Body: Hi everyone, I’m Mustapha, Agency Owner & Media Buyer from Morocco 🇲🇦. I’ve spent years mastering Paid Traffic, but I’ve realized a critical truth about the Creator Economy: The Philosophy: "Social Media is Rented Land. The algorithm is your landlord, and he can raise the rent (or evict you) at any time. A true Mogul uses the rented land solely to move people into their Owned Kingdom (Email List, Community, Products)." Why I’m here: I know how to "Pay for the Traffic" (The Rent). I’m here to learn from you how to "Build the Asset" (The Brand & Content) so we stop being tenants of the algorithm and start being owners of our future. Let’s stop renting and start owning. 🤝🧱

We have all had that one piece of content this year that just took off. The reel that would not die. The TikTok that kept getting saves long after you forgot you posted it. The podcast episode everyone keeps replying to. The email that got forwarded into parts of the internet you did not know existed. Sometimes we know exactly why something works. Sometimes it feels completely random and the algorithm is just playing dice with us. I would like to turn that into something useful for all of us rather than just a nice spike in the analytics. **Share your top performer of 2025** Share one piece of content from this year that did unusually well for you. It can be anything: - Short form video - Long form video - Podcast episode - Newsletter or email - Blog post - Thread or carousel - LinkedIn post - Then break it down using this little template: Format and platform: - Example: 45 second reel on IG, long form YouTube, podcast, newsletter etc. Link: - Or a screenshot if you prefer. Headline or hook: - Exact wording you used in the title, hook, first line or thumbnail. Who it was for: - Your niche and the specific person you had in mind when you made it. Result (rough numbers are fine): - Views, opens, listens, saves, shares, revenue attached etc. - No need to be exact to the last decimal. Ballpark is enough. Why you think it worked: - Your honest guess. - Was it the timing, topic, hook, emotion, story, contrarian angle, platform push, or something else. What you would repeat or double down on in 2026: - Concrete lesson you will actually use, not just a nice thought. This is not a humblebrag thread. I am not interested in screenshots of vanity metrics with no context. What I am interested in is: - Patterns across niches - Hooks that cut through the noise in personal finance - Topics that clearly resonate with real people with real money problems - Formats that convert attention into email signups, product sales or clients

I hope everyone had a blessed time giving thanks for any family you may have left. For us older folks, we wonder who will be missing the next year. Count your blessings while you still have them. Say what you've been meaning to, you may never get a chance again.

Now, just because I call it "Book of the week" doesn't mean I'll recommend one every week. I'd love to get through a book a week, but sadly, it hasn't happened yet. And even if I did, they wouldn't all be finance and economics. I've been quiet this week as I got away for a few days with my wife to spectacular Istanbul. On the flight, I added this book to my Kindle on a newspaper recommendation (Yes! I still read those). Here's the review from Martin Wolf in the Financial Times: Link to article, so I'm not in breach of T&Cs https://on.ft.com/4iA5yhB "Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone by John Y Campbell and Tarun Ramadorai (Princeton) "This book would be the ideal present for anybody who needs lessons in finance. The authors, professors at Harvard and Imperial College respectively, are informed critics of a system that fools its users. “The problems of today’s financial system can be summarized as complexity and cost,” they explain. These two defects are related since “complexity increases costs to consumers”. A better financial system would, they argue, adhere to four principles: simple, cheap, safe and easy. With modern information technology, they add, these requirements could be met relatively easily. They recommend, in particular, creation of a “starter kit” for beginners." Has anyone read this? When I've finished it, I'll come back with a review. Also on the flight, I finished Cory Doctorow's "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It" Very entertaining and informative. Now, I'm far from agreeing with him on everything, but the main thrust of the book hits the nail on the head. Our governments (right, left, US, Europe, WTO) have dropped the ball on antitrust and straightforward rules that protect consumers like interoperability. Moreover, we've written into law protections for tech companies that seriously prejudice consumers and leave them open to exploitative pricing.

I've been kicking the tires of various marketing automation programs. A lot of them do similar stuff. I think of Kajabi as a course platform with strong marketing capabilities. I think of Kit as an email platform. I think of HubSpot as a landing page platform. I think of Clickfunnels as a sales funnel builder. I think of HighLevel as the whole marketing automation shebang, but divorced from any product. I'm already paying for Kajabi and Kit, but recently I'm finding a need for 1. More of a CRM, 2. A bookings calendar like Calendly, 3. An SMS service, 4. Better funnels with upsells and downsells. I ran a little comparison in ChatGPT. I was surprised to discover that HighLevel also offers a course platform very similar to Kajabi. Clickfunnels also has a course builder, but I haven't reviewed its capabilities. I've just renewed my annual plan with Kajabi, so I won't be making the jump soon. But for not much more $$, I get a ton of useful services. Which of these do you use most? How do you use them? What do you like and what are you lacking?