Jack Butcher is the founder of Visualize Value, a brand that distills complex concepts into visual simplicity.

Jack has over 1 Mn followers in social media. It took him just 18 months to hit a revenue of $1 Mn with no competition because he created his own category.

It didn't start well for Jack. Applying to 150 jobs on Craigslist, Jack got rejected by all but one.

The agency hired him as an intern. Once Jack started a presentation for his boss with the statement, "I know these aren't good enough…"

His boss interrupted and what he said then left a lasting impression on Jack for his entire creative career.

Table of Contents:

1. Life Before Content Creation

2. How Jack Started Creating

3. How Jack Started on Twitter

4. First Big Money

5. Jack’s Advice for Beginners

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

7. How Beginners Can Apply the Lessons

1. Life Before Content Creation

Jack graduated with top grades from the University of Wales, Cardiff, with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Communication.

He began his design career in 2009 as an intern at 'Motif Creative' in Nottingham, followed by internships at 'Elevator' in Cardiff and Underdog Ltd.

After finishing college, Jack moved from the UK to New York in 2010, eager to start a career in an agency, despite having no connections or prior experience.

During an internship, Jack once told his boss that his presentation was not good enough while presenting. His boss interrupted and told him not to waste his time by showing incomplete work.

That lesson stuck with young Jack.

He worked with clients like Ralph Lauren before becoming Creative Director at 'ColorZen' from April to October 2012.

He then served as a Senior Art Director at 'SapientNitro' until September 2014 and at 'Bloomberg L.P.' until February 2015.

Subsequently, he held roles at 'RecruitiFi,' 'Second Story Interactive Studios,' and 'space150' until January 2018, contributing to various projects and clients.

2. How Jack Started Creating

By 2018, Jack got tired of agency work and the pressures of client deadlines. He wanted to free his time and reduce stress.

So, he started his own agency - Opponent. It would simplify complex businesses through visuals for his clients. He attracted clients primarily through Facebook.

Jack started getting clients. He reached a point where he was earning $30-40K per month, but it was burning him out as he was working 60 hours a week.

He faced the common struggle of agency owners - endless calls with international clients, managing large teams to handle inefficiencies.

Entrepreneurship was working, but Jack felt something needed to change.

So he decided to get more specific about the type of clients he wanted to work with. He tried 5-6 different ways, but it didn't work.

A turning point came when Jack discovered the notorious Twitter thread by Naval Ravikant on getting rich without getting lucky.

This idea introduced him to new business concepts. Jack looked for ways to implement these ideas, focusing on scalable work for his business.

Till then, Jack was using Facebook as a lead generation platform. It wasn't working so well for him, as a majority of his connections were friends who never needed an agency.

His content, like how to visualize a supply chain or how to visualize the reason certain cryptocurrency was going to succeed in the market, was not relatable to a large audience.

Jack wanted to pick something he was uniquely good at. He realized his strength was creating keynote presentations, something most agency owners disliked.

So, he decided to give up other services and focus solely on one thing - simplify ideas through stunning visuals. That’s how Visualize Value was born. Here’s the pitch.

3. How Jack Started on Twitter

Jack discovered that Twitter, unlike Facebook, is an open platform where ideas spread easily. He decided to post on Twitter every day.

He started his brand, Visualize Value, in January 2019 by sharing 8 posts.

These posts included black-and-white pictures and quotes from influential thinkers such as Naval, rather than from clients.

He applied the "Permissionless Apprentice" concept, promoting ideas for his mentor.

Take a look at his first post.

Clearly not as good as how they are now.

A note for beginners: your first post will not be great. And that’s okay.

Initial months were not encouraging

Within the first month, Jack got just a handful of inquiries – some from old clients, and some from strangers.

Most were from cold outreach on Twitter, leading to about one or two clients. Many folks assumed his rates would be super low, like $25 an hour, because he used to work on big corporate projects.

In the beginning, many asked if they could use his services for free or offered $50 for a pitch deck. It was discouraging because he wondered if the market really valued what he was doing.

But he realized he was so early in his journey. Serious and established people weren't on board yet.

At that point, his mindset wasn't about predicting the future size. He was more focused on showing up each day, enjoying the process, and taking it one step at a time.

Jack used popular ideas from Twitter and mentioned influential thinkers hoping to get retweeted by them. He took his chances. After 6 months, he started making his own quotes.

1.5 years later, Naval retweeted one of his posts. Take a look.

Remember, posting with the hope of retweet from a big account doesn't guarantee it will happen, but it creates an opportunity for you. As long as you are learning, it’s a great hack to try.

When Jack reached a few thousand followers on Twitter, he used his learnings to start Instagram. Jack’s black-and-white designs were a breath of fresh air to the colorful pictures Instagram was full of.

The Beginner’s Luck

When people asked how he managed time, Jack created a paid product - The Daily Manifest (a simple habit tracker) in Jan 2020.

