David runs a successful writing course called Write of Passage, earning an 8-figure income. He has 425K followers on Twitter and over 100,000 email subscribers.

When he began, he wasn't a great writer. His grades in school and college were just okay. But now, he's turning people into awesome writers with his course. And it's all because he was good at one thing.

Table of Contents:

1. Life Before Content Creation

2. How David Started Creating

3. How David Started on Twitter

4. First Big Money

5. David’s Advice for Beginners

6. David’s SIDE (Strengths, Interests, Demand, Execution)

7. How Beginners Can Apply the Lessons

1. Life Before Content Creation

8-year-old David sat in the front seat of the car and asked his dad, "Dad, are we poor?"

His dad faced financial challenges, making young David always feel like they needed more money. Growing up, David struggled with low self-esteem. School didn't spark his curiosity.

Skipping homework, flunking classes, and avoiding books, he relied on SparkNotes for summaries. He graduated high school with a 2.8/4 GPA. A teacher even said his parents were the most worried about their child's future.

However, David kept going because of one thing. Obsession.

In his sixth grade, there was a project called I-Search in which students could learn whatever they wanted for six weeks.

David's first passion was airplanes. He was fascinated by Boeing 787. For the project, he read the whole Jeppesen Pilot Manual - a huge 700+ page book. He devoured issues of the magazine ‘Airports Around the World’.

He even convinced his mom to take him to the aviation museum, just so he could play an air traffic control systems game there.

Young David didn't just want to come in the first place. He aimed to take over the scoreboards and set all the high-score records from second to tenth place.

In high school, David got really into sports. Athletes inspired him. He began with baseball and later got into basketball and golf.

Look at a tweet from his college days. He suggested canceling classwork to watch college basketball.

His Small-Town College

David spent four years in Elon, North Carolina (United States), a tiny town with 5,000 people. He often felt hungry for intellectual companionship.

"I’d leave most parties early because I’d rather read a book." - David Perell.

In college, his average GPA was 2.9/4. His writing wasn’t good either. He got a C in a writing course. In fact, a friend once commented his essay was terrible.

David had an internship at a company called Skift in New York. In the first week, he realized he knew very little and felt incompetent.

The rest of the summer in New York, he felt like a tiny ant among giant buildings and corporates.

When he returned to college, he knew he needed to start learning.

He discovered Stratechery by Ben Thompson, becoming one of his first 1000 subscribers. He was intrigued by BuzzFeed's potential as the future of media. This was way back in 2015.

He was a media and entertainment major, and he wondered why his teachers seemed clueless compared to the exciting things he found online.

He realized his college professors weren't helpful, so he decided to forge his own path. He skipped classes to listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and read books.

This exploration made David realize life mattered and he had choices.

David had an epiphany. He felt like he had been sleepwalking through life for 20 years. He read "Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker on a road trip to Utah.

The realization that he was 25% through his life hit him.

Becker's idea of transcending death by becoming the hero of your own story resonated with him.

David got deep into media theory. He started writing more to share his ideas. He published a research paper titled Models of Internet Monetization.

He read both Jeff Bezos’ and Warren Buffet’s annual letters to shareholders. He also found out how founders like Emily Weiss started companies like Glossier (a beauty brand with 94K followers on Twitter in 2014) by first building a community of readers.

David's Writing Got Better

In 2016, he landed his first job because of an article he wrote on the future of media.

He moved to New York to work as a sales associate for an advertising agency. His task was to write sales decks.

His boss remarked that he didn't write well. Despite this, David was more intrigued by big-picture questions about the future of media than writing sales decks.

His boss told him to "stop thinking like Jeff Bezos and do his job."

After 7 months, he got laid off. To find job security, he chose NOT to apply for another job. Isn't it interesting that young David thought a regular job wasn't secure?

David saw losing his job as an opportunity. He paid close attention to the media world and discovered something important for making money before others did.

He believed societies were shaped more by the nature of the media than by its content. He realized early that people were becoming media companies.

The business flywheel of Walt Disney inspired him. Here’s how it looked.

David decided to chase his passions. He told his parents about pursuing "the worst idea for two years but the best idea for 10."

They agreed and paid his rent for a year while he worked hard to publish online.

2. How David Started Creating

David spent 12-15 hours everyday learning from audiobooks, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and more. He started writing more and making YouTube videos.

Drawing inspiration from pioneers like Emily Weiss and Casey Neistat, who were modern brands in 2016, David felt that money managers who formed emotional bonds with customers would thrive.

