The Future Belongs to Creators

In today’s Q&A Friday, we talk about serving a diverse customer base, hiring a professional coach, growing multiple email lists, staying motivated, and more!

• When you serve a very large range of customers, how do you decide what features to build first?
• Any advice for picking a product or service that fits with your content? 
• When personally welcoming a new subscriber to my newsletter, is it better for me to write a personalized welcome email to them or send a personalized welcome video instead?
• What are the things you should look for when hiring a professional coach?
• ​Nathan, you mentioned how you quit your job and it took you about six months to get back to your usual pace of productive output. Can you talk more about that and motivation while working solo?
• Would you put out an e-book first? Or go for a full book for a specific topic?
• ​As a rapidly growing business, when is the right time to transition from "scratching your own itch" to "serving the current/future needs of your market/customers"?
• When should creators start a new email list vs. growing a single large one? Should new but related products start with a new list?

Links

• Drew Holcomb
• Episode 36 of Future Belongs to Creators: Coming Up with a Business Model
• Dan Ariely
• Sean Wes
• How to Build a Sustainable Business Coaching Practice (And Double Your Rates in the Process) by Barrett Brooks 
• Mike Pacchione
• Chris Guillebeau
• Free ebook Templates
• Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal
• How Fizzle Uses Customer Research to Improve Our Products and Grow Our Business by Barrett Brooks

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Maybe you don’t need a website. It sounds counterintuitive at first, but more and more creators are using mediums like Spotify or Instagram to sell their products. 

What you do need, however, is a hub to own the relationship you have with your clients, your email list, or whoever you’re talking to. The “about” page is a great place to start with that relationship.

In today’s episode, we talk about what makes a great “about” page. Whether it’s a website, landing page, or something else, we want to help you understand what your audience needs to know to decide if they want to stay in touch.

Main Takeaways

• The basics of an “about” page (your personal life story) is good information, but you should give it to your audience from the perspective of how your story can serve them.
• There are three angles to take when writing an effective “about” page:
  • Identity: Identity works very well in engaging an audience. For example, “If you're a person like this” helps people engage instantly (if they are that type of person).
  • Shared experience: This allows you to show people that you understand what they are going through.
  • Credibility: Finding a way to show the reader that you’re an expert, and you know what you’re talking about. 
• Make sure you have a call to action or next step so readers know what they are supposed to do after learning about who you are.  

Creators of the Day 

• Dave Bruns ExcelJet
• Drew Holcomb

Resource of the Day 

• I Am A Creator Podcast

Thought of the Day

Links

• Nathan’s "About" Page
• Barrett’s "About" Page

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Quitting your job and being your own boss is something many creators dream about.  However, it’s not always clear when you should make that leap. 

Being self-employed is a big commitment and not something that should be taken lightly. There are a lot of factors in determining when and how you should quit your day job to pursue your own interests. 

In today’s episode, we tackle that question and talk about our own experiences with quitting our jobs and becoming self-employed. 

Main Takeaways

• Ask yourself why you’re quitting your job. You’re (likely) either running away from your job or running toward an idea. If you’re running away, you’re likely to end up in a similar situation. 
• Knowing what you are running toward is the best way to ensure you will have a shot at replacing your income and becoming independent. 
• There are four quitting scenarios, each with their own pros and cons. It’s important to analyze which one you’re pursuing and figure out how it fits into your life. 
  • Quit now, figure it out later.
  • Quit when you have a minimum viable income.
  • Delay quitting to some future date.
  • Don’t quit at all.
• Know your “why”. It should drive every other decision you make regarding your career path. If your “why” is unclear, it will be difficult to make any decisions. 

Creators of the Day 

• Moiz Ali
• Happy Happy Houseplants

Thought of the Day

Links

• Track Coronavirus Cases
• 5 ‘Whys’ Exercise

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In preparing for our board meetings this month, we started thinking about our business model and the role it’s played in our business development and growth. 

Developing a business model starts by getting into the mindset that you can and should charge people for the work you’re doing. Once you’re able to shift the way you think about charging for your work, the next step is to select the right business model. 

And it’s not just about choosing a business model, it’s about validating it as well. Testing your hypotheses and finding out if people will actually pay you for the thing you’re creating is even more important than the model itself. 

In today’s episode, we talk about building a business to serve your customers, picking one business model to start, testing your hypotheses, and more.

