<script data-pm-proxy="intercept"></script><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Producer Studio]]></title><description><![CDATA[frameworks, philosophy & Ai for entrepreneurs]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kvdF!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbd5dbec2-5e65-4b9f-b58a-7374b4af5cf2_862x862.png</url><title>Producer Studio</title><link>https://tomspark.substack.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:16:17 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/__u/tomspark.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[tomspark@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[tomspark@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[tomspark@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[tomspark@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Ai will force your spiritual growth.]]></title><description><![CDATA[yes really...]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/ai-will-force-your-spiritual-growth</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/ai-will-force-your-spiritual-growth</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:30:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bb84a3a1-e7a1-4433-8050-29b18a5628dd_3200x1800.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><hr></div><p><strong>Watch the video version of this newsletter <a href="https://linktw.in/lBxzyh">here</a>.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>If you&#8217;re a creator-coach, I want you to consider that Ai might be the best thing ever happen to you, but probably not for the reasons you&#8217;ve heard.</p><p>Ai is BEGGING you to understand what it means to be more human. Ai is asking you to double down on what makes YOU uniquely you.</p><p>If you understand this, you are literally on a timeline right now where being &#8216;paid to exist&#8217; will be your reality.</p><p>I see most people worrying themselves about the wrong thing.</p><p><em>Is Ai coming to replace me? Should I resist it and be super anti Ai and analog in my work?</em></p><p>WRONG QUESTIONS MF.</p><p>This is fear based thinking. You are focusing on what Ai is going to take from you.</p><p>Reframe it.</p><p>The right questions are:</p><ul><li><p><em>What is the thing only you can do despite Ai?</em></p></li><li><p><em>What is the thing that makes me the most human?</em></p></li><li><p><em>How can I double down on that and know that Ai is going to take care of the details?</em></p></li></ul><div><hr></div><p>So what does this actually mean for you?</p><p>If you&#8217;re someone a who already has a coaching/consulting business, or perhaps you&#8217;re creator who&#8217;s looking to monetise more consistently or maybe your moving into the online space to start monetising the knowledge in your head.</p><p>You have probably been looking around online and monetisation/scaling has felt heavy to you.</p><p>The models look like they probably work, but, at the same time, they feel very ridged, heavy and uninspired - I&#8217;m letting you know that you&#8217;re right and to trust your instinct here.</p><p>Business coaches are dinosaurs and they are applying Ai with an old model of thinking, and honestly, stagnated level of consciousness.</p><p>So I want to share with you the model I&#8217;m running right now, the shift I have seen in the market over the last 6 months and why thinking like this might be really fun and profitable for you too.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Quick one, if you haven&#8217;t seen me before, I&#8217;m Tom. I work with the creators, artist and entrepreneurs you&#8217;ve probably consumed content from this week.</em></p><p><em>I am an expert in online positioning, brand vision and higher order problem solving and I write these letters to help you make better decisions right now and create a sustainable online business that grows as you grow.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>So here&#8217;s the shift, execution is becoming abundant.</p><p>AI can write your post, build a funnel and automated your emails.</p><p>But it cannot decide what should exist and why.</p><p>It cannot set the tone. It cannot make the call on what stays and what goes in your work and your business. It is alway from the past data. It cannot feel what is alive right now.</p><p>It&#8217;s does not have the magic of an intuition or instinct.</p><p>It doesn&#8217;t have faith or real, messy life XP.</p><p>So the way I see it, the people winning right now aren&#8217;t the best executors.</p><p>The people winning are getting paid for their presence. Their proximity. Their taste. Their ability sit with you, listen at a deep level and help you change from the inside our in a meaningful way.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Historical parallel: the printing press didn&#8217;t kill writers, it killed scribes.</em></p><p>The people who will survive are not the ones who think the value is in copying words. It&#8217;s the people who have something worth saying.</p><p>Same thing now.</p><p>The market is starving for direction, vision, taste. These things cannot be outsourced to AI. They cannot be learned from a course. They are cultivated by you as a human and your experience here on planet earth.</p><p>This has been a long time coming in the coaching and consulting space.</p><p>There are so many &#8216;experts&#8217; who know HOW to do something, but not WHY they do it.</p><p>This is why so many business coaches in particular cannot pivot right now and are stuck in a ridged system.</p><p>They are just sharing a HOW that they learn&#8217;t elsewhere - they are always outsourcing their conviction to someone else because their knowledge is surface level. They are not able to identify why something breaks.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>So, if you are someone who still beliefs in humanness, you see that the market is starving for direction, vision, taste - then this is the identity that I believe you need to embody. This is how I want you to think about building a business that grows as you grow.</em></p><p>Become a Producer.</p><p>The Producer is someone who brings a thing into existence that wouldn&#8217;t exist without them in the studio.</p><p>They don&#8217;t need to be the best at anything. They need taste, vision, and the ability to say &#8220;not that, this.&#8221;</p><p>There are three archetypes every Producer integrates:</p><ul><li><p><strong>The Artist:</strong> your taste, your frequency, the vibe people feel when they encounter you. This is what makes someone feel something before they understand why.</p></li><li><p><strong>The Leader:</strong> your vision, your conviction, the direction you&#8217;re taking people. This is why someone trusts where you&#8217;re going before they see the map.</p></li><li><p><strong>The Scientist:</strong> your method, your systems, the repeatable proof. This is why someone believes your process actually works.</p></li></ul><p>Most people are missing one of these. The all-artist is magnetic but broke. The all-scientist is competent but invisible. The all-leader is inspiring but untrustworthy. You need all three to build a business that grows as you grow.</p><p>You bottleneck is never a content strategy or new funnel/ecosystem. It&#8217;s which archetype you&#8217;ve been avoiding developing.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Here&#8217;s how this actually becomes a business. Here&#8217;s how you get paid for the thing only you can do. (Or how I am working right now at least)</em></p><p><strong>The Studio (1:1).</strong> I have a studio offer. Creators come in and we work together. I&#8217;m not above them. I&#8217;m not their mentor. I bring my gifts, my tools, my taste into the studio. They bring theirs. We create something together. Something that couldn&#8217;t exist without both of us there.</p><p><strong>The Cohort (the album).</strong> I just finished my first cohort. Here&#8217;s how I think about it: it&#8217;s an album. An album is a product of its time. It&#8217;s complete. It&#8217;s done. When someone consumes it, they consume it in the context of when it was made. That temporal context is part of what makes it magic. If I keep trying to improve it, iterate it, polish it, I bastardise it. The time it was created is what gives it its impact.</p><p><strong>This is what is working for me right now, but there is a bigger point.</strong></p><p>There are people right now getting paid for their presence. Their proximity. The thing only they can do. While everyone&#8217;s arguing about whether AI is coming for their job, whether sales calls or DMs win, these people are quietly charging for the one thing that cannot be replicated: who they are and how they make others feel.</p><p>Your strengths. Your taste. Your way of seeing. That&#8217;s what the market is actually paying for. Everything else is just tools. Use the tools, let them take care of the details, but now is the time double down on the thing only you can do. </p><p>Double down on your humanness and give that to the market.</p><p>If you want to learn understand what makes you unique you and how to package that for your audience <a href="https://tally.so/r/0QqON9">CLICK HERE</a> for a free training + Ai tool.<br><br>:)</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stop Making Content, Start Actually Building a Brand]]></title><description><![CDATA[Build a compounding asset that pays you to evolve.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/stop-making-content-start-actually</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/stop-making-content-start-actually</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:41:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m obsessed with helping people discover their creative edge online.</p><p>It&#8217;s a fun puzzle to solve.</p><p>Let me be clear though, your creative edge isn&#8217;t so much something you find, as it is something you express and live by freely.</p><p>Although I dress a lot of my work with entrepreneurs and creators up as &#8216;brand positioning&#8217;, the question of discovering your edge is a deeper one than most marketers are willing to go.<br><br>But when we do go there, we find that we build brands with much deeper resonance, our content feels fun and natural to create, and most importantly, we align our work with the person we want to become. </p><p>We build something that grows as we grow. </p><p><strong>We get paid to evolve.</strong> </p><div><hr></div><p><span>So how do we do this? Well plainly:<br></span><strong><span><br></span></strong><em>Stop chasing formats.</em> <strong><span>Start creating your world.<br></span></strong><em>Stop performing for sales.</em> <strong><span>Start owning your voice.<br></span></strong><em>Stop pushing for leads.</em> <strong><span>Start attracting your people.<br><br></span></strong><span>Let&#8217;s dive in &#8595;</span></p><div><hr></div><p>If you run a business or produce any form of creative work, you know that content isn&#8217;t a side project anymore.<br><br>It&#8217;s part of the business. <br>It&#8217;s part of the project. <br><strong><span>It&#8217;s part of your daily life.<br></span></strong><br>As entrepreneurs and creators we&#8217;re constantly wondering what to post, what to say, and <em><span>why</span></em> the last thing didn&#8217;t land. </p><div><hr></div><blockquote><p><em>This is why there&#8217;s so much content about content nowadays.</em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>It seems that to be successful online, you&#8217;re asked to <em><span>stay on top of trends, edit to a certain standard, get consistent reach and have the latest funnel installed</span></em>.