How? Through frequent social sharing, to build trust.

With this idea in mind, he started a consultancy called ‘Naked Brands’ in 2016. He described Naked Brands as companies that use trust and open communication to gain a competitive edge and openly share their investment strategies.

He even wrote a polarizing piece with the first line: "Money managers are becoming a commodity."

To get clients, he fixed up his website and began sending out a newsletter every week about the future of media and technology. He told everyone about it on Twitter with this message.

Since he was growing on Twitter, he attracted clients. His first client was from Mexico, and the second one was in Sydney.

He realized writing could help him connect with people worldwide.

He wanted to talk to his heroes. But they were busy and refused his requests for catchups. So, he found a cool hack to talk to them: a podcast.

He Launched a Podcast

With fewer than 1,000 Twitter followers and no email list, David sent cold emails, direct messages on Twitter, and asked people he knew for introductions to get guests for his podcast.

If he couldn't find their emails, he'd try different combinations and send them out.

David started The North Star podcast in late 2016. At only 22, he took a bold step when podcasts weren’t as popular.

In less than four years, he interviewed people like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth Godin, and more. Many of them have become his friends now.

Podcasts helped David grow his following fast, as guests would also promote the podcasts among their audience.

He was Writing More

David frequently engaged with creators on Twitter. Connecting with Tiago was a pivotal moment for him.

Here’s a snapshot of one of their early interactions.

He took Tiago’s course called Building a Second Brain in 2017. In just five weeks, using Tiago’s note-taking system, David went from struggling with too much information to riding its waves.

The new system helped David get rid of writer's block, and he got super creative. In six months, he began a weekly newsletter called Monday Musings where he wrote about of things he liked.

The next year, he started another newsletter, Friday Finds, where he shared his top 5 internet links.

Inspired by Walt Disney, this is the early sketch David made for his business plan.

3. How David Started on Twitter

David started tweeting quite early in July 2012, and it's no surprise given his understanding of the changing face of media.

His initial tweets reflected his passion for baseball.

Here’s how they looked.

He experienced the power of the internet first hand when he got a job offer on Twitter. Here’s the snapshot.

The Beginner’s Luck

David would blog about his take on media, online education and the internet. Most of his early readers were his Twitter followers.

One day, Tyler Cowen, an American economist and blogger, shared David’s writing on his blog. This was a magic moment for the beginner David.

He later invited Tyler as a guest on his North Star podcast and they became lifelong friends.

4. First Big Money

David was earning through his consultancy. With time, consulting became boring because his clients, who were financial advisors seeking online growth strategy, always faced the same problems.

The Beginner’s Break

David wanted to use his time better by teaching more people.

So, in October 2018, he tweeted he wanted to help folks interested in writing top-notch essays. Over 500 people were interested.

Here’s what the announcement looked like.

After selecting the candidates, David felt overwhelmed because he had no experience of hosting any course. He reached out to Tiago for help.

He pitched the online writing course as a sequel to Tiago’s ‘Building a Second Brain’. It took less than five minutes for Tiago to say yes.

There was another problem. David didn't have the money for filming the course. Tyler Cowen stepped in and gave him an Emergent Ventures grant to cover all the costs.

See, how making connections can help you in unpredictable ways.

They filmed seven videos in Mexico. David announced the course launch to the 5,000 people on his email list. Tiago sent it to his course alumni.

They launched the Course

They named it ‘Write of Passage’ and launched in April 2019. 150 students signed up, making over $200,000 in profit from the first two cohorts.

To make it better for students, David got an idea from a college philosophy class he enjoyed. There were no lectures. Students prepared and got ready before class, discussing during it.

So, David and his team decided to run live classes. On February 19, 2020, they ran the first live cohort of Write of Passage. The price went up by 50%, but more new students signed up.

The live cohort (a 5-week program) is still going strong. The next one starts on April 8, 2024.

David positioned the course as a premium writing school, attracting business leaders and domain experts who want to ace their writing skills and personal brand.

Even with the high price, many participants return to the class again. The students' word of mouth helps David gain more participants.

To promote the course, David launched his second podcast - ‘How I Write’. Eminent creators like Tim Ferriss, Ali Abdaal and Morgan Housel have already been on the show, talking about their writing process.

Creating an Internet Monopoly

David is a master at creating an internet monopoly.

Some of his best essays are super long, like over 10,000 words, and more than 100,000 people read them.

