IDENTITY QUEST™
Player's Guide · Chapter 5 of 7

Money, Investments, Team and Ads

Money follows position in Identity Quest™. The business engine converts only once there is an audience and a reputation for it to convert. Here is how to earn, spend and recover.

By Mashman Consulting Group · Updated · For Identity Quest™ v4.4.4

Business Moves and the Engine

Business opens your career's own moves. Each one has a style, and the styles pull against each other.

Snapshot

The five styles

💵 Cash now
Pays this week.
🏭 Builds the engine
Raises the weekly revenue your Business Engine produces. Often a gamble.
🧾 Proof
Testimonials and case studies: credibility you can produce on request.
📣 Reach
New people, and sometimes a warm lead worth +30% on your next cash move.
🗂️ Protection
Paper the Business: contracts, disclosures, insurance. What goes wrong in the next year lands softer.

The Business Engine runs from level 0 to 10 and pays every week at Advance Week. Revenue Momentum, built from followers, credibility, reputation and engine level, multiplies both your move payouts and the engine. That is why money follows position: the engine converts only once there is an audience and a reputation for it to convert.

  • Moves without stated odds still miss about 7% to 12% of the time, less as your credibility, reputation, CRM and business developer grow.
  • Moves with real exposure can come back two or three weeks later as a decision: a refund request, a late shipment, scope creep. Papering the business halves that risk for a year.
  • With 5,000 followers and a business running, you can launch your own affiliate program ($1,500 and 10 energy to set up, then $49 a week plus 2% of sales). You set the commission, the price, the cookie window and who can join.

Investments

Investments are permanent, one-time upgrades that make specific moves better. They are grouped as Image and Content, Reach and Media, Business, Projects and Strategy, and most have three tiers: 36 upgrades in all.

Invest in Your Personal Brand on a phone: Your Brand and Personal tabs, 0 of 36 upgrades, then Equipment Upgrade with an entry camera and mic for 250 dollars and a 5% lift, and Invest in Your Wardrobe for 75 dollars.
Investments: what each one raises, and the price and lift of the next tier.
  • Cheap and early: an NFC business card ($25) and a wardrobe refresh ($75) raise networking; an entry camera and mic ($250) raises posts.
  • For pitching: media training raises pitch odds, a press kit raises the payoff of a landed pitch.
  • For the business: a professional website and AEO and SEO work raise engine revenue; a CRM raises business pay and success; an online course pays every week.
  • For projects: a podcast studio and a book launch kit.
  • The free MCG Brand Audit claim gives +5% to every action for four weeks, and can be claimed again when it runs out.
  • Personal: the Personal tab holds the wellbeing investments that add energy and take strain off.

Every investment and hire is built on camera in your Office, a building of nine rooms: Podcast Studio, Writing Room, Press Room, Content Studio, Strategy Room, Business Office, Lobby, Your Desk and Wardrobe. Each room opens with what you own.

The Office view on a phone: a three-floor building with the Podcast Studio, Writing Room and Press Room on top, the Content Studio, Strategy Room and Business Office in the middle, and the Lobby, Your Desk and Wardrobe below, with locked rooms marked by padlocks.
The Office. Locked rooms say what opens them; tap a room to go in.

Building a Team

Every hire takes something off your plate each week. Salaries are billed at Advance Week, and higher tiers cost more and perform better. If you cannot cover payroll, the most expensive hire is let go.

Build Your Team on a phone: team, payroll, runway and team culture, a note on tenure, and the Video/Graphic Editor role with Freelance Editor at 500 dollars a week, Studio Editor at 1,250 and Award-Winning Creative Director at 5,000.
Build Your Team: thirteen roles, three tiers each.
RoleWhat it doesWeekly pay by tier
Social Media ManagerBetter posts, and extra posts every week$400 / $1,000 / $3,000
Video/Graphic EditorBetter posts$500 / $1,250 / $5,000
Researcher and GhostwriterBetter articles$450 / $1,200 / $3,500
Podcast EditorBetter episodes$500 / $1,250 / $5,000
PublicistBetter pitch odds$500 / $1,250 / $5,000
Speaking AgentSpeaking odds, and booked talks on its own$500 / $1,400 / $4,000
Networking CoachBetter networking$500 / $1,250 / $5,000
Community ManagerSteady reputation every week$400 / $1,000 / $2,800
Ads ManagerRuns your ads for good$500 / $1,400 / $4,000
Business Development LeadBusiness pay and odds$600 / $1,500 / $4,500
Talent ManagerSponsorships pay more$800 / $2,000 / $6,000
Book AgentBook promotion, for a cut of sales$500 / $1,250 / $5,000
Executive Assistant1, 2 or 3 less energy on every move$750 / $1,250 / $2,500

