Position Yourself Or Be Positioned: The Personal Category Design Playbook

This takes courage. And we believe in you.

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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

In our previous “mini-book,” we wrote about The “Me” Disease: Why Personal Branding Is A Lie (And How Some Of The Smartest People In Business Fell For It). 

We explained how the aspiration to build a “personal brand” usually stems from an underlying desire to attract attention or be known for the sake of being known, rather than being known as a byproduct of educating, entertaining, or providing value to a specific group of people. In fact, buried in the languaging of “personal branding” is precisely the point we want to get across: human beings are not brands. (And thinking so causes the mind to easily fall for The Big Brand Lie: that what readers, listeners, customers, and users care about isn’t their own wants and needs, but you.)

Listen closely...

Oprah Winfrey is not a brand. Oprah is a Black woman who was born into poverty in Mississippi to a single teenage mother who used her challenging and troubling childhood to inspire her to create a new category of television talk show that evangelized a more intimate, emotional, and confessional form of media. She did something different. Her show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, became the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for nearly three decades—NOT because of Oprah’s “personal brand.” But because of her ability to be known for a niche she owned.

Muhammad Ali is not a brand, he’s one of the greatest boxers and human rights activists to ever live. Muhammad Ali became one of the most known people to ever live. And during his life he spent a sum total of zero hours working on his “personal brand.”

Bill Gates is not a brand. He’s one of the greatest entrepreneurs in history. 

Warren Buffett is not a brand. He’s one of the most successful investors in the world. 

Ray Dalio, Tupac Shakur, Cher, George Washington, none of these people became historical figures because they were known for being known. They mastered their craft, did something unique and different, provided immense value to the world, and then they became known as a byproduct of their work and their commitment to sharing their insights, perspectives, and talents with other people.

There’s a scene in The Last Dance, the documentary about the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-1998 championship season, where Michael Jordan explains what his life was like after signing with Nike and stepping into the world of big-brand sponsorship. And he very articulately states that as exciting as this was, his focus remained 100% on the game of basketball—because it was basketball that led to sponsors, not the other way around. 

Nike didn’t make Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan made Nike.

Pirate Christopher used to know a high-profile, up-and-coming UFC fighter who suffered a horrible knockout and was never able to stage a comeback. One night, out for burgers and beers, a group of young fans came over and asked for selfies and autographs. The fighter obliged. Once the fans were gone, he looked Pirate Christopher in the eye and said, “Do you have any idea how much it sucks to be famous and poor!?”

The unfortunate reality is that the term “personal branding” gets people’s heads confused. (Languaging matters.) All of a sudden, they don’t know which way is up. They mistake being great with being known, and begin to pursue the latter thinking it’s the path to the former. Or, in the words of Drake, “These days, fame is disconnected from excellence.” You say you’re an educator or a life coach or a consultant or even a CEO, but your cereal box motivational quote graphics (“Results don’t happen on their own.”) and your LinkedIn hustleporn rah-rah videos say you’re just another #authentic imposter seeking attention for attention’s sake.

And that’s not what anybody legendary does.

Personal Branders market themselves. Category Designers market the category.

If you are focused on building your “personal brand,” your entire content strategy becomes an exercise in talking about you.

“HEY GUYS! IT’S ME. UH, JUST ANOTHER DAY. I’M HAVING EGGS FOR BREAKFAST. LOL!”

The advice you give, the information you provide, the “tools” and “tips” and “frameworks” you tell your “audience” they absolutely need to know are all under the guise of hooking their attention and getting them to pay attention to you. If Pirate Cole had a nickel for every time a client said to him, “What’s an easy 3-step framework we can give people to just get them in our sales funnel?” he could buy boatloads of bitcoin and sail off into the sunset (HODL). These people say they want to help people, but really all they want is to make the cash register sing their name. 

And that’s why they are mercenaries.

Category designers, on the other hand, are missionaries.