Main Takeaways

• When you build a business that exists to serve the needs of your customers, you can and should charge for the work you do. 
• Possible business models include: 
  • Services
  • Events and workshops
  • Digital products
  • Physical products
  • Advertising, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing
  • Software
• The business model you choose will greatly depend on the size of your audience—either the one you currently have or the one you want to build. Some businesses, such as coaching, only require a handful of customers, whereas something like software needs a larger number of customers to be successful.
• Creating a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) is the only way to test your hypothesis properly and determine if people will pay for what you’ve created. 

Creators of the Day 

• Casey Ames
• Ryan Essmaker
• Tina Essmaker

Thought of the Day

Links

• The Ladders of Wealth Creation: A Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth by Nathan Barry
• Harkla
• The Great Discontent: Ambition Issue

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Being a student isn’t just for the years you’re in school. There is always something to learn and new people to learn from, whether they are your junior, senior, or right on track with you. 

Mentors play a huge role in learning throughout life and provide immense opportunity for personal and professional growth. However, there are many other ways you can continue your education even if you don’t have access to a mentor. 

In today’s episode, special guest hosts Haley Janicek and Alexis Teichmiller talk about mentors, teachable moments, being intentional with your education, and why it's important to never stop being a student. 

Main Takeaways

• Mentorships are valuable, but most people think about mentors being someone older or more experienced. However, to be teachable, you should be open to learning from anyone, even if they are younger or different from you.  
• If you’re going to instigate a teachable moment, make sure the recipient is in a state of mind to properly receive said feedback and put it to use. 
• Having a conversation with someone who could offer you feedback in the future is a valuable way to find ways to improve. It’s important to find a mentor who has the experience to offer you but is not too busy or unattainable for conversations. 
• Being intentional about what you’re hoping to learn and incorporating it into your day-to-day is an excellent way to make sure your newfound knowledge or skills stick. 

Creators of the Day 

• Lala’s Fresh Pots
• Tezza

Resources of the Day

• Otter
• Zencastr

Links

• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
• Deeper Life Podcast

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In today’s Q&A Friday, we talk about the pros and cons of a generous affiliate program, marturing marketing channels, staying in your wheelhouse, managing your attention, and more!

• What are the pros and cons of running a 30 percent lifetime value affiliate program? If you could go back, would you recommend waiting until a particular MMR or do it no matter what?
• When are you going to buy Podia or create your own, integrated course platform?
• How do you manage your attention as your audience and customer-base grows?
• When someone fills out an NPS score and gives feedback, which scores should we focus on? Feedback of high score givers or that of low score givers?

Creator of the Day

• Nir Eyal
• Shannon Wild

Resource of the Day

• Indistracable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
• Project Wren

Thought of the day

(35:38) “Sit down and think about what you don’t want to be doing, where you don’t want to end up, and what failure looks like as a creator. Once you name it, it is less scary and it also allows you to design your life for the opposite. ” ~ @NathanBarry

Links

• Podia
• Charli Prangley
• Net Promoter Score
• Seth Godin
• Craft + Commerce 
• The Focus Course
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
• The Power of Anti-Goals: How I Designed My Perfect Day by Fixating on What I Hate by Andrew Wilkinson

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As creators, we put our work out there for public consumption. But sometimes that brings out the haters. Charli Prangley joins Nathan to discuss how to deal with haters and what we can do with negative feedback. 

Charli’s been making YouTube videos for nearly six years with a focus on design topics both practical and personal. With more than 150k YouTube subscribers, she’s gotten a lot of attention - positive and negative. 

Being open and transparent in your creative work will inevitably draw in people who want to comment on your process. It’s important to create a mindset and process to deal with potentially negative feedback. 

In today’s episode, we talk about preparing for negative feedback, how to redirect your anger and frustration, and how to manage unwanted attention. 

Main Takeaways

• There will always be certain topics that attract more negative attention than others. This varies by industry and topic, so it’s something to keep an eye on and be aware of with your audience.
• Being prepared for negative feedback and understanding that the person commenting only knows you from this snapshot of your life can go a long way in helping you process and move past the negativity.
• Having other creators to talk to can provide an outlet for frustration. It also helps you redirect your anger away from the person who made the comment. 
• Keep an archive of positive feedback. Being able to reference the good things people have said about you can remind you why you do what you do. 
• Use the block button liberally. It’s there for a reason and you decide what people can say in your space. Have a policy, make it clear, and enforce it. You can also delete comments as you see fit or reply to comments to educate people on why it’s not OK. 

