The Creator Economy
The wealthy of the 20th century built their fortune off Capital (investments) while the new rich of the 21st century build their fortunes through code and media…
I’ve been contemplating lately how media plays such a pivotal role in our lives but it all depends on where you stand… are you a consumer or a creator?
Advertising is simply one part of the media puzzle, but like all things… it is afflicted by competition, regulation and rising costs…
It’s always a race against time to the bottom until Ad Costs equal or even are more than the cost to acquire a customer. That’s where content comes in. Content is a way to continually nurture the expensive engaged leads & customers you already have and find a way to INCREASE LTV and thereby increasing your upper limit of customer acquisition costs…
But, content does not have to be complicated. In fact, it is more a matter of the TIME you put in and the CONSISTENCY than it is about “having one winner”. It is a process that requires repeated inputs done over long enough to get any real tangible results, but when the results come in, they stay forever.
A compounding asset.
One thing I’ve heard a lot of people talk about is this thing called “niche” and while I understand the merits of it, I’ve never considered it to be a viable option long term. Sure, perhaps it’s best to start out very niche and expand from there, but a personality like mine feels to limited to do so. I want to ENJOY my work, and that means doing a bunch of different things and working on interesting projects…
It’s why I never took “niching” too seriously and instead focus on:
CONSISTENCY → like I do now with my email newsletter that talks about many more things than my “niche” marketing (like every other newsletter)
Focusing on INPUTS.
When data is limited and outputs can’t tangibly be measured (as is the case with content when starting out), it’s better to measure your INPUTS more than the outputs because it can be accurately tracked. I can track:
The number of times I do outreach
The number of days I consistently put out content
The “steak” I have in showing up to the gym and working out everyday
Everybody wants results, and ideally you get to a point where your results can be measured to get MORE results, but early on there is merit to simply HIGH VOLUME and nothing else.
Building the practice of showing up everyday and doing the work. From there, the results reveal itself and can be used to improve your inputs. To tell you the truth, my email list is very small… so small in fact that I don’t look at subscriber counts or open rates or Clickthrough rates. In fact, all I focus on is writing content that I like and that I enjoy writing about.
This method has worked better for me than being all nitty-gritty about every little detail and obsessing over the results because the dataset is so small, you can’t make accurate judgements from it anyway.
If you are unsure on where you are going or HOW to get there, simply remember the end goal. Run it through your mind and when the moments of INSPIRATION come to you, execute on them quickly. Understand, at this stage nothing will go to plan so you must try everything and KNOW what to look for; a sign that says “go deeper” into what works.
We all start our entrepreneurial journey in similar ways: we focus on advisors and mentors and “do as they do”. Eventually, we learn all that we can and branch off into our own methodology after we internalize key concepts.
We know the structure, and scaffolding but we leave the interior designing of the metaphorical tower known as “our business” to our own creative imagination.
Understand, creativity in and of itself is an ASSET. It’s why working in small teams, small business, and the cutting edge of tech will always leave more room for you to grow personally and professionally than watching the clock and doing the same repetitive drudgery that will one day be automated anyway.
Try to be innovative, take on new challenges, new responsibilities, try and find jobs that have the steepest learning curve.
And, always use what you do as a PRACTICE for what you are learning and the skillset you are honing.
Give your leaning and education an END GOAL to achieve and try anything and everything until you get there. Learn from others but COMBINE the knowledge with your own experiences and intuition to truly create something unique.
Start making it a daily habit and “train” your creative muscle by creating outputs. Do anything for long enough and you will be successful 100% of the time.
All you need is ONE win and you are set for life.
Until then, consider making content that suits you whether that is video or the written word. Talk about what interests you and let these assets COMPOUND into free organic traffic to your offers, or repurposed into Infoproducts down the line.
Time invested is everything.
And, if you are unsure on what to focus on: do what pays you (or is a vehicle that has a reasonable shot at paying you). Money is the best (and only) measurement tool in business. Follow the money.