For example, Marc Benioff doesn’t promote himself, he evangelizes the cloud.  As does our friend and colleague, Brittany Fuisz, who sings the praises of “whole-plant organic flax milk,” her category. Notice, we do not promote ourselves within these “mini-books.” We also don’t promote ourselves externally under the assumption that if people buy into “us,” then they’ll buy into Category Pirates. The only time we talk about ourselves, ever, is to share a story or example that will lend additional perspective, color, context, or humor to the larger point we are trying to make.

We know you don’t read Category Pirates because of “us.” And so we make an active effort to get out of the way.

You read Category Pirates because you are interested in the category of Category Design. In thinking about thinking, thinking different, and creating different futures. And so everything we do, everything we say, every story we tell, every framework we provide, is in the spirit of further educating you and speaking to your interests, wants, needs, and desires as they relate to the category. We are irrelevant.

As a result, we are known for this niche we own.

What we are not is known for the sake of being known.

You don’t want a personal brand. What you want is a reputation.

Personal branding says the same thing as brand marketing: that the world cares about YOUR unique story, and it’s your job to figure out which part of your #authentic unique story you’re going to share with the world. 

Then, once you’ve made the decision (which version of yourself is the “real” you?), it’s time to go enlist your friend, significant other, or new intern to start documenting this version of your existence, and help turn every other thing you say into a meme or quote graphic, all in the name of puking out your #authentic story as often as possible, on as many platforms as possible. The strategy is that the more people who experience, see, consume your re-swizzled Tony Robbins quotes, the better off you’ll be. (Or, even better, do as self-proclaimed monk-turned-Millennial-spirituality guru, Jay Shetty, has done and just steal other people’s content and call it your own sage wisdom.)

But consider how ridiculous this approach to “becoming known” sounds in the context of any serious job offer.

Let’s say you are being considered for the CMO role of a high-flying startup. The startup has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and is gearing up to go public. Huge opportunity. We’re talking a healthy six-figure base with seven figures worth of stock options that will turn liquid in 18-24 months. 

Do you really think what is going to make or break your landing this opportunity and experiencing a life-changing financial outcome for yourself and your family is going to come down to how many Likes you got on your last “piece of content?” In the interview, are they going to ask you to perform an excerpt from your 30-second bite-sized #morningmotivation LinkedIn series? Will the final decision come down to your ability to remind your followers that they can live their dreams too—if only they would just “hustle harder?” 

Of course not.

To be clear, we are not saying that having a following on social media can not be an asset. It can be a great asset—if you gained it by delivering value. But if you gained a following by barking buffoonery into your iPhone (HI GUYS, IT'S ME AGAIN!) you’ll be hurting your career and maybe permanently disabling it. Remember, you cannot un-ring a bell.

What is going to determine your ability to land this life-changing opportunity is not your title, but your track record. When all is said and done, what kind of outcomes did you deliver? It’s not the pedigree of your education or the previous jobs listed on your resume that truly matters, but the integrity of your character and the value of your results. Are you a giver or a taker? Can you be trusted with power? Are you a coward with your company’s cash flows? Or do you have the courage of your convictions to make smart bets on categories that will increase in value and escalate to become “bet the farm” bets?

The founders/executives of the company are going to call around and see who in their network knows you—not to get a sense of how many followers you have, but what kind of person you are. Whether or not you’re reliable. What sort of legendary outcomes you’ve produced in the past, and the likelihood you will produce even more legendary outcomes in the future. And your track record, integrity, and outcomes all mix together to form your reputation. 

In the context of your reputation, your “personal brand” is a distraction at best and a self-inflicted wound at worst.  And depending on what kind of quote graphics you’ve been puking out as of late, maybe even cause for medical attention. (Arrrrrr!)

Who would your Superconsumers say you are?

Brands are contrived and manufactured by the brander. 

Reputations are earned by the category, the customers, and the ecosystem around you.

• The reason Pirate Christopher is who he is, is because legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalists, founders, and executives say who he is. Not because he contrived a brand.

• The reason Pirate Eddie is who he is, is because legendary Fortune 500 executives and elite business thinkers say who he is. Not because he contrived a brand.

• The reason Pirate Cole is who he is, is because millions of readers on the Internet say who he is. Not because he contrived a brand.

