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#61 - Building Your Dreams with Kane Kallaway

Jul 30, 2024

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Kane Kallaway is here to talk about how he went from his consulting job one year ago to gaining over 500k followers on social media and building his dream life.

He talks about his morning routine, confidence, hard skills, drive, fitness, sacrifice, his interview with Mark Zuckerberg, and so much more.

Kallaway is a gold mine of advice and I’m grateful for the time with him.

From Consulting to Content Creation: How One Guy Built 550K Followers and Left His Corporate Job

At 31, Kallaway (Kane Callaway) has achieved what many content creators dream of: 550,000 followers, over a billion views, and the freedom to work for himself. But his journey to full-time content creation wasn't a straight line—it involved seven years of grinding at a consulting job he hated, failed startups, and even a brief stint as a rapper.

In this comprehensive interview, Kallaway shares the real story behind his success, from his early days feeling lost in corporate consulting to building a sustainable content business that recently landed him an interview with Mark Zuckerberg.

The Reality of Corporate Consulting: Why "Safe" Jobs Can Be Career Traps

Kallaway's biggest regret? Spending years in consulting without developing hard skills.

"Consultants don't really have hard skills," he explains. "The only hard skill a consultant has is data analysis. The majority of consulting is just taking information over here, organizing it in an email or on a call, and presenting it out. These are not hard skills."

This realization hit him when trying to transition out of consulting. "Most consultants go to business school because they go and try to apply for startup product roles or marketing roles. Companies say, 'Well, we'd rather hire someone who actually has been doing marketing for the last four years.'"

The Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills Framework

According to Kallaway, hard skills are the foundation of career freedom:

Hard skills: Software development, design, audio/video engineering, writing—anything where you can go from idea to finished product alone
Soft skills: Communication, email management, people management

"If you want to strive for great things and be entrepreneurial, you need those hard skills. Soft skills are important if you want to be a manager, but if you don't have the hard skill base, it's not very defendable."

The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Why Rigged Games Don't Work

Kallaway describes corporate jobs as "rigged games"—places where exceptional performance doesn't lead to exceptional rewards.

"If you perform exceptionally, you don't get paid exceptionally. There's a band in the corporate job that you can only go as high as that band provides. You could provide $100K worth of value, but the most they'll pay you is $70K."

His solution? Find environments with uncapped upside, where you control your destiny and own equity in what you're building.

The Content Creation Pivot: From Product to Distribution

After seven years of launching failed startups on the side, Kallaway had an epiphany:

"Business is really just distribution and product. I kept doing the 'what am I selling' game but hadn't solved the selling part. So I was like, why don't I just focus on the distribution first, get a huge audience that believes in me. They'll tell me what to build."

This shift from product-first to audience-first thinking changed everything.

Daily Routines That Actually Work

Kallaway's morning routine has been transformational since he started it in April:

The 2-Minute Journal Practice

Write affirmations: "I am grateful, I am abundant, I am healthy, I am inspired"
Write daily intentions: gratitude, abundance, optimism, greatness
Add any notes that come to mind

The 20-Minute Meditation

Using Joe Dispenza's method:

First 5-6 minutes: Get out of your head through body visualization
Last 15 minutes: Detailed visualization of dream future
"Feel your feet hit the floor, feel the breeze in the room—be extremely detailed"

"After those 15 minutes, it's like a download of the vision. The universe just conspires to help you when you visualize these things."

Fitness as a Foundation

Kallaway's approach to fitness isn't just about looking good—it's about mental optimization:

Daily Routine:

1.5 scoops of protein (30-40 grams) immediately upon waking
Creatine gummies ("one of the few supplements you should make sure you're taking")
15-30 minutes cardio (incline walk or interval running)
Heavy lifting (3-day split: chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs/shoulders)
20 minutes in sauna with no music ("that last five minutes when you're dying—that's where the real magic is")
Cold shower finish

"If you want to feel better about yourself, both looks-wise and physiologically, run harder, lift harder. I would always start with fitness if there's a guy listening that's not confident."

Going Viral: The Framework That Actually Works

With over a billion views, Kallaway has cracked the code on viral content:

Topic Selection

Choose subjects with broad appeal
Reference brands, celebrities, or people the audience knows
Find common ground with viewers

Framing and Packaging

Strong hook in the first few sentences
Combine familiar story with unique perspective
Avoid just "spewing the news"—add your take

"I can go viral at will with shorts now, but that doesn't mean I'm extracting a lot of money from it or have deep fandom."

The Depth vs. Reach Problem

Despite massive follower counts, Kallaway recognizes a crucial challenge in content creation:

"There's a difference between reach and depth. The deepest audiences come from live streamers, then podcasters, then YouTubers, and then somewhere short-form only is like the last one."