<br><br><strong><span>All this through your personal brand.</span></strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1424090,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/i/204097955?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hsBl!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bf84712-fee7-4db9-ad04-1d462e073b0d_3148x1771.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>From working with <strong><span>over 350 entrepreneurs</span></strong> this last year, I have noticed a clear difference between those who post<em><span> &#8216;content to get leads&#8217; </span></em>vs those who <strong><span>actually build a brand.</span></strong></p><div><hr></div><p>In most cases, your next season of growth won&#8217;t come by <em><span>trend-chasing, pushing or a shiny new content format.</span></em></p><p>The growth you desire will come by treating your personal brand as the <strong>vessel to realise your life&#8217;s work - </strong>by treating it like the compounding asset it is.<strong><br><br></strong>Most advice online is about content packaging, <em>not the signal underneath.</em></p><p>The advice isn&#8217;t bad. But if you don&#8217;t have a clear signal - a clear worldview, a clear brand - what are you actually packaging and <strong><span>what are you actually communicating to the market?</span></strong></p><p>For me, it&#8217;s not about how you look online, but understanding <strong><span>how to say what only you can say.</span></strong></p><p>That&#8217;s the difference between looking the part and<em><span> deeply resonating</span></em> with your audience.</p><div><hr></div><p>We&#8217;ve all felt it. <br><br>When people try to trick their way to get attention, we feel instantly repelled and disengage. Hooks, editing styles, funnels, ads - these all break over time, <strong><span>but a brand compounds.</span></strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg" width="1456" height="893" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/eaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:893,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3309326,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/i/204097955?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q9hn!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa760e8-97cf-4c05-b0ad-c47c9e33c2b4_8743x5363.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div><hr></div><p><strong>So what&#8217;s the layer missing from most people&#8217;s content?</strong></p><p>How you see the world. <br>What you actually believe. <br>How you organise your thinking. <br>How you run what&#8217;s current and relevant to your audience <em><span>through</span></em> your unique worldview. </p><p><strong><span>That&#8217;s the layer.</span></strong></p><p>That&#8217;s what people are responding to when they follow you. Your content format is just how your signal gets filtered out into the world. </p><div><hr></div><blockquote><p>A good personal brand is your worldview, your essence and what you want for yourself and others - <em>filtered to reach the right people.</em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>And let&#8217;s be clear: your personal brand very much involves <strong><span>YOU!</span></strong> </p><p>And you are not static. You&#8217;re evolving, nuanced and growing. You are wonderfully imperfect. We&#8217;ve all heard <em><span>&#8220;you are the niche&#8221;,</span></em> but more accurately, <strong><span>you are the brand.  </span></strong><br><br><strong>Work on yourself </strong><em><strong><span>is</span></strong></em><strong> work on the brand.</strong><br><br>In my experience, personal branding requires a more considered approach to get right. <br><br>Trying to communicate with nuance and being made to feel like you have to put yourself in a box to sell anything, leaves many people feel like they are cutting off a limb, or they just completely disengaged from the content creation process altogether.</p><div><hr></div><blockquote><p><strong><span>This is why many entrepreneurs and creators feel a misalignment between how they come across online in content vs how they come across in real life.</span></strong></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>I consistently have the people that I work with tell me that their clients, their friends, their community are <strong><span>deeply impacted</span></strong> by their coaching and their insights, but when they share those same insights online, it just doesn&#8217;t land. <br><br><em><span>It&#8217;s deeply frustrating and sometimes even very painful.</span></em></p><p>So, in a sea of creators focused on surface level packaging, a<strong><span> clear, penetrating signal is the highest-leverage thing you can develop.</span></strong></p><p>This is the thing most people never spend the time to get right, and because of that:<br><br>Growing feels forced. <br>Signing clients feels like a push. <br>The camera goes on and you perform a version of yourself that <em><span>you don&#8217;t really like.</span></em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1221471,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/i/204097955?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wMaP!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F225000aa-9d26-4866-8c8f-1002c4dc1d76_2048x1152.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Content is only hard when you don&#8217;t want to do it. </p><p>Showing up out of obligation <em><span>is</span></em> performance, and performance costs authenticity.</p><p>Content shouldn&#8217;t feel hard, <strong><span>it should feel like an extension of your mission.</span></strong></p><div><hr></div><p>I&#8217;m running a cohort called <strong>EDGE</strong> starting 1st July 2026. </p><p>If you&#8217;d like the details about joining us, click <strong><a href="https://app.notion.com/p/pushcollective/WHAT-EDGE-IS-38e30041b0ba80cda464c5ca7f37a109?source=copy_link">here</a></strong> to find out more.</p><p>- Tom</p><div><hr></div><h3><strong><span><br><br><br><br></span></strong><br></h3>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stop being a broke creator. Start being a rich artist.]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Five Laws of the Rich Artist.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/stop-being-a-broke-creator-start</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/stop-being-a-broke-creator-start</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 04:27:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d7daa03d-7d12-4079-bb9c-28427e5ea560_8743x5363.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What&#8217;s the difference between a broke creator and a rich artist? <br><br>A creator copies what&#8217;s working for others and fits themselves into a niche. An artist creates one. The creator is always second place, playing someone else&#8217;s game. The artist emits an unique frequency and has no competition. </p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>Here are the Five Laws of the Rich Artist.</strong></h4><div><hr></div><p><strong>LAW 1. Limit outside advice</strong></p><p>Stay true to your own ideas. The idea has chosen you. Honour where the inspiration came from and know that you are the chosen channel for this work.</p><p>External input will interfere (IN-TO-FEAR) with the purity of what&#8217;s trying to move through you. Let other people&#8217;s egos in to your creative process and you will dilute the true signal.</p><p>The art moving through you creates pathways that don&#8217;t exist yet. That&#8217;s <em>why</em> it&#8217;s art.</p><p>Before anyone else will believe in the work, you have to believe in it first. You demonstrate the belief by seeing the idea to completion. The moment you invite external opinion, no matter how well intentioned, you&#8217;re sowing seeds of self-doubt into the creation.</p><p>People who are experts in your field tell you what <em>worked before, not what is alive right now.</em> They can be a useful database, but your art is alive now.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>LAW 2. Creation is victory.</strong></p><p>Redefine what winning means. Success isn&#8217;t being followed or liked - it&#8217;s loving what you do, and doing what you love well.</p><p>Chase metrics and you&#8217;ll always be the starving artist. But the production itself (the creation, the business, the art) <em>is</em> the victory. The reward was the work itself. The path is the prize.</p><p>People will only promote you after you promote yourself. Creating the work <em>was</em> you telling the world it was worth existing. You sell your love for the work before anyone else buys in.</p><p>When people see you create from a place that is unapologetically yourself, something in them loosens. You become a living permission slip. You show them a level of authenticity they didn&#8217;t know was available to them.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>LAW 3: Giving is more powerful than receiving</strong></p><p>You are the source of what you&#8217;re chasing. The work reveals what&#8217;s inside you and it sharpens the very gifts you used to make it.</p><p>What you give is your current edge: your truth, your understanding, your skill. It&#8217;s not about perfection. It&#8217;s about leaning just past your edge.</p><p>The art is documented evidence of the state it was created in. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s <em>felt</em>.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>LAW 4: Put your fingerprint on everything.</strong></p><p>You should be recognisable by your work alone. Before anyone sees your name, they should feel your **essence.</p><p>That&#8217;s what branding actually is - not a logo or a colour scheme. It&#8217;s the fingerprint present on everything you make.</p><p>This is what people mean when they say they like &#8216;your vibe&#8217;. Often they can&#8217;t put their finger on what exactly it is - that&#8217;s you they&#8217;re feeling.</p><p>The moment you put something unmistakably yours into the world, you become visible.</p><p>The level of expression you&#8217;re willing to show should scare you a little. If it doesn&#8217;t require courage to say, do, or create - it won&#8217;t create inspiration.</p><p>People are not inspired by the safe version of you, they&#8217;re inspired by the version that cost you something. Raw expression requires risk. And risk requires courage.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>LAW 5. Your audience is looking for you as much as you are looking for them.</strong></p><p>Everything has an audience. Whatever you make, someone out there is waiting for exactly that.</p><p>So be the first to do <em>your</em> thing. Not the best at someone else&#8217;s game.</p><p>Create, don&#8217;t compete.</p><p>Authenticity is your edge.</p><div><hr></div><p>If you want to grow a brand with an <strong>unique edg</strong>e and become known for your ideas, I would love to invite you to join the waitlist for my next cohort EDGE.</p><p>Over the four weeks we will find your competitive edge, package your IP and build an unique content format so that you become instantly recognisable and <em>undeniable</em> as a thought leader in your space.</p><p><em>Your account grows. The right people find you. You make more money.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>Join the EDGE waitlist <strong><a href="https://tally.so/r/D4vN0Z">here</a>.