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.
Community is a beautiful thing
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Hey Reader, Everything changes when you go from single player to multiplayer. You might sometimes feel like the odd one out in your immediate social group. At least when it comes to your special interest. Chances are, your family and friends don’t share your same interests, hobbies, or career path. For the most part, that’s fine. You find other ways to connect and relate. But in some sense, you always feel like the odd one out. Whether your interest is illustration, coding, copywriting, video editing, event planning, or weird one. And that’s fair: almost any one person is “weird” when you consider that their interests are unique compared to most other people. But when you take a bunch of similarly “weird” people and bring them together, now you have community. There’s something healing about going from being excluded for your interest (and being seen as “weird” for it) to being included specifically because of it. You’ve found your people. If you’ve experienced this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s this deep sense of belonging. It’s really an unparalleled feeling. If you’ve never experienced it before, once you get it, it’s like scratching an itch you never knew you had. Going from single player to multiplayer changes everything. You no longer have to do this alone, and that changes your entire outlook. You finally feel like you’re a part of something, and you’re excited to wake up each day. This is one of the benefits that comes from building an audience (something I’m touching on in my next book). There are so many things that having an audience does for you, but one of the more underrated ones is creating community. Building an audience will bring together a community of like-minded people you can connect with. This doesn’t happen automatically though. Unless you put yourself out there in some way, no one will know to connect with you. This is why I advocate for working in public and sharing your journey. Create every day, and teach everything you know. The reason I say to share content consistently is because you will attract people with similar interests. You will build an audience. Additionally, you can (and should) be proactive in seeking out community:
Connect with people online who are doing similar things. Comment on their posts. Send them an email or direct message. Share their work. If you’ve read this far, it’s safe to say you resonate with what I’m saying. What if you could connect with other people who feel the same way? That’s why we created Craft + Commerce, which is happening next week in Boise, Idaho. Even if you can’t make it this year, consider attending next year. Or consider attending a conference in your industry. If nothing else, just start sharing. Tell your story. Share your journey. Show your process. That could be writing, filming short videos on your phone, or whatever makes the most sense for what you do. But find some way to put yourself out there. Don’t overthink it. Give people—your people—a way to find you. Make a point to find and build community and watch it change your life.
PODCAST$95,000 From Podcasts in 10 Days: 3-Step Creator Flywheel (Proven Strategy)On the latest episode of Billion Dollar Creator, Simon Severino, CEO of Strategy Sprints and expert adviser to teams at Google, BMW and more, shares how a flywheel added $95,000 in sales to his business in 10 days. We discuss tactics and strategies creators can use to go from feeling stuck and being the bottleneck in their business to scaling effectively. You’ll hear us talk about the operational aspects of growing a business, such as delegating tasks, identifying key metrics, and the 3 steps to scaling your creator business in 90 days. CONVERTKIT FEATUREGrow your business with the Insights dashboardsI’m excited to announce we recently launched Insights: advanced ConvertKit analytics to improve your marketing. Get a comprehensive view of your:
Available now to Creator Pro users. X POSTEverything is negotiableXaview Helgesen shares some (painful) stories about VC, what happens when things go wrong in finance, and how you can negotiate anything. Some highlights:
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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