit

Hey Reader, Have you been playing around with AI tools like I have? While LLMs can be useful for generating ideas, they often struggle to produce anything you’d feel comfortable publishing. At least, not without a ton of edits. At best, you might get a decent outline but not exactly a solid first draft. I noticed that Nathan Baschez has been trying to tackle this problem with the AI writing tool he’s building called Lex. Something that significantly helps improve the quality of generated...

Hi Reader, Last week, I had Mark Manson on the podcast. While he’s most known for being the bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, he’s also built a substantial YouTube channel with millions of subscribers. During our podcast together, I asked him about longevity. Specifically, what does it take to make it in the creator economy for 10 or more years? What is the difference between those who endure and those who fizzle out? Here is my summary of his answers: 1. Don’t lose...