It's like restaurants. We don't have "too many restaurants" because each serves different cuisines, atmospheres, and experiences. Similarly, when you teach from your unique intersection of interests and perspectives, you're not adding to the noise—you're creating your own frequency.

Remember, my approach to art will be different from yours. My definition of success will be different from yours. Each of us has our own peak to pursue, and it's my hope that we can learn from each other along our own way.

So for the next year, I'm going to test this mountain range philosophy.

Here’s my Plan to complete this Expedition:

1. Grow Through Insight-Based Content

I’ll grow my audience by sharing my own insights and perspectives—the why behind problems. The diagnosis.

I’ll share value such as complete systems and step-by-step processes in my products, but the insights that lead to those solutions will be free. This way, you can see if my perspective resonates with you before purchasing anything from me.

Besides insights, I’ll be posting lots of other things like life updates, wins, memes, and anything else I want to post that can educate, entertain, or inspire along this path.

2. Build The Artist’s Skill Tree

I’ll teach 3 interconnected branches:

• Art (mostly digital)

• Business (such as monetization and marketing)

• Self-Cultivation (teaching, philosophy, writing—honestly just an excuse to teach anything relevant for me)

As someone who loves video games, I’m calling this the “Artist’s Skill Tree”—a video game-like progression where each skill solves one clear problem and levels you up to the next skill. The progression is optional though! It’s meant for those who prefer a more structured approach. In the end, you can learn any skill that resonates with you from any of the three branches.

I’ll start with the skills I call the "Foundation Trilogy" that prepare you for everything else, then expand from there. Skills will be delivered as Youtube playlists, which also enables future localization for global accessibility.

My approach isn’t about having a better method than others—it’s about showing how I synthesize what I’ve learned from others into something that works for me, so you can do the same.

It’s really just like painting an artwork. Find references, take aspects you like from them, and paint your own unique work.

3. Monetize Through Multiple Streams

• Skills: $8 each (priced like video games e.g. Stardew Valley)

  • Around 1 hour to learn with an output to apply so that obtained knowledge becomes applied knowledge.

  • Free updates forever

  • It's priced this way because I choose to believe in the billions worldwide who want to learn art, profit, teach, or do all three at the same time.

• My Newsletter “Patch Notes”: Free + $8/month advance access

  • Twice weekly. It'll be about any lesson I've learned in art, business, self-cultivation

  • Paid subscribers get 1 month ahead ($1 per newsletter)

• 1-on-1 Coaching: $20 planning session, then $230/hour

  • First session determines if we’re a good fit

  • Worst case: You get clear next steps

  • Best case: I guide you through those steps in our next sessions

• Art Commissions: $23,000

  • Commissions require stepping away from what I prefer creating. It's the highest energy investment. While I prefer creating courses and personal art, I'm open to commissions at this price point.

• TBD: Skill Tree Access + Monthly Q&A: $23/month

  • Access to all skills instead of buying individually

  • Monthly Q&A sessions about anything under the sun that'll help everyone learn

  • Available once I've created enough skills to justify the tier

4. Have Community Aspects Without a Community

As I prefer going solo, there'll be no dedicated community platform. But, I'm integrating community elements inspired by the game platform, Steam:

• Course Gifting: Buy extra copies to gift friends or add to my giveaway pile.

• Achievement System: Milestone purchases unlock benefits for those who come after and for those who came before, like:

  • Eventual $8 access to the entire Artist's Skill Tree

  • Professional translators for localization

5. Implement Certain Rules

• Make AI Optional

  • While I don't use AI to generate artworks, I do use AI moreso in the Business branch as one of the tools to help me with ideation and efficiency by chatting with it.

  • When introducing it in a course in any branch, I'll make sure to teach both its method and other non-AI methods then let you decide on which method suits you the most.

• Health First, Always

  • Even if the difficulty of this plan is like Hades' Hell Mode at 64 Heat, this is only one aspect of my life. What takes priority first is eating well, resting well, and exercising well.

• Continuously Choose to Be Kind

  • This path won't be easy. I'm expecting to be judged by artists for using some aspects of AI. I'm expecting to be judged by AI users for painting and taking my time. I'm expecting to be judged all around because the greys of "nuance" is a difficult thing to portray in the blacks and whites of the internet. And so, I will continuously choose to be kind. I'll learn from everyone and judge no one.

For this one-year quest, everything else goes on hiatus. This path—that’s my complete focus.

Das it. That’s the plan.

It's a very unorthodox combination—high commission pricing, no community management, and Youtube playlist courses. But that's exactly the point. Just like how an artist continuously gathers references to create something uniquely theirs, I'm combining what I've learned from others into my own teaching method.

This is what I want to prove is possible for everyone: learn from everyone, synthesize it your way, and create something you want to teach.

I'll be teaching everything I know. It's my hope that you create your own path after following a bit of mine. The best gift a teacher can receive after all is their students surpassing them.

I’ll update you as I walk this path :)