How I Built a Business Around My Intellectual Capital

A podcast video with the Category Pirates

Aug 18, 2025

As I’ve said before, I love the Category Pirates – Eddie Yoon, Christopher Lochhead, and Katrina Kirsch – and how they view the world. In fact, I rate their Substack as better than mine, and it’s not even close! I learn so much from them, and it’s gratifying to know that it is a two-way street.

Which you can see in the latest conversation we had for their podcast here.

(If you’re not a subscriber to their Substack, you only get a 10-minute version, but if you subscribe you can see the entire conversation, which lasted almost an hour. I heartily recommend you subscribe – there is a free option – not for this podcast but for so much else you get.)

Eddie contacted me saying they wanted to discuss “how Joe Pine became Joe Pine”, and while recognizing the danger of pride, I accepted the invitation. It was a wonderful conversation that I thoroughly enjoyed, being able to remember and relate my history and how it led me to this point in writing the book on the Transformation Economy.

How Joe Pine became Joe Pine

They entitled it “How Joe Pine Built A Business Around His Intellectual Capital”, and I like how they summarized a key lesson for all of us on the podcast: “Transformation begins the moment you decide to become someone new.”

So watch the video for my personal story of how I transformed over and over, trying new things, gaining experiences, and of course changing identities again and again to become who I am and, I trust, who I was meant to be.

With the Category Pirates’ permission, in addition the video above, below I have copied their summary of our conversation (without their native formatting, alas). I hope it is of value to you.

Think about how you can become who you were meant to be

I especially encourage you to use this post to reflect on your transformations, to what identity changes you have undergone over time that made you who you are. And then think some more about what transformation(s) you should now undergo to become who you were meant to be.

Joe

Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

Joe Pine didn’t start out trying to write a bestselling book.

He didn’t have a “personal brand.”

Or a big audience.

Or even a plan.

What he had was a question he couldn’t shake—and a belief that his ideas could lead to something more.

While working at IBM, he kept circling the same question:

What if businesses could create value beyond products and services?

When IBM sent him to MIT for a graduate degree, he didn’t just go to learn. He went to explore. To write. To test his thinking in the real world.

He wasn’t chasing a promotion.

He was chasing clarity on his ideas and about himself.

That’s when everything started to change. Because when Joe began writing, he created a new identity. That choice—to be someone who follows curiosity instead of convention—set him on the path from corporate strategist to Creator Capitalist.

Joe traded a corporate title for a category of one.

You don’t need a Fortune 100 job or an elite degree to do the same.

Like Joe, you just need the courage to bet on your point of view and the tools to turn it into something real.

Today, Joe is the co-author of The Experience Economy—one of the most influential business books of all time. He’s helped shape billion-dollar companies. Defined entire fields of thinking. And built a business on the back of his Intellectual Capital.

In this conversation with Joe, we go back to the beginning.

You’ll hear how he went from a self-described nerd at IBM, to writing Mass Customization at MIT, to launching a solo business with nothing but a severance check, a book idea, and the courage to build something of his own.

What started as a thesis became a book. That book became a business. That business became a category. And that category created the Experience Economy.

This episode is a look inside Joe’s leap from employee to author to category of one.

You’ll walk away from this conversation knowing:

Why transformation starts with a new identity (long before that title shows up on your LinkedIn)

How Joe built Strategic Horizons as a solo consulting firm and why IBM became his first big client after leaving

Why writing is a catalyst for clarity, not just a credential

How Substack helped Joe write his latest book, Transformations, and why this different approach worked

Why every transformation—personal or professional—is rooted in emotion, identity, and intention

If you want to be known for your thinking, this episode is a treasure map for turning your ideas into a business that pays you to be you.

It’s not just a story.

It’s proof that transformation begins the moment you decide to become someone new.

Here’s how to navigate this conversation:

00:50 – From IBM to MIT: Joe shares how getting sent to grad school became the launching point for his first book, Mass Customization, and why he always saw writing as a path to independence.
06:06 – Books as Credential Capital: Joe explains how getting published by Harvard Business School Press and HBR positioned him as a trusted expert—and how one professor’s intro led to a game-changing contract.
10:40 – Leaving IBM (Before He Was “Ready”): Joe tells the story of how he turned a severance check into a solo business and why his first client was IBM, the company that let him go.
16:45 – Building Strategic Horizons: How meeting Jim Gilmore led to a legendary partnership and their co-authored category-defining work, The Experience Economy.
20:24 – Creator Capitalism 101: Joe explains why you don’t need to be a genius to become a Creator Capitalist—you just need to know one thing better than anyone else, and be willing to share it.
24:55 – The Creator Capitalist’s Dilemma: Joe talks about the emotional rollercoaster of creation, the long gaps between books, and why it took Substack to reignite his publishing momentum.
27:20 – Substack As Catalyst: Joe shares how his newsletter helped him write faster, engage more deeply with readers, and monetize Intellectual Capital while writing.
33:00 – Transformation Is Identity Change: Joe unpacks the core idea of his new book: All meaningful change begins with identity. He explains why every business must be a guide, not a hero, in its customers’ transformation journey.
39:40 – Will Big Companies Make The Leap: Joe breaks down why most S&P 500 companies won’t transform fast enough with AI—and why the opportunity belongs to the next wave of entrepreneurial creators.
46:44 – Joe’s #1 recommendation for future entrepreneurs: “Identify as an entrepreneur before you become one.”

If you’ve ever said “someday” to writing a book, sharing your thinking, or launching your own business, this episode will show you how to start now.

Because Joe Pine didn’t wait for permission.

He wrote his way into the life he wanted.

And that’s what it means to be a Creator Capitalist.