The Era of the Individual Empire Is Here
How creators became studios, brands, and distribution engines
The era of the individual empire is here, where anyone with a smartphone can build something really big.
Why is this happening now? We’ve hit critical mass. Social has now been around long enough. People have gotten enough influence and scale, and the entry points to anything now have been so changed.
Many years ago, we didn’t have Shopify or YouTube. We didn’t have TikTok. You couldn’t go viral. Like, you had to buy television ads for $10 million, and you had to pay Walmart $20 million to get in the store. Kids didn’t have $30 million to do that. Now, kids like me can post on organic—I’m still a kid—and grow.
Retail has been commoditized, attention has been commoditized, and now humans have as much attention, if not more, than companies spending on advertising. And my cost of entry for starting a sports agency, or a restaurant app, or a direct super wine brand, or an intellectual property, has collapsed. Anyone can do it.
Because distribution and media, those are the only catalogs. You needed commercials on TV to buy the cornflakes, and you needed Kmart and ShopRite to buy it. Now I can do the same thing on TikTok and Shopify for nothing. That’s why this is happening now and taking off.
MrBeast Is THE Example
Is MrBeast a prime example of the individual empire? He is THE example.
Logan Paul is another one. I came from a business lens to content. I had my own brand years before wine brands. But they did it bigger and better. Now, Beast has done it at the highest scale, and I didn’t even think Beast has even begun to actually cook. He’s super young. He’s got all of the leverage right now, and he’s CREATIVE. And being creative is being dangerous.
The infrastructure he’s building, the capabilities he’s building, it’s incredible and impressive.
Beast has the receipts. There’s a video of him sitting in his room when he started - he’s nice and cleanly shaved. He’s an inspiration because he did IT. And he did IT piece of content by piece of content by piece of content. This is why I’ve always loved him and watched him. You can go watch my first episode of Wine Library TV. I didn’t even have a mic or lighting, and it was filmed on a $300 camera.
Beast — and others with their empires — have done it bigger, badder, better.
What’s Unique About Today?
What’s unique about things today? I think it’s live streaming. Even Beast, he hangs out with streamers. The live streamer, the Twitch the Kick, the TikTok live, the YouTube live, that ecosystem, that whole world, the Kaids, the speeds, that whole world is happening. That’s an underpriced attention place.
All social networks are still underpriced. YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter/X. They’re all underpriced. You just have to be great at it. Early on, when they’re underpriced and nobody’s knowing about it, you have to be good at it to be huge. The more it gets bigger and everyone’s on it, you have to be GREAT. On Instagram right now, you have to be remarkable to break through. That’s supply and demand of attention.
The Creator IS the Studio
Friends, the creator IS the studio now. MrBeast has a studio. My team has a studio. We’re a production company. Everybody’s going to have a studio and everybody’s going to have a consumer package goods infrastructure, a marketing infrastructure, a supply chain infrastructure.
We’re making our own stuff here; I’m making my comic books. I invented VeeFriends characters. We created this story. We made this physical comic, and we sell it on live streaming. MrBeast and Steven Bartlett, Alex Cooper and Alix Earle and I… you’ll just see it over and over again. This is the beginning.
My book Crush It said that you can be an influencer in 2009, and that you can have a life making content on the internet. Now I’m telling you: Beast is the preview that you can build an empire on the back of a human.
Algorithm = Audience
Algorithm and audience are interchangeable. The algo is the black-and-white scorecard that you made for the audience. The algo is the report card. It’s the score. I make everything. When I say make it for the algo or I say “consumer centric” or audience, it’s all the same thing. It’s for the people. You need to know how the algo works. MrBeast talks about the audience, but he has always been Savant-level skilled at the thumbnail.
Beast Is the Preview, Not the Anomaly
MrBeast will be remembered as one of the pioneers of the individual empire: a human who built an audience who first loved it, scaled that, BeastGames is the scaled execution of what Jimmy (Donaldson) always wanted to do.
At first he had $5 to do it, then he had $5,000, then he had $50,000 - that was ‘wow’ on YouTube - then he had $100,000 and that was ‘wow wow’, and now he’s at the highest levels. But he’s also got a consumer product and he’s going to do everything he ever wants to do: non-profit, for profit.
Here’s what BeastGames really is: It made Hollywood realize it was all true along the way. There was this moment in Hollywood where it was, Yeah, you can be famous here but Beast Games is a lighting rod in culture and in Hollywood. It helps people like me and everyone else who is big on social and on the internet. It proved to everyone that you can easily translate from here to that screen because they’re all the same.
BeastGames is important and will also be looked back on as I think you’ll see more creators and entrepreneurs win in feature films, meaningful series, reality, scripted, non scripted. Listen, what inspires me, back to KIND WARRIOR, when this becomes a feature film, that’s me the creator. What I’m happy about is there are a lot of kids dreaming right now at 13, 14, 15 because of Jimmy’s work.
Why MrBeast Will Be Historically Successful
MrBeast will be one of the most financially successful entrepreneurs of this generation. He has a lot of talents.
We share the same skill in understanding context.
He has Mark Burnett’s talent in understanding production.
He has uncanny drive of winning the game, not doing it for the money.
He really, really, really understands how to entertain AND he’s very thoughtful about partnerships.
He’s simple. He knows that if he makes great stuff that people like to consume, everything will be OK.
He’s patient. In a world where a lot of people took their money from Google, Adsense, and YouTube revenue and bought Lambos and houses, he stayed in South Carolina and put all of the money into his next video so he could spend $1,000,000 on it…He spends six figures on a thumbnail!
The Individual Empire Is the Next Chapter
Influencers and content creators was a thing I saw as a real opportunity back in the day … the next chapter will be insane … soon we will see the “individual empire.” … It's already happening.
Humans are becoming multiple national empires — corporations — and the personal brand will expand into many business units.
This next chapter is remarkable and with AI and blockchain, the opportunities for those who seize the prize of leaning into their interests and talents and create awareness and entertainment & value and information around them and then surround that with a macro monetization later will reap the rewards.
In 2010, I predicted there would be so many people making $80,000 a year talking about gardening on the internet. And $65,000 talking about skateboarding. And $247,000 a year talking or writing about other stuff…
They don’t realize how much low-hanging fruit is coming. The opportunity is bigger than ever and more people need to go out and create content.
So, who is ready to build their solo empire; for the creators and entrepreneurs who are ready to finally monetize the attention that they’ve been able to garner through social media followings or email newsletters?
Give it time, be patient, because I’m very excited about all of this and what the individual empire economy will become.
Who’s ready to get “theirs”?
Which part of the 'Individual Empire' excites you most: The content creation, the physical products (CPG), or the infrastructure? Hit reply and let me know where your head is at!