How to Choose the Right Revenue Model (Without Wasting Years on the Wrong One)
The 3-question filter that eliminates bad income streams before you build them
Welcome to Creator Money Playbooks, where I help creators take control of their money without jargon, overwhelm, or shame.
Creators earn, spend, save, and grow money differently than 9–5ers. That's why they need a different playbook.
Every Saturday morning, paid subscribers get a playbook to help them understand their money, make smarter decisions, and build a business that pays them back—with freedom, not stress.
Most creators think they’re choosing a business model.
Really, they’re locking in the rules for how their business (and life) will run.
Every model sets three things in stone:
When the money arrives (cash flow pattern)
How big it can get before it breaks (scalability ceiling)
How much of you it needs to keep running (time investment)
Pick the wrong model, and growth makes your life harder: more stress, less control, constant firefighting.
Pick the right one, and growth makes your life easier: steady cash, reusable work, more time to think.
Your revenue model isn’t just “how you make money.”
It’s your calendar, your runway, and your ability to say no. It decides whether you can take a week off, and whether more revenue means more freedom or more chaos.
The early game rewards quick wins. You sell hours because it pays next week. But the same model that saves you this month can trap you for years.
The creators who last make a quiet trade: they give up a little short-term certainty to build models that scale without consuming more of them.
They evolve in phases: cash-now → predictable → scalable → compounding.
Switching models or stacking the right ones can double your income without adding more hours.
Inside today’s playbook, you’ll get:
7 proven revenue models that work for creators today
Trade-off profiles for each: cash flow, scalability, time cost, common traps
The Revenue Model Stack to go from cash-now to compounding income
A decision framework to know your next move with certainty
A 90-day roadmap with templates and decision trees to launch or shift your model fast
If you’ve been working hard but feel stuck in place, this isn’t about doing more.
It’s about choosing the right model so your business starts paying you back.
Let’s dive in.