monetize your mind (or someone else will)

You're scrolling through Instagram and you feel a strong sense to put your phone away. Anxiety is building up in your lower stomach. You feel the time slipping away while you know you have things to do.

But somehow you can't put it away. 

We say: "just scrolling my phone, it's not that deep."

As if we have been doing this for centuries and know the consequences. 
As if we are in control, consciously deciding to look at a screen for 90 minutes.

The reality is that you are being monetised. You've lost ownership over your mind, not just with your phone. 

When we sell our time to an employer - or by working for clients on the hour - our minds are also monetised. Every dollar we earn is tied to the hours we put into it. This causes us to feel that sting when we buy something expensive, because we connect it to our time. 

We create a surplus of value for someone else to 'own', and it will never be yours.

The truth is, if you don't monetize your own mind, you don't control your bank account, calendar, or location. And this means that we don't get to express ourselves the way we want to in life. 

Most people want SOVEREIGNTY.

• Paid for 100% of the value you create, not for the hours you worked.

• Control over calendar and location, not forced to be in a place you want to leave.

• Have creative expression in your business, not forced to do soul-draining daily tasks to keep it running.

Maybe you want to have a beer on a Wednesday, have a workout at 2PM, or see what Spain is like. The sovereign creator controls his income, calendar, and location, and there are only 3 things you can do to become one in 2025.

In the only correct order, you first have to...

► 1) ...take CONTROL over your ATTENTION

Your mind has been monetized to serve as attention for advertising

The simple remedy is very direct: it should piss you the fuck off that you don't have control over your own mind right now. And yes, if your screen time is over 2 hours per day, that's the case.

Let it piss you off.

Define an enemy, because there is one, and it's not you.

This helps you be a bit more kind towards your own wrestling sessions with these micro addictions. This is no cope, because we are up against the smartest people in the world designing the addictive foods and algorithms we can't overcome.

Winning this first game means you start owning your dopamine reward system. In simple terms, you're not addicted to social media, processed food, porn, or video games. 

None of it controls you anymore. 

When you took back control over your attention, you now have enough will and consciousness left to play the next 2 game, and claim your real-world sovereignty.

► 2) Build something that creates and stores value (your business)

Your mind has been monetised to produce profit for someone else.

If you don't own a business you can never earn beyond your own time.

Any alternative is an endless hamster wheel where that you can't escape, until you step out, and build something that can do work for you.

As a coach/consultant who sells sessions or even packages, your clients will own you. 
As a freelancer working for clients, the projects will own you. 
As an employee doing work, the company owns you.

Start looking at time as a tool to build things that create and store value, rather than a resource to sell. 

Escape the hamster wheel, especially when it's a golden hamster wheel (high paid). Choose a problem that excites the living hell out of you, and see how 'work' can become 'play'.

Regardless of where you are in your journey: you can solve problems, and likely one that you care about too. 

My first successful coaching offer was 'helping men find purpose' so there really is no excuse here. 

► 3) Build distribution (your personal brand).

Your mind has been monetised by creators. 

I don't mean become the next Jake Paul or some shit. When I say creator, I mean anyone who managed to win your attention on social media (including your boys or your ex on Instagram). 

Everyone is a creator. It's a spectrum, not a career path.

You are part of other people's distribution and other people are part of yours. Becoming a creator is just increasing your radius of influence or distribution, and choosing to consciously share your ideas and work. 

Besides building a business, an even more powerful way to monetise your own mind is by growing your own distribution (audience).

Distribution is what allows anyone to sell anything. If you don't have distribution, you will have to rely on the distribution of other people to create impact and income. 

And especially since you now have something to sell with your business, it's time to express your ideas, stories, perspectives, and methods.

Until you publish your minds work, you will not be able to claim it. 

But when you do, you will quickly attract a tribe of similar people who want similar things. And once you gather 50+ people that know, like, and trust you (on average after 7 hours of watching your content) then you only need a solid high-ticket offer to do 10K+ months online. 

Seriously, a niche audience with high trust outcompetes the large audience with low trust.

Now, if we put these 3 together, you get a sovereign creator, and the equation is simple:

True sovereignty is controlling your attention, so that you can create content and products that you're proud of, that ultimately allow you to design your life precisely as you desire.

But here's the cool part nobody talks about...

You cannot be a creator and a consumer at the same time. You now have a reason to explore curiosities, remember things, and develop ideas.

It changes everything.

You no longer read books to sound cool to your colleagues at the water machine, anything that you consume gets dfiltered through your unique perspective, and turned into new ideas for the world to see.

You have a new dopamine reward system that's centred around creation, not consumption. 

You no longer identify with what you consume, but with what you create.

A new video game with real metrics: new subscribers, calls booked, and cash collected.

But even better, I believe that a personal brand teaches you how be your real self. It's a journey of peeling back layers that are now covering your authenticity. 

You're going to hear yourself talking.
You are going to destroy your fear of being seen. 
You will see exactly when you are full of shit. 

It's a ruthless process of becoming authentic. 

So in a fascinating way, the sovereign creator is on a path to worldly freedom - while returning home to himself.

A quest for worldly freedom and personal freedom at the same time.

That's the Sovereign Creator.

Oss, Roel