Most creators dream of building a course empire. Record a few videos, launch a funnel, wake up to passive income (it is passive, right…?).
Vivian Tu looked at that path and walked the other way.
Five years later, she runs a $3 million business without a single course or coaching program.
While everyone else is stuck in launch cycles and conversion optimization, Tu cracked the code on something most creators never figure out: how to monetize expertise without becoming a digital course factory.
This week’s article isn’t another “look what she accomplished” story – you can find plenty of those on other top channels.
This is about the monetization system that 90% of creators are missing, and how Tu’s approach might be the fastest way to turn your stalled content into consistent income.
The Problem Most Creators Won’t Admit
Here’s what I see when I audit struggling creator businesses:
They’ve got content. They’ve got credentials. They’ve even got clarity on their message.
But they can’t make any of it convert.
And when nothing’s selling, everything else starts to look like the problem. The website needs redesigning. The content isn’t engaging enough. The audience isn’t big enough.
When the real issue is simpler: They don’t have a way to monetise properly.
Tu figured this out early on. When you look at her business model, you can see that she had a similar realisation (intentionally or otherwise)…
Personal branding doesn’t matter if you’re not making money.
Content doesn’t matter either.
Even great offers don’t matter, until they’re connected to a system that actually converts attention into dollars.
The Wall Street Escape That Changed Everything
In 2018, Tu was crushing it financially as a J.P. Morgan equities trader. Six-figure salary, Wall Street credentials, the respect that comes with being an insider.
But she was also the only young Asian woman in rooms full of middle-aged white guys who treated her like she didn’t belong.
The culture was toxic. The work felt meaningless. And her friends kept asking her the same money questions over and over.
Instead of ignoring the questions, Tu saw an opportunity. She looked at financial content online and realized most of it fell into two buckets: incomprehensible jargon or predatory garbage designed to extract money through affiliate commissions.
Someone needed to translate insider knowledge for normal people getting screwed by the system.
What Tu did next was smart: She took a clear anti-establishment position early on. This was positioning she could own and monetize.
The Positioning Move That Built a Media Empire
Tu’s first strategic decision separated her from every other finance creator: She positioned herself as the anti-establishment insider.
Traditional finance = intimidating, complex, exclusionary, male-dominated. Tu = your cool friend who escaped Wall Street to help everyone else.
This wasn’t just branding. This was positioning she could monetize. A market position so clear and differentiated that companies would pay premium rates to access it.
Look at the language choices:
- “Your Rich BFF” signals friendship over authority
- “Rich AF” feels playful, not preachy
- Even her book title “Well Endowed” shows she doesn’t take herself too seriously
But notice what this positioning accomplished: It made her the only person offering Wall Street insider knowledge through a relatable, anti-corporate lens. And as a young Asian female, appealed to minorities who consistently felt excluded from the mainstream ‘male, pale and stale’ market.
While most creators build course funnels, Tu built a media company. Here’s how her funnel actually works:
Step 1: Free Content TikTok videos, Instagram posts, newsletter – all designed to build audience and demonstrate her unique anti-establishment positioning.
Step 2: Low-Cost Credibility Fuel Her book “Well Endowed” (published through Penguin Random House) wasn’t designed to make money directly. Publishers take most book revenue anyway. The book serves as a credibility vehicle that positions her as a legitimate expert.
Step 3: Mainstream Media Authority The book credentials opened doors to Forbes, CNBC, New York Times coverage. Each media mention reinforced her expert status and expanded her reach beyond social media.
Step 4: Premium Opportunities Now companies and organizations pay premium rates:
- Speaking fees: $25K-$40K per event
- Brand partnerships: $30K-$50K per campaign
- Podcast sponsorships and other high-value deals
Her 2023 numbers: $3 million total business revenue. Zero courses. Zero coaching. Zero community memberships.
This wasn’t an accident. Tu understood that selling courses means constantly finding new customers. Selling authority builds over time.
When her first TikTok exploded -100,000 followers in one week – most creators would have immediately built a course to cash in on.
Tu used that attention as leverage for mainstream media coverage instead. Each piece of recognition became ammunition for bigger business deals.
The insight: Authority-based monetization scales differently than course-based monetization. Instead of selling to individuals, you’re selling access to your unique market position to companies and organizations.
The Give-It-All-Away Content Strategy
Tu’s content approach solves the biggest problem most creators face: How do you provide value without giving away everything for free?
Instead of “How to Invest in Index Funds,” Tu posted videos about dating wealthy men with terrible credit scores. Instead of “Retirement Planning 101,” she explained 401(k)s while doing her makeup.
She wasn’t trying to drive people to paid products.
She was building an audience and positioning herself as the go-to expert that mainstream media would want to feature.
This worked for three reasons:
- Different gets attention: Wrapping comprehensive financial advice in lifestyle content bypassed people’s defensive walls around money topics.
- Complete value builds trust: By giving away her best insights without asking for anything in return, she built massive audience loyalty and media credibility.
- Authority attracts opportunity: The more valuable free content she created, the more speaking opportunities and brand partnerships came to her.
Tu understood something most creators miss: When your revenue comes from speaking fees and brand deals, you can afford to give away all your knowledge for free.
In fact, it helps you.
The more expertise you demonstrate publicly, the more companies want to pay premium rates to access you directly.
The Partnership-Leverage Model
Here’s where Tu’s approach gets really smart. Instead of building everything herself, she leveraged partnerships to access enterprise-level opportunities:
- WME handles speaking opportunities
- Vox Media manages podcast ad sales
- Penguin Random House handles book distribution
- Amazon processes affiliate commissions
This partnership approach let her increase rates five times after hiring her team. They brought access to opportunities and celebrity client overflow that would take years to develop independently.
It also means she can stay hands-off with a lot of the work and logistics rather than getting caught up in “delivery”.
What You Can Actually Apply
If you’re earning under $10K monthly and wondering why your content doesn’t convert, the issue usually isn’t audience size or content quality. It’s positioning.
Here’s what you can copy from Tu’s approach:
- Find positioning you can monetize: Get clear on your unique market position and who would pay premium rates to access it.
- Become the anti-establishment choice: Position yourself as fighting for your audience against the established players who are failing them.
- Give away your best content: When your revenue comes from speaking and partnerships, comprehensive free content builds the authority that commands premium rates.
- Build authority before building courses: Chase external validation that works across multiple revenue streams rather than elaborate course funnels.
- Leverage partnerships over infrastructure: Find established players who can give you access to enterprise opportunities without building everything yourself.
What you can’t copy: Tu’s specific Wall Street credentials and perfect timing.
But the foundational approach – positioning you can monetize + authority building + strategic partnerships can work for anyone willing to think beyond the course-creation playbook.
Your next move: Audit your current positioning. Are you building an audience you can monetize through authority, or just hoping more content will eventually convert?
Tu’s $3 million business started with answering her friends’ questions. The difference was how she positioned those answers to the world.