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>Keep creating. <br><br>Tom</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[VALUE CONTENT IS DEAD.]]></title><description><![CDATA[sorry to break it to you.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/value-content-is-dead</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/value-content-is-dead</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 05:25:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b9b9d20f-c701-41f4-b27d-c598c4d3461a_3840x2160.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Most creators are <strong>lonely algorithm SIMPS</strong> and I can prove it&#8230;</p><p>How many of these have you heard recently?</p><p>Here&#8217;s how to spot them:</p><ul><li><p><em>&#8220;Value content is DEAD.&#8221;</em></p></li><li><p><em>&#8220;High quality editing makes you un-relatable&#8221;</em></p></li><li><p><em>&#8220;YAPmaxxing is the ONLY way forward in 2026&#8221;</em></p></li></ul><p>This is all bullshit, short-sighted advice.</p><div><hr></div><p>Since the beginning of the year, I&#8217;ve seen friends blow up making the most hyper-edited, aesthetic content you&#8217;ve ever seen. I&#8217;ve had friends blow up yapping into cheap wired headphones (doing that intimate whisper mic thing). I&#8217;ve had friends make a million dollars in a single month making the most valuable, dense content in their space.</p><p>Thank fuck they didn&#8217;t follow the advice from the algorithm SIMPS.</p><p>Obsessing on surface level packaging showcases a lack of understanding for what actually makes good content.</p><p><strong>Impactful content sits at the intersection of your genuine, authentic curiosities, and then matches that with the external world&#8217;s deep hunger and needs at this moment in time.</strong></p><p>Read that again.</p><div><hr></div><p>You can get views by copying formats, but you become known, magnetic and felt for getting clear on your own signal. Packaging comes second.</p><p>Format does two things:</p><ol><li><p>It&#8217;s a preference for the way you like to create. I favour anything that&#8217;s low friction, fun, and gets me into a flow state.</p></li><li><p>It makes your signal digestible. As long as the content feels somewhat familiar and easy to consume, people will tune into the signal underneath.</p></li></ol><p>So while most creators are building systems to say nothing at volume or looking good, following trends, with nothing original to actually say - you&#8217;re focusing on signal first. That&#8217;s your EDGE. Your worldview. Your content is felt, not seen.</p><p>Why does this work?</p><p>If you only talk about a topic because you think it will be profitable, or because you think it will get you likes, you&#8217;re interacting with the world needing something.</p><p>Gimme gimme gimme.</p><p><strong>That energy is super repelling.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>So what&#8217;s the actual solution? You want to pick a topic, a niche, a business because you can&#8217;t help but talk about it. You want to follow your obsessions and then talk about it in a way that is digestible and easy to follow for others.</p><p>Joe Rogan has been making the same podcast format for over a decade. He&#8217;s not swayed by these different formatting trends.</p><p>Think of it this way.</p><p>Following trends for the agenda of a particular outcome is the same as the kid in school who buys a new pair of sneakers or trainers because everyone else is wearing them and he wants to fit in. The funny thing is, as soon as he buys them, they&#8217;re suddenly uncool.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Want to find your EDGE?</strong></p><p>I built an AI assessment that pinpoints exactly where your signal lives - the intersection of your genuine, authentic curiosities and what the world is hungry for right now.</p><p><a href="https://tally.so/r/LZazAj">[TAKE THE EDGE ASSESSMENT]</a></p><p>Keep creating, Tom</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[An Antidote to Bro-Scaling Syndrome]]></title><description><![CDATA[(Build on principles and play the inner game first.)]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/an-antidote-to-bro-scaling-syndrome</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/an-antidote-to-bro-scaling-syndrome</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 12:08:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9c5a11d2-541d-4218-892c-dbf606019de0_3144x1744.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Watch the video version of this article here: <a href="https://linktw.in/dhDsNR">https://linktw.in/dhDsNR</a></p><div><hr></div><p>Every business bro is out here trying to sell some wacky unique mechanism that is going to aggressively scale you to the next level (and beyond). Scaling has now become a synonym for &#8216;hot air&#8217;.</p><p>I am certainly not opposed to making lots of money using WIFI and I think that a good education product should be presented to the people who can benefit from it.</p><p>The issue is that people have stopped selling anything of any substance. Scaling Syndrome can be understood as saying and doing whatever it takes to get a Stripe purchase page in-front of someone by promising them that you&#8217;ll show them how to get a Stripe purchase page in-front of others.</p><p>We have been sold a lie that the most important skill we can learn is &#8216;altruistic manipulation&#8217;. People have stopped creating and instead just jump up and down in the way that they have been told in the hope to produce a particular outcome.</p><p>Everything is now a marketing angle. Authenticity is something to be performed.</p><p>Having worked with over 1000 entrepreneurs, creators and artists over the last 5 years, I want to share with you the three most damaging unconscious beliefs that have been mass installed into the market and give you some new beliefs to replace them.</p><div><hr></div><p>Let&#8217;s start here:</p><p>This phrase gets thrown around a lot, but no one actually pays attention to it: <em>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have a business problem. You have a personal problem that&#8217;s showing up in your business.&#8221;</em></p><p>Your business is a reflection of you and your creative energy - what else could it possibly be? <strong>This means that your problems aren&#8217;t tactical. They&#8217;re energetic.</strong></p><p>Actually sit with this for a minute. This isn&#8217;t a throwaway line.</p><p>Not understanding that all problems are internal first is the founder equivalent to noticing spots on your face and buying a aggressive steroid cream instead of looking at your diet - heal the root, don&#8217;t bandage the surface.</p><p><strong>So, what are the subconscious beliefs running your business right now?</strong></p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>Belief Shift 1: </strong>You don&#8217;t have a positioning or offer problem, you have a conviction problem.</h4><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p><strong>Reflection:</strong> <em>Do I actually believe in what I&#8217;m selling, or am I trying to convince myself too? Am I positioning myself online as I am, or as I wish to be seen?</em></p></div><p>Conviction is the energy people buy into. That&#8217;s why people watch your content and download your lead magnet. It&#8217;s because you have showcased some level of conviction. However the online space has become burdened with huge promises. When we inflate a promise, we actually reveal a deep insecurity in our product (and self). Confidence is quiet. The lion doesn&#8217;t need to let you know that it&#8217;s a lion.</p><p>You will see this a lot online, people present themselves as they wish to be seen, rather than they actually are. This doesn&#8217;t mean that you need to share content of your back acne to be authentic, but, if you believe you have to compromise truth to succeed online, you&#8217;re going to lose any sort of conviction.</p><p><strong>Truth: </strong><em>Embodiment is louder than theory. People feel conviction, they only hear theory.</em></p><p>The whole profile funnel coaching world is set up to reward people who make inflated promises. Top of funnel Ads are scripted to hook you in with huge unrealistic promises. You are then treated like fish (yes, some people actually use this analogy) and reeled in through the DMs with constant &#8216;pain point aggravation&#8217; until you have your arm twisted into a sales call where a magic money fairy is going let you know that the program they get commission on is the solution to every problem you have ever had.</p><p>While the commission minions are scurrying around hidden in the online drywall, the business bro coach is making videos talking about how much they truly care and they just want to help. How they were put on this earth to sell high-ticket and that their product is SO good that the only ethical thing to do is to get it in-front of anyone with a pulse and a credit card.</p><p>Imagine if health professionals were like this. Yes it might improve my life if I ate more fruit, but do you have to tie me to a chair, ram an apple through my gritted teeth and gleefully massage my throat until I reluctantly swallow?</p><p>Let&#8217;s get back to the original belief, everything I have described above is a manifestation of it. The belief that your service (or you) is not valuable enough without making yourself appear bigger than you actually are.</p><p><em>Tao wisdom: He who stands on tiptoes does not stand tall long.</em></p><blockquote><p><strong>Unconscious Belief:</strong> <em>&#8220;This business requires me to be someone I&#8217;m not.&#8221;</em></p><p><strong>New Belief:</strong> &#8220;<em>Truth scales. Performance cost conviction. Conviction is currency&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h4><strong>Belief Shift 2: </strong>You don&#8217;t have a content problem, you have an expression problem.</h4><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p><strong>Reflection:</strong> <em>Where am I making myself smaller instead of saying what I actually mean? Where am I holding back my full self out of fear of rejection, failure, or judgment?</em></p></div><p>Authentic expression reveals freedom, no matter your offer, you are selling a greater level of freedom in some domain&#8230; so showcase it. People are drawn to those who are able to give them more life. People don&#8217;t follow your content, they follow the part of them that see&#8217;s the freedom that they wish to experience within you.</p><p>When I was little, my mum would always say that &#8220;your rough edges give people something to hold onto&#8221;. Your more full expression will very likely be an amplification of your flaws as well as your strengths. But flaws are what make us human - vulnerability opens the door of connection.</p><p>I spoke about authentic expression in my last letter on &#8216;Art Science&#8217;, if you care to go deeper on the topic, you can <em><a href="/__u/tomspark.substack.com/p/art-science-and-the-modern-personal?r=5ue48p">here</a></em>.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Unconscious Belief:</strong> <em>&#8220;If I show the real of me, I&#8217;ll lose credibility and connection&#8221;</em></p><p><strong>New Belief:</strong> <em>&#8220;My unique unfiltered expression gives permission for others to do the same (and that is what they want the most)&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h4><strong>Belief Shift 3: </strong>You don&#8217;t have a sales problem, you have an intention problem.