He experimented with ecommerce, selling prints, books, and a couple of digital products and sold via Gumroad, Shopify and Mighty Networks.

He then created a paid community for people interested in design work. Inside the community, he hosted multiple courses ranging from habits, content systems and shared his journey of building Visualize Value.

Some products are stopped now, but you can see the community vault in this video.

In just over a year, Jack scaled up to making $3000 a day by selling only digital products. He celebrated his journey with this Twitter thread.

4. First Big Money

Jack was earning well with client work through his agency Opponent. However, Visualize Value was his attempt to free up his time and work on things he loved.

While he was steadily serving clients, his revenues from products and memberships were on the rise.

The big breakthrough for Jack came with a single tweet. David Perell, a prolific writer who runs a premium writing course, tweeted that he wanted to learn Jack's design skills.

Here’s the tweet.

Jack saw a chance and asked his audience if they were interested. Check out his post.

He got hundreds of responses from people who eagerly wanted his design course.

He then said he'd make the product in a week - a smart move to stay accountable.

Here’s the tweet.

In just 7 days, Jack got 282 pre-orders, making $27,918 even before the final product was out. On May 8, he released the course - How to Visualize Value.

The reason behind such high demand was his act of "building in public."

From the day he told everyone about it until he launched, Jack kept people in the loop every day.

He shared stuff about what he was doing for the course, asked for thoughts, and told everyone how many pre-orders he got to build up the hype.

Here's a peek at how his transparent updates looked.

Jack's big launch made him switch from making money mostly from services to selling products, giving him more free time, a goal he started with.

By April ‘20, he started making more money from products than services.

By June ‘20, Visualize Value hit $1 million in just 18 months.

This is how revenues in 2020 looked.

Jack didn't stop there.

After three months of intense selling, he learned how to sell better and got another idea for a product - Build Once, Sell Twice. This course was about turning your expertise into a product.

Here's the announcement for the new course.

He made $76K in just three days after launching the course.

NFT ventures

In 2021, Jack started working on NFTs. He put his first picture up for sale in a NFT marketplace.

On March 9, 2021, Butcher started the Checks project, featuring 100 unique NFTs representing checks, receipts, and invoices from his real-life transactions.

On January 3, 2023, Butcher launched Checks VV as an open edition after getting the blue checkmark on Twitter for an $8 fee.

Opepen Edition NFT debuted on the Ethereum blockchain as a 60-minute open edition drop on January 8, 2023, created by Jack.

5. Jack’s Advice for Beginners

Chase what you’re irrationally passionate about

Build Your Skills

If you chase it directly, you might not get it. Let your hard work on skill development bring results. Jack didn't aim for a certain amount of money when he tried different things.

Check out how his focus on skills made him grow. Here's one of his first posts.

See how different it is from one of his best posts after doing it hundreds of times.

Go for Quantity First

Start with a lot, figure out what works, then make it better. In the beginning, focus on finding what stands out, and later on, make it top-notch.

Add Constraints for Creativity

Even if you think otherwise, limits help you create awesome stuff. Jack limited his designs to a black canvas, white text, and geometry. This made his mind more free to think.

6. Jack’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 Jack’s SIDE.

Strengths

• Design background

• Creativity

• Marketing and branding

Interests

• Design thinking

• Creating products

• Philosophy

• Technology

Demand

• Visual illustration of complex ideas

• Productization of services

Execution Milestones

2018 - Started agency Opponent

2019 - Started Visualize Value on Twitter

2020 - Launched his first product The Daily Manifest

2020 - Launched first course Visualize Value

2020 - Launched second course Build Once, Sell Twice

2021 - Entered the NFT marketplace

Pause here for a moment.

Think of what can be your SIDE. Write on paper or digital notes.

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

7. How Beginners Can Apply the Lessons

Use Your Special Skills and Experiences

Your strengths come from what you're good at and what people ask you for help with. Find what you enjoy and what you're skilled at, then work on that.

Build in Public

Modern creators suggest sharing your journey online to grow fast. The internet is a powerful tool for leverage. It lets you get quick feedback and improve.

Check out Kieran Drew and Dickie Bush as examples of building in public.

Turn Your Service into a Product

At first, you might use your skills to offer services. But there's a limit to what you can earn with your time. Using your service experience, create products to free up time.

Jack turned his services into valuable courses in just 18 months with Visualize Value.

Category of One

Positioning is key. Without Visualize Value, Jack would blend in. Saying "I have a design course" wouldn't stand out. Positioning it as "how to visualize value" made a new category.

Creating a 'Personal Monopoly' is like what David Perell did in online writing.

Permissionless Apprentice

Increase your luck by sharing the best resources from thought leaders with your own twist. Even one like or repost from someone with a large audience can boost your visibility disproportionately.

Jack chose quotes from thought leaders to promote their work and posted consistently.