Entrepreneurial Pyramid

From Skilled Labor to Financial Assets -- Priestley's framework for the digital economy

Pyramid Levels

Financial Assets

Long-term vision

Package everything into a sellable business. Shares become financial assets. Create liquidity events.

Examples: Sellable business, shares, liquidity events, acquisition

Data + Software

Year 2+

Build databases -- email addresses, customer information, market data. Turn IP into software that automatically delivers results. Create AI applications.

Examples: Email database, AI applications, automated delivery, SaaS

IP + Media

Target -- next 12 months

Reflect and document. Turn tacit knowledge into explicit IP -- frameworks, mental models, decision trees. Publish as books, videos, podcasts, articles. Name the IP.

Examples: Books, videos, frameworks, named processes, podcasts

Skilled Labor

Current position

Trade time for money. University for skilled labor, master's for really skilled labor, PhD for super skilled labor. The whole goal is to sell your time for more money.

Examples: Meta salary (~170K EUR), IE hourly teaching, Wadoom consulting

You cannot skip levels. You must go through IP + Media before reaching Data + Software. The schooling system trains you for the base. The digital economy rewards you for climbing to the top.

The Stephen Covey Parallel

Covey was not some special guy -- he was a church leader in Utah who did consulting. He reflected on what he had seen, wrote it down, and published 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.' He went from skilled labor consulting to intellectual property and media.

20 million copies sold, $400 million consulting company -- all based on IP, not labor.

Doron's Parallel

Doron is a data engineer at Meta who teaches at IE. He has seen patterns in how businesses succeed and fail with AI. He needs to reflect, document those patterns, and publish them. The specific content (frameworks, stories, data points) already exists in his head and his lecture notes. The gap is not knowledge -- it is the act of formalizing and publishing.

Assets to Build (Next 12 Months)

The IP, Media, and Data assets needed to climb from Skilled Labor to Level 1.

Asset	Type	Purpose
Signature AI Framework (4D Filter)	IP	A named, visual model for how business leaders should think about AI adoption
LinkedIn content library (150+ posts)	Media	Establishing thought leadership and building audience
Newsletter with 1,000+ subscribers	Media + Data	Owned audience for direct communication
Lead magnet PDF	IP	Email capture mechanism (bridge to Data layer)
Email database	Data	The beginning of Level 2 (Data + Software)
5+ podcast appearances	Media	Long-form content and profile building
Course outline or workshop format	IP	Productized teaching (bridge to Level 2)

12-Month Vision

Target KPI Score: 25-30/50 (Emerging to Strong Foundation)

LinkedIn following: 2,000-5,000

Email list: 1,000-2,000 subscribers

Published content: 150+ LinkedIn posts, 40+ newsletter issues

Podcast appearances: 10+

First paid product launched (course, workshop, or community)

Revenue from personal brand: first euros earned

Named and recognized framework: "The 4D AI Adoption Filter"

Profile: recognizable name in the "AI for business" micro-niche in Europe

“A key person of influence might have 5,000 or 10,000 followers but when they say this is the thing to buy, everyone buys it.”

-- Daniel Priestley, on the KPI destination (24-month target)

“Rather than learning more stuff, you reflect and create some stuff. You say, 'Over the last 5 years I did something special, and I can explain it step by step. I'm going to document that, turn it into a story, record a video about it, and have a poster with a framework that explains how we did it. And then I'm just going to let people know about that.'”

-- Daniel Priestley, on the transition from Skilled Labor to IP + Media