Take the essay called Peter Thiel’s Religion, for example. It's a 15,000-word essay. There’s no competition to such writing.

David focuses on quality even with his tweets. By making sure his writing is high quality, he gets better leads for Write of Passage.

He offers a free email course called 50 Days of Writing, packed with value to make people want to take his paid course. You will receive one email daily for 50 days. I haven’t heard of such a long email course before.

He even gives a free 1-hour video lesson from Write of Passage to provide users a sneak peek at the course content.

David also invests in companies focusing on creators and the future of education. Beehiiv, where you are reading this case study, is one of the companies he's invested in.

After years of hard work and planning, David has built a content ecosystem where each part supports the others.

While Write of Passage brings in most of his income, he boosts his personal brand through public writing, in-depth essays, and connecting with top influencers.

Here’s a look at how David sees his content flywheel. Email is at the center of this system because that’s how you own your audience.

Since childhood, David was driven by obsession. Despite academic struggles, he kept exploring, with his parents providing vital support. They made his journey from a struggling writer to the owner of a top-tier writing course possible.

5. David’s Advice for Beginners

Learn a Skill by Doing it

If you want to explore a new skill, don’t just consume information. Do the thing too.

If you want to be an excellent writer, start writing. Every activity has indescribable aspects you can only discover in action.

Write in Public

Write in public because it helps figure out which ideas are good or bad. Just like you keep your house neater when you invite people over, you put more effort into your writing when it's out there.

Begin by writing from interesting conversations with people.

Protect your Early Work

Young ideas are fragile, so protect your initial work from a lot of criticisms. You will not be good at the start. But you have to keep creating.

Maximize Return on Attention

Maximize the Return on Attention as a creator. See how much comes back from your content.

Make small tweaks to reframe things, like ‘how to write an inaugural presidential speech’ (short time window) versus ‘how to write a political speech’ (50 years).

Your Personal Monopoly

As you write, discover your Personal Monopoly - a unique online identity shaped by your skills and interests. It'll be your guide to the right people, meaningful work, and a life of freedom.

Read How to Write Online to get into the details. This essay is one of the best free writing guides on the internet.

Here’s link to his recommended blogs.

6. David’s SIDE

Any creator can succeed when they get their SIDE right. It’s a simple framework beginners can use to start creating online.

SIDE = Strengths + Interests + Demand + Execution

Let’s look at David’s SIDE.

Strengths

Research

Obsession

Networking

Communication

Interests

Sports

Media

Writing

Internet monetization

Demand

Online Writing

Personal brand building

Community of serious writers

Execution Milestones

2016 - Decision to not join another job after layoff

2016 - Launched newsletter on future of media

2016 - Started North Star podcast

2016 - Launched finance consultancy ‘Naked Brands’

2017 - Took the course ‘Building Your Second Brain’

2017 - Launched Newsletter ‘Monday Musings’

2018 - Launched Newsletter ‘Friday Finds’

2018 - Floated the idea of ‘Write of Passage’

2019 - Started first cohort with recorded course

2020 - First live cohort of ‘Write of Passage’

2023 - Started second podcast ‘How I Write’

Pause here for a moment.

Think about your SIDE. Write on paper or digital notes.

Use it as a starting point to pick what you want to create.

If you want me to help you find a project to build your audience using SIDE, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also DM me on X.

7. How Beginners Can Apply the Lessons

Use your Obsession

Get obsessed with something – dive so deep nobody can match you. Find what you love, work on it, and figure out how it can help the world.

David had various obsessions at different stages of his life, ranging from airplanes to sports to internet media. He tried different things and figured out the best way to make money doing what he loves.

Build an Audience

If you want to build a business, build an audience first.

Write of Passage came from an idea David shared with his Twitter followers in October 2018. To make the course better, he talked individually with the people who were interested and fine-tuned the lessons for the first cohort.

Build in Public

Writing in public is the skill of sharing your ideas on the internet, turning you into a guide for people, opportunities, and unexpected good fortune.

You might not always know which of your pieces your audience will like.

Build the product you wish existed

David never did any elaborate market research for this course. Instead, he followed his intuition and built the course he wished existed when he began writing.

Write of Passage is the classic example of an Audience-First Product.

Network for leverage

Don’t network with a specific benefit in mind. Network to learn from others’ experience.

David had been using Twitter since his college days to connect with people. He realized the power of the Internet and social media early and mastered the art of connecting with top achievers.