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10 Digital Assets That Pay You Forever - Even If You Stop Working — Transcript

by Richard Yu · 3,475 words · 527 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Right now, the only thing you have to
0:01sell is your hours. You show up, you put
0:04in the time, and you get paid. The hours
0:06stop, and the money stops with them.
0:09This isn't a character flaw. It's the
0:11only asset most people are ever handed.
0:13But, there's a second kind of thing out
0:16there, and nobody hands it to you.
0:18Digital assets, otherwise known as
0:20digital products.
0:21You build it once, you sharpen it as you
0:24go, and you carry on earning long after
0:26the work that made it is done.
0:29A few are simple enough to begin this
0:31week. A few take years to build
0:33properly.
0:34And the one sitting at number one
0:36doesn't require you to be an expert in
0:38anything. No skill you've mastered, no
0:40credential, nothing you invented. Let's
0:42count down from 10. Two quick things
0:43before we start. I'm not ranking these
0:46on how much money they make. I'm scoring
0:48everyone on three simple things.
0:50Leverage. Does it get easier as it gets
0:53bigger?
0:54Two, ownership. Do you own it, or are
0:55you renting? And three, repeats. Does
0:58the money come back on its own?
1:00Three questions. Each item gets scored
1:02out of three.
1:04But, a score only tells you how good
1:05something is. It doesn't tell you
1:07whether you can have it. So, there's a
1:09fourth question, and I'll ask it at
1:11every rung. Can you start it Monday?
1:14Three questions, scored. The fourth
1:16decides where it lands. Watch how often
1:18those two disagree. And so you know
1:21who's ranking these. Before any of this,
1:23I was folding burritos for minimum wage.
1:25I was buying courses I opened only two
1:27times. And since then, I've made well
1:30over 32 million selling digital products
1:32online. And more useful to you than
1:34that, several of the things on this list
1:37did not work out for me. That's where
1:39the ranking comes from. Starting at the
1:40bottom.
1:41Numbers 10 and 9. Selling files and
1:44printables.
1:46Files means stock photos, sound effects,
1:48slide layouts. Printables means a
1:49planner, a checklist, a worksheet.
1:51Either way, you upload it to a
1:53marketplace, somebody pays a few bucks
1:54for it, and it's delivered
1:55automatically. You were not involved.
1:57This is the plainest version of what a
1:59digital asset is. Something that you
2:01make once and can be bought more than
2:02one time. And there's one genuinely good
2:05idea buried in there, so you take it
2:07even if you never sell a file.
2:09These live in a search bar, not a feed.
2:12A feed forgets you the week you stop
2:14posting. A search bar doesn't care what
2:16you did this week. That's the difference
2:18between renting attention and owning a
2:20position, and it's going to matter more
2:22and more as you go up this list.
2:24Now, the scorecard. Leverage. Yes. The
2:27thousandth sale cost you nothing more
2:30than the first. Ownership? No. The
2:33platform sets your price and can change
2:35it on a Tuesday. Repeat? No. Every sale
2:38is a fresh transaction with a stranger
2:41who will never learn your name. One out
2:42of three? Both of them. Fourth question.
2:45Can you start on Monday? Yes, easily.
2:47And it still finishes last, which tells
2:49you something about the fourth question.
2:51Asking it doesn't rescue you when the
2:53first three fail. Because the shelf is
2:56already full. And the file isn't really
2:59the product. The title and the photos
3:01are. Two people sell the identical
3:03worksheet and one of them makes nothing.
3:05So, I'd skip both. And those are the
3:09only two I'll say that about. Everything
3:11from here up is worth your time and it
3:14gets better fast. Number eight, guides.
3:17The first one I genuinely tell a
3:19beginner to try. It doesn't need to be a
3:21book. Nobody pays for length. It needs
3:23to solve one specific problem one
3:26specific person better than they could
3:28work it out alone.
