Yesterday, Time released its inaugural list of the 100 most influential creators. Three of Rare Days' creator clients made the list: Dr. Becky Kennedy, Colin and Samir, and Hannah Williams from Salary Transparent Street.
While insights have been shared before into different aspects of their product businesses, what stood out most when seeing them on the list was the categories they were placed in: Leaders and Catalysts. Those categorizations felt appropriate.
What makes these creators so unique and special isn't their respective niches, but their unwavering commitment to their purpose. In many ways, these creators have transcended their niche by living out their purpose, and that seems to be a big part of why they've been so successful.
When purpose drives product decisions
Most creators are focused on finding their niche.
"Am I a finance creator or a lifestyle creator?"
"Should I talk about productivity or entrepreneurship?"
But looking at this list and thinking about the creators who made it, niche rarely comes up in conversation, but purpose does.
Here are three examples of how purpose shaped major product decisions for Rare Days's Time100 clients.
Dr. Becky Kennedy (Good Inside): Purpose Over Profit
Her Purpose: To build a world in which we're proud to raise our children, we must first lead by example.
In order to lead by example, parents need the skills. To have the skills, they need to learn.
When Good Inside first launched, the obvious business move was advocating for a monthly subscription. Monthly subscriptions are easier to sell, have lower barriers to entry, and typically generate more revenue through reduced churn anxiety.
But Dr. Becky felt strongly that it needed to be a quarterly commitment, which is quite unconventional. Why? Because she believed that in order to become a sturdy parent with the skills needed to lead by example, most parents needed a longer period than 30 days to develop those skills.
That commitment to her purpose has paid off. Tens of thousands of parents have developed their parenting skills as part of the Good Inside membership, and the platform has become truly transformational rather than just educational.
A niche-focused creator would have optimized for conversion rates. A purpose-driven creator optimized for what would lead to the best outcome for the customer.
Colin and Samir: Purpose as Competitive Advantage
Their Purpose: Empower the next generation of creators.
This most clearly manifests as them providing an incredible amount of free content / value, primarily through their YouTube channel, a weekly newsletter from Creator Startup focused on YouTube tactics (sign up here if you haven’t, it’s great), and a three-times-a-week newsletter about creator economy insights (The Publish Press). They also host live Q&As and events for their community, like their Coffee with Creators series.
The easy path would have been to gate all this valuable content behind a paywall. But giving it away for free allows them to support their mission and live their purpose, while also building a funnel for their paid products, which are built for professional and established creators rather than newer or aspiring ones.
Their commitment to purpose has created a moat around their business. Who else is giving away this much value for free? It's hard to compete with someone who's genuinely committed to empowering their audience.
Hannah Williams (Salary Transparent Street): Purpose Over Value Extraction
Her Purpose: To educate our community on market research, salary negotiation, and labor laws to understand workers' rights. With this knowledge, we hope to help workers grow professionally and build wealth.
The easiest thing in the world would have been for Hannah to launch a salary negotiation course and extract that value from her audience. But that doesn't align with her mission and purpose. She wants to support workers in building wealth, not extract it from them.
So instead, she's built a broader set of tools for her community, including a transparent salary database, a job board, and dozens of free resources. These tools serve her purpose while creating a sustainable business model that doesn't rely on extracting money from the people she's trying to help.
Why purpose beats niche every time
Niche is where you serve, but purpose is why you do it. And "why you do it" is infinitely more powerful than "where you serve."
When you're niche-focused, you're competing with everyone else in your category. When you're purpose-driven, you're in a category of one.
Dr. Becky isn't competing with other parenting creators. She's the person building a world where we're proud to raise our children.
Colin and Samir aren't competing with other creator education channels. They're the people empowering the next generation of creators.
Hannah isn't competing with other career coaches. She's the person helping workers build wealth and understand their rights.
See the difference?
And not only is that differentiation an advantage, but it also allows these creators to push through the tough times and moments when it feels like it isn’t working. It’s drive, it’s motivation.
The Purpose Audit
If you're a creator thinking about launching a product, here are the questions we think these Time 100 creators would ask:
- What is my actual purpose? (Not "what do I talk about," but "why do I exist? Why am I doing this?")
- Does this product decision serve that purpose or just serve my bank account?
- Am I optimizing for short-term metrics or long-term impact?
- Would my audience be better served by a different approach that aligns more closely with my purpose?
The creators who make it onto lists like Time's 100 most influential are there because they found their purpose and refused to compromise on it.
That's what makes them leaders and catalysts. That's what makes them influential.
And that's one of the many reasons we love working with them here at Rare Days.