The only place you exist is in the minds and mouths of others. The difference between Adele and the millions of other amazing unknown shower singers is fans. Other people make us successful. And what causes one person to say another person is legendary? Results. 

Personal category design is about creating a unique and differentiated position, producing massive outcomes, becoming known for a niche you own, and building a reputation in the minds of your Superconsumers. When this is done successfully, someone can ask your Supers who you are, and the answer will likely be the same over and over again. 

That’s not branding. That’s personal category design (ideally mixed with some languaging).

Here’s another way to say it:

Personal category design is the single point of failure for careers, creators, professionals of all sorts, and artists.

You are either creating your own category or you’re competing within someone else’s.

For example, do you know who the 37th greatest Reggae musician is?

Of course not.

Even if you loved Reggae, you could probably only name 10 Reggae artists off the top of your head. And a third of them would be Bob Marley. Because the category of music makes the musician, not the other way around. (An easy test to prove this: ask a friend if they know who a certain obscure musician is, and whether they like them or not. Ten out of ten times, the friend will say, “No, I’ve never heard of them. What kind of music do they make?” This is not a branding question. This is a category question. The person needs to know what category the musician is in, first, before they can decide whether or not they like the person making the music. Category first. Brand second.)

Here’s another example:

How many times have you heard someone say, “Oh I love the TV show The Voice. There are so many great singers. How come more of them aren’t famous?”

Easy. Because none of the singers, no matter how “talented” they might be, are known for a niche they own. American Idol. X Factor. These shows are the WORST things you could ever do if you have aspirations of becoming a legendary singer, musician, artist, or performer. Why? Because these shows make artists sing other people’s songs in a competition against other people trying to do the exact same thing. (Remember: category designers do not invite comparison. Ever. You can either position yourself as a distinctive category of artist or you can submit yourself to being a contestant.) And yet, these competition shows further perpetuate The Big Brand Lie: “But it’ll be great exposure!” Sure, and it’ll also announce to the whole world that you are an undifferentiated singer and a Diet version of the real thing.

If Kurt Cobain had gone on The Voice, he wouldn’t have even made it to the TV part. And his partner, Dave Grohl (who’s had one the greatest careers in Rock history), has said many times he would “never make it” on American Idol. Why? “I don't want to sing like someone else. I want to sing like me.”

Remember: there are a total of zero cover bands in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And everyone who has made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame became known for a niche they owned. Notice how differently the world values musicians who write their own music versus musicians who play covers. Everyone knows who Bob Dylan is. Everyone knows who Mick Jagger is. And yet, the man Mr. Dylan calls the "King of the Folksingers,” and the man who inspired Mr. Jagger to pick up a guitar, most people have never heard of. Why? Because as legendary as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is (and he is legendary), he didn’t write the music. Woody Guthrie did. So even though Ramblin’ Jack made a huge difference and has had a wonderful career, he’s not known for the niche he helped promote. Because he didn’t create the music.

Another example:

One of the biggest “singers” in the world today (and, in 2021, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) is Jay-Z. And he can’t sing a single note. How is that possible? Branding? Of course not. Jay-Z can be one of the greatest singers in the world when the frame and context within which the world evaluates that singing is not beside other singers, but “rhythm speakers.” Rappers. 

In fact, in true legendary fashion, when the entire music industry was adopting auto-tune in 2009, Jay-Z rejected that premise and made the single of his forthcoming album a song called D.O.A: Death Of Auto-Tune. And in the very first 5 seconds of the song, after a blaring horn sample, he sings, “La-da-da-dah,” and the notes are so purposefully off-key, it’s almost painful to listen to.

He did this to show every listener he would not abandon his personal category design. And the song that unfolds is, quite literally, his manifesto and point of view of his category:

“This is anti auto-tune, death of the ring-tone,

This ain't for iTunes, this ain't for sing alongs

This is Sinatra at the opera, bring a blonde

Preferably with a fat ass who can sing a song

Wrong, this ain't politically correct (arh!)

This might offend my political connects (arh!)

My raps don't have melodies

This shit make n*ggas wan' go and commit felonies

Get your chain tooken

I may do it myself, I'm so Brooklyn

I know we facing a recession

But the music y'all making going make it the great depression (arh!)

