Coss Marte is the founder of Conbody, a prison style fitness bootcamp that hires ex-cons to teach fitness classes. Born to poor immigrant parents from Dominican Republic, Marte started dealing drugs in his teens and made more than 2 Million Dollars a year before getting caught. He spent four years in prison where he discovered his passion for fitness and eventually figured out how to transform it into a viable profession. This passion-centric job creation will drive the economic engine of the 21st century.
Move over “Uber for X”
According to economist Adam Davidson and the recent future of work report published by venture capital firm Andreessen Horovitz, the gig economy and the “Uber for X” model will at least in part make way for the passion economy where micro-entrepreneurs like Marte monetize their individuality and creativity.
Fitness centers are almost indistinguishable from each other. Business pundits call it an undifferentiated market with low barrier to entry and huge competition. Marte’s fitness centers don’t even have equipment. They are basically small rooms with mirrors that Marte put up himself. He is an ex-con employing ex-cons offering a competitively priced fitness deal. Somehow 74% of his customers never leave. The industry average is 25%.
Marte’s fitness classes are good and his subscription-based business model makes sense, but his success cannot be attributed to them. A key component of the passion economy is story telling and Marte tells a gripping story through his business. It creates a strong bond between customers and instructors.
In addition to becoming fit, the customers are actually involved in the redemption of their instructors. Unlike other gyms where hourly paid instructors change every few months, Conbody instructors are there for life. Marte’s genius is that he has taken objectively negative facets and found a way to tell a true story in an authentic way.
There are several other examples that demonstrate the power of story telling in the passion economy. Dave Dahl spent 15 years in jail before setting up an organic bread company which he sold for 275 Million dollars in 2015. When I used to live in the US, I would often have Dave’s Killer Bread, not because of its taste (although it was very good) but because of the gripping story of the multi-million dollar bread company set up by a young man trying to redeem himself.
Obviously, we do not need to go to jail to create a memorable story. The larger lesson is that some of the hardest, most painful aspects of our lives can become core pillars of our business strategy. In simple words, passion sells.
Enterprization of Consumer
According to former Andreessen Horovitz investor Ji Lin, these stories are indicative of a larger trend called the enterprization of consumer. Whereas previously, the gig economy flattened the individuality of workers, the passion economy will allow anyone to monetize their unique skills or stories.
While the passion economy will be immensely rewarding for creators, it won’t be all fun and games. People will need the discipline and the rigor to work hard, experiment fast and deliver consistently. Unlike regular employment, creators will need to figure out HR, accounting and legal issues themselves. Paul Jarvis, the author of “Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business”, shares that today creators spend more than 50% of their time doing extraneous stuff. That is a colossal waste of income and potential. I see a huge opportunity here.
Instead of debating whether AI will lead to job losses, we should figure out how it can augment the productivity of creators and micro-entrepreneurs. We need to free up time for creators to do the work they truly care about and are good at. That is how the passion economy will blossom and lead to the next wave of economic growth.
Will AI lead to job losses? Of course. Are the number of jobs in the world finite? Of course not. In the years to come, we will witness a reduction in the number of institutional jobs. Governments and enterprises will hire fewer people. Some jobs would even be outsourced to robots and algorithms.
This phase shift will be immensely stressful if we keep running after the next big thing or the next new technology without a sense of purpose. However, if we learn to augment our creative pursuits with meaningful stories and new age technologies, the passion economy will unleash innumerable possibilities, just like it did for Coss Marte and Dave Dahl.
How to monetize your passion on networkcapital.tv
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