As college admissions drop, as people leave the workforce for good, this seven-figure entrepreneur preps students for a new vision of prosperity.
Ten to fifteen years ago, working from home or starting an online business sounded like a slacker’s fantasy. Ten years from now, will suiting up and going to the office sound hopelessly quaint, like landlines or horse-drawn carriages?
Dylan Ogline, the 32-year-old founder of the seven-figure digital marketing industry Ogline Digital, seems to think so. And he thinks it’s a good thing.
“Millions of people have ‘dropped out of the workforce,’” Ogline said, adding air-quotes on the Zoom screen from his home in Orlando. “The trend was in effect before the COVID-19 pandemic, but of course, the pandemic accelerated it.”
“But what happened to these people? Some talking heads act like they have given up on life and have settled into a routine of collecting welfare checks, sponging off the state and the taxpayers.”
“I don’t see it that way, though,” Dylan said. “I see something else happening.”
The oft-unspoken truth is that the “workforce,” which Ogline put air quotes around, is a metric designed to track an industrialized, taxpaying workforce under the thumb of big corporations.
There’s a word for that in entrepreneurial circles and not a positive one — the “rat race.” And stepping out of it doesn’t mean these people aren’t working.
You don’t just see this in people stepping out of the workforce; younger generations are also opting out of college. As a result, University admissions are dropping, forcing venerated institutions of higher learning to scramble to maintain their relevance.
“Millenials and Gen Z … they’re not stupid,” Ogline said. “They know how to spot a fat, lazy institution that has gotten comfortable in mediocrity. Well, our parents raised us to believe anything was possible, and shocker — we believed them.”
The new generation of go-getters, like Ogline, have no patience for the corporate ladder. Instead, many of them choose to start in a whole new economy.
It started as the “Gig Economy” — Uber drivers, freelancers, etc. That’s still going strong … but it has grown up. In Ogline’s view, we’re seeing the emergence of a “Hustle Economy” — a breed of consultants, digital entrepreneurs, and life-hackers who build actual, sustainable businesses on the foundation of the Gig Economy.
What does this look like? Well, look at the coaching business. Having grown Ogline Digital to the point of personal financial freedom, Ogline has stepped into the coaching arena with his training program Agency 2.0, which teaches aspiring entrepreneurs to duplicate his success in the digital marketing sphere.
Of course, this hustle has a dark side. Well, many dark sides. But the most glaring of them is a universe of “coaches” teaching people to start their own business … as coaches.
“What’s the good of that,” Ogline said. “Are we going to end up as a nation of nothing but coaches? All of us coaching each other? That’s not sustainable. It’s a pyramid scheme when you think about it.”
But Dylan does see the virtue in coaching people to bring actual value to the marketplace. “The demand for digital marketing services is practically limitless,” Ogline said. “And if digital marketing doesn’t appeal to you, there’s a coach out there to teach you to do any kind of hustle. Photography, accounting, copywriting … things that people actually need.”
The kind of Hustle Economy he describes — solopreneurs offering actual value to each other — offers an appealing vision of a virtuous cycle. “I would rather do business with a hustler like me,” Ogline said. “I don’t want to be a number on some big corporation’s books. I want customized attention … which is what we provide our own clients.”
So will this Hustle Economy replace the old economy?
“Not anytime soon,” Ogline said. “The big boys are deeply entrenched, and they won’t go down without a fight.”
But in the emerging Hustle Economy, which Agency 2.0 teaches students to join, Ogline sees the opportunity for a more level playing field.
“America’s system isn’t really capitalism,” Ogline said. “It’s ‘crony capitalism’ — connected families with the government in their pockets. The Hustle Economy is a more pure form of capitalism — people building wealth through mutual exchange of value.”
“Let them wring their hands and wonder why people are not going to college or dropping out of the workforce,” Ogline said, smiling. “We’re doing fine.”