Or your lack aggression

Put your skirt back down, grow a set man

N*gga this shit violent

This is death of auto-tune, moment of silence.” – Jay-Z

This degree of personal category design is the difference between playing in a cover band and being an artist.

One final example, just for funsies. 

In 2007, one of the greatest violin players in the world played in a Washington, D.C. subway.

Personal branding is what makes or breaks your success, right?

Talent and skill is all that matters, right?

“The best brand wins. The best product wins.” Right, right?

Well, that’s not what happened when Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists, went undercover to play in a subway. To hear Bell play his instrument in a concert venue, tickets would normally cost anywhere from $50 for nosebleeds all the way up to almost $800 for front-row seats. So playing on a multimillion-dollar Stradivarius violin, for free, in a bustling subway station, surely people would stop and appreciate the music, right?

Wrong.

Out of more than 1,000 passersby, only 27 gave Bell (the unassuming violinist) any money, and “only 7 actually stopped and listened for any length of time.” But we would bet, had another person stopped people at random and asked them if they wanted tickets to see Joshua Bell live, 10x more people would have said, “Oh absolutely, I’ve heard he’s a remarkable violinist.” Meanwhile, there he is, playing for free in a Subway.

Context matters.

What is personal category design?

Personal category design is your commitment to something bigger than yourself.

It’s the desire to create something new in the world—a movement of which you inevitably become the leader. 

But notice, “becoming a leader” is not your goal. Your goal is to change the world by lending a helping hand and walking people FROM the world they are living in today TO the world you know they would enjoy living in tomorrow. You are not a mercenary in search of your fifteen minutes of fame. You are a missionary standing in the future and calling the present in your direction.

Personal category design can take on a variety of forms:

• You become known for discussing a specific type of subject matter.

• You become known for creating a new and differentiated genre.

• You become known for unlocking a rare and valued result.

• You become known for facilitating a certain kind of change.

So what does it look like to “become known for a new & differentiated niche you own?”

Step 1: Get in the game and start creating categories.

Here’s an easy equation:

You do X for Y because you want to solve Z.

• You create single-page web pages (X) for small businesses (Y) because most small businesses can’t afford to hire expensive agencies but would still benefit from having a website (Z).

• You consult parents of ADD kids (X) on how to maintain focus for long periods of time (Y) because you were misdiagnosed with ADD for the first 18 years of your life and it caused significant stress in school—and you want to save others from this fate.

• You help musicians (X) turn their songs into NFTs (Y) because you believe artists should be fairly compensated for their music and blockchain technology is a step in that direction (Z).

Notice how the X and Y variables of the equation are about other people (and, more importantly, a specific group/category of person), and the Z variable of the equation is both your POV of the category (why it matters) and/or your personal story (why it matters to you). 

But your personal story, or even who you are, is not the main character. The reader, the listener, the customer, the user is the main character—and the degree to which you can educate and delight them on this new and differentiated category you are creating dictates the degree to which they will care about “you.” Because the truth is, the hero in everyone’s movie is themselves. So even when people “care about you,” the reality is they care about how you make them feel a whole lot more. Even when it looks like it’s about you, it’s not. It’s always about them. And if you are a musician, entrepreneur, creator, innovator, executive, or artist of any kind, it’s important to remember that success is NOT about the music you make or the art you produce, or the content you create, or the cabadingulator you invent, or the company you build. It’s about how others feel about what you did, and how they talk about their transformation as a result.

The very best way to learn how to create your own personal category, and become known for a niche you own, is to get started trying to create new, niche categories. 

Start small. 

One of our favorite examples is My Wedding Songs. Pirate Matt Campbell, founder of My Wedding Songs, said to Pirate Christopher (after being exposed to category design thinking), “I changed from being a broadline wedding planning website to being the Category King of wedding song suggestions. When the change was made, we saw a hockey stick effect in growth. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, now we just focus on one thing and try to be great at it. It is also easier to promote something that is so specific. And now, we are seen as the leader—of the category we niched down and created.” 

