Smartest Route To $10,000/Month In 2025

So you want to make $10,000 a month, but you don’t know which route to take. Most people take the traditional route. They go to school, study hard for their exams, get good grades, go to university, and then get a 9-to-5 job. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the average person makes $63,795 per year, according to the latest data from the Social Security Administration. That’s $5,316 per month. So, nowhere near your goal of $10,000 a month. Even worse, this data includes people who’ve been in the game for ages. So, if you’re just starting out in your 20s, you’ll probably be making way less than 5k a month if you stick to this old-school path.

But hey, let’s say somehow you hit the jackpot and score a 9-to-5 gig that pays you 10k a month. Maybe you become a hotshot doctor or lawyer. Sounds great, right? Well, not so fast. You’d still be trading away your time and freedom for that paycheck. This was the route that my parents expected me to follow. They believed it was the only way to a secure future. Maybe some of you are sitting there right now, feeling that same pressure, with your parents expecting the same of you. However, deep down, you feel like there must be a faster way you can make over 10k per month with more freedom. And that’s exactly where the new route comes in.

The “New Route” to Wealth

Don’t worry, I know this sounds like it’s leading up to some sort of sales pitch, but I’m not going to try and sell you anything. So, feel free to relax. You can follow this route completely for free, and how you navigate it will depend on you. Many successful people like Steven Bartlett, Joe Fazer, and Ali Abdaal are taking this route already, but they aren’t really talking about it. It also doesn’t matter how old you are, as you can switch to this new route no matter what stage of the traditional route you’re currently on. However, the longer you wait, the tougher it gets to make that big jump. Why? Well, as you keep going down this usual path, life starts piling on more stuff, you know, like a mortgage, a partner, kids, the whole shebang. Don’t get me wrong, you can still switch gears at any stage, but trust me, it’s way easier if you do it sooner rather than later. I left school with no money or qualifications, so I was forced down this route early on, and I believe that’s one of the key reasons I became a millionaire in my 20s and have been able to compound that wealth ever since. Hopefully, you’re convinced that this new route to making over $10,000 per month is at least worth learning about. So let me break down the three steps involved.

Step 1: Consume

Step one is consume. Believe it or not, you don’t know everything. If you think you do, then you’re delusional and arrogant. So, what’s the solution to this? It’s simple: consuming knowledge. Think of it this way, it’s like gathering resources in Minecraft. You need the right materials to build, survive, and ultimately conquer. However, the education system never really teaches you how to find information worth consuming. It’s not as simple as reading a boring textbook or a quick Google search. So, here’s some advice.

Find Your High-Income Skill

Before you even reach for your laptop, you need to identify what you want to learn. This needs to be some kind of high-income skill. Some examples that come to mind are video editing, high-ticket sales, web design, coding, graphic design, and copywriting. Honestly, there are so many out there. Just pick one that you feel you’d already have a little bit of a natural gift for. It’s always easier to sharpen a strength than develop a weakness. Once you’ve narrowed it down, this area will become your focus. Now you need time to seek out credible sources.

I know I’m biased, but I think the best place to do this is on YouTube. Find some trustworthy experts with large audiences. Watch their videos and note down their key points. You need to extract the key information, not copy down their life story. Ask yourself, “What point is that person actually making?” and, “What lesson is behind their story or experience?” Once you’ve done that and your notes are looking solid, I’d start to look at the types of people that are watching and engaging with that content. If you notice they have a strong community, then get stuck in. I’d even go the extra mile and head over to Reddit and Discord. This way, you’ll be able to connect with people that are passionate about the same niche as you. Engage with them, ask questions, and learn from their experiences. I guarantee you, joining these types of groups will give you a proper insight into the real struggles that people are facing, which is far more valuable than watching only the creator’s videos. It’s one thing to learn from top creators online, but when you dive into these communities, you get a front-row seat to see what’s really going on, giving you access to priceless knowledge. Trust me, this will come in very handy later on. A word of warning though, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of only watching one person, or even just watching YouTube videos. If you want to get the most from this, then you need to be consuming from a variety of different people and mediums. In other words, you really shouldn’t be shying away from books. I’m a huge fan of books. They’re like a shortcut to someone’s entire life experience, but I’m dyslexic, so ploughing through a whole book can be a real pain sometimes. That’s why I’m all about these short-form guides. For me, Shortform is the go-to for diving deep into books like “The Intelligent Investor” and gaining in-depth insights. They’re the best summary service out there, and let me learn from five books in the time it takes to read one. I’ll drop a link in the description that you can use to try it for free and get 20% off.

