Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,
My readership has grown very gradually.
This means most of you have been reading my work for months, if not years.
I imagine you like the material I put out.
Maybe something I wrote changed your life.
Or maybe I just entertained you for five minutes while you were sitting on the toilet.
Either way, my work means something to you.
It’s worth something.
I’m not sure how much.
That’s the whole problem.
I don’t know.
And now, I need to know.
After two years of writing Permission to be Powerful…
After almost 200 free articles…
After pouring my heart and soul into this publication…
I’m asking you to decide.
I’m setting a new boundary with you.
No more free access.
Not on Permission to be Powerful.
Not on the Vacation Vault.
Not anywhere.
I’m no longer allowing people to consume my work for free.
I can’t sustain that arrangement anymore.
I started this Substack in early 2025 because Tony Robbins had just fired me.
And I swore that this would be the last time I allowed some random person to ruin my life because they were slightly pissed off at me.
No more taking shit from people I don’t respect.
No more bending over backward for people who would stab me in the back at the drop of a hat.
Never again.
And I meant it.
I realized I had to own my work.
I had to build something nobody could take away from me.
This publication was my way forward.
It was also what terrified me most.
For 15 years, I knew how to make other people money.
I knew how to sell their ideas.
Build their brands.
Write their campaigns.
Find the words that made strangers reach for their credit cards.
I became extremely good at it.
But building something of my own?
Putting my name on it?
Asking people to pay because the work came from me?
That was different.
That required me to stop hiding behind somebody else’s business.
So I spent the last two years building this publication.
But “spent” doesn’t begin to describe it.
I liquidated my entire life to bring this thing into existence.
I spent my savings.
I cashed out my retirement money.
I moved out of my apartment.
I gave up almost everything that made my old life comfortable.
Then I moved into a Buddhist monastery so I could cut my living expenses to almost nothing and give this business enough time to survive.
There was a point when I worked seven days a week trying to push it through.
Writing.
Publishing.
Building infrastructure.
Growing the audience.
Creating products.
Learning new technology.
Solving one impossible problem after another.
I went to every extreme I could imagine to bring this thing to life.
And I want to be clear:
The money did not simply disappear.
I have something to show for it.
Outside Substack, I have built an email list of more than 130,000 people that I own.
I built the Vacation Vault, which is now generating revenue every day.
I built the systems required to publish, promote, and monetize my own work without waiting for somebody else’s approval.
I’m now looking for advertisers and developing additional streams of income around the audience.
I have published almost 200 articles.
I have readers.
I have products.
I have infrastructure.
I have revenue.
I have proof that this can work.
Things are happening.
This is not a failed project asking you to rescue it.
It is a real publishing business reaching the end of its founder-funded stage.
I have spent everything I can responsibly spend.
I have liquidated everything I am willing to liquidate.
I have cut my life down as far as I am willing to cut it.
I cannot continue personally financing everybody else’s free access to my work.
That is where the boundary comes from.
People write to me and tell me they love what I create.
They tell me an article helped them.
They tell me I made them laugh, think, cry, or see their lives differently.
That means a great deal to me.
But appreciation does not finance a publishing company.
Compliments do not pay writers.
Likes do not fund the next article.
Wonderful emails telling me how talented I am do not create a sustainable business.
At some point, the value people say they receive has to become economic value.
Otherwise, the creator can't continue.
For two years, I absorbed the entire cost.
I paid for your readership with my money.
My labor.
My time.
My financial security.
And the liquidation of my former life.
I cannot afford to do that anymore.
Period.
I think any reasonable person can understand that.
This is not a request for pity.
It is not a request for you to reimburse me for the past.
It is a decision about the future.
I want to keep writing Permission to be Powerful.
I want to make it bigger.
Stranger.
Funnier.
More ambitious.
I want to create stories nobody else would dare to write.
I want to build the complete Permission to be Powerful cinematic universe.
I want to build a real publishing company around this work.
But the publication has to sustain the person creating it.
Otherwise, eventually, it dies.
So I am naming my price.
Just $1 per month.
That is literally the lowest price I can ask.
Substack’s minimum subscription setting is $5 per month.
I have to manually give you a permanent 80% discount just to lock in this unusually low price.
Nobody does this.
But I’m doing it.
Not because I believe my work is only worth $1.
It isn’t.
I’m doing it because I want the decision to be unmistakably clear.