People get better the longer they stay: +15% to what they do after 8 weeks, +30% after 26. Three or more people build a team culture that lifts everything a little. The Team tile adds bonuses, training to the next tier, and one-on-ones.

Quick task

Make your first hire

  1. Wait until your weekly income covers the salary with room to spare. Check Runway in Build Your Team.
  2. Hire for the move you repeat most: an editor for posts, a publicist for pitches, an assistant for everything.
  3. Start at the first tier and keep the person: tenure adds 15% after 8 weeks.

Sponsorships and Ads

Brand Deals, a tab in Business, pitches sponsors the way you pitch the press: choose the type of deal, see the odds, and accept that brands can say no. A miss makes the next pitch warmer. Sponsored post offers also arrive in the Inbox, priced from your rate card, which follows your real followers, engagement, niche and credibility. Too many deals build sponsor fatigue, and your audience notices.

Advertising is a legitimate paid channel, scaled to spend, and not the same as the shortcuts the game warns against.

Social Media Advertising on a phone: a note offering an Ads Manager, campaigns 0 of 4, creative grade C, spent so far 0 dollars, and the What It Promotes options, General Brand Awareness, Promote Your Book, Promote Your Podcast and Promote Your Business.
Advertising: choose what it promotes, the channel, who sees it, a daily budget and a duration.

Snapshot

How a campaign runs

Budget
$10 to $1,000 a day, billed weekly while it runs.
Learning week
The first week runs at 80%.
Tired creative
Full strength until week 6, then it fades unless you refresh the creative.
Creative grade
From your equipment, editor, media kit and social manager.
Ads Manager
Keeps 2, 3 or 5 campaigns running for good, by level.

Ads to a business with no engine lose money; a strong engine roughly breaks even or better on search and retargeting. Bought followers are a different thing: they add no Brand Power, lower your engagement and your sponsor rate, and the audit flags them until you remediate.

Hosting Your Own Events

Pitching gets you onto other people's stages. Host builds your own.

The Host window on a phone: Host a Webinar for 10 energy, Host a Local Meetup for 12 energy and 80 dollars, Run a Paid Workshop for 20 energy and 250 dollars, Throw a Launch Party for 16 energy and 500 dollars, and Run a Virtual Summit.
Host: from a webinar to your own conference.
  • Webinar: 10 energy. Followers, your list, a chance of a lead.
  • Local meetup: 12 energy and $80. People in person and reputation.
  • Paid workshop: 20 energy and $250. Cash, proof and credibility.
  • Launch party: 16 energy and $500. Book sales, downloads and reputation.
  • Virtual summit: 24 energy and $300. A big jump in your list.
  • Your own conference: 40 energy and $8,000. The biggest room, and the biggest bet.

Going Broke, and Digging Out

Going into the red is never a game ender. In Finances you set your debt tolerance: Conservative (−$500), Moderate (−$2,000), Aggressive (−$5,000) or a custom line sized to your income and Brand Power. Cross it and weekly fees and reputation damage start to stack.

Finances on a phone: In the Black with the balance, the Debt Tolerance options Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive, a custom slider, and Ways to Dig Out starting with a Business Partner Loan.
Finances: your debt line and the ways back.

Quick task

Dig out of the red

  1. Open Business, Finances.
  2. Take a Business Partner Loan: guaranteed, repaid over about 8 weeks at 12%, with a small reputation cost for asking. Or apply for a Bank Loan: not guaranteed, 18% over about 10 weeks, approved on credibility and reputation.
  3. If you need more, sell an investment back for half its cost.
  4. Cut costs: payroll and subscriptions bill every week. Then run cash-now business moves.