What are good growth strategies for a content creator?

[CreamCat]

I don't want to reveal what specifically I want to create. For now, I'm just an aspiring content creator.

I'm too poor to pay for tutors. I am still able to pay for affordable online courses.

Since I'm at the very beginning of my career journey, I can only think of a few big strategies.

• Prioritize personal development over skill development, at least until your level of personal development becomes rock solid.
  • Without personal development, you are going to be sucked into distractions, anyway.
• Focus on learning and practicing basic fundamentals a lot consistently.
  • In a field that exhibits logarithmic growth curve and may exhibit exponential growth curve at times,
    just learning the basics consistently guarantees fast growth in the beginning.
  • As I progress, logarithmic growth curve makes sure that consistent practice alone will stop being effective.
    I will have to focus on breaking existing habits on top of maintaining the amount of practice in order to make the learning curve exponential.
• Create a mastermind group of peers.
  • This can have a good effect on long-term growth.
  • In weekly mastermind group meetings, we set goals with each other and keep each other accountable.
• Interview 2~5 people who have had some success in your field.

This is basic because a beginner doesn't need much more than a lot of learning and practice to grow explosively in any field that exhibits logarithmic growth curve initially. I just need to make sure that I learn the right things in the right orders. There is no right order in which to learn things, but you certainly want to learn to walk before you learn to fly.

Do you know better strategies for content creators?

Edited December 8, 2019 by CreamCat

[Average Investor]

Really just to create content and keep doing it. Learn and progress. I am reworking what I want to do with youtube currently, so I can't say I am living up to my own advice. Take more action and less theory. I've been trying to build a higher purpose business wise and have been considering readjusting this to follow with that. 

[CreamCat]

I think deliberate practice is also important. Just practicing a lot can lead to plateaus beyond some point.

I'm going to learn about deliberate practice from Scott Young and Cal Newport.

In Cal Newport's book named So Good They Can't Ignore You, he explains how deliberate practice is done.

Scott Young and Cal Newport recently released https://www.top-performer-course.com

The gist is

• Figure out what's important in your career
• Practice the important stuff. Stretch your comfort zone as often as possible.
  • Leaving comfort zone often is uncomfortable, but it's worth the efforts.
• Seek and embrace honest feedback.
  • Feedback is not the same as negative criticism.
• Be patient.

Edited December 8, 2019 by CreamCat

[Hello from Russia]

Why do you have to choose between skill development and personal development? You can't really go far nor make a quality product\content without skills. And these 2 are actually incomparable. Personal development INCLUDES skill development and skill development is an essential part of it.

I've been having this mistake for a long time and it costed me a lot of unresultivness. Results come when you develop your skills and are able to make valuable shit for someone, then the magic occurs. Just rehashing self-development personal material won't really get you anywhere

[CreamCat]

13 hours ago, Hello from Russia said:

Why do you have to choose between skill development and personal development?

I don't choose between the two. In my direct experiences, when I work on personal development, I become better at skill development fast.

Personal development is a foundation for mastery, deliberate practice, and career planning which are in turn foundations for skill development.

Without foundations, you cannot build high.

Edited December 9, 2019 by CreamCat

[Raptorsin7]

@CreamCat @Average Investor Did you guys do leo's life purpose course? Do you know how valuable it is for someone who wants to start a business but doesn't really know where to get started?

 

[Average Investor]

@Raptorsin7 I have it. I am only 7 sections in so far. A lot of content in there for sure. So far it seems high quality. I have actually developed further ideas about 3 different businesses and how to make them more impactful to the world. Now maybe I would have got those ideas without it I don't know. I had ideas surrounding the businesses themselves to create them though prior. 

I would get the feeling it is more designed around how to make the business impactful to the world. I get the feeling from other reviews I read you are still going to have to search for the medium for that impactful business, but I feel like it should steer you in the right direction. If you are just looking for business fundamentals there is a lot of free content that would get you going good. 

Learning:

Taxes

How to properly form LLC and operate

Marketing

Building business infrastructure 

How to maintain and interact with clients 

How to figure out what the client needs

How to deal with changes in the industry 

Building contacts to help grow your business 

There is so much business theory out there, but nothing better than running out and starting a business to get you a taste of it. I have had a variety of businesses at this point. More failure than success for sure, but I definitely know some stuff. I especially know what I like to do and not do. I have done product and services. But I will say that especially learning things like taxes gives you a massive upper hand in businesses. 

I will say though even just getting several hours into it could help you visualize ideas about what you want to do and picking that. So that alone could be really valuable. I don't want to be bias for it just because I purchased it. I have only done so much of it to say how effective it could be for your situation. If you have the money, time, and dedication then sure go buy it. Leo puts out good content in general and this so far does not fall short of that. It really is a few hundred hours worth of content, when you do the assignments and what not. So keep that in mind. That and I really suggest finding fundamental content to read and research building up to it. 

