The Anti-Algorithm Strategy
The sovereign path for building creator business
You came to Substack to be more yourself, not less. But some days, it feels like the opposite is happening.
You find yourself “dumbing down” a complex idea for a hook. You spend an hour trying to sound like someone else because their “style” is what’s working right now. You feel a subtle cringe as you hit publish on a post that feels more like a performance for an algorithm than a genuine expression of your thoughts.
This is the quiet friction of the creator economy. It’s the feeling that in the race to build an audience, you’re slowly sanding down the most interesting parts of yourself just to fit.
You’re not imagining it. The system is a beautifully designed casino, and it rewards predictable bets. It thrives on your hope that the next course, the next tactic, will be the one that finally lets you be you and be successful.
In my last article, we gave this system a name: The Creator Casino.
We saw it for what it is: a rigged game designed to turn passionate creators into burnt-out Gamblers.
When you see the game clearly, it’s easy to become cynical. To stand on the sidelines and point out how everything sucks. To decide it’s all pointless and that you should just quit.
Don’t. That’s a losing mindset.
It leads to a unfulfilling life, and I bet you’re the type of person who wants to see a positive change.
Many decide to become a Card Counter. The growth hacker. The hustler who tries to outsmart the algorithm.
This is a high-stress, unsustainable path. It’s a series of short-term wins that never compound. The moment the house notices your edge, they change the rules. You’re left with nothing but obsolete tactics.
There is a third path.
It’s the path of the Magician.
The Magician is the Sovereign Creator. They understand the casino’s rules not to break them, but to leverage the system to play an entirely different game. A game built on authenticity, trust, and a deep connection to your work.
While there are many principles, this article is about three that matter the most. Get these right, and you’re ahead of 90% of the players on the floor.
Let the show begin.
The Principles of a Sovereign Business
The Magician is a strategist. They build a practice on a set of simple, powerful principles. This is how you leverage a social media platform to turn a crowd into a community, and a hobby into a business.
Principle #1: Define Your Own Table (The Smallest Viable Audience)
The Gambler wanders the casino floor, looking for a hot table. The Magician doesn’t. They bring their own.
Your first and most important strategic act is to decide who your work is for. Not “everyone.” Not “people who like video games.” Be more specific. “Designers in their first five years of freelancing who feel creatively burned out.” “Home bakers who are intimidated by sourdough.” “Parents who want to teach their kids about finance but don’t know where to start.”
You are not looking for a demographic to exploit. You are looking for the people who are wired to see the world the way you do, who are wrestling with the same questions, who will feel a sense of homecoming in your perspective.
This is your Smallest Viable Audience.
When you are this specific, two magical things happen. First, the people you’re not for will ignore you, which saves you from wasting your energy on them. Second, the people you are for will feel seen. They will lean in and say, “That’s me.” You are no longer shouting into the void, you are talking to a friend. This is your exclusive table.
Principle #2: Create Your Own Chips (Metrics That Matter)
The Magician ignores the casino’s house chips. They know that likes and views are designed to keep them playing. They create their own currency that has real value outside the casino walls.
Your job is to focus creating a signal. Metrics are quantitative measures of past results. Signals are qualitative indicators of future resonance. External metrics will follow as a byproduct.
Your new scorecard is about alignment and impact. It has only a few items on it:
Alignment: Did I Show Up Authentically? You should be able to answer that question daily with a simple yes or no question. Did the work I created today feel like an honest expression of my unique perspective and values? Did it come from a place of genuine curiosity and service, or from a place of obligation and trying to “fit in”? This is the only metric you can control 100% and it builds self-trust.
Resonance: Did I Cause a Change? This is not about the number of comments, but the quality of the feedback. Did someone say, “This changed how I see things”? Did a reader share a personal story of how your work prompted them to take a different action? You are tracking evidence of transformation. It could be a comment that says, “Your post on burnout made me finally take a day off without guilt” is worth a thousand “Great post!” comments.
Trust: Did I Earn a Deeper Connection? An email subscriber simply a proxy for earned trust. Instead of asking “How many subscribers did I get?” you ask “Did the work I shipped today earn the trust of the people I seek to serve, making them want to hear from me again?” A sale is the ultimate expression of trust. Someone is willing to exchange their hard-earned resources for the change you promise. The focus is on the earning, not the getting.
