JKL Letter 2 » Make Money ASAP » Just Keep Learning

💎 1 Tip To Launch, Grow, Or Monetize.

You should make money as soon as possible.
This is something I wish I did differently.

It can be fun to create content for a long time without monetizing.
But, there are pros and cons.

For most of us it is best to have an offer as early as possible.
The reality is that our offers will change. We may add some, we may take some away. We might change prices, or even create for a completely different target audience.

Any creator business, podcast, youtube, blog, micro content, they all cost us money.
Having some way that people can support you financially, while still bringing them value in the early days is a win, win.

Besides, paying money for something is always optional.

People don’t have to pay you to speak. They don’t have to hire you to edit something for them. They don’t have to hire you to coach, or consult.

But it’s important that at least one group of people have at least one way to pay you from the get.

💡 Create some sort of offer for your audience, something people could buy, as early as possible.

💎 1 Mini Essay On Designing Your Creator Life.

A few years ago I was approached by students to help them pursue creative careers.

They wanted to be photographers, models, filmmakers, writers, painters, ecommerce owners, designers and podcasters.

I was stoked to help them.

But I had one big problem: I had no clue how to do any of these things.

So, over the last few years I’ve learned as much as I can about succeeding in the creator economy.

And now I’m sharing that all with you. Maybe you want this for yourself. Perhaps you have a child, or students who could benefit. Or maybe there is an element of both. Help you become a creator and pass it on.

When we first get into content creation we struggle with two questions:

Clarity of the medium (how to create it?)
Niche, or topic (what to create about?)

You might have an answer to one of these questions, or both, or neither.

And it can change. Especially when we are multi-passionate 🤯

But let’s find some hints to get you started.

A. I see content creation in three buckets when it comes to the medium:

Visualization (photo, video, live)
Audio (music, podcast, talks)
Writing (blogs, newsletter, poetry)

Here are four questions you can ask yourself to figure out what medium to start with.

Do you have experience in any medium?
Are you inspired by other creators?
If you were to consume in only one medium, which would it be?
When you picture an audience consuming what you create, are they listening, reading, or watching?

A combination of these prompts should hint toward the medium that you might want to start with.

In the rare event that you still don’t have a decision, or gut feeling, just put some mediums in a hat and pick one.

B. When it comes to the topic it can be a bit more confusing. Eventually you will want to be known for something unique.

But at first, there is no need to worry about validation, target audience, or competition.

In the beginning, we want to create anything based on these four questions:

What interests do you naturally gravitate towards?
What things do you have experience with?
Do you see examples of niches you vibe with?
What creative questions resonate with you?

Aright, nothing left but creating!

Combine your answers from A (Medium) & B (Topic) to start creating your first piece of hub content!

Oh, and tag us so we can share for ya!

💎 1 Creator Business Shoutout.

Arielle has been working in the podcast space since 2017

She has an incredible north star of wanting to help people find their next favorite podcast.

One of the ways she does this is with her podcast recommendation newsletter called EarBuds Podcast Collective.

Arielle was also a guest on JKL (Episode 25) and has been a big influence on our show.

She specializes in podcast marketing, branding and decisions around content as well.

Arielle has a ton of experience having worked with TinkMedia, Squadcast, Descript and many more audio companies.

Check out her work and connect with her at ArielleNissenblatt.Com

💎 1 Resource.

There is a lot of snake oil on the internet when it comes to “becoming an entrepreneur”, “building a solopreneur company”, or “starting a creator business”.

These keywords tend to bring out all of the wild, crazy, spammy and scammy advice.

But one person who I have learned a ton from is Chris Guillebeau. I’ve been following his career since all of his content was called “193 countries”.

Now he has an amazing daily podcast to help creators monetize without having to quit their day job.

You can check out the show at Side Hustle School