3:29Most fail and not because of the
3:31writing, because the promise is too
3:33wide. How to make money online is not a
3:36problem. That's a category. How to price
3:39your first 10 wedding jobs without
3:41underbidding yourself is a problem. And
3:43that one has a person attached to it.
3:46So, here's the test. Say out loud and
3:48name the person, not the topic. If you
3:51can only name the topic, you don't have
3:53a product. You have a subject and that's
3:56the most common reason these don't sell
3:59and it's fixable in an afternoon.
4:01Leverage? Yes. Ownership? Yes. If you
4:04sell them from your own page. Repeat?
4:08No.
4:08Every sale is one sale.
4:11Two out of three?
4:12And the fourth question is a clean yes.
4:15You could write this one over a weekend.
4:17Number seven, online courses. The course
4:20is not passive income. I've sold courses
4:22so I know. Nobody hands a stranger a few
4:24hundred dollars because the videos
4:26exist. They do it because they trust the
4:28person.
4:29But once it's working, it can earn for
4:32years because some problems never
4:34expire.
4:35The honest cost is that the free version
4:37of your course is already on YouTube
4:39made by somebody with better lighting.
4:41You're competing with free forever.
4:43So build the smallest version that
4:46produces one real result for one type of
4:48person.
4:49My first digital product was a $500
4:51course. Not a masterpiece and that was
4:53fine. Leverage? Yes. Ownership? Yes.
4:56Repeats? No. Unless you run it in
4:58cohorts with live calls and that's
5:00exactly why those charge a multiple.
5:02What people pay for was never the
5:03information. It was a deadline.
5:05Two out of three, same score as guides.
5:08Fourth question and here's where it
5:09separates.
5:11Can you start Monday?
5:12Not quite. Nobody buys a few hundred
5:14dollar course from someone that they met
5:17on Monday. You need trust first and
5:18[music] trust takes time. So it scores
5:21the same as number eights and it's
5:22slower to start. It still ranks higher
5:24for one reason.
5:26A guide hands somebody information. A
5:28course hands them a result. And people
5:30pay several times more for a result.
5:33Number six, niche websites.
5:35A site about one narrow subject.
5:38Something that only covers testing well
5:39water. People searching for that will
5:41find you. They never heard of you, they
5:43just had a question. It earns from ads,
5:46from commissions where a company pays
5:47you a cut of the sale when somebody buys
5:50through your link at no extra cost to
5:51the buyer. Remember that one. It matters
5:54at number three.
5:55The honest cost is happening right now.
5:57Search is being rewritten. The answer
6:00appears at the top of the page and the
6:02click never happens. Traffic that took 2
6:04years to build can vanish after one
6:06update and nobody will explain it or
6:08give it back. Leverage? Yes. Ownership?
6:11No.
6:11You're a tenant on somebody else's
6:13search engine. Repeat? Only while the
6:15traffic holds and the traffic is not
6:17yours.
6:18One out of three with a maybe that isn't
6:21yours to decide.
6:22Fourth question. You can start Monday.
6:25You cannot get paid for 18 months and
6:27the ground is moving under it the whole
6:28time. Number five, a monetized channel.
6:32You're watching this one right now, so
6:34let me be straight about how this
6:35actually pays.
6:36Four ways and most people only know the
6:38first. First off, you can make some ad
6:40revenue, which is the smallest.
6:42Sponsorships, which usually pay a little
6:44more. Commissions on what you recommend
6:46and your own offers sold to people who
6:48already trust you.
6:49It keeps paying because old videos don't
6:51expire. Somebody types a question and
6:54finds something that you filmed 2 years
6:55ago and they don't care when you made
6:57the video, they just care whether the
6:58video solves a problem. Short-form
7:00content does the same job faster. These
7:03platforms judge the video, not your
7:05follower counts. You don't need an
7:06audience to get in front of an audience
7:08and no, you do not have to be on camera
7:10if you do not want to.
7:11Here's what keeps it at five. I don't
7:14own this channel. I rent it. So does
7:16everybody you follow online.