When you change the metrics you look at, your behavior naturally changes. Instead of chasing the high of a viral moment and you gain a deep satisfaction, knowing your work is making a genuine difference for the few people who matter most. This is how your business becomes psychologically sustainable.
Principle #3: Build Your Own Theater (The Asset You Own)
The casino floor is rented land. The Magician knows this. Their performance on the platform is just the free show in the lobby, designed to attract the right people.
The real show happens in the theater you own. This is where you build a sovereign business. Let’s look at how the magic happens:
1. The Performance in the Lobby
This is anywhere you don’t own the audience connection. It includes X/Twitter, LinkedIn or Substack’s Notes and Recommendation features. Your primary goal here is discovery.
The Magician doesn’t perform their whole act for free on the casino floor. That would devalue the main event. Instead, they perform illusions. These are short, compelling, and perfectly executed tricks designed to make a stranger stop and think: “Wait, how did they do that? I need to know more.”
The goal is to generate curiosity and signal that there is deeper wisdom to be found. That can be short, sharp, provocative idea (e.g. Notes).
2. The Invitation to the Show
After performing a stunning illusion, the Magician hands out a beautifully designed flyer. The flyer is your profile with your bio and an invitation to the show.
There even might be word of mouth, which is the most powerful form of distribution. When another creator restacks your Note, they are handing your flyer to their trusted audience with an implicit endorsement.
The flyer has one purpose: to make the value proposition of your main show so compelling that the visitor’s next logical action is to walk over to your Substack publication and see what the full performance is all about.
3. The Main Event on Stage
When a visitor arrives at your Substack, they have entered your world. This is your stage where you perform the full show.
Your main act is your body of work. Here you reveal your philosophy, tell your stories, and deliver immense value, article after article. The goal is to build trust. To take a curious visitor and turn them into a fan who says, “This person gets me. I need to hear from them again.” The main act must be so good that the visitor’s next logical step is to ensure they don’t miss the next one.
4. The Backstage Pass
At the end of a brilliant show, the Magician makes a special offer to the most engaged members of the audience. “If you want to learn how these illusions are constructed, if you want to be part of the inner circle, join my private workshop.”
Your backstage pass is an invitation to join your email list. You convert a visitor into a true fan. To move the relationship from the semi-public stage to the intimate and direct channel of your private theater (your email list). This is the most important transaction.
You are trading your best work for their most valuable asset: their permission and their trust. And it’s the only asset you really own.
Once they are in your private theater, the casino’s rules become irrelevant. The algorithms can’t touch you. You have a direct, durable relationship. This is the foundation upon which you can eventually build a sustainable business. You can sell paid tickets in the form of a paid newsletter, a digital product, or a course, offered exclusively to the people already inside your theater.
Leave the Table. Start the Show.
You have a choice.
You can continue to be the Gambler. You can sit at the slot machine, pulling the lever, feeding it your time, your creativity, your hope. You can keep playing the game the house designed for you, chasing the dopamine high of a small win, hoping that the next spin will be the jackpot that changes everything.
You can become the Card Counter. You can dedicate yourself to the frantic, exhausting work of the hustle. You can chase the next algorithm hack, the next loophole, the next short-term trick, knowing all the while that the house is watching, and that your edge is always one day away from disappearing.
Or you can become the Magician.
You see the casino for what it is. It has its own agenda. But you have the courage to walk away from the noise, the jackpots, and the house’s rigged games. You choose to play a different game entirely, a longer and quieter game, but one where you are the house.
A game where you define the rules.
A game where you keep your own score.
A game where you build an asset that no one can take away from you.
The house wants you to pull the lever one more time. It will always want that. But your audience is waiting just for you. They are waiting for the show to begin. Your unique perspective, your generosity.
The casino floor is loud, and it will always be there. But there is the work only you can do.
The final question isn’t “What business should I build?”
The real question is: “Who am I?”
Because a business built on your authentic self is immune to the Creator Casino. It has no competition. AI cannot fake your lived wisdom, and trend chasers cannot mimic your genuine conviction.
If you are ready to begin answering that question in a structured, practical way, I have created a free tool to guide your first steps. The Archetype Navigator uses psychological frameworks to help you start the journey of self-understanding that is the foundation of all sovereign creation.
Great analogy of the marketing funnel and expansion on how creators can break free from the treadmill work of social media.
I love the rich analogies and metaphors you describe here... going to follow the magician's path. I already know my archetype too..so I am going to start working with this in mind. Thanks!