If I had to be honest I felt the need to just pay up the $250 when I started to get more financially comfortable just because of how much my quality of life has improved from this work. $250 is a drop in the bucket comparatively. That and I really did get curious how he is able to dedicate this much work into his business. But I have to say that might not be the case for everyone. I had just hit a massive amount of self growth being able to integrate the work I was being taught and taking the path with the most pain and suffering to get the most improvement. 

[CreamCat]

8 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@CreamCat @Average Investor Did you guys do leo's life purpose course? Do you know how valuable it is for someone who wants to start a business but doesn't really know where to get started?

I'd like to pay for leo's life purpose course. I haven't yet done so because

• I think I cannot benefit much from it at this stage.
  • For now, I can benefit a lot from personal development.
• I'm running low on money.

There are many things I'd like to pay for, but haven't done so because I cannot benefit much from them at this point.

Edited December 9, 2019 by CreamCat

[CreamCat]

Does anyone else know better growth strategies or important things/concepts that I'm missing?

[universe]

Very abstract because you didnt specify what you want to create. But in general:

To become a good content creator its best to create tons of content! Just start doing it. You will make mistakes and thats how you will learn and become a better content creator. Be passionate about the stuff you create. Thats how you stay motivated because it might will take 2-5 years until you can see the desired results from your work. Maybe longer. So make sure you are enjoying the process. Have a strong vision.

[CreamCat]

9 hours ago, universe said:

its best to create tons of content!

That's just the start. The problem with doing that alone is that you will soon reach plateaus if you don't break existing habits. I've seen many get stuck at plateaus.

You need more than just a lot of practice if you want to stay competitive and if you want to be the best that you can be.

• Deliberate practice
  • This usually means designing practices that will push you beyond comfort zones. Pushing beyond comfort zone is uncomfortable.
• Break existing habits if you want to push beyond plateaus.

But, for now, practicing a lot is good because beginners don't need to worry about being stuck at plateaus. The problem with practicing a lot is personal development. You assume that you can just practice a lot if you want to. Without personal development, you get sucked into distractions.

Personal development requires a lot of practice, strategy, and planning. Remember that Leo Gura said making it so that you can meditate all day long requires a lot of planning.

If you want to sustain long work hours, you also need to put some thoughts into your scheduling. I've been thinking about how to apply minimalism to my schedule.

You also mention remaining passionate. This requires some strategies, too.

It's a little bit more complicated than you explain.

Edited December 11, 2019 by CreamCat

[universe]

18 hours ago, CreamCat said:

Without personal development, you get sucked into distractions.

Is that really the case or is that a story you tell yourself?

I didnt meant to say you shouldnt do PD or strategic planning. Definitely work on a good schedule and work on having the best infrastructure in place you can have. But those things will come naturally for you. I see your are very active on this forum and so I figured you are aready well rounded and crunched down on that PD a lot. So for someone like you doing the actual work now seems the best way to go about this for me.

[CreamCat]

39 minutes ago, universe said:

Is that really the case

It is still the case. I still need to work more on personal development. My personal development is still in its infancy.

To drive more actual work, I need more personal development.

Basic personal development complements actual work and is something you should do for your lifetime.

Edited December 12, 2019 by CreamCat

[Knock]

@CreamCat I think what @universe  meant is that "spending more time in personal development" often results in passive consumption of more content. I.e Spending countless hours "researching" and "learning".

Real growth will happen from taking action and creating instead of consuming content. As a content creator, the best pathway to growth is to create a Minimum Viable Product and share it with your audience to get feedback and see if it's what the market actually wants.

These 'small bets' will maximize your efficiency, assuming business is your priority. Use PD to supplement your business, I wouldn't be doing it the other way around.

[CreamCat]

10 minutes ago, Knock said:

"spending more time in personal development" often results in passive consumption of more content. I.e Spending countless hours "researching" and "learning".

Initially, you need to do a lot of research and learning on personal development.

I have entered the phase in personal development where I want a lot more practice than theory.

As I practice personal development, I get more work done while being happier.

Work and personal development go hand in hand.

10 minutes ago, Knock said:

As a content creator, the best pathway to growth is to create a Minimum Viable Product and share it with your audience to get feedback and see if it's what the market actually wants.

These 'small bets' will maximize your efficiency, assuming business is your priority.

That's how you bootstrap your startup company. That's not going to be always the best way for a content creator. It may be the best for a phase in my career. Also, I think that's more a guideline than a rigid rule.

You cannot stay competitive by sticking to one tactic throughout your whole career. That tactic may remain useful, but I will definitely need a lot more than that to succeed and be happy.

Edited December 12, 2019 by CreamCat