7:18Every one of them is one policy change
7:20away from having a very bad month.
7:22Leverage? Yes. Ownership? No. Repeat?
7:24Also no. Ad money and sponsor money
7:27reset every time you post. One out of
7:29three, same as number 10. It ranks five
7:31spots higher for two reasons. Four
7:34income streams instead of one and it's
7:36the only thing on this list that feeds
7:38everything above it. Fourth question and
7:40it's the strongest yes so [music] far.
7:42You could post today.
7:44Number four, a paid newsletter or
7:46membership. The least exciting thing on
7:48this list and the one I protect first.
7:51People will pay you every month for
7:53something that they can only get from
7:54you. A weekly brief for independent
7:56insurance agents, a private group where
7:58somebody gets the question answered. It
8:00doesn't have to be clever. It has to be
8:02worth more than the price every month to
8:05a specific kind of person. You built it
8:07out of an audience that you own. An
8:09email list or a DM inbox full of real
8:11conversations. You get that by giving
8:13something genuinely useful away in
8:15exchange for a way to contact them
8:17again, a lead magnet, and that's all
8:19that term means.
8:21Now watch the scorecard because this is
8:23where it changes. Leverage, yes.
8:25Ownership, yes.
8:27And a bigger yes than anything below it.
8:29You own the audience and you own the
8:31billing.
8:32A platform can quietly show your work to
8:35fewer people tomorrow and never tell you
8:37why.
8:38That's happened to people with a million
8:39followers. An audience you own cannot be
8:42throttled. Repeat, yes. Real, yes.
8:45The money arrives next month whether
8:47[music] you had a good week or not. And
8:49this is the first rung where that's
8:51true. The honest cost is that it never
8:53lets go of you. Miss three weeks and
8:56people leave and they don't come back to
8:58tell you why.
8:59Three out of three.
9:00The best score so far.
9:03And it's number four.
9:04Because the fourth question is a flat
9:06no.
9:07Nobody subscribes to a stranger.
9:09You need the audience before you can
9:11charge for access to it.
9:13And that's months of work you have not
9:15started yet. Perfect score, you can't be
9:18standing on it Monday.
9:19Remember that. It comes back in about 90
9:22seconds. Number three, selling other
9:24people's digital products. Somebody
9:26spent two years building something that
9:28works. Somebody else has the same
9:30problem it solves. You connect them and
9:33you get paid for the connection. That's
9:35what we call AI product arbitrage. Don't
9:37let that phrase do anything to you. It
9:40just means you are a bridge. You do not
9:42build the product, you don't maintain
9:44it, and you don't handle the customer
9:45service, but you do take a generous cut.
9:48And a digital product costs nothing to
9:49create. There's no factory, there's no
9:51shipping, there's no unit cost. And so
9:53the person who made that product can
9:54give you 50%, 60%. On some products,
9:57they can pay potentially even up to 80%.
10:00I know exactly what that's worth because
10:02I did the complete opposite for a year
10:04when I was getting started. I built up a
10:06drop shipping store at over $30,000 in
10:08sales a month. 30 grand, that's $1,000 a
10:11day in sales. And I ended up losing
10:13money on it. Huh? How's that even
10:15possible? With product costs, shipping,
10:17ads, refunds, chargebacks, you're
10:19fighting, if you're lucky, for 5 to 10%
10:22profit margins. Meaning, if you sell
10:24something for a thousand bucks, you're
10:25keeping maybe 50 to 100 bucks. And every
10:28one of those costs keep going up as you
10:30scale the business and spend more money
10:31on ads. The best month that I had, and I
10:34ended up going backwards. Comparing 50
10:36to 85% of a digital product that pays
10:39you insanely high profit margins versus
10:415 to 10% on a physical one. That's the
10:44whole argument. The other half here is
10:46AI. In our workflow, it handles most of
10:48the labor, the research, the first
10:50drafts, the volume, not the judgment,
10:52just the labor.
10:53Your whole filter is just one question.