</h4><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p><strong>Reflection:</strong> <em>Am I selling from service (what they actually need) or from self (what I want)? Am I truly committed to helping this person make the decision that is right for them no matter the outcome?</em></p></div><p><strong>Read that again.</strong></p><p>So many people create and sell from an attachment to a particular outcome. As long as you have an outcome in mind you are saying to the universe that you know better than it. You know better than universal intelligence.</p><p>This is why I believe in creating content that speaks to self-led people and creating from a place of authentic expression. If people would like to move closer into your world, they will. If they don&#8217;t, it wasn&#8217;t right for them right now (or ever).</p><p>Does this mean that we shouldn&#8217;t sell ourselves and just hope that everything falls into place? NO. Instead, we leverage the law of reciprocity. We offer and showcase value to the market, we serve and then we set up products and containers to receive in the way that energises us.</p><p><em>&#8220;The hand that giveth, gathers&#8221;</em></p><p>This might sound fluffy, but this is the power of digital products and proximity offers. Give people products that have immediate utility they can use, then sell proximity to you. If people like the direction you are going and see association with you as valuable in the way that is meaningful to them, then they&#8217;ll get closer into your world. They are empowered to make the decision. Just set up a structure online that allows you to receive in the way that is most desirable to you.</p><p>This will completely shift how you see sales and offers.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Unconscious Belief:</strong> &#8220;A no means I failed.&#8221;</p><p><strong>New Belief:</strong> &#8220;My job is to serve, not to convince. Force breeds regret.&#8221;</p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>Reminder:</p><p><strong>Your problems aren&#8217;t tactical.</strong></p><p><strong>They&#8217;re energetic.</strong></p><p><strong>Solve the root, not the surface.</strong></p><p><em>Want to see which unconscious belief is running your business right now?</em></p><p><em>I built a free AI tool that pinpoints your current unconscious belief and shows you the shift to make. Access it [<a href="https://tally.so/r/jaQ581">here</a>].</em></p><div><hr></div><h5><strong>P.S:</strong> </h5><h5>I&#8217;m Tom and over the last 5 years I&#8217;ve worked with 100s of the leading entrepreneurs, creators and artists you probably follow. I am an expert in positioning, brand vision and higher order problem solving. I write these letters to help you make better decisions now and create a sustainable online business that grows as you grow. Cheering you on and sending you a ton of love.</h5><div><hr></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art-Science and the Modern Personal Brand]]></title><description><![CDATA[Exploring resonance, personal evolution and making money online.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/art-science-and-the-modern-personal</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/art-science-and-the-modern-personal</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:38:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a5ad750e-d0fa-426b-8f45-3e799c6d0171_3144x1744.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Oh hello. </p><p>Today we are going to talk about <strong>Art-Science. </strong>Art-Science is a term<strong> </strong>I<strong> </strong>made up earlier this week, however, if you understand the concepts outlined below, this newsletter is going to be very very helpful to you for building a highly profitable personal brand and online presence.</p><div><hr></div><p>So let&#8217;s get honest with each other, if you have been building your personal brand and offering a service this last year, tell me truthfully, how has it been going? Has it felt like an uphill grind? Has posting online feels like spiritual warfare? Have you wanted to throw in the towel multiple times? Perhaps you have already?</p><p>Yeah, tbh, me too... </p><p>Why though? I have some thoughts.</p><p>Whether you like it or not, the <strong>Personal Brand Economy</strong> has mashed creativity and business together in a way like we&#8217;ve never seen before. This isn&#8217;t going to change any time soon. Because of this mash-up, we desperately need to stop thinking of business like a set of scalable rules or systems, but instead, do the hardest thing of all - <em>bring more artistry into our work.</em> </p><p>You need to get serious about the 100x power of <strong>resonance.</strong></p><p>Here&#8217;s the thing, if you continue to ignore the artistry and creative edge within your work, your content will stay indistinguishable from the rest of the market. It doesn&#8217;t matter how <em>pretty</em>, <em>cinematic</em> or <em>trending</em> it is; if you don&#8217;t understand the principles outlined below, your content will dissolve into the background hum of countless people saying the same thing, the same way, all the time.</p><p><strong>If any of the above about art and creativity sounds &#8216;cute&#8217; or &#8216;fluffy&#8217; to you, then this is legit bare important 4U - listen up.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>In the next few minutes I want to change the way you define and understand &#8216;art&#8217; so that even if you are someone who says <em>&#8220;I&#8217;m just not creative&#8221;</em>, by the end of this letter, you will know what it means to <strong>bring more artistry into your work </strong>and<strong> </strong>understand the impact it will have.</p><p>Here&#8217;s a taste of the core idea before we fully dive in:</p><ul><li><p>Your art shows people something they couldn&#8217;t see before.</p></li><li><p>Your art allows people to feel something they couldn&#8217;t feel before.</p></li><li><p>Your art gives people the permission to be something they couldn&#8217;t be before.</p></li></ul><p>Hopefully your starting to see how this relates to your personal brand and content marketing&#8230;</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Btw, I&#8217;m Tom and over the last 5 years I&#8217;ve worked with 100s of the leading entrepreneurs, creators and artists you probably follow. I am an expert in positioning, brand vision and higher order problem solving. </em></p><p><em>I understand deeply the internal and external problems that people at the top of their game are working through on a daily basis. I write these letters to help you make better decisions now and create a sustainable online business that grows as you grow. </em></p><div><hr></div><p>Let us begin.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the dream outcome. You create amazing content. The right people see it and love it. They consume more of it, and then, they buy you&#8217;re thing. They&#8217;re happy. You&#8217;re happy.</p><p>Excellent.</p><p>The good news is that this is totally achievable, but requires growth in a way you may not have been exposed to before. If you want your content actually attract clients into your offer without having to cram them through a funnel, you need to start drawing upon the magnetic pull that artists are able create.</p><p>For the next few minutes, I need you to remove all thoughts of more volume, more traffic, ads and tighter funnels from your head. Why? Because more of the same will only ever produce more of the same. I promise.</p><p>The 10x shift you can make in your business right now is deeper resonance - <em>deeper human connection.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>Quick example: why does Kanye West sell out his world-tour in under two minutes, yet some entrepreneurs have to chase and beg their audience to fill a 10-person cohort?</p><p>Because one is operating from push energy, the other is pull energy. One is repelling, one is magnetic. One lets the work speak for itself, the other showcases deep insecurity through chasing. </p><p>Imagine if your favourite artist was in your DMs begging you to buy their thing.</p><div><hr></div><p>So how do we bring the <strong>artist&#8217;s edge</strong> into our work today? First we need to update our definition of art.</p><p>I don&#8217;t want you to think of &#8216;art&#8217; as paintings or music, I want you to think of it as publishing a more fully expressed version of yourself to be consumed by the market. Think of your &#8216;art&#8217; as a clear resonant signal that is transmitted through your creations - whatever form they take.</p><div><hr></div><p>To understand <strong>Art </strong>as a <strong>Science </strong>we can engineer, we also need to understand one particular law of nature.</p><p><strong>The Law of Increase.</strong></p><p>Growth is the most natural thing in the world. Look at the trees. Look at plants. Look at your hair. <em>We are here to grow.</em> Every desire is a desire to experience a greater degree of freedom (more life) in a particular domain. A greater degree of freedom in <em>relationships, finances, time and expression.</em></p><p><strong>&#8220;The desire for &#8216;more life&#8217; is present in all things and people are attracted to those who can give them more life&#8221;.</strong> <em>- Wallace D. Wattles</em></p><p>We must understand that the quality of someone&#8217;s life experience is directly correlated to the quality of their emotions, so when we say the <em>desire for &#8216;more life&#8217;,</em> we are talking about the desire to experience greater amounts, or intensities, of emotions like <em>peace, love, joy, passion, abundance, freedom</em> - aliveness. </p><p>So how is this relevant to growing a personal brand and online business?</p><p>Let&#8217;s apply this law to your audience. </p><p>To access &#8216;more life&#8217; and to fulfil the desire to grow, your audience need to level up and develop certain skills. These skills unlock the ability for them to bring more financial, relational and physical freedom into their experience and therefore improve the quality of their emotions and life.</p><p><strong>Two truths to remember:</strong></p><ol><li><p><strong>Your quality of life is the quality of your emotions</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>People are attracted to those who can give them &#8216;more life&#8217;.</strong>  </p></li></ol><p>Let&#8217;s now apply this to you as a &#8216;content creator&#8217;.</p><p>If you are able to express freedom in a way that is meaningful and authentic to you, you will be attractive to others who are looking to express greater freedom in a way that is meaningful to them. </p><p>You can&#8217;t give to others that which you haven&#8217;t given to yourself. Otherwise said, if you are person who is living by the law of increase, association with you is <em>extremely valuable.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>Now let&#8217;s look at art:</p><p><strong>Art is energetic documentation of a particular state of human expression/experience. </strong></p><p>How does this relate to your content?</p><ul><li><p>Your art shows people something they couldn&#8217;t see before.</p></li><li><p>Your art allows people to feel something they couldn&#8217;t feel before.</p></li><li><p>Your art allows people the permission to be something they couldn&#8217;t be before.</p></li><li><p>Publishing your art is basically you saying to the world that what you want for yourself, you want for everybody.</p></li><li><p>In the context of online business, you art is an invitation into a way of being that is possible for others.