You Need A Mission

Over the last week, I’ve caught up with 5 different friends and had two big realizations:

1. Most people don’t actually understand what I do

2. Most people are still sleeping on the impact of content + building a brand online

So I decided to write a detailed letter addressing both of these things.

And if you’re someone who wants to use content to grow your business, to start a business, to explore your natural creativity and curiosity, and ultimately design a life and business you love — this letter is for you.

By the end of this, you’ll walk away knowing the one thing separating the people who grow effortlessly online from everyone else spinning their wheels, and exactly what you can do today to start attracting people to your mission.

This letter is a long one, but what I’m sharing today is a big piece of what my private clients pay me thousands of dollars to help them figure out, so I urge you to take this seriously.

Alright, let’s get into it.

First things first, you need to understand the larger opportunity.

The creator economy is worth roughly $250 billion today.

By 2030 estimates put it at $500+ billion.

For context Hollywood is worth $119 billion.

Let that sink in.

Independent media, the creator economy, i.e people building brands around themselves, their natural interests, and creating businesses around the attention they have will be 4x the size of Hollywood.

Most people hate social media because they only ever experience it as a consumer.

But when you stop being only a consumer and transition into being a creator, you begin to realize how incredible this opportunity is.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad advice out there and most people have zero clue where to start.

They think it’s all luck, or it’s about posting times, or chasing trends.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Because when you study the fastest growing founders and creators who are building magnetic brands, they all have something in common.

They’re telling a story.

Not just any story, but a specific story that documents their journey towards a larger goal.

And I know there are a lot of new people here, so for credibility sake I want to share a bit about my story:

At the end of 2024, after selling millions in tech, becoming a director at a VC backed company, and running a creative studio producing short films for 8-9 figure brands, I decided to move across the world and go all in on my own projects.

Since then I’ve spent 2000+ hours studying the fastest growing brands and creators, grew my own audience to ~60k, built a new business that makes six figures in profit, per year sold out two in-person events, and now everything I do runs on ~2 hours of writing per day.

I’ve also worked with 50+ founders and experts, helping them add 400k+ followers, launch new offers, and land inbound opportunities, clients, and partnerships.

I don’t share this to brag, but rather for credibility sake and to show you what’s possible when you take this skillset seriously and learn how to play the game.

With that said, before I share the single most important thing you can do to set yourself up for success in this area, I want to debunk some common myths…

If you follow the wrong advice online, you might think content and social media is all luck, being good looking, copying trends, or worrying about posting times and hashtags.

This is dangerous advice.

Secondly, if you’ve been making content and ever blamed “the algorithm,” I need you to know something:

It’s not the algorithm that doesn’t like your content. It’s people.

I know that might sound harsh, but it’s reality.

The algorithm responds to how people interact with your content.

So if people don’t watch it, like it, save it or share it, the algorithm doesn’t show it to more people.

Which means the question isn’t “how do I beat the algorithm.”

It’s how do you start connecting with people.

The simplest way you can do this is with what I call, a “Signature Narrative”.

Your Signature Narrative is the specific packaging of your ideas, expertise, and story into a unique journey people can’t help but watch, and root for you on.

Humans love stories. They love characters who go on quests, who charge into the unknown knowing they might not make it.

Social media is no different.

Some examples, so you can see what I mean:

Daily Reps Guy. He spent a decade bouncing between workouts and diets, but nothing stuck.

So he decided to run a public experiment: “Is it possible to get jacked in 20 minutes a day?”

He found one format that worked, did it every day, built an audience of 350k+, and now sells a “get jacked in 20 minutes a day” program.

He documented his journey toward a specific transformation, and now he helps others do the same.

Or let’s look at my friends at Blanco Bungalow.

aura had built an audience of 30k+ documenting their home transformation in CA, but after moving to Portugal and buying a property (which they turned into a hospitality business — units on Airbnb, and hosting weddings and retreats), she was having a hard time connecting her old audience to her new one.

She’d been posting everyday for a year, but was losing followers.

After we worked together to get clear on their signature narrative, her first post did 8 million views, and over the next 60 days they added 170k+ followers and received thousands of inbound inquiries.

Their signature narrative was “A year and a half ago my husband and I bought a ranch in Portugal”.

This single story packaged into a format that performed ripped over and over for them.

Or take my own story.

My first video that popped started with “Turned 29 and moved to Portugal, here’s my last week in 30 seconds”

I documented the process of reinventing myself.

Building a new skillset, a new business, a new life, to show what was possible on the other side of the leap.