Here’s another: Joanne Molinaro, “The Korean Vegan.” Molinaro was a very talented, very high IQ lawyer and partner at a big fancy law firm. But what she really loved (besides law) was writing and cooking. Well, despite her being a smart, talented lawyer, in the category of lawyers, she was one of many. And despite her being a great writer and cook, in the category of “cooking blogs,” she was one of many.

Pirates, whenever you are faced with this dilemma: niche down.

Her explosion in popularity came when she combined two seemingly small niches together: Korean Vegan. When her Korean family used to get together in the kitchen, they would talk about their day, grandparents would share stories from their lives, etc. They would prepare the food together, eat together, then clean up together. The food experience was a family experience.

She found a way to recreate this feeling in TikTok videos—to the point where she eventually quit her job as a lawyer to be “The Korean Vegan” full time. 

Now, most (uninformed) marketers would say, “She was successful because she built a great personal brand.” But that’s a gross misunderstanding of what actually happened. Korean Vegan is a category. And she has become known for that niche, which she owns. In a world of billions of digital videos and countless food blogs, Joanne stands alone. She’s incomparable and irreplaceable. 

As a rule of thumb: if your niche feels too small, it’s probably not small enough.

Pirate Cole is going through this right now, with his digital writing cohort-based community, Ship 30 for 30.

When Pirate Cole first started this program, he thought the number of people who wanted to write online was too small. And, for years, he tried to tackle bigger and bigger categories—because this is what conventional wisdom says to do.

In reality, after launching the first cohort of Ship 30 for 30, Cole and his co-founder actually learned the opposite: “writing online” wasn’t small enough. Wasn’t specific enough. So they niched down even more: “START writing online.” They engineered the entire program specifically for people who hadn’t taken the first step yet. Again, conventional wisdom would say this is the opposite of what you want to do—but the numbers told a different story. Ship 30 for 30 started growing faster than ever, each cohort doubling in size again and again and again.

So, whenever you feel the urge to “aim bigger,” do the opposite.

Dig deeper.

Get more and more specific.

Create something that feels custom tailored for one specific person—and then go find all the other people who would be interested in that exact same thing.

Step 2: Pick a specialty.

Once you get in the game and start creating niche categories, inevitably you will discover a) where your true interests are and b) what the market finds most valuable from you.

More specifically, you will start to build relationships with your Superconsumers, and they will start revealing to you a treasure trove of opportunities for compelling Personal Category Design positions. Why? Because Superconsumers always tell the truth about the category: the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

• They will tell you what problems they are currently experiencing and what solutions they wish someone would create for them. 

• They will tell you what frustrates them about the existing category and what problems they would gladly pay a premium to never experience ever again.

• They will tell you their wants and needs, hopes and dreams, and signal what would be interesting to them—if only someone would come along and create it, Name it, and Claim it.

What you’re looking for here is: what can you be legendary at, that creates significant value for others, that few people can do. Then, Frame, Name, and Claim that thing.

Now, picking a specialty from a cold-start position is nearly impossible, which is why Step 1 is to get moving. You can’t know what you enjoy, what your unique skills are (or one day might be), or build relationships with your Supers if you just sit at home all day long, waiting. As one of Pirate Cole’s mentors used to say to him, “You can’t steer a stationary ship.”

So get sailing.

How do you figure out what to specialize in?

The world teaches us to think of specializations based on what has come before us. That we should specialize in an industry or craft that is established. 

To be clear: this is not what we are saying.

There are a lot of very smart people in the world who get their MBA from a top school, achieve good grades, land an impressive internship, and go on to specialize in a field that is slowly dying. For example, within the world of strategy consulting, only a small fraction of incoming MBAs make it to partner. However, for many years it was well known that one of the easiest ways to make partner was to specialize in insurance. The insurance vertical had huge margins (consulting budgets) and long-standing, legacy business problems which made for smooth sailing to partnership. Of course this was all well and good until companies like Tesla and Lemonade redesigned the auto insurance category and relegated yesterday’s market share leaders to the scrap heap of a dead category. In addition, because they are playing a competition game in a category someone else created, they are typically valued as a commodity. Smart accountants? Easily replaceable. Smart lawyers? Easily replaceable. Smart hedge fund analysts? Easily replaceable. Smart doctors? Easily replaceable. 