Step 2: Apply

Step two is apply. If you want to get rich, then you have to apply the things you consume. This is super important as you need to get out there in the real world and test what you’ve learned. The best way to do this is to consume, then apply, consume some more, and then apply again. It’s a cycle that only stops when you want to stop progressing. Let’s say you’ve decided to consume content on coding. Now is the time to make your first simple app. It sounds daunting, and at first, you’re probably going to suck, but that’s okay. You’ve got to give yourself permission to fail. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t create Facebook for his first project. J.K. Rowling got rejected 12 times before she published Harry Potter, and Beyoncé made hundreds of songs before her first smash hit. In the words of Mark Zuckerberg himself, “The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail.”

As soon as you feel confident enough, start charging for your skill. If you edit videos, then take on a few lower-paying clients at first and work your way up. Just think, all you need to do is get five clients paying $2,000 a month or 10 clients paying $1,000 a month for your video editing services, and you’ve already hit that 10k per month target. The better you get, the more you’ll be able to charge, and the easier it will be to make more and more money. However, this is a game of diminishing returns, meaning the hours you put in learning the skill at the start will have more impact on your income than the hours later down the line. It’s like when you first start to work out at the gym, you get newbie gains. It’s best to consume and apply until you get to the point where you aren’t noticing an increase in the amount you’re able to charge for your services. This is how you know you’ve reached pretty much expert status. During this time, make sure to keep note of all the challenges you face and problems you overcome. These will become stories you can draw on heavily in the future. Believe it or not, during the apply stage, the most important thing you’re gaining isn’t the money, but instead the experiences themselves.

Scale Your Skill into a Business

Once you’re an expert in a specific high-income skill, it can be very easy to get stuck here, trading every hour you have to earn 10k per month. But remember, the goal isn’t to reach 10k and lose all your freedom. So instead, I recommend doing these two things. Firstly, start to scale your high-income skill into a real business. I know you might be thinking it’s already a business, but if you have to be working to generate income, then the truth is, you just have a high-paying job. So, how can you scale a high-income skill into a proper business? Well, I know a guy that started editing shorts for YouTubers. He was working every hour under the sun. However, one day, he just got fed up with working all the time and not having the freedom to take vacations. So, he started to note down all the steps he would take to make the shorts, from the way he selected the clips to the font he used and the time of day he posted to social media. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was creating a system. He realized that he wasn’t going to be able to find someone to do all the tasks like him. However, he could split the tasks into separate jobs, such as time stamper, text editor, and poster. This way, he could find far less skilled people to fill in the roles for him so he could focus on the quality control and take on more clients. You can do this with any high-income skill. The system will also become super useful for the next thing I highly recommend doing: teaching others your high-income skill.

