The Problem With Most New Creators

And the three best ways to maintain discipline! (4 min read)

Pioneers! Welcome to another edition of your favorite newsletter.

Let’s jump right in - lots to cover this week, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Tejas Hullur

Two years ago, I had $1,000 in a bank account. Today, my business surpassed $200,000 in revenue. I arguably work the same amount of hours but have made 100x more so if you ask me, has my perspective of money changed? My answer is… it has completely shattered.

Growing up, you are bred to believe that money is earned through a function of time. The more time you work, the more money you make. Before all this creator stuff, I was a Starbucks barista, a university tutor and eventually started a small business cutting hair. All of these had an hourly wage (etc. $15/hour). Even after graduating university, salaries are just another form of this; you need to work X amount of hours per week per year to earn Y amount of dollars.

This is what you are taught in school and it’s a big flaw of that system. You will never be financially free if you live your life working on a function of time.

The wealthiest people have found a way to make money on a function of something else. If you’re an investor, it’s a function of risk. If you’re an artist, it’s a function of talent. And if you’re a content creator, it’s a function of trust. 

You make exponentially more money on functions of these. This is a lesson that no one is ever taught in school.

As a creator, your goal is to increase your trust with an audience and if you do, you make more. Once I understood this, money never looked the same. My first long form video is about this topic… if you fancy it, considered watching!

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Daniel McMahon

If you're in this creator scene, you probably quite like your job. But that doesn't mean there's no parts that draaag. The first trick is to identify those bits that make you groan, and then follow some principles:

Perspective. Louziaa here isn't such a fan of scriptwriting, and although I now quite enjoy it -- it used to be the part of videomaking I neglected most. Showing up to do it at all was difficult, let alone putting multiple days into it. But then I had one too many moments in the edit where I asked myself "what happens next?" or "where am I going with this?" and I remembered; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It didn't matter how much time I poured into the editing, where I preferred being -- it couldn't make up for lackluster effort elsewhere. 

Discipline. I'm big on structure and routines -- and when it comes to writing my videos, I work 10am - 6pm for a minimum of five days. That's ~35 hours sat in front of a document. And when I think about it like that, yeah -- not the funnest week. But it's what I expect from myself now, because I know it's achievable. Experiment with finding that comfort zone, push a little further, and make that the precedent. Also use the Pomodoro technique. 

Creativity. Below is an image of my structural notes for a long-form script. In the past, I'd get lost while writing -- sometimes misinterpreting the emotion  I want to evoke. As a result, they fell flat and put me off trying again. Until I came up with this colour coding method that kept me on track. Now, when I'm roughly mapping out my video's chapters, I use colour to hammer down the message. This helped me write how I wanted, but also has benefits during recording and editing. 

We're our own boss, at the end of the day. So don't let yourself down!

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Sean Oulashin

Here’s the thing - time goes on whether you like it or not, whether you’re on the train or still in the station. So why not make the most of it? 

If there’s one thing I know as a creator, it’s that motivation goes up and down. You had it a week ago, and now it’s not there.  And sure - it’s easy to chalk something like this up to “peaks and valleys,” but how often can you default to that before you get tired of telling yourself the same old thing over and over?

This happens to be the plight I find myself facing on a weekly basis - am I on the right path, or is everything I’m doing not going to matter in five years? Realising that from a macro point of view, our time is but a blip, and it’s a massive driver behind where I source a lot of my motivation.

Sure, you can sit in the station and watch opportunities pass by, but why not let it take you along for the ride? A great way to pull yourself out of a slump is to start small. Too often do I get caught up in the idea that every project has to be grandiose, but sometimes the simple act of starting is enough.

From your list of ideas or goals, pick an actionable thing, and then pick an achievable part of that one thing. Start there. Remember: starting is the hardest part of anything. Putting one foot in front of the other is the only way to make anything happen, and one of the best ways I’ve found to pull myself out of a slump. 

Lastly, remember that you’re supposed to have slumps - it’s what makes you human. But the more you can “work out” that muscle of starting that engine up again, the easier it’ll be to get out of the next slump you find yourself in.

So take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Find your focus, and start small, and don’t put it off. The train’s leaving the station, but it’s up to you whether or not you’re all aboard. Choo choo!

Tejas Hullur

One of the best mentors I’ve had is a guy named Joe Albanese. He is the founder and CEO of a company called Stir. When you’re the CEO of a startup, you are inevitably going to hit hard times and knowing this, Joe created “Simple Rules for Being Great”, a daily reminder to zoom out.

For today’s Unfinished Chronicles, I’m going to steal this idea because attempting this long form video grind is uncomfortable and hard.

Tejas’s Simple Rules for Being Great

1. If you’re not creating or learning how to create better, it’s probably not worth your time.

2. Building something amazing takes patience.

3. 90% of the decisions you make will be wrong but the 10% right will move you forward. Stay optimistic.

4. In an industry of transactional relationships, play long term games with long term people.

5. You will win as long as you stay consistent. Create systems in your life so that it’s hard to fall off that train.

None of these are concrete however being able to reflect and zoom out is crucial. Thank you Joe for this inspiration, you’re great.

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Daniel McMahon

I’ve been working on three projects this week; one for a dream client, one that’s a true passion project, and one that offered the biggest payday of my career. It’s a perfect balance that up until this moment, I’ve never found. Too many clashing clients, reduced rates and prosaic projects. Part of me thinks it’s critical to go through that in order to move forward, but most of me thinks – fuck that.

It’s about others knowing your value. But it’s more about you knowing your own value. If I look back on previous years and consider the projects I nurtured day-and-night, for a client who doesn’t really care, for a price that barely paid for groceries – no, I didn’t know my own value. I could’ve pulled my thumb out my ass a lot earlier. It’s kind of a bittersweet feeling; getting to where you’ve always wanted, but realising you’ve had the key to the door for a long time. 

But no fun dwelling on the past. I’m super grateful for where I am and how fast I’ve gotten here! Back to work…

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Sean Oulashin

I haven’t hit the record button in nearly a month.

While this would normally be a pause for alarm, this is actually the best I’ve ever felt about short-form content. Three weeks ago, I knuckled down and recorded 18 videos. I edited nearly two per day for about 10 days, immediately queuing them in my Instagram. Since then my process has been all but automated. Post, engage, reply, repeat. My machine’s churning, and everything’s working how it should.

This last month has really opened my eyes up to the idea of being frictionless - reducing the time it takes from ideation to execution. This has been the motivation behind my all-new home office / creator studio, where I have every tool I need always on and ready to go. From thought capture to actual footage, I’m ready to create at all times. The lights remain plugged in, the camera’s connected, the sound’s synced - all I have to do is press record. No matter how tired I am, if there’s an idea, there’s a video.

Sure the up-front investment was spooky, but it’s a small price to pay for the long run of doing this thing full time. We’re cooking with gas now.