Ever since I stumbled upon Matt Karamazov's newsletter and socials, I've been drawn to his content.
While it's a different thing that his content is mostly on books — a subject that deeply interests me, but to build an entire content empire on books and learning is another thing altogether.
That's precisely why Thousand Faces Club decided to catch up with Matt and understand all about his content journey. 👇
But, First: Who's Matt Karamazov?
Thousand Faces Club: Tell us about yourself and what made you get into content creation.
Matt: I'm someone who refuses to "niche down" and talk about just one thing because both books and fitness have made such a spectacular difference in my life. That's what I do, I'm a fitness model and educator, but I got into content creation because there were so many amazing things I was learning that I couldn't NOT share. I couldn't hold back my intense love of lifting and reading; so the natural move was to start posting what I learned online.
Thousand Faces Club: How would you describe your newsletter The Reading Life in 5 words?
Matt: Curating worldly wisdom and wonder!
Thousand Faces Club: How do you approach content distribution?
Matt: I approach content distribution as something special between the reader (my followers and subscribers) and myself. Life is hectic, the demands on our attention are insane, and I respect people's time too much to waste it. So I try to "earn my audience" each time and bring them something special. Because you never know if what you're going to post is EXACTLY what that person needed to hear that day — it might even be something that represents a Before/After inflection point in their lives. The ability to deliver that every day is a great responsibility.
Thousand Faces Club: How do you choose which books to read?
Thousand Faces Club: Do you think the world today is reading less than before? What are your thoughts on this?
Matt: I'm entirely convinced that people's attention spans are declining, but I do recognize that there are people — readers — who haven't wavered in their dedication to reading. "No one reads anymore" isn't true at all, and in fact there are HUGE numbers of people who DO read. But of course, this number is never high enough!
Thousand Faces Club: Do you think BookTok is really encouraging people to pick books?
Matt: BookTok and Bookstagram are great and all, but I do worry about some of the people offering book recommendations. I see large incentives for people to post the books that will be popular and even worse, accepting money to promote books they haven't even bothered to read. That's troublesome. But when you find someone actually knowledgeable, someone who CARES about books and reading, and who genuinely WANTS their followers to find their next favorite book, that can make all the difference.
You can support Matt on Patreon here. 👇
Thousand Faces Club: What content services do you offer, and what's your current monetization plan?
Matt: Currently, one of my main income streams is book promotion (authors pay me to review their books, which I do if I actually like them), and I also take on private coaching clients to help them focus their mind, learn more effectively, grow their business, build a strong, healthy physique, and the like. I go DEEP in my coaching sessions, and that's been an enjoyable part of my monetization plan. I also have a membership site, The Stairway to Wisdom, which is my personal library of expert book breakdowns. Think of them as book summaries for people who actually LIKE to read and summaries that respect your time and intelligence.
Thousand Faces Club: You also create a lot of fitness content — how do you plan and manage your time between reading and fitness content?
Matt: Reading and lifting are two non-negotiables in my day, so those get scheduled first. Everything else (or almost everything) are scheduled AROUND them. I live by my schedule, and once it's in there, it's DONE. So I don't have to think about trying to "fit it in." That rarely works!
Thousand Faces Club: What does the future look like?
Matt: The future of humanity is so bright that it hurts my eyes to look at it! We have so many INCREDIBLY wise, smart, generous, hard working, kind individuals out there giving their absolute BEST each and every day to make the future better, and it's up to each of us to decide whether or not we want to join them in BUILDING that brighter future. My advice in this respect is to resist the negativity, focus on what good YOU can do, and give your 100% total effort in everything that's meaningful to you. All the medical advances, idea generation, space travel, tech — that's all coming, but it's not guaranteed, and we each need to do our part to ensure that the future is one we all want to live in.
Thousand Faces Club: Got any advice for beginner creators?
Matt: Beginner creators have ample opportunities available, but they also face some big obstacles they'll have to deal with if they want to make this their full time career. For one thing, there is a LOT of noise, so you have to do whatever you can to stand out. Myself, I saw there were a ton of "book review" creators and a ton of "fitness" creators, but at the INTERSECTION of those two things...that's where I stand out and where I've been able to build my business and gain attention. Also, I think making your first $1 is a MASSIVE milestone that is also incredibly important. Realizing that you can make money doing this just changes your brain — there's no other way to describe it!
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