150 million views vs $4,495 - what is Dan Koe's super personal business fix?

2025 begins with a phenomenon on X. The article “How to fix your entire life in 1 day” by Dan Koe—a US creator specializing in teaching about “Super Individual”—reached 150 million views in just two weeks. What does this number mean? Since the entire platform has just over 600 million monthly active users, this implies that one out of every four people on this social network has viewed his post.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. People are curious—how much money does a post with 150 million views earn from the platform? The answer is $4,495. At first glance, this seems not bad, but it only accounts for a very small part of Dan Koe’s actual revenue stream. Last year, he announced earning over $4 million—about 900 times more than the revenue share from X.

Not all views translate directly into money: what is buying and selling a personal brand really?

The secret lies in the “Super Individual” or “One-Person Business” model, as Americans call it. The concept sounds simple: you don’t need a team, no need for a company—just post your content on social media, attract a trusted audience, then sell them courses, books, or premium services.

Dan Koe is a leading player in this game. On X, he has 750,000 followers; on YouTube, 1.2 million subscribers; and nearly 200,000 email subscribers. These numbers didn’t come from nowhere—he spent six years building them, starting from writing on Twitter in 2019 when no one paid attention, and only after two years of persistence did he see growth. His journey—studying design in college, failing in e-commerce, then persevering in writing and finally succeeding—is the content he uses to “fix” others’ lives.

Interestingly, this story isn’t new. Li Xiaolai in China has told it, Luo Zhenyu has shared it, Fan Deng has recounted it—personal development figures who overcame failure and then became teachers. Americans package it as “Philosophy and Productivity,” Chinese call it “Cognitive Upgrading,” but the core framework remains the same: failure → persistence → success → teaching others.

Fix your life in one day: what does Dan Koe sell and how much does he make?

Visit his official website, and you’ll see a clear list of products. There’s a paid newsletter, two books titled “The Art of Focus” and “Purpose & Profit,” and an AI tool called Eden, which he co-founded. Previously, he also sold writing courses and a membership community, but these products have now disappeared from the main page—possibly discontinued or integrated into subscription packages.

The structure of this model follows a predictable logic. Free content on social media filters out those willing to pay. Low-priced products filter out those willing to spend more. Finally, at the top of the funnel, a small group is willing to pay around $5,000–$10,000 for high-end courses or one-on-one coaching.

Regarding specific figures, in 2023 Dan Koe announced on Twitter that his income that year was $2.5 million. In 2024, in an interview with the newsletter platform beehiiv, he revealed his annual income exceeded $4 million. Do these numbers seem reasonable? With nearly 200,000 people on his email list and millions of fans on YouTube, if only 5% of these buy paid products, that’s nearly 50,000 potential customers. Higher conversion rates for premium products make these figures entirely feasible.

So what does that 150 million views really mean? It’s the main gateway into the top of the funnel. The $4,495 from X’s revenue share is just a drop in the ocean. The real importance is that the post increased awareness of Dan Koe’s brand, expanded the top of his funnel, and made many more people aware of his name. Those willing to open their wallets to buy his courses, books, or services are where the real money comes from.

When everyone knows how to fix: why do only a few people make money?

The next question is: who buys these things? The narrow but straightforward answer is—those who want to become the next Dan Koe. Students enrolling in “Super Individual” or “Personal Brand” courses generally share a common goal: building a personal brand, making money from social media, escaping traditional 9-to-5 jobs. They pay to learn exactly what Dan Koe is doing—meaning they pay to enter the same game where the instructor already holds the top spot.

This model can run as long as one condition is met: there are always new people wanting to join. Like gyms that see a surge in new enrollments every new year, the “Super Individual” field always has people believing they can become the next leader. When Dan Koe posted “Fix your entire life in one day” on January 12, it was precisely during the peak of Western New Year’s resolutions. The headline promises to “fix” your life within 24 hours—imagine what someone clicking on that is thinking?

Interestingly, after Dan Koe became famous, X announced a new policy on January 16. The platform doubled the revenue pool for creators, increased weight for long-form posts, and even allocated an additional $1 million to reward top-performing original content. Elon Musk’s intention is clear—he wants to do the opposite of TikTok. While TikTok fragments attention into 15-second clips, X aims to use long-form content to retain users.

And it works. Posts like “How to change your life in 2026,” “The one skill you need,” “Why most people will never succeed” started appearing en masse. The structure is identical, the style of illustration mimics Dan’s famous posts, and even the tone of “I’ll tell you the truth” is identical. This has become a trend, with many competing to test it out.

Why can this be copied so easily? Because Dan Koe himself also uses AI to assist in writing. His method involves having ChatGPT interview himself, extract ideas, then format them into highly shareable content structures. Anyone can learn this method. ChatGPT can generate a “life-changing” article in ten minutes, with perfect grammar, complete structure, and even automatically add a few psychological terms to sound profound.

But why, when everyone knows how to fix—meaning how to write these posts—does only Dan Koe truly become famous? One explanation is that trust takes time. He has been writing for six years, with real failures to share, a traceable development journey. AI can copy his words, but it cannot replicate his history, experience, and credibility.

Algorithms, timing, and luck: what is buying and selling in this game really?

There’s another, more practical explanation. The “Super Individual” field has become overcrowded. When everyone teaches “how to become a Super Individual”—whether about AI tools, Web3, life repair, or business—the attention concentrates on the top players. To put it simply: those who get in first eat the meat; those who come later drink the broth; latecomers might not get any at all. When you are one of ten writers on the same topic, you lose. When you are one of a million, you are completely invisible.

The final explanation is luck. Dan Koe hit three things at once: the algorithm adjustment window on X, the New Year emotional cycle when everyone wants to “fix” their lives, and Musk’s policy push to promote long-form content. Multiply these three factors, and 150 million views appear. Change the timing or the person, produce similar quality content, and you might only get 1.5 million or even just 150,000 views.

Interestingly, Dan Koe’s post was published a few days early, so it didn’t qualify for the $1 million content reward from X. But that doesn’t matter to him. His business model isn’t based on revenue sharing from the platform—the entire system is designed differently. The 150 million views served its purpose: making more people aware of Dan Koe, drawing more into his funnel, where real revenue is generated.

So who ultimately gets the $1 million reward from X? According to the rules, it should be the original long-form article, at least 1,000 words, based on impressions on the paid users’ homepage. In other words: you not only need to write well, but also have a huge existing audience. Therefore, the high probability is that top creators will claim most of the reward. This is the structure of this game.

The platform needs top creators to prove that “long-form content has a future.” Top creators need platform traffic to nurture their funnels. AI makes it possible for anyone to produce大量 “life-fixing” content. But only a few—those with large audiences, the right timing, and a bit of luck—can truly make money. What is the role of most people? They are the audience. After reading the article, feeling inspired, buying courses, and hoping to become the next Dan Koe—yet in a game where only one can be at the top, that almost never happens.