10:55Would you be comfortable if somebody you
10:58actually like bought it? If not, walk
11:00away.
11:01You only get one reputation. Escorts?
11:04Leverage? Yes. Repeat? No. Ownership?
11:07No.
11:08The company can change the price, they
11:09can cut the commission, they can close
11:11the program on a Tuesday. And the
11:12customer list is not yours. One out of
11:15three, the same number as 10. And
11:17[music] yes, number four scored three
11:19out of three, and it's sitting one place
11:21below this. That's the fourth question
11:23doing its job. I told you at the start
11:25that it would. Because this is the
11:28fastest starting line on the list.
11:30Number four it pay you until you spent
11:32months earning an audience. This can pay
11:35you before the audience even exists. And
11:37there's a second thing it does that
11:39nothing else here does. You find out
11:41what people ask right before they buy.
11:43You find out which objection actually
11:45kills their sale in their words. You get
11:48paid to do market research on a product
11:50somebody else already validated. It's
11:53the best classroom on this list.
11:55Hold that thoughts because [music] it's
11:56the last thing I'm going to say to you.
11:59Comment the number of the one that you
12:00would actually start. Not the one that
12:02sounds best, the one you'd start on
12:05Monday. I read them. Number two, small
12:07software. When people hear the word
12:09software, they freak out because they
12:11instantly picture a company with 80
12:13engineers, complicated, expensive, oh I
12:15don't have any technical experience to
12:16run that. Forget that. This is one
12:18narrow AI tool that fixes one annoying
12:21problem for one type of business, charge
12:23monthly.
12:24A scheduling system built only for
12:26driving instructors. Not impressive at a
12:28dinner party,
12:30but who cares? It's somebody's Tuesday
12:31afternoon that just got a lot better the
12:33moment they buy that product. Score
12:35first because it's the best card on the
12:37table. Leverage, yes. Serving a hundred
12:40customers costs almost the same as only
12:41serving one. Ownership, yes, completely.
12:44You own the software. And repeat, yes.
12:46And people, for the most part, don't
12:47cancel, especially when you have a good
12:49product, because nobody wants to relearn
12:51how to do their own job. Three out of
12:53three. The strongest three on this list
12:55so far. So, why is this not number one?
12:59The old objection was that you could not
13:01code, so therefore you could not
13:02participate in this. That part is
13:05genuinely [music] over. There are AI
13:07tools that will now build a workable app
13:09with a plain English description, and
13:11they get better every few months. And if
13:13you haven't looked recently, go and
13:15look. But watch what it actually solved.
13:17It solved the building. Go back to how I
13:20framed the fourth question. Not, can you
13:22start it? Can you still be running a
13:23year from Monday? Software breaks.
13:25Somebody else's update breaks it for
13:27you. A customer gets locked out of the
13:30software at 9:00 p.m. at night time and
13:32now that's your evening trying to solve
13:33it. A guide doesn't wake you up at 2:00
13:35a.m. in the morning. Software does for
13:38years. The building was not the hard
13:40part. I have so many videos on this
13:41channel, actually, that teach you
13:43exactly how to build AI apps and digital
13:46softwares. It's actually not very
13:47difficult. It was just the visible one.
13:49It's the only part that got solved. So,
13:51it stays in number two. The best model
13:54on the internet and the one that asks
13:56for the most from you forever.
13:58Which brings me to number one.
14:00Because there's a version of that same
14:02three out of three that does not exist.
14:05Number one. Your own digital product
14:07sold at a real price.
14:09I told you at the start that the one at
14:11the top does not require you to be an
14:13expert in anything. So, let me deal with
14:15that first because that's the objection
14:16sitting in your chest right now.
14:18You don't have to be the best in the
14:19world at this.
14:21You just have to be one step further
14:22along than the person that you're
14:24helping and honest about exactly where
14:26you are.
14:27You don't need a certification. Nobody's
14:29going to ask you. People want to learn
14:31from someone who is standing where
14:33they're standing recently enough to
14:34still remember how it felt.