</p></li></ul><p>You stretch what others thought was real. Others see the world in a new way. They <em>feel</em> the possibility of greater experience.</p><p>Understanding this is <strong>beyond crucial </strong>if you are posting content online.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>The most successful personal brands do one thing consistently.</strong></p><p>They showcase an increased level of expression and experience within their work. They present themselves as someone in motion, someone with momentum. This momentum creates space and distance - energetic distance between where the audience is now and what the art is making them aware is possible.</p><p>People don&#8217;t just see your growth. They feel what&#8217;s possible for them through it. They feel the gap. And the gap is inviting them to fill it. When you are visibly, genuinely evolving, you become a mirror for what&#8217;s possible for others. </p><p><em>People don&#8217;t follow &#8216;your content&#8217; they follow the part of them that sees the freedom they wish to experience within you.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>So, this is why the most important thing you can do is dial into your artistry - to increase your level of expression and showcase that on a consistent basis through your content (art).</p><p><strong>This is the most magnetic thing you can do. This is Art-Science </strong></p><div><hr></div><p>Now that you understand this principle, why do you think that so many entrepreneurs get stuck when they start hyper optimising funnels and just focusing on volume? It&#8217;s because this is just more of the same, it is uninspiring and doesn&#8217;t project a sense of increase in their work. It feels stagnant.</p><p>Most entrepreneurs create a prison of a business for themselves and are no longer being paid for their evolution - <em>they are instead having to perform as a past version of themselves to &#8216;bring in leads&#8217;.</em></p><p><strong>Damn that fucking sucks&#8230;</strong></p><p>I want you to start to feel how good business can be. I want you to start to get a sense of how you can create something that pays you to grow - pays you for your evolution. Your whole job becomes to continue to advance into more life in a way that is meaningful to you and then showcase it with your art - your work/ your content. This is leadership, this is courage. The invitation is to live at your edge.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>The Truths To Remember :</strong></p><ol><li><p>Your quality of life is the quality of your emotions.</p></li><li><p>People are attracted to those who can give them &#8216;more life&#8217;.  </p></li><li><p>Art is energetic documentation of a particular state of human expression/experience. </p></li><li><p>Art is leadership.</p></li><li><p>Leadership is courage.</p></li><li><p>Courage is to live at and express your <strong>EDGE</strong>.</p></li></ol><div><hr></div><p><strong>One more thing.</strong></p><p>I&#8217;m running a one time cohort called <strong>EDGE s</strong>tarting in June.</p><p>Four weeks - a tight group. Built around everything in this and my previous letter on The Producer Economy.</p><p>I want to work with you to find your edge, develop your unique IP, and build a resonant content system that reveals you as the thought leader to your market. </p><p>I want to show how to set up your Personal Brand in a way that <strong>pays you for your evolution.</strong></p><p>I&#8217;m not launching <strong>EDGE</strong> until mid June and I&#8217;m still building out the full curriculum, but if any of this has landed for you and you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, click the link below and I&#8217;ll send you more details as they come out.</p><p><strong><a href="https://tally.so/r/D4vN0Z">[EDGE Waitlist]</a></strong></p><p>Keep creating,</p><p>- Tom</p><div><hr></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Producer Economy]]></title><description><![CDATA[Something has shifted in the online space.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/the-producer-economy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/the-producer-economy</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 02:34:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/20ea7118-b297-4a6a-bb22-c5f8a0675172_2560x1440.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Watch the video version of this article <a href="https://linktw.in/EfrbIL">here</a>.</p><div><hr></div><p>Something has shifted in the online space.</p><p>I know you can feel it. Your content isn&#8217;t hitting the same way it used to, getting clients feels hard a soul destroying - the things that worked 18 months ago are no longer producing any tangible return.</p><p>It&#8217;s frustrating and you&#8217;re spinning out mentally, desperate to put your finger on what has actually shifted. You know that your product is still good, your clients certainly don&#8217;t hate you, so there must be something broken on the front end right?</p><p>Next, you do what any logical person does.</p><p>Run more ads. More content volume. Tighter systems. More aggressive funnels.</p><p>And still? Something is off, nothing is f*cking clicking.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the thing, you&#8217;re not broken, your business isn&#8217;t broken either, but something significant has changed while you weren&#8217;t paying attention.</p><p>The market has evolved - forever.</p><p>It&#8217;s a different game altogether now.</p><p>Pushing ads, content volume and more complex funnels are basically you screaming to your audience that you haven&#8217;t noticed this shift. They are left feeling unheard, disinterested and uninspired by what you have to say or sell.</p><p>As a business owner (and leader) it is your job to put a name to what your audience is feeling. That is why people trust you (or used to anyway) because you can name what they cannot.</p><p>Right now most entrepreneurs and creators are operating from an old way of thinking.</p><p>Be consistent. Create a signature offer. Nail your niche. Grow your audience. Protect what you&#8217;ve built.</p><p>For a long time, that worked. But this new market doesn&#8217;t sit still. It just used to move slowly enough that you didn&#8217;t notice it.</p><p>Now it moves fast. Culturally, technologically and energetically. What was relevant six months ago is already the hum of background noise now. The offer you spent six months perfecting probably needs to be retired before you&#8217;ve even launched it.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe for free to my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>The problem isn&#8217;t your consistency either (most people reading this are not short on that), the problem is that consistency without evolution is repetition and, over time, repetition is invisible. </p><p>The problem is an old way of thinking about online business.</p><p>Thinking like a static business owner who rigidly protects what they&#8217;ve built.</p><p>Thinking like a creator worships the algorithm, gambling for a breakthrough.</p><p>Neither of them is tapped into what the market actually needs right now.</p><div><hr></div><p>Here&#8217;s what people actually respond to in this market. And notice I said <em>people,</em> not algorithms, not followers. People.</p><p>They respond to three things:</p><p>They respond to <strong>resonance.</strong> They respond to your <strong>evolution.</strong> They respond to <strong>immediate</strong> <strong>utility.</strong></p><p>Let&#8217;s go deeper.</p><p><strong>Resonance: </strong>This is your Artist developing within you. This is your specific TASTE.</p><p>This is what makes someone feel understood before you&#8217;ve even said anything directly to them. You can&#8217;t buy resonance. You can&#8217;t template it. It comes from developing your own expression so fully that when people encounter it, something in them says - <em>yes, they get it.</em> When you distort yourself, or say what you think you need to say to get someone to convert, they feel that dissonance too.</p><p>This is the distance that even slight dishonesty creates.</p><p><strong>Evolution: </strong>This is the Leader developing within you.</p><p>People are always seeking growth, more freedom, more expansion, a greater version of themselves. When you are visibly, genuinely evolving, you become a mirror for what&#8217;s possible. They don&#8217;t follow &#8216;your content&#8217; they follow the part of them that sees the freedom they wish to experience within you.</p><p>When you fully embody your values, that takes courage. Courage is the necessary first step for others to make any sort of meaningful change in their life.</p><p>Living with values creates space that others feel between the state in which you are operating from and where they currently are.</p><p>A leader is in motion. Externally and internally.</p><p><strong>Utility: </strong>This is the Scientist developing within you. </p><p>The Scientist takes what&#8217;s moving through you and hardens it into something actionable, useful and repeatable - a framework, a system, a product someone can actually apply to their own life. People don&#8217;t just want to be inspired by you, they want something immediate and actionable that they can use right now.</p><p>Also, in the context of online business, this something shouldn&#8217;t have to be an immediate multi thousand dollar commitment.</p><p>So if you understand this, the question isn&#8217;t &#8220;what strategy is working in 2026?&#8221;</p><p>The questions are:</p><ul><li><p>How do you develop your taste?</p></li><li><p>How do you consistently work on and showcase your own evolution?</p></li><li><p>And how do you offer immediate utility to a market that&#8217;s moving fast?</p></li></ul><p>That&#8217;s where this online game gets interesting to me.</p><div><hr></div><p>We&#8217;re moving into the <strong>Producer Economy.</strong></p><p>Not a business owner protecting a static model. Not a creator simping over an algorithm. A Producer, someone who takes what is moving through them right now and turns it into something the market can consume.</p><p>Here&#8217;s what separates the Producer from everyone else.</p><p>They&#8217;ve built the one muscle most entrepreneurs never bother with.</p><p><strong>Intuition.</strong></p><p>Not logic. Not market research. Not trend-chasing. A genuine sensitivity to what the culture needs before it knows it needs it. That&#8217;s where taste comes from. That&#8217;s how they stay ahead. That&#8217;s why their products land.</p><p>Producers are <strong>in tune</strong> with the market and deeply sensitive to its rhythm.</p><p><em>In-TUNE-ition</em></p><p>Intuition is knowing what to say yes to and what is a hard no without the need logical justify it - it is felt.</p><p>Intuition is knowing that when inspiration hits, you don&#8217;t question it - you play right now.</p><p>The Producer understands that inspiration isn&#8217;t a nice feeling to wait for. It&#8217;s something trying to move through you. Their job isn&#8217;t to manufacture it. Their job is to get out of the way and let it happen.</p><p>That&#8217;s not a metaphor. That&#8217;s the actual mechanism.</p><p>The Producer offers utility by hardening inspiration into products. Fast. Unattached to whether they&#8217;ll be relevant in six months. The product serves the market now. Then the market moves, and so does a Producer.</p><p>How does a Producer Monetise?</p><p><strong>Products</strong>: consumable, accessible, immediate. People come in, use what you&#8217;ve made, and grow.