Instead, we encourage you to look at the work you do and ask yourself how you can niche down on just the parts you enjoy most, that also provide the most (and most unique) value to a specific type of person.

For example, Pirate Eddie could have spent the rest of his life as just another smart management consultant working at a big firm. Instead, he realized that of all the work he did in a given week or month, really only 2 slides out of the 200-page decks he had to build for clients mattered. His old firm’s founder called them the million-dollar slides. These were the 2 slides everyone remembered and saved, almost like family photos, because they were visual and helped the client change the way they saw the world. Pirate Eddie realized this was where he experienced the most joy, AND where he could provide clients of his own with the most value. “Forget the other 198 boring slides. Work with me directly, and let’s just focus on these 2.” Compared to other individual “consultants,” Pirate Eddie is an expensive hire. But compared to a full team at a big management consulting firm, working with him is a bargain. 

This is personal category design.

Don’t think of specialization as an existing box you are supposed to fit yourself into. Survey the work you are doing and ask where you experience the most joy, what is most intrinsically rewarding and interesting for you, and the 1 thing someone else would appreciate the most, and niche down hard on that. (Some people find their place in the world. And some of us have to make our place in the world.)

For example, do you absolutely love creating visual graphics for difficult-to-understand industries so that team members, partners, and customers can easily understand the value proposition? It seems weirdly specific, until someone makes the choice to niche down hard on just that one thing—then it seems brilliant. And that’s exactly what internet entrepreneur & graphic designer, Jack Butcher, did. He called it Visualize Value, and went from being a stressed out agency owner to being one of the most influential visual creators on Twitter with a whole course dedicated to helping people learn how to do this one very specific thing: visualize valuable concepts. Now, you can’t go anywhere on Twitter without seeing one of his signature graphics being shared over and over again. And every time someone else now tries to visualize something graphically, someone will inevitably comment, “Just like Jack Butcher!”

That’s personal category design.

Visualize Value@visualizevalue

To amplify, specify.

9:32 AM · Oct 16, 2021

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321 Reposts · 2.41K Likes

All that said, choosing a specialty is not a marriage decision.

You can always change your specialty later (Pirate Cole’s specialties have ranged from classical piano to professional World of Warcraft player to bodybuilder to aspiring advertising executive to viral writer to entrepreneur). But in order to learn how personal category design works, and build the skills required to become known for a niche you own, you need to pick something to refine. Then, after you’ve successfully become known for a niche you own, you can transfer those skills to another niche down the road.

Position yourself or be positioned.

Once you choose a specialty, how you educate others on the value of this new & different specialty is by creating and managing The Value Perception Gap.

The highest-paid people on planet earth are those who:

1. Solve a problem that is massively valuable to solve

2. Is urgently needed and required to solve (otherwise, bad things happen or continue to happen)

3. And very few other people can solve (making it a rare and not easily replaceable skill set).

Please read these three points several times over, like a mantra.

The entire purpose of choosing a specialty, and Naming & Claiming your own personal category, is to create a Value Perception Gap that is very difficult to fill with a commodity (aka: someone other than yourself). The story Pirate Christopher loves sharing here is that, early in his career, hiring managers would approach him about interviewing for CMO positions at prospective companies. He would take the meetings, and the interviewer or the CEO of the company would say, “We are looking to hire a seasoned CMO. Someone who can help us manage all aspects of the company’s marketing.”

To which Pirate Christopher would respond, “Oh, then I’m not your guy.”

“What? But you’re this hot-shot CMO. Everyone in Silicon Valley says you’re the guy.”

“Yes but not for being a CMO who manages your company’s marketing. Don’t get me wrong, I can do all those things, lead gen, partnerships, campaigns, digital, yadda yadda. But that’s not my superpower. That’s not what I do for and with companies.”

Suddenly, the frame of the conversation begins to change.

“Oh,” the executive or hiring manager would say. “So, what do you do?”

(Remember: he or she who frames the problem owns the solution.)