And through months of that, I attracted people to my mission, who aspired to do something similar, or who resonated with my ideas and my story.

There are many more examples I could share with you, but for brevity sake, I want to transition into how you can figure out your own signature narrative.

I recommend starting with narrative design, which consists of 4 questions.

And like most things, I like to reverse engineer this, so we start with:

1. What’s the outcome you actually want from making content? To get in shape, to inspire others, to attract people to your mission, to retire your parents? What’s the real reason (beyond making money)?

2. What do you want to be known for? Think bigger than what you do day to day. Think about what you want to own in people’s minds. There’s a difference between “I sell protein” and “I’m documenting my entire life until I sell my company for 8 figures and retire my parents.” One no one gives a shit about. The other is a category of 1 position.

3. Who do you want to reach, and what story could they see themselves in? Be thoughtful about the specific person you want to help long term. The journey you bring people on will attract some and repel others, so make sure you’re attracting the people you want long term.

4. What have you done, or what do you need to do, to earn the credibility to tell this story? This is the credibility question, and it’s more flexible than you might think. You don’t need a decade of experience or a million-dollar business (but it helps if you have these things). You need one of two things: proof that you’ve done the thing, or a public commitment to doing it that people can follow along with.

After you answers these questions (seriously, go write down your answers once you read all of this) it helps to understand archetypes of different signature narratives.

Below are a few examples:

Archetype 1: The Personal Problem

“I hit a wall, I built a way through it, and now I’m bringing others with me.”

Who this works for: Anyone who started a business, brand, or mission based on a personal pain they experienced firsthand.

The formula: I was/had [specific situation]. I experienced [specific frustration or pain]. Nothing out there solved it the way I needed, so I built [specific solution]. Now I help [your audience] do the same.

Archetype 2: The Audacious Challenge

“Watch me do something most people think is impossible, and learn from the process.”

Who this works for: Anyone establishing authority in their space. The key ingredient: there are real stakes. You might not accomplish it. That’s what gets people hooked.

The formula: I’m going to / is it possible to [specific ambitious goal] in [specific timeframe]. I don’t know if I’ll make it. But I’m documenting every step.

Archetype 3: The Leap of Faith

“I walked away from the safe path because something mattered more.”

Who this works for: Anyone pursuing a specific non-traditional path who has a deeper reason driving them.

The formula: I had [the “safe” path]. But I couldn’t shake [the deeper pull]. So I [the leap].

You need real stakes here. The more specific the better. Think timeframes, constraints, etc

Archetype 4: The Established Proof

“I did ”Y“ without Z / in [timeframe]. Now I’m showing you how.”

Who this works for: Anyone who has achieved significant offline results and wants to use that track record to establish authority online.

The formula: I’ve accomplished [specific results] in [X timeframe]. Most of this happened behind the scenes. Now I’m breaking down exactly what I’ve learned so you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Archetype 5: The Contrarian Stance

“Everyone in this industry is wrong about something, and I’m going to prove it.”

Who this works for: Anyone who has a strong, earned perspective that goes against the conventional wisdom in their space.

The formula: Everyone in [your industry] tells you/thinks [conventional wisdom]. I think they’re wrong. Here’s what actually works, or what I’m doing instead.

I want to call out these aren’t mutually exclusive.

Many of the strongest narratives combine two archetypes.

The person who left their corporate job (Leap of Faith) to take on an audacious public challenge (Audacious Challenge).

The person who solved a personal problem (Personal Problem) and now has the results to prove it (Established Proof).

Once you have this, this is your foundation.

Your signature narrative is what makes you different. It allows you to stand out in a sea of sameness. It’s the thing no one can copy. And getting it right changes everything about how you show up online.

But your signature narrative is just the starting point.

The next layer is turning that narrative into a brand that works for you every day.

A way to package your ideas, your perspective, and your expertise into content that compounds week after week.

Content that builds trust with the right people.

Content that turns strangers into opportunities you didn’t know existed.

That’s the fun part, but since this is getting long, I’ll save that for another day.

But I hope this at least gives you the foundations to understand why what you’re doing right now might not be working, or if you’re brand new, plants ideas in your head of unique journeys you could go on and document your progress towards.

If you have questions, feel free to reply here, and if not I’ll talk to you next week.

Rooting for ya,

-Dodds

P.S if this resonates and you want help implementing this, in a few weeks I’ll be opening up a few spots to work 1:1 with me, so if you want to know when the doors open, you can get on the waitlist to work with me here.