I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
5 things successful creators do
Hi Reader,
When you watch a talented musician perform, you know without a doubt they practiced many hours and put in a lot of hard work.
You have the same appreciation when admiring a beautiful piece from a master woodworker: you know it took them years to hone their craft.
So why do we often assume success as a creator is a matter of luck?
Earning a living as a creator is a skill. It’s not a rare achievement that only geniuses and people with special privileges can unlock. It just requires a discrete set of skills and work ethic that anyone can develop.
I’ve found that successful creators do the following 5 things:
1. Create consistently
Sometimes new creators seem to rise to notoriety out of nowhere, but when you dig a little deeper, you find they’ve been creating consistently for a long time.
They graduated from the amateur mindset of creating only when they “felt like it” to creating on a schedule. That doesn’t mean what they make is good every time, but by showing up consistently, they were able to build the habit. And creating gets easier and easier over time.
Find a way to create every day.
2. Build an audience
An audience is a creator’s greatest advantage. It’s like cheating at online business.
Every new thing you launch becomes easier. The same people will buy your new products, and you don’t have to find new customers every time.
The most successful creators stick to a single audience so their marketing efforts have the biggest effect. If they are building an audience on social media, they work hard to convert those followers to email subscribers.
3. Charge for their work
Successful creators know how to sell, and they know charging for their work is important. Putting a price on something doesn’t mean they’re “selling out”. It just means they know the value of their work and aren’t afraid to charge for it.
They find a way to make money doing what they love because they know it’s the best way to keep doing it.
Charging for your work also puts you in the position to be able to give generously. So even if your motives are altruistic, making money keeps it sustainable.
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4. Build systems and flywheels
While they might’ve taken a traditional “hand pump” approach to business in the beginning, over time successful creators learn to set up systems and build flywheels.
Instead of doing things the slow, manual way, they create systems and processes that can run without them (either through automation or delegation).
Once spun up, their flywheels work to accelerate both their audience and income growth.
5. Seek leverage
While teaching a 20-person class is great, successful creators think in terms of leverage. Instead of those 20 people being the only ones to hear them speak, they record the lecture to share as a podcast so it can reach thousands.
Instead of consulting with a startup for a fixed fee, they might pursue more of an advisory role where they get a small stake in the company.
Another way I’ve seen successful creators seek leverage is by recording all of their Zoom meetings and having their team go through and clip out moments where they said something smart and publish that as content.
Those are 5 things successful creators do.
Pick the one you feel weakest in right now and spend a moment thinking about one thing you can do today to improve it.
PODCAST
Advanced Email Marketing Strategies
I was on the The Influential Personal Brand podcast to talk about email marketing, and we covered a number of interesting topics:
- Evergreen newsletters
- Email marketing strategies in 2023
- How to warm up a cold list
- Using multiple deadlines in a launch process
- Automating client nurturing
- ...and more
Watch or listen to episode »
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Have a great week!
—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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