My Thought for the Week 💭
Ever dive deep into a project or hobby for the first time ever?
You go through all of the beginner how-to courses online and watch a ton of YouTube videos, learning anything and everything about that specific project/hobby.
After all of the knowledge consumption however, you’re stuck on what to do next, even when the source you’re learning from gives you some next steps if any at all.
When I was first learning how to code, I would follow so many tutorials from start to finish on YouTube. However I rarely challenged myself. I never went out of my way to build out an extra feature on a website I had built out. I never tried to do things on my own.
The same goes for any creative project. The how-to guides and instruction manuals will give you the starting base you need to get going, but after that it’s up to you to figure out how to move forward.
We all start from 0. We all start with a blank slate. And that’s okay!
If you look at your favorite creators, notice that you watch them because of their uniqueness, compared to those that still haven’t went outside of the comfort zone of the instruction manual structure they started with.
If you happen to be stuck after starting something, respond to this email and let me know. I would be happy to help.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend,
Miko
Tricks and Tips Learned💡
Building in public brings growth ⚒️
In my most recent podcast episode, I talked about how common it is for first time and aspiring startup founders to want to hide their work from the public. The same can be applied to the creator space as well.
So many creators I’ve come across that have good ideas and work to show just opt out because they’re:
Fearful of what others will think
Assume that their work will be stolen
They just don’t want to deal with any potential feedback
These are all valid feelings when it comes to building online, but they can be challenged.
As a part of being in the Ship30 writing cohort, I’ve learned that you want to hear the feedback and that you need to put yourself out there.
Otherwise who else is going to see your work…aside from you?
I’ve started publicly sharing the building of my podcast startup guide (coming soon!) and have way more audience interaction and follows than I would have expected.
Atul and Ev are two creators that really know how to effectively build in public.
Creator Quote of the Week 🗣️
“Monetize your passions in a sustainable way.”
Seeing the creator economy blow up in the last year and half has been amazing!
Though at the same time I can’t help but notice that many (including myself at times) are overwhelmed when it comes to growing, scaling, and monetizing content.
People push themselves against their limits to put out so much content that they forget the reason they started doing it in the first place.
There’s nothing wrong with monetizing the work you’ve done.
It’s just important to create at a pace that is sustainable for you. The money will come eventually, and then you’ll be able to maintain your creative passions more easily.
Learning Resources 📚
A book I’ve been reading 📖
I wanted to read another book based on creating so I picked up a copy of The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin.
At some points I do have to re-read certain points given I’m not used to Seth’s writing style, but so far I’ve been enjoying it!
The mini chapters really highlight what it means to be a creator in the sense that art is mainly meant to be of value to others and that creativity is a choice, not a random feeling or spark of energy you occasionally get.
A useful YouTube video I came across 📺
I’ve had my YouTube channel for about 5 months now and at times it can be dejecting to see the extremely slow growth despite the enjoyment I get from making videos.
This week I came across a video by Nick Nimmin in which he describes his insights of going from 0 to 800k subscribers in 5 years, and if you should stick things out as a new YouTuber.
Even if you’re not into making videos, the lesson of having patience and knowing if you should continue with a creative project still stands.
Link to the video here.