Creators of the Day 

• Patricia Bright
• Sherry Walling, PhD

Resources of the Day

• The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together by Sherry Walling
• Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch

Thought of the Day

Links

• Sean McCabe
• Figma
• Charli’s Website
• Design Life Podcast
• Charli Marie TV
• Charli on Twitter

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Whether you already have a content strategy or are truly starting from scratch, today’s episode will provide you with the tools you need to create a content strategy that will move your business forward.

A solid content strategy is built from aligning topics and themes along a matrix. This is a great time to pull out your spreadsheets because the more buckets you can identify for your content, the more robust and intentional your strategy will be.

In today’s episode, we talk about the importance of understanding your audience, why creating an outline first is important, how content strategy is related to search marketing, and more!

Main Takeaways

• Be strategic about what you’re making and why you’re making it. Know your audience and your topic before you get started. 
• Great content is in-depth, searchable, and easy to understand and digest. Find a structure that fits you and your audience and stick to it. Creating an outline first can ensure that the creation process stays on track. It will also make longer content easier to write. 
• Find a publishing schedule that you can consistently commit to. How frequently you publish will partially dictate the actual content you produce. 
• Create a schedule and format that you are comfortable with. You want to play the long game with content, so it doesn’t serve you to try to do too much out of the gate. 
• Contribute your unique voice. Don’t just aggregate content, use your experiences and stories to add more value to your audience and to improve your organic search results. 

Links

• Tradecraft Blog 
• 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss 
• Pat Flynn
• James Clear
• Charli Prangley on YouTube

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Many of us set lofty goals and milestones but once we get there, is it enough? Do you know how much is enough for you? The balance between being grateful for what you have and striving for more or bigger goals can be tricky and is different from person to person. 

Appreciating your day and the work you’re doing is a big step in practicing gratitude regularly. It also helps you separate productivity from progress; they are not always the same. If you can take a few minutes to write down everything you’re grateful for, it will significantly improve your mental outlook and recharge your ability to drive toward your goals. 

In today’s episode, we talk about celebrating wins, comparing your progress to others, practicing gratitude, and how being content and being driven are not mutually exclusive.

Main Takeaways

• Being able to enjoy and learn from the journey allows you to be grateful for where you are while also driving toward new goals. 
• When you’re working to fulfill your hierarchy of needs (food, water, shelter, love, etc), it can be difficult to focus on gratitude over goals. 
• Take more time to celebrate wins. No matter how big or small, take a moment to celebrate what you’ve accomplished. 
• Every six months, ask yourself, “what’s one thing I’ve accomplished that I’m proud of?” Then make a plan to celebrate it with someone rather than keeping it inside. 

Creators of the Day 

• Alexis Gay
• John Krakauer 

Resources of the Day

• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster by John Krakauer

Thought of the Day

Links

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Basecamp

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Twitter is a place where you can meet really interesting people and is a great channel for sharing original content and ideas. It’s a platform where people are highly engaged and where conversations can evolve rapidly. 

We firmly believe that you should choose an appropriate channel outside of email to build your audience. Though the platform may change depending on the type of content you’re creating, we find that Twitter is the best for our audience and business. 

Though Twitter does have downsides, such as a significant amount of trolls and fully public conversations, you can make up for some of the downsides by being intentional about the people you follow and engage with.

In today’s episode, we talk about why we like using Twitter, how we use Twitter to expand our audience, and things you can do to use the platform effectively. We also talk about whether or not Twitter is still relevant among all of the other options available.

Main Takeaways

• You should pick at least one channel outside of email to help connect with and grow your audience. The platform you choose depends on your business and the type of content you produce. 
• Starting with Twitter allows you to see if an idea resonates with your audience in an outline format before spending the time and energy to create something more robust.
• Replying to people who have very large followings can bring visibility to your account and increase your followers. Especially when you can respond quickly and thoughtfully. 
• People follow faces, not logos. Be yourself and share what you’re interested in. 

Creators of the Day 

• Dan Carlin
• Keshna Donia

Resources of the Day

• Shower Arm + Flange

Thought of the Day

Links

• Goats on the Roof
• Naval Ravikant on Twitter
• AJ (founder of Carrd) on Twitter
• James Clear on Twitter
• David Perell on Twitter
• Alexis Gay on Twitter
• Cassidy Williams on Twitter
• Steve Schoger on Twitter

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