“Well I believe in every company’s life there is an 18-24 month period where the company will face an existential battle. And the company that wins that battle will go on to dominate the category and capture two-thirds of the economics. That’s what I do. I help companies win that battle and dominate their category. But that doesn’t sound like what you’re looking for…” he would say, his voice trailing off ever so slightly, as if about to hang up the phone.

“Hang on a second!” says the hiring manager or the executive, who moments before was so sure of what they were hiring for and why. “We want to be a category leader. That’s what you do?”

Now, the original question is forgotten. Irrelevant. And an entirely new conversation is being had.

That’s personal category design.

And the wider the Value Perception Gap is, the more expensive it’s going to be to fill it. 

Step 3: Pricing

Pricing is not a reflection of self-confidence.

Let us say that again.

Pricing is not a reflection of self-confidence. This notion that you get paid more in business by puffing your chest out and “faking it until you’ve made it” is total nonsense. It’s harmful thinking (and remember: thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking).

How you make more money in your business, your career, and your life, is by acquiring skills that widen the Value Perception Gap. Pirate Cole vividly remembers his first job out of college, working at an advertising agency, and one day asking for a raise. His boss’s boss, the Managing Director of the agency, told him, “We aren’t able to pay you more for your role.” Pirate Cole, a wide-eyed 24-year-old then asked, “Then how am I supposed to make more money?” To which the Managing Director responded, very unemotionally, very logically, “Solve more expensive problems.”

• Want to make $150,000 per year? Well, there are a bunch of real estate agents in the world who make $150,000 per year because they can solve a problem called, “Rich people can’t find the right house.” If you can acquire the skills to solve that problem, you can make $150,000 too.

• Want to make $300,000 per year? Well, there are a bunch of affiliate marketers on the internet who solve a problem called, “I’m a great innovator and product builder but I’m terrible at marketing my products.” If you can acquire the skills to solve that problem, you can make $300,000 too.

• Want to make $1 billion dollars? Well, there are a bunch of problems in the world like, “How do we get clean water to areas that have no clean water?” If you can acquire the skills to solve that problem (and problems like it), you can become a billionaire too.

The game of life is not that complicated. Figure out what problems other people value being solved, and then go acquire those skills (and trust us, there is exponentially more opportunity in the world than most people realize).

However, we’d like to encourage you to take this one step further.

Don’t fall into The Brand Cult or The Product Cult.

Acquiring a valuable skill is great. But acquiring a valuable skill and then positioning that skill within the context of a different problem that you Frame, Name, and Claim unlocks a completely new level of freedom and financial upside. For example, it’s one thing to say, “Real estate agents who sell mansions to rich people can make $150,000 per year or more, and that’s what I do.” But then you have to duke it out with all the other real estate agents who have acquired those skills too, and essentially do the exact same thing. All your time then gets spent trying to convince clients why you’re better, faster, smarter, cheaper than the competition—risky behavior that, in many cases, forces everyone in the category into a race to the bottom.

You don’t want that.

Instead, consider how much more advantageous your position becomes when you say, “Hey, wealthy individuals? The problem you have isn’t the problem you think you have. You think what you’re looking for is a reliable, trusted real estate agent with a proven track record. And if that’s what you’re looking for, by all means, go for it. But that’s not me. Who am I? Oh, I’m not a real estate agent. I’m a Bargain Mansion Hunter. I do nothing but study all the biggest, most luxurious houses on the market that haven’t been sold in over a year, which means they are desperate for an offer and are willing to be sold for way less than asking price. However… I will tell you that these deals are hard to close, because people have a hard time letting go of their expensive real estate for below market value. But, I’ve solved that problem, and I know exactly what steps to take to get the deal done for you.”

WHOA! THAT’S PERSONAL CATEGORY DESIGN!

When you are able to acquire or build a valuable skill AND frame it in the context of a new & different problem—which you’ve Named & Claimed—your ability to charge a premium goes through the roof. Because how else could the customer solve this problem (which you’ve now taught them is very important to solve) if you’re the one who invented/framed the problem?

You’re not easily replaceable.

And as a result, you set the price.

Step 4: Hitch your niche to a rocketship.

Of course, every industry and category has its ceiling.