14:36I've watched this work in subjects
14:38nobody would put in a business plan.
14:40Gaming, skiing, teaching English. Over
14:433,000 clients now and more than 500
14:46funnels built. WAP, one of the biggest
14:48digital marketplaces on the planet, flew
14:50me out to New York because I won their
14:52competition for the most amount of
14:54sales. The subject was never the
14:56variable. Leverage, yes. Ownership, yes.
14:59The offer, the price, and the customer,
15:02repeat, yes. Because the buyer is yours
15:05and you can serve them again. Three out
15:07of three, same as software. And the
15:09fourth question is the only place they
15:11differ. You can start this one this week
15:13without writing a single line of code.
15:15And a year from now, it is not waking
15:17you up at 2:00 a.m. in the morning.
15:19That's the the ranking in one sentence.
15:22The best asset is the one that scores
15:24three out of three and that you can
15:26actually stand on.
15:28Number one is the only thing here that
15:30does both.
15:31Now, the honest cost and it's the
15:33biggest on the list.
15:35You have to pick something and stay with
15:37it long enough to get good at it. You'll
15:38build the wrong version first. I did. My
15:41first business was selling jewelry to
15:42fraternities at UCLA and it flopped in 6
15:44months because I never asked one human
15:46what they actually wanted. I just built
15:48what I wanted to build. And you have to
15:50be willing to sell. That's the only part
15:52that is not optional. Your job takes 1
15:54minute, right? One sentence. I help this
15:57person get X results. [music] If you
15:58can't finish that, it's not a failure.
16:00You just found what to work on this
16:01week. So, let me be straight about all
16:0310 of these. None of these are
16:05shortcuts. 50 photos on a stock site is
16:07not an asset. It's just 50 photos. The
16:10only difference between these and a job
16:12isn't that they're easier. Several are
16:14harder. It's that a job pays you once
16:17for the work and an asset pays you again
16:20for the work you already finished.
16:22One honest thing before you go. There's
16:24a version of this video where I pretend
16:26I don't sell digital products. I'm not
16:27doing that. I make my money selling
16:29digital products, softwares, digital
16:31programs, mentorships and coaching. I'll
16:33say that straight to your face because
16:35it's what I believe is hands-down the
16:37best opportunity there is and I would
16:39genuinely be a hypocrite to act
16:41embarrassed by it. So, here's what I've
16:43got for you. A free workshop that I'm
16:46going to walk you through exactly how to
16:48do numbers one and three. How to find a
16:50product that already has buyers, how to
16:52turn people who watch you into people
16:54who buy and where that traffic comes
16:56from when you have zero followers and no
16:58ad budget. It's going to be the first
17:00link in the description. It's going to
17:01pop up on the screen here in a couple
17:02seconds as well. And back to where we
17:04started. You've been handed one asset.
17:07Your hours. That was never a character
17:08flaw. It's just where everyone starts
17:11and it's the one thing on this list that
17:13cannot score better than zero out of
17:16three. So, start at number three. Not
17:19because it's the best, because it's the
17:21only rung that you can be standing on by
17:24the end of the week, and everything you
17:26learn there is exactly what number one
17:29requires.
17:29>> [music]
17:30>> You're not choosing your business.
17:32You're choosing your classroom.
17:34And keep the questions: leverage,
17:36ownership, repeats. [music] And you can
17:38still be doing it a year from Monday.
17:41The next time somebody on the internet
17:42offers you an opportunity, score out
17:45loud before you give them a dollar. Most
17:47of them don't survive question two.
17:49Now, go build something. And if you want
17:51to learn exactly how to scale this from
17:53zero to 10, to eventually over a hundred
17:55thousand a month, go ahead and tap on
17:57this masterclass training right here,
17:58cuz that's going to show you exactly
17:59how. So, you can tap on that right
18:01there, and I'll look forward to seeing
18:02you on the other side.

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