Step 3: Educate

That brings me on to step three: educate. Most of the young millionaires that have gained success recently have made their fortunes teaching others. I’m talking Iman Gadzhi, Ali Abdaal, Graham Stephan, the list goes on. The education industry is booming, and I believe everyone making decent money from some kind of high-income skill should also have an education business. I mean, just imagine you created a course that you sold for $100. All you’d have to do is sell that course 100 times in a month, and you’d hit that 10k per month target. The great thing is, you only have to make it once, and then you can sell it again and again, getting your freedom and time back. Education products don’t just have to be online courses. You could also start exclusive membership sites, subscription podcasts, communities, personalized coaching, and more. These types of businesses are extremely cost-effective to set up and run. They also have the upside of being extremely scalable, as they generate predictable reoccurring revenue. Now, reoccurring revenue is the holy grail in the business world. I mean, there’s a reason why everything is turning into a subscription nowadays. If you know how much money is coming in every month, then it gives you the confidence you need to expand your business and eventually hire people without worrying too much about your cash flow. I know multiple people making millions using this business model, all from their laptop. Look, I know it might sound super complicated, but all you have to do is sign up to an all-in-one platform like Kajabi, and they’ll handle all the business stuff for you. So, you can focus on creating your education product. Just make sure the platform you choose to host your course or community doesn’t take a cut from your revenue and that everything remains controlled and owned by you. That’s why I like Kajabi, as you keep 100% of what you earn. They also give you lots of analytic tools, easy payment options, email marketing tools, and customizable website templates all built in. To build a successful business on Kajabi, all you need is 10,000 loyal fans buying $100 product, and you’ve got a million-dollar education business. I’ll talk about how you can build an audience like this in a second. I reached out to Kajabi to see if they’d be interested in sponsoring this portion of the video. They agreed and are offering a free 30-day trial to start your business. If you go to kajabi.com/mark. So, feel free to head over there and sign up once you’re ready to host your education product and make some predictable reoccurring revenue. You might be thinking that giving away your secrets will impact your earnings. However, honestly, only a very small percentage of people actually take action. That’s what separates us from most people. And honestly, if you don’t teach others, then someone else will.

Building an Audience and the IMPACT Principle

But why would someone listen to you and not someone older and more experienced? Relatability. It’s as simple as that. You’ve recently been in their shoes and can relate to how they’re feeling much better than an old professor that’s teaching from textbooks. That’s part of the reason my channel has been so successful. I’ve been there and done it. I know what it’s like starting with no money or qualifications, and I put in the hard work. That’s why you can’t just skip to this step before actually applying what you consume online. There are too many parrots out there. Your real stories and experiences will make you stand out.

But what if I get lots of hate? Look, what’s scarier to you? Looking back 10 years from now, seeing your life exactly as it is: the same job, same income, same routine, or facing a few harsh comments online? To build any kind of audience online, you’re going to have to deal with a small group of people who don’t like you. But that’s how you know you’re doing it right. The worst thing to be is vanilla. So, how can you actually build an audience and educate people through your experiences? Most people will tell you to start with your story, but the issue with this is that no one actually knows who you are yet. You don’t have that social presence online to make people care. Sure, sometimes, out of the blue, these videos can hit an algorithm, but these people never build a lasting following. I would personally start with posting content that directly speaks to your audience and their needs. You could do a combination of videos, blog posts, or tweets. You need to talk about a shared problem and teach people how to fix that problem through actionable advice. Really think back to when you started and all the problems you were facing. This is your superpower, as you can really tap into their thoughts. When people scroll through social media, the posts that make them stop are often the posts that make them feel something, posts that hit that emotional trigger. So, hit them hard in your first line. Make them stop and think, “Wow, this is just how I feel.”

One of the best tips is to use something I created called the IMPACT principle. “I” is for inspire. You want your audience to feel motivated by your story, showing them that change is possible. “M” is for message. You should always try to have a clear and concise message that’s not only easy to understand, but easy to remember. Every time they think of that message, they’ll think of you and your content. “P” is for practical. You should always be providing actionable steps that they can take immediately to improve their situation. Forget all that mindset stuff, that’s not helping anyone. “A” is for authentic. You should always be yourself and speak about your own experiences from the apply stage to really resonate with your audience. “C” is for connection. You need to build a really strong connection with your audience by addressing their needs and concerns. So, reply to comments, and within “C” is another “C,” really: conversation. You need to be creating a conversation to help build a strong… ha, you guessed it… community. All the Cs, there’s so many. Lastly, we have “T,” which is for timing. I know what you’re thinking, “finding the best time to post using stats.” No, that’s not what I’m about to say. For timings, it’s more about releasing your content at the right time to maximize its relevance and impact. So, jump on trends and follow the news so you stay relevant. It’s all about catching and riding the waves, which will shed light on your other content.

Find Your Strategy

If you aren’t comfortable sitting down in front of a camera and talking, that isn’t the only strategy that works. Look at people like Steven Bartlett. He failed at vlogging for many years, and then he started his podcast, “Diary of a CEO.” He now gets the experts on and draws out their insights for his audience. There is no right way to go about this. It’s just trial and error until you find what works for you. So, don’t be afraid to try a few different approaches.