At a certain point, you can only charge so much for an hour of your time. You can only charge so much for a book, or a course, service, or consulting project.

The way you overcome this theoretical max is by hitching your niche to a rocketship. This means finding ways to tie your incentives and earnings to someone else’s success—who may be playing in a bigger, more highly valued category than you, or solving a bigger, even more valuable problem than you. An easy example here would be choosing to take your compensation in stock options opposed to cash. Maybe you’ve learned the most you can ever get away with charging a client per month is $20,000 (or $240,000 per year). Anything above that and they go, “Come on, don’t be ridiculous. We’re already paying a premium, let us keep our kidneys, eh?” How you overcome your theoretical max is by hitching your niche to their rocketship: “Then how about instead of cash, you give me $240,000 in stock options?” 

Now, your theoretical max is your value contribution + the company’s value contribution to the market. And the larger the impact you have on the company, the more the company impacts customers, the more the company grows, the higher your earnings. A year later, the company’s value might have quadrupled, turning your $240,000 into $960,000. 

A few ways you can hitch your niche to a rocketship:

• Carve out your niche in a category that has 20-year tailwinds. An abundance of growth covers many sins, to allow you to make your mistakes without major repercussions.

• Focus on key inflection points where valuation perceptions change. Pirate Eddie has built $100 million dollar growth strategies for his clients many times. And while they didn’t really move the needle for an $80 billion dollar massive company, you better believe it made a monster difference for a $50 million dollar run-rate company looking to go public who wanted to exponentially change its valuation. Change-in-control, M&A transactions, IPOs, or sales are fantastic ways to hitch your niche.

• Take your compensation in stock (in a company you believe in) opposed to cash.

• Take the cash you generate from your business, services provided, or products sold, and invest it into companies (or Bitcoin) that are solving even bigger, even more valuable problems in the world.

• Tie your incentives to other people’s success. For example, some online education programs will teach students at cost/for free and then take a portion of their future income based on the new & more lucrative job they’re able to help them get.

The idea here is to change the way your impact is being valued by connecting your upside potential to solving a problem larger than yourself. (Scaling your value.)

Now, is this absolutely necessary? Not really. Personal category design + an intentionally created Value Perception Gap will allow you to charge 2x, 5x, 10x+ more than whatever it was you were doing before. But in order to get above a 10x or 20x or 50x pricing increase, you will likely need to hitch your niche to someone else’s rocketship. 

The first niche down is scary.

We know how orthogonal this way of thinking is.

We have compassion for the fact that many people in the world will never experience true autonomy, agency, and financial freedom because they believe the only way to succeed is to out-better everyone else around them (forever an easily replaceable commodity).

But we want you to know: you can be different.

Personal category design works. It has worked for all three of us. It has worked for our friends, family members, and colleagues who we care deeply for and want to help live with as much agency and financial independence as possible. And we know it will work for you. All it takes is:

• Getting started.

• Choosing a specialty—then Framing, Naming, and Claiming a new & different problem.

• Educating others on the Value Perception Gap, and charging accordingly.

• And eventually, hitching your niche to a rocketship.

This is the treasure map (or at least “a” treasure map!). And once you put it into practice, start small, and begin to see the power of being known for a niche you own, the journey becomes self-evident and deeply satisfying. It keeps you playing the game over and over again. Life becomes more fun. And even if your first personal category design isn’t successful (like Pirate Cole’s “Neighborhood Pokémon Card Tournament Holder” as an 11 year old), you will learn and your next one will be an improvement. And so will the one after that. Until eventually, one of them will *hit* and your life will be completely different as a result.

You were put on this earth to create, to invent new things.

And it makes the heavens mad when you don’t put your talents to good use.

It would be sad if you spent your whole life playing cover songs. It would be a loss for the world if your entire career was dedicated to playing “the better game.” Better is forgettable. Better is easily replaceable. You don’t want to be “better.” You want to be different. You want to be uniquely you—in a way that serves others in a meaningful and valuable way.

This takes courage.

And we believe in you.

Arrrrrrr,

Category Pirates

Eddie Yoon

Nicolas Cole

Christopher Lochhead