</p><p><strong>Proximity:</strong> for those who want direct access to a Producer. Custom help, guidance and depth.</p><p>You can no longer sell a static offer, you&#8217;re inviting people into an ongoing relationship with your own evolution and allowing them to consume it in a way that best suits them.</p><p>A Producer is attractive to self-led people who identify the value of the products and proximity themselves.</p><p>A Producer doesn&#8217;t need to constantly sell themselves, their value is clear through consumption of their products.</p><div><hr></div><p>So where are you right now?</p><p>Are you developing your Artist - your taste, your resonance, your expression? Are you developing your Leader - your evolution, your vision, your becoming? Are you developing your Scientist - your utility, your frameworks, your proof?</p><p>Most people are strong in one. Weak in another. Completely avoiding the third.</p><p>That&#8217;s why I built a immediately consumable product for you <strong>Producer Code AI.</strong></p><p><strong>Producer Code AI</strong> will show you exactly where you are across all three archetypes - where you&#8217;re in flow, where you&#8217;re in friction, and where you&#8217;re avoiding altogether.</p><p>It&#8217;s free. It takes minutes. And it&#8217;s the clearest starting point I know for stepping into the Producer identity. </p><p>Take the Producer Code AI assessment <strong><a href="https://tally.so/r/jaQ581">here</a></strong>.</p><div><hr></div><p>Welcome to the Producer Economy<br></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe to Producer Studio.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Reality Selection vs Reality Creation]]></title><description><![CDATA[Do this one thing before the universe will give you what you want.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/reality-selection-vs-reality-creation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/reality-selection-vs-reality-creation</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:09:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0b1f63a5-ef61-4587-8aa9-38b832b46aba_3930x2180.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><hr></div><p>Watch the video version of this letter <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_a50QWYEVE">here</a></strong> if you prefer that.</p><div><hr></div><p>People use the word abundance all the time.</p><p>I hardly ever see anyone actually talk about the term practically. It&#8217;s one of those words that has been thrown around so much that it has lost its impact.</p><p>So what is it?</p><p>How do you &#8216;create&#8217; it?</p><p>What does it mean subjectively to you?</p><p>This is my favourite way to think about &#8216;creating&#8217; abundance:</p><p><strong>Creating opportunities for others creates opportunities for others to create opportunities for you.</strong></p><p>One more time&#8230; Creating opportunities for others creates opportunities for others to create opportunities for you.</p><p>That slaps.</p><p>But rather that just giving you another fluffy quote, let&#8217;s dive into how this can actually be applied in your life today.</p><div><hr></div><p>Now, a few years ago, I was stuck in the typical &#8216;9-to-5 grind&#8217; (whatever you want to call it).</p><p>I was going through the same unconscious motions every single day. Tired. Always thinking about the weekends. Drinking. Didn&#8217;t like my girlfriend that much. All the clich&#233; stuff. I was doing it.</p><p>Fast forward 4 years and I&#8217;ve managed to create a life where I can work from wherever I want. I&#8217;ve got enough money to do pretty much whatever I want (within reason) and my work reflects my mission and requires me to grow in ways that excite me.</p><p>However, nearly all of people I was around in that job, including my friends, the people I lived with, the people I worked with, are still doing the same thing.</p><p>Now this is not a judgement, this is not me saying that travelling to Bali and working from a laptop is the pinnacle of the human experience - everyone can choose what they want out of life.</p><p>BUT.</p><p>Many of these old friends and colleagues message me frequently asking how I pulled myself out of my old reality. I now have a level of freedom, that honestly, I take for granted.</p><p>For me the shift was internal (spoiler: it always is.)</p><p>That shift is what I&#8217;d say is responsible for whatever level of &#8220;success&#8221; I have now.</p><p><strong>So let me dive into what that shift actually was.</strong></p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>When I first started trying to build a different life, or if I was starting now, I&#8217;d be really confused. Because there seems to be so much conflicting advice online about how to actually do this.</p><p>Some people say, &#8220;Hey, just start a business. Just do what needs to be done. Your emotions don&#8217;t matter. Execute.&#8221;</p><p>Grind your way out of the grind.</p><p>Then there&#8217;s another camp that says, &#8220;Follow your bliss, and success will magically come to you.&#8221;</p><p><strong>My take? Both are wrong. And they&#8217;re both right at the same time.</strong></p><p>You need to do both.</p><p>You need to both sharpen the axe and swing with power to cut down the tree.</p><p><em>(WOO + DO lol.)</em></p><div><hr></div><p>So let&#8217;s take a look at the mindset/manifestation crowd for a moment.</p><p>I&#8217;m a big believer that you should follow your bliss.</p><p>However. what&#8217;s in it for other people?</p><p>Following your bliss and living a life that excites you is great. But if you want to have a profitable business, there must be something in it for others. That other 50% of offering value to the market must be there as well.</p><p>Otherwise, you might be happy. But I&#8217;m afraid you&#8217;re going to be broke.</p><p>I often say there are three P&#8217;s: <strong>purpose, profit, and peace.</strong></p><p>If you&#8217;re missing either one, you&#8217;re not as powerful as you think&#8230;</p><p>Okay, so what about the grind crusaders? Grindrs.</p><p><strong>Here&#8217;s the truth about getting out of where you are.</strong></p><p>Yes, working hard is important. But that won&#8217;t sustain you for long.</p><p>Just grinding will grind you down.</p><p>There&#8217;s probably a season where you&#8217;ll have to grind, where you have to create enough velocity to get into orbit - but here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve learned:</p><p>The state in which you create determines the manifestation of what you create.</p><p>One of my quotes that went semi viral on Instagram was:</p><blockquote><p><em>Anything you gain while being inauthentic requires you to maintain being inauthentic to keep it.</em></p></blockquote><p>You can change the word &#8216;authentic&#8217; with pretty much any other human state of being.</p><p><strong>If you&#8217;re not happy with where you are right now, that is all internal.</strong></p><p>The things that are happening around you in your life are neutral. Your experience of them is coloured internally.</p><p>So it&#8217;s not that you <em>have</em> to do things that you don&#8217;t love, it&#8217;s that you don&#8217;t have love for the things you are doing&#8230;</p><div><hr></div><p>In order to create a new reality (or to select a new lane of reality) you need to bring the energy of excitement, love and purpose to what you&#8217;re doing right now.</p><p><em>(only if excitement, love and purpose are states you wish to experience more of, of course)</em></p><p>Now, if your environment isn&#8217;t inspiring, yes, you can change it externally. However, <strong>the actual practice and discipline is finding purpose, love, and excitement in your current environment.</strong></p><p>That&#8217;s the trick.</p><div><hr></div><p>When I was in my 9-5 teaching job, I could feel myself slipping mentally. Getting jaded. I was only 22, and my hair was receding. I was looking older. I looked in the mirror and I could see myself becoming someone I didn&#8217;t want to be.</p><p>A typical day looked like this: overly tired all the time, waking up late for work, hammering way too much caffeine, rushing through the dark grey English morning, trying to get to work on time. I&#8217;d have a consistent headache every Friday at the same time and I&#8217;d use the first half of Saturday just to sleep.</p><p>I realised I couldn&#8217;t keep doing this forever.</p><p>The people around me had been stuck there for years and they weren&#8217;t going anywhere. And the more I was around that energy, the more I was going to turn into them.</p><p><strong>The shift didn&#8217;t happen because I focused on how bad my life was.</strong></p><p>The shift happened when I said, &#8220;F*ck it. I&#8217;m going to enjoy and squeeze the most out of every moment I&#8217;ve got here anyway.&#8221;</p><p>That was when everything changed.</p><p>The first thing I did was do an assessment of all of the areas of my life where I was acting out of a state of jadedness, escapism or any other emotion I was fed up of feeling.</p><p>I got good at examining my choices.</p><p>When I would reach for ordering a pizza, what was the emotion behind that? Purpose or escapism?</p><p>I committed to immediately to halting any action that did not come from a state that I desired to feel more of.</p><p>So the first thing that happen was that alcohol was no longer consumed.</p><p>I didn&#8217;t quit drinking.</p><p>I quit feeling disconnected.</p><p>Here&#8217;s how internal shifts work. You orientate internal to a desired state of being then the universe give you an opportunity to test how serious you are.</p><p>Woo + do.</p><p>We harden our new state into the environment around us by committed action from the new state.</p><div><hr></div><p>So I committed to three years of no longer using alcohol to feel connect with others. Three years sober.</p><p>This immediately changed my environment. I had more time because I wasn&#8217;t hungover or groggy on weekends. I started exercising with more focus. I wasn&#8217;t going to the pub with friends anymore, so I had more time to work on things that excited me. At the time, it was music. I&#8217;d pour all my free time into making music.</p><p>I loved making music. I felt more positive overall. People were attracted to that energy.</p><p>And this is how the universe works. Both ways.</p><p><strong>Before you can have the life you love, you need to love the life you have.</strong></p><p>You have to make the first move show that you love your current life to some extent.</p><p><strong>This is the practice.</strong></p><p>No matter what your circumstances are, if you want to experience purpose, excitement, or abundance, find a small amount of it right now, whatever you can find, and choose it.</p><p><strong>It&#8217;s not reality creation. It&#8217;s reality selection.</strong></p><p>We become reality selection athletes when we get good at consciously choosing what we want to experience.</p><p>Here&#8217;s what I promise you:</p><p>There is abundance you can feel right now. Excitement you can feel right now. Peace you can feel right now.</p><p>I also promise you - there&#8217;s despair you can feel right now. Anger you can feel right now.</p><p><strong>It is all available to you all of the time.</strong></p><p>Your job is to build the muscle of selecting what you want to experience. And this is where the universe reciprocates.</p><p>Before you have the life you love, you have to show that you love the life you have.