Work is an extension of who you are becoming.
I arrived at this conclusion on two separate occasions.
When I saw how a billion dollar company kept over 4,000 employees (including me) moving in one direction. And when I took Jordan Peterson’s Self-Authoring program to guide me during one of my many existential episodes.
Both systems had the same philosophy.
A kind of hierarchy of values that guided action—from an abstract vision of the future all the way down to the most granular daily tasks. The principle was the same.
That’s how organizations keep groups aligned.
That’s how Jordan Peterson helped individuals do the same.
It occurred to me then that, as a one-person business, I too ought to benefit from this “hierarchical model.” What difference is there between the vision, mission, and values you hold for your business, and the vision, mission and values you hold for your life?
I’d argue there isn’t any—and if there were, it might explain the spiritual dissonance between your work and your life. Over the past few years, and motivated by my ability to run in circles like a headless chook, I developed a mental model around this idea for the creator.
A.K.A the solopreneur who builds their own products, markets their own content, and brands their own lifestyle. It’s helped me sell products I actually care about, to people I actually relate to, and for causes I actually believe in.
If you struggle with any of these, this letter will walk you through this model in plain English—and will hopefully be of some use.
The Content House: Your Brand’s Architecture
Imagine you were building your dream house.
You wouldn’t just throw a bunch of shit together hoping it’d magically work itself out.
No. You’d have your own design—a mental image in your head that gives you something to work towards—so that, when it came time to put it all together, every brick, beam, and tile contributes to the bigger picture.
The content house is that mental image for your business.
It’s the destination that gives your content direction so that every post, thread, or article you write is like adding another brick to the structure of the whole.
The content house is made up of three layers.
1 – The Thesis (roof)
Your thesis is the central belief that connects who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
Everything you do—from the content you write, to the service you deliver, to the values you live by—is downstream from it.
Put simply, it’s a clear but powerful statement that drives the why behind the how.
Think about the overall message of a movie, novel, or essay—content would be meaningless if it didn’t serve an underlying thesis or moral.
The same principle applies to your personal and professional life, which is why it sits at the top like a roof (this will make more sense in the example below).
2 – The Pillars (columns)
Your pillars are the core arguments that support your thesis, hence, they’re the columns that hold the house together. They bridge abstraction and instruction.
Pillars are non-negotiable. Like legs on a stool, if you remove one, the whole thing collapses.
If the thesis is the overall message of the story, then your pillars are the arcs or sections of the book.
3 – The Content (foundation)
Finally, we reach the foundation—your content.
This layer represents the media you use to deliver your arguments: social posts, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, etc. This is how you get attention and build authority.
If the thesis is the message, and the pillars are the arcs, then your content is the chapter-by-chapter delivery of the story.
From a content/branding perspective, picture it like this:
- Your thesis is the overall message for a year or quarter
- Your pillars are the themes for each month
- Your content becomes the newsletters each week
—Which you can then atomize into daily posts.
Here’s my personal example (so you can see it in practice)
Thesis (message for the quarter):
→ “Solopreneurship is the path to the Good Life”
This is the core claim I’ll be exploring for the next 90 days.
Pillars (themes for each month):
Month 1 — Brand → Become known for what you believe.
Month 2 — Product → Turn your skills into something people can buy.
Month 3 — Content → Share what you do in a way that attracts the right people.
These are the core arguments that hold the thesis up.
Content (topics for each week):
→ Including the letter you’re reading right now (falls under the pillar Brand).
As you can see, each piece I publish is like writing a chapter under a theme, under a thesis—”like adding a brick to the structure of the whole.”
Now, you may be wondering how I arrived at each layer in the first place.
To explain that, we need to zoom out and revisit how I discovered my thesis—or “life thesis,” as I often refer to it.
(We’ll only be covering the roof in this letter. Next week, we’ll break down pillars and foundation)
How To Discover Your Life’s Thesis
Your thesis needs to be big.
Like a picture frame, the smaller it is, the smaller the image.
This is why you often see people debating against “niching down”—at least from a marketing front—because of how much it constricts your content.
Also remember, your thesis is not just a mission statement or a brand slogan. It’s the underlying truth you’re here to explore, prove, and teach through your work.
Therefore, there are certain conditions your thesis must meet:
- Experiential — You’ve actually lived it, not just read, watched, or heard it from someone else.
- Convictional — Something you’d defend even if it creates opposition.
- Transferable — Something others can adopt as a compass for their own life.
The good news is I’ve devised a method that extracts all three—summarized by these three steps:
Step One: Self-Inquiry
Understand that you already have enough answers to fill a library.
All that’s required are the right questions to unlock the right answers. To quote Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.”
There are three parts to this:
i – Truth (What’s real to you)
Every thesis begins in lived reality. The goal here is to uncover what life, work, or people have already taught you, often the hard way.
Questions like:
- What pattern or pain keeps repeating in your life or work?
- What hard-earned lesson changed how you see the world?
ii – Conflict (What’s broken or misunderstood)
Next is clarifying what you’re up against—the clash between your truth and the world’s lie.
Questions like:
- What does the world believe that you no longer do?
- What cultural myth keeps people trapped in mediocrity?
ii – Direction (What you’re moving toward)
Lastly, your alternative.
The principle, mindset, or path you want to embody and champion. The one people would eventually pay you for.
Questions like:
- What would the world look like if people lived by your truth?
- What does “success” feel like, not just look like?
- How does someone actually move from the old way to the new one?
(*Note that these are not the full list of questions, just a summary. If you want the exact worksheet I used to discover my thesis, info below.)
Step Two: Synthesis
Once you have a general outline for each of the three domains, you’re ready to pull everything together into a clear, testable statement that captures your core belief.
Write this down:
Because I’ve experienced [truth], I can no longer accept [conflict], so I believe lasting progress comes from [direction].
Jot down as many different versions or iterations you want. Re-visit and refine it into something you can recite and get behind.
That sentence becomes your North Star, the statement your entire body of work orbits around.
Here’s my example for clarity:
“Because I’ve experienced what happens when you trade your time, energy, and identity to build someone else’s dream, I can no longer accept a life built around dependence and borrowed purpose, so I believe the good life comes from owning your work.”
A.K.A → “Solopreneurship is the path to the Good Life”
Step Three: Integration
Finally, bring your thesis to life.
Remember, this is not something you write once and leave sitting in your notebook to collect dust.
It’s something you embody—a belief that shapes how you live, work, and share.
Begin with the personal layer. Ask: How can I live this belief daily?
Let it shape your habits, decisions, and how you move through the world.
Then the professional layer. Ask: How can I express or prove this through my work?
It should influence how you design offers, serve clients, or refine your craft.
Finally, the public layer. Ask: How can I share this so others benefit?
This becomes your content—your way of documenting the process and spreading the belief.
When all three layers align, work becomes nothing more than an extension of who you are becoming.
Am totally aware this is all a bit abstract, but awareness always comes before execution.
If you want to learn more about how I actually implement all this as a creator/ghostwriter via Notion, feel free to DM me on X.
I’ll be diving deeper on the second and third layers (pillars & foundation) in next week’s letter—so stay tuned for that.
Thank you for reading 🙂
— Mat