He uses a content minutes framework: "Imagine to get someone to convert to a super fan, they had to consume 90 minutes of you. If you make one-minute shorts, that's 90 shorts. If you make a 90-minute podcast, that's one podcast."

The Business Side: How He Actually Makes Money

Kallaway's monetization strategy is refreshingly honest:

Primary income: Brand deals with companies like Google, Meta, and Adobe
Frequency: 1-2 brand deals per month to cover costs
No products yet: "I still don't feel like my audience is deep enough"

"Most creators think they can build a sustainable business on top of their audience. They can't. Their audience is not deep enough."

Advice for Aspiring Content Creators

Start with Hard Skills

Don't try to scheme your way to the top. Pick a valuable skill—video editing, writing, coding—and master it.

Focus on Distribution First

Instead of constantly launching products that don't sell, build an audience first. They'll tell you what to create.

Embrace the Long Game

"You're willing to sacrifice as much as you can now knowing that later it just gets harder. If you can pull forward the suffering, that's the best way to look at it long-term."

The Confidence Question

When asked about building confidence, Kallaway's advice is practical:

"What makes you confident is when you know that you can achieve a result over and over. Find the thing that you're good at, that you can get better at, that the world values."

His formula:

Find your natural talent (even if the world doesn't seem to value it yet)
Develop it into a habit
Let fitness be your foundation for both physical and mental confidence

Lessons for Guys in Their 20s (and Beyond)

1. Escape Rigged Games Early

Don't spend years in corporate jobs without developing hard skills. The "safe" path often leads to being trapped.

2. Build Hard Skills

Choose something you can do end-to-end by yourself. Programming, design, content creation—whatever you can master independently.

3. Start Before You're Ready

Kallaway spent his 20s "living hard"—going out, traveling, enjoying life. He doesn't regret it, but he also didn't start seriously building until 30.

4. Focus on Systems, Not Goals

His daily routine of meditation, journaling, and fitness creates the foundation for everything else.

5. Embrace Discomfort

"If something's in you that's entrepreneurial and you feel like you're exceptional, you want to go somewhere where there's uncapped upside."

The Interview That Changed Everything

Kallaway's recent interview with Mark Zuckerberg wasn't just luck—it was the result of strategic positioning in the creator economy. His biggest takeaway? Zuckerberg's emotional intelligence is "off the charts," and his ability to be present despite an incredible workload.

"The reason we had the conversation was that they're starting to incorporate AI into creators' DMs to help them answer messages. But more interesting was hearing him talk about the future of AR glasses—full hologram Tony Stark shit."

Key Takeaways for Your Career and Life

Hard skills are your ticket to freedom—develop them early and continuously
Corporate "safety" can be a trap—seek environments with uncapped upside
Distribution beats product in the modern economy
Consistency in small daily habits creates massive long-term results
Fitness is the foundation for both physical and mental performance
Depth matters more than reach—focus on building real audience connection
Start with what you're naturally good at, then develop it systematically

Kallaway's journey from frustrated consultant to successful creator proves that with the right strategy, skills, and mindset, you can build a life and career on your own terms. The key is starting before you feel ready, focusing on building real value, and never settling for rigged games.

Want more conversations with creators and entrepreneurs who've built successful careers outside traditional paths? Subscribe to Guyset for weekly discussions about building meaningful work, developing confidence, and creating the life you actually want.

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Kallaway’s Recommendations:

Meditation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF2FOYM0eNk
Creatine (here's 25% off) - trycreate.co/KALLAWAY
Journal - https://www.studioneat.com/products/totebook
Hair Regrowth + Sleep Stack (links in there)
- Jolie Shower Head: If you’re using an unfiltered shower head, your normal shower water is probably too hard and not great for your hair. We started using this and I noticed a big difference. At the end of my shower, I turn the water as cold as possible and drill my head with it for 3 minutes. This triggers coldshock proteins to release (same effect as cold plunge)
- AM: Biotin gummies: Take daily. These might be placebo by they taste damn good
- PM: Hims Minoxidil + Finasteride Topical Spray: Every night, I use this Hims hybrid spray. Finasteride pills are known to have ED as a side effect...didn't want that. This is one of the first clinically approved sprays with both using finasteride as a topical. This is a huge factor in stimulating the hair growth.
- PM: Dermapen - 1x per week, I use the 1mm dermastamp automatic pen to punch holes all over scalp (where hair loss occurred). This helps reinvigorate hair growth and enables better absorption for the spray
- PM: Momentous Sleep Stack - Maximizing sleep is great for hair regrowth. Every night, I take the Momentous Sleep Stack Bundle (as per recommended by Huberman), which includes Apigenin, Magnesium Threonate, Inositol, and L-Theanine. Sleep like a baby