</p><p>This is the game we must play.</p><p>And this is why I started this letter by talking about opportunities.</p><p>There are opportunities in front of all of us right now. It&#8217;s our job to spot them and act on them.</p><div><hr></div><p>Here are two things to remember:</p><p>First: wherever you are right now, don&#8217;t expect to be in a good flow with your next thing if you can&#8217;t find flow in what you&#8217;re currently doing.</p><p>If you can&#8217;t find flow, excitement, and opportunities in your current situation, don&#8217;t expect to find it magically somewhere else.</p><p><strong>The practice is finding it now.</strong></p><p>Second: we often hear &#8220;fake it till you make it.&#8221; That sentiment is somewhat good.</p><p>However, I&#8217;d suggest: <em>It&#8217;s not fake it until you make it. It&#8217;s live it until you make it.</em></p><p>Practice living the emotions and feelings of abundance. The feelings of excitement. The feelings of joy.</p><p>That&#8217;s a muscle. <strong>It takes discipline.</strong></p><p>It can seem hard when externally things seem bleak.</p><p>Can I find the good?</p><p>Can I choose what I want to experience?</p><p>If you constantly focus on finding even the smallest amount, you&#8217;ll be given more of it to spot.</p><p>I promise.</p><p>Keep pulling the thread.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Okay, one final thing.</strong></p><p>Years ago, I read the book <em>Secrets of the Millionaire Mind</em> that I&#8217;ve always taken one thing to heart:</p><p><strong>Never complain.</strong></p><p>When you complain, what you&#8217;re showcasing to the universe is that you&#8217;re not in control. That you&#8217;re a victim.</p><p>If you ever complain, you&#8217;re basically saying, &#8220;I am not in control of my reality.&#8221;</p><p>And guess what? Reality says, &#8220;Yep, you&#8217;re right. You&#8217;re not in control. You&#8217;re a victim. Things happen to you. You have no agency.&#8221;</p><p><strong>So here&#8217;s something you can practice starting today:</strong></p><p>Stop yourself from complaining. Try for the next week, catch yourself when you do it. Try to have not a single complaint.</p><p>Energetically choose sovereignty.</p><p>It will be hard.</p><p>But it&#8217;s one of the most powerful shifts you can make.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Want to see where you&#8217;re operating right now?</strong></p><p>Run my <strong>Identity Evolution Protocol.</strong></p><p>This is a focused 3-part protocol designed to help you break through stuck patterns and step into the life you actually want - not in 6 months, but starting tomorrow.</p><p>[Link: <a href="https://tally.so/r/2ENoqj">Identity Evolution Protocol</a>.]</p><p>@tomspark_ </p><div><hr></div><p>Welcome To The Producer Economy.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Producer Studio. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[You're A Frequency, Not A Niche ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Understand the three essential archetypes you need to develop before AI makes you and your business obsolete.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/your-a-frequency-not-a-niche</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/your-a-frequency-not-a-niche</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:21:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b9984536-97fe-4a39-bd0b-711a163cbb24_3200x1800.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Watch the video version of this newsletter <a href="https://linktw.in/adFcYn">here</a>.</p><div><hr></div><p>The other day I saw a music artist raging on TikTok. He was furious about Ai and how it was affecting his industry.</p><p>Even though he was (massively) overreacting, his reaction can teach creators and entrepreneurs about how to integrate Ai the right way as it continues to become a powerful force over the coming months and years.</p><p>So back to our angry musician friend. <br><br>He&#8217;d had spent years and years mastering multiple instruments. </p><p>Hours of practice. Hours of discipline. Hours of love poured into his craft..</p><p>BUT why was he <em>furious</em> with Ai?</p><p>He mentioned other producers who are releasing music using AI to generate stems. (Stems are things like the bass lines, the drum patterns, the synth lines etc.) </p><p>These producers in question might be able to sing or play one instrument, but they were using AI for everything else.</p><p>He felt like it wasn&#8217;t pure. He felt like they were cheating. </p><p>I get the frustration. Honestly, as a musician myself, I really do. </p><p>But here&#8217;s the one thing he&#8217;s was missing:</p><p><strong>Music has never been about how well you execute a particular skill.</strong></p><p>Music is about the emotion you convey. It&#8217;s about what the listener feels. It&#8217;s about taking something (a feeling, an emotion) that you can&#8217;t put into words, and amplifying it through your art so that others can experience it too.</p><p>Throughout history the tools have always changed.</p><p>The electric guitar. The synthesiser. DAWs Ableton or Logic - and think of the backlash singers got in the late 90s for using Auto-tune.</p><p>AI is just the next evolution of creative technology.</p><p>And you can either resist it, or you can recognise it&#8217;s just part of the technological advancement that&#8217;s always been happening:</p><p>But here&#8217;s what&#8217;s crucial to remember:</p><p><strong>Value isn&#8217;t determined by your ability to execute a particular task.</strong></p><p>Creators and entrepreneurs who win the future understand this.</p><p><em>It&#8217;s not knowing how to play.</em></p><p><em>It&#8217;s knowing what should be played and why&#8230;</em></p><div><hr></div><p>There is a quote that is thrown around on the online space that I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve heard before:</p><blockquote><p><em>People buy coaches not coaching</em></p></blockquote><p>I&#8217;m not sure who originally said it, but it really lands.</p><p>Actually think about it...</p><p>People don&#8217;t buy what you know.</p><p>They buy <em>who</em> you are.</p><p>Now, because the question of &#8220;who am I?&#8221; is perhaps one of the deepest questions known to man.</p><p>Let&#8217;s not cover that here and instead we can think answering the question of &#8216;who am I?&#8221; from the perception of how others experience us.</p><p>When others relate to use, they relate to us in three specific ways.</p><ol><li><p>Pathos</p></li><li><p>Logos</p></li><li><p>Ethos</p></li></ol><div><hr></div><p>In ancient Greece, Aristotle&#8217;s spoke about these as the three classical modes of persuasion.</p><p><strong>Pathos</strong> = Appeal to emotion. Do I <em>feel</em> this person? Do they get me?</p><p><strong>Logos</strong> = Appeal to logic. Does their method make sense? Can I trust their process?</p><p><strong>Ethos</strong> = Appeal to character. Do I trust their direction? Do I believe where they&#8217;re taking me? And the manner in which we are getting there?</p><p>Whether it is conscious or not, these are the questions you have been asking to yourself before you make important decisions regarding any other human being.</p><p>Because my channel is about online business and the modern definition of freedom, let&#8217;s bring these ways that others relate to us back to marketing.</p><p>If your audiences can&#8217;t relate to your pathos, ethos or logos, they won&#8217;t buy your shit&#8230;</p><p>They might follow you.</p><p>They might like your content.</p><p>But they won&#8217;t pull the trigger.</p><div><hr></div><p>So now we know a couple of important things when it comes to presenting ourselves online:</p><ul><li><p>People buy people. They buy <em>who</em> you are.</p></li><li><p>People need to trust your direction and vision. (Ethos)</p></li><li><p>Believe logically in your methods (Logos)</p></li><li><p>And feel a sense of connection, they resonate with your taste (Pathos)</p></li></ul><p>So if these things are what drive a yes and gets your audience mobilised to pull the trigger with you, why are you watching another tactical video on funnels or ads?</p><p>What should you be actually working on knowing that Ai will be able to create the perfect funnel or ad in a matter of months..?</p><p>Here&#8217;s what I suggest. With a modern personal brand business, the biggest upgrade you can make is to yourself and how people relate to you.</p><p>So how do we actually do that?</p><p>I would like to present how I think about this in terms of the three archetypes you must develop to have success in today&#8217;s market and to have people relate to your Pathos, Ethos and Logos.</p><p>I&#8217;ll quickly interject here to say that I currently work with over 150 active clients, many of them running multi million dollar businesses.</p><p>And, although strategy is important, getting these internal shifts right and working on these three archetypes have led to some of the biggest breakthroughs both financially and personally for them.</p><p><em>(I just wanted to quickly say that so you know that this works in practice and isn&#8217;t purely theoretical fluff.)</em></p><div><hr></div><p>So here are the three archetypes you need to work on within yourself to embody attributes that Ai won&#8217;t replace.</p><p><strong>The Artist Archetype ( Your Pathos)</strong></p><ul><li><p>Your creative expression.</p></li><li><p>Your frequency.</p></li><li><p>The vibe people feel when they encounter you.</p></li><li><p>This is your Brand.</p><p></p></li></ul><p><strong>The Scientist Archetype (Your Logos)</strong></p><ul><li><p>Your method.</p></li><li><p>Your system.</p></li><li><p>The repeatable framework that gets results.</p></li><li><p>This is your proof.</p><p></p></li></ul><p><strong>The Leader Archetype (Your Ethos)</strong></p><ul><li><p>Your vision.</p></li><li><p>Your mission.</p></li><li><p>The direction you&#8217;re taking people and why it matters.</p></li><li><p>This is your conviction piece.</p></li></ul><p>Most entrepreneurs focus on one, maybe two.</p><p>You might be great at execution but have no magnetic presence online.</p><p>Or you might be inspiring but can&#8217;t explain how anything actually works (your typical influencer lol)</p><p>Or you have a solid, repeatable method but no one knows who the hell you are.</p><p><strong>You need all three archetypes integrated together.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>Let me give you a topical example:</p><p>I just made my girlfriend watch all 16+ hours of The Lord of the Rings trilogy over Christmas.</p><p>Every time I watch those films, I get obsessed again. Not with the story but with <em>how they were made.</em></p><p>There&#8217;s one story from the behind-the-scenes footage that always sticks with me.</p><p>Peter Jackson was given a relatively low budget to make three films at once.</p><p>Massive production. Hundreds of people. And in one corner of the set, there were two guys who spent <strong>three years at the same desk</strong> manually making every single piece of chain mail.</p><p>Three years. Same room. Linking fucking plastic rings together by hand.</p><p>If you want to talk about grunt work? That&#8217;s it.</p><p>But here&#8217;s what always gets me:</p><p>When Peter Jackson would pop in to check on them, those guys weren&#8217;t miserable. They weren&#8217;t complaining. They actually were <em>energised.</em> They&#8217;d say things like, <em>&#8220;This is the best. I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m part of this project.