I don’t want price to hide the truth.
I don’t want you saying, “I love Tony’s work, but $10 per month is too much.”
I’m asking for one dollar.
Not every day.
Not every week.
Once per month.
Twelve dollars per year.
That is the price of admission.
The cost of the key that unlocks the door.
For $1 per month, you get access.
You enter the Permission to be Powerful cinematic universe.
You get every new essay and the complete archive.
You get to keep reading.
And I get the clearest signal possible that this work matters enough for you to support its continued existence.
Perhaps it was worth $250 to you.
That’s what Renee just decided when she jumped in at my annual price.
Or maybe you really like me, like Mike.
Mike is my running coach.
We’ve been to war together.
Grueling workouts on the track.
Races all over upstate New York.
The man has my back, no questions asked.
What a friend.
That’s why he has been my only founding member for the last two years.
I want you to notice that my pricing makes absolutely no sense according to conventional marketing wisdom.
You can pay $1 per month.
That unlocks your Permission to be Powerful readership access.
Annual does not give you a discount.
Annual is $250.
The price jumps from $12 per year to $250 per year.
An increase of more than 2,000%.
Why?
Because the $250 tier is not about getting a better deal.
It isn’t about access.
It’s about vision.
You see where this publication is going, and you like it.
You understand its potential.
You know it’s unique.
You believe it deserves a shot.
You know how hard I’ve been working to grow this thing.
You understand how incredible the next stage can be.
And you want to help me get there faster.
The founding price is $997 per year.
Why would any sane person pay me—a random stranger on the internet—that much money?
Because that tier is for people who want me to become their mentor.
What kind of mentor?
Well…
I used to be Tony Robbins’ copywriter.
That is shorthand for saying I’m one of the best in the world when it comes to messaging.
I’ve spent more than 15 years studying marketing, persuasion, writing, offers, audiences, and the strange machinery that causes one idea to spread while another dies unnoticed.
I’m also a real imitation Buddhist monk.
That gives me a fairly unusual combination of skills.
I understand how to sell.
I understand how people think.
I understand what ambition does to a person.
I understand what happens when success, fear, trauma, desire, creativity, and self-sabotage all show up in the same room and start throwing furniture.
I’m extremely good at what I do.
The $997 tier gives you access to my brain.
My creative genius.
My 15-plus years of marketing experience working for the best of the best.
My ability to look at what you are building, find the weak point, and tell you the truth about it.
Only a small number of people are ready for that level of commitment.
I understand that.
There is no pressure to choose it.
In fact, I will kick you out of the program if you make my life worse.
If I discover that you treat your customers or employees like shit.
If you’re a criminal.
And I will refuse your money if you cannot afford my fee.
I don’t care how good your business idea is.
I will not accept you if you are going into debt just to buy access to me.
The founding tier is not meant to rescue anyone.
It is for people who already have the resources, already have something serious in motion, and want direct access to a mind that can help them sharpen it.
Those are your options.
You can buy the key for $1 per month.
You can invest $250 per year in the publication’s growth.
Or you can pay $997 per year for mentorship and access to my brain.
But underneath all three options is one basic question:
Is this work worth at least one dollar to you?
I say it is.
I believe that without hesitation.
I have spent two years proving it.
Now I am asking you to decide.
You may decide it isn’t worth one dollar.
That’s allowed.
I’m not going to argue with you.
But that decision has a consequence.
You don’t get the writing anymore.
That’s the boundary.
You cannot say the work matters to you, refuse to pay even one dollar for it.
You cannot ask me to carry the entire cost of this relationship forever.
I have already shown you what I can do.
I have already done that for two years.
Do you believe this work is worth one dollar per month?
If the answer is yes, you’re in.
If the answer is no, you’re out.
I accept either answer.
With many hands, make light work.
A tiny $1 contribution makes the buy-in as easy as possible for you.
The price is $1 per month.
And, make no mistake…
This incredibly low price will NOT last forever.
I’ll keep the price low for as long as I can…
So if you get in now, you’ll lock in the savings permanently.
And if you don’t…
You’ll come back and you won’t find this incredibly good deal
You’ll likely miss this opportunity forever.
So, with all the facts laid out, I leave you with one simple question.
You’re free to choose yes or no, either way.
Here it is:
Are you in?
Tony V.
Editor-in-Chief
Permission to be Powerful