&#8221;</em></p><p>So how do you get people to sit in a room for three years doing tedious, repetitive work <em>and they still love it?</em></p><p><strong>You sell them the vision.</strong></p><p>Peter Jackson didn&#8217;t tell them what to do. He made them believe in <em>where they were going.</em></p><p>He painted the picture so clearly that it became their vision too. Not just his.</p><p>That is the <strong>Leader</strong> archetype.</p><p>That&#8217;s <em>Ethos</em>.</p><p>People will chew glass with a smile on their face if they believe in the mission.</p><div><hr></div><p>But what about the Artist &amp; Scientist archetype in this example?</p><p>If Peter Jackson had vision but no method, no system for actually <em>making</em> the films, nothing would&#8217;ve happened.</p><p>And if he had vision and a method but no creative taste, no ability to say &#8220;this is in, this is out&#8221; - the films would&#8217;ve been totally forgettable, they wound&#8217;t have had the emotional pull that they did.</p><p><strong>He needed all three archetypes firing.</strong></p><p><strong>The Artist</strong> to set the tone, the aesthetic, the feel.</p><p><strong>The Leader</strong> to inspire hundreds of people to pour years of their lives into the project.</p><p><strong>The Scientist</strong> to build the systems, the schedules, the frameworks that turned vision into reality, the things that actually got the project out of fantasy land and into reality.</p><div><hr></div><p>This process that I&#8217;ve described, is what I call the <strong>Brand Vision Method</strong> and I&#8217;ve been using it with clients for years now.</p><p><strong>Brand</strong> comes from developing your <strong>Artist</strong> archetype and has people bought into your <strong>Pathos.</strong></p><p><strong>Vision</strong> comes from developing your <strong>Leader</strong> archetype and has people bought into your <strong>Ethos</strong>.</p><p><strong>Method</strong> comes from developing your <strong>Scientist</strong> archetype and has people bought into your <strong>Logos</strong>.</p><ul><li><p><strong>Brand</strong> + <strong>Vision</strong> = <strong>Attraction.</strong> Your tribe finds you.</p></li><li><p><strong>Vision</strong> + <strong>Method</strong> = A working <strong>Business.</strong> You have an actual offer that works.</p></li><li><p><strong>Method</strong> + <strong>Brand</strong> = <strong>Influence.</strong> You have authority and proof.</p></li></ul><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg" width="1456" height="1306" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/fccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1306,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:414661,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/i/186585395?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_424, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_848, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9vbK!, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/tomspark.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffccd1aa6-db67-4346-8065-51f1b14e4753_2176x1952.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Most people are stuck because they&#8217;re trying to build a business with only one or two of these.</p><p>Think about where you might feel stuck right now.</p><p>It&#8217;s probably because one of these archetypes currently needs more development within yourself.</p><ul><li><p>You might be an Artists with no system, creative but broke.</p></li><li><p>Or a Scientist with no presence, competent but invisible.</p></li><li><p>Or a Leader with no proof, inspiring but untrustworthy.</p></li></ul><p>Now, I know we&#8217;ve used the example of Peter Jackson, who is of course a director, but for entrepreneurs and creators who embody these three archetypes, I like to use a different term.</p><p><strong>A Producer.</strong></p><p>So where does this term &#8220;Producer&#8221; come from?</p><p>Let me tell you a story.</p><p>When I was younger, I played in a lot of bands, mostly guitar.</p><p>And I remember thinking to myself during rehearsals, <em>&#8220;I wish there was another me who was as good at drums as I am at guitar. I wish there was another me that was as good at keyboard as I am at guitar!&#8221;</em></p><p>That would be one hell of a band I thought, I would be able to make exactly the sound that I want.</p><p>Because here&#8217;s the thing, when you&#8217;re in a band, you&#8217;re limited by the people around you.</p><p>The bassist might be great, but the drummer is off. Or the singer has the voice but keeps trying to show off with weird vocal frills.</p><p>Because of this I&#8217;d think to myself, <em>&#8220;If there was just another version of me on every instrument, we&#8217;d be fucking epic. Because we&#8217;d think the same way. We&#8217;d feel the music the same way too.&#8221;</em></p><p>That thought stuck with me.</p><p>And eventually, I realised: I <em>can</em> actually do that.</p><p>Not by cloning myself, but by producing.</p><p>I could learn the tools. I could add my own taste to the bass line, the drums, the keys, the ambient layers. I could build something that was <em>truly mine,</em> not limited by who I could convince to join the band or how well they executed.</p><p>For me, production or being a <strong>Producer</strong> wasn&#8217;t about playing every instrument perfectly.</p><p>It was about <strong>directing the sound I heard in my head.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>And here&#8217;s what I learned:</p><p>The producer doesn&#8217;t need to be the best musician in the room.</p><p>The producer needs <strong>taste</strong>. Vision. The ability to hear what&#8217;s missing and say, &#8220;No, not that - <em>this.</em>&#8220; and not need to justify it logically.</p><p>The producer leverages the tools and the talent around them. They don&#8217;t do everything themselves, they <em>direct</em> everything.</p><p>And that&#8217;s a completely different skill set than execution.</p><p>When I moved into coaching and building businesses online, I realised the exact same principle applied.</p><p>You don&#8217;t need to be the best writer, the best marketer, the best salesperson.</p><p>You need to be able to <strong>direct the vision</strong>. To curate. To make the call on what stays and what goes.</p><p>You need to develop your <strong>Artist</strong> (your taste, your frequency).</p><p>You need to embody your <strong>Leader</strong> (your vision, your mission).</p><p>You need to systematise your <strong>Scientist</strong> (your method, your proof).</p><p>And when you do that?</p><p>You stop being a creator, grinding, trading time for output, hoping someone notices.</p><p>You become a <strong>Producer</strong> instead - someone who leverages everything around them to bring a vision into reality.</p><div><hr></div><p>People don&#8217;t follow you because of your market position.</p><p>They follow you because of the <em>energy</em> you emit.</p><p>The conviction you carry.</p><p>The way you make them feel when they&#8217;re in your world.</p><p><strong>You&#8217;re a frequency, not a niche.</strong></p><p>A <strong>Producer</strong> understands how to emit a frequency.</p><p>A <strong>Creator</strong> is still trying to figure out which content pillar to use.<br>So how do you shift to embodying the Producer identity?</p><p>Because this is where most people get stuck.</p><p>They understand the concept - they get that they need to develop the Artist, the Leader, and the Scientist.</p><p>But then what?</p><p>Where do you actually start?</p><p>Because here&#8217;s the thing, most people are blind to their own blocks.</p><p><em>(It&#8217;s not your fault, it&#8217;s just part of being a human.)</em></p><p>You might think you need better content strategy (Artist problem), when really you&#8217;re avoiding selling because you don&#8217;t believe in your offer yet (Scientist problem).</p><p>Or you think you need a clearer niche (Leader problem), when actually you just haven&#8217;t given yourself permission to be fully expressed online (Artist problem).</p><p><strong>Your business problems aren&#8217;t tactical.</strong></p><p><strong>They&#8217;re personal.</strong></p><p>And they&#8217;re showing up in your business.</p><div><hr></div><p>This is why I built <strong>Producer Code AI</strong>.</p><p><em>(completely free btw - before you think I&#8217;m going to try and sell you something)</em></p><p><strong>Producer Code Ai</strong> a personalised assessment that maps where you currently are across all three archetypes - Artist, Leader, Scientist.</p><p>But it doesn&#8217;t just tell you &#8220;here&#8217;s your score.&#8221;</p><p>It asks you a series of very specific questions relating to blocks showing up in each archetype, and shows you:</p><p><strong>Where you&#8217;re in Fear</strong> (complete avoidance - you know you need this but you&#8217;re running from it)</p><p><strong>Where you&#8217;re in Friction</strong> (pushing through - you&#8217;re doing it but it&#8217;s hard, requires willpower)</p><p><strong>Where you&#8217;re in Flow</strong> (natural expression you could do this all day)</p><p>And then it identifies your <strong>exact bottleneck,</strong> the ONE archetype that&#8217;s blocking the other two.</p><p>It&#8217;s not about &#8220;balancing&#8221; all three archetypes equally.</p><p>It&#8217;s about <strong>solving the ONE thing that&#8217;s blocking everything else.</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>So the assessment takes about 15 minutes.</p><p>You&#8217;ll answer questions about how you show up, truths your avoiding ans where you feel resistance.</p><p>And at the end, you&#8217;ll get a detailed breakdown of:</p><ul><li><p>Your current level in each archetype</p></li><li><p>Which intersection is missing (Attraction, Business, or Influence)</p></li><li><p>Your Fear/Friction/Flow breakdown</p></li><li><p>The ONE pattern you need to interrupt to unlock the next level</p></li></ul><p>It&#8217;s not generic advice.</p><p>It&#8217;s specific to YOU, your mission, and where you are right now.</p><p>I&#8217;ve been running a beta version of this with clients over the last few months and it&#8217;s really fucking good, I&#8217;m ngl..</p><div><hr></div><p>So if you want that,<strong> it&#8217;s linked below (</strong>it will take you to a Notion page)<strong><br><br>LINK: </strong><a href="https://tally.so/r/jaQ581">Producer Code Ai </a></p><p><strong>If you like this style of content, do let me know. Your encouragement does go a long way.</strong></p><p>And if you want to hear more on frameworks, philosophy and Ai for entrepreneurs, be sure to find me on YouTube &amp; Instagram.</p><p>@tomspark_ </p><div><hr></div><p>Welcome To The Producer Economy.</p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Coming soon]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is Producer Studio.]]></description><link>https://tomspark.substack.com/p/coming-soon</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://tomspark.substack.com/p/coming-soon</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tom Spark]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2026 02:30:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kvdF!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbd5dbec2-5e65-4b9f-b58a-7374b4af5cf2_862x862.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is Producer Studio.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://tomspark.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/tomspark.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>