The Future Belongs to Creators

As content creators, it’s our job to deliver value to our audience. And sometimes it's easy to dismiss entertainment as valuable.  But one of the shifts we saw in 2020 was a focus on more entertaining content across all types of media. 

And this raises the question, what is the place (and value) of entertainment in our lives and in the content we create? Is there a metric by which we can judge its value?

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss these questions, how the role of entertainment has changed in the past year, and what we, as content creators, should do about it.

Main takeaways

• The value of content  (education, relaxation, fun, motivation) is different for everyone. As creators, it’s important to let our audience decide what they want to get out of our content. Give them credit for how they choose to spend their time.
• It’s reasonable to expect that you should get paid for what you know. Charging for content can feel uncomfortable, but if you are creating something that people want to consume, they will support you. 
• An important piece of measuring the value of entertainment is understanding how the audience is connecting with that content at a particular place and time. 

Connect with our hosts

• Charli Prangley
• Miguel Pou
• Haley Janicek

Links

• Watch The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
• Casey Neistat
• The Sorry Girls
• ConvertKit Grow Your Audience Challenge
• Among Us
• Creator Sessions
  
  

Got a story to tell on The Future Belongs to Creators podcast?

We'd love to have you on the show to talk about successes or failures you've experienced on your creator journey. Submit your story here!

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Welcome to 2021! The new year brings with it a lot of changes and excitement for many of us, and The Future Belongs to Creators is no different. As we announced near the end of last year, Barrett and Nathan are retiring as full-time hosts of the show and the rest of the team at ConvertKit will be steering the ship into the new year.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel, the new hosts of The Future Belongs to Creators, discuss taking on the show and a new format, their insights for how to “make it” as a creator, and some exciting plans for the show moving forward. 

Our Hosts

• Charli Prangley
• Miguel Pou
• Haley Janicek

Links

• Watch The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
• Happy Happy Houseplant
• I am a Blogger Coffee Table Book
• ConvertKit Creator Sessions

Got a story to tell on The Future Belongs to Creators podcast?

We'd love to have you on the show to talk about successes or failures you've experienced on your creator journey. Submit your story here!

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

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It’s the last Q&A Friday of the year. It’s also the last episode with Nathan and Barrett as regular hosts.

After 97 episodes. Nathan and Barrett are handing over The Future Belongs To Creators to Charli Prangley, Haley Janicek, and Miguel Pou. Find out more about what’s coming to the show in Episode 96 — 2020 Recap.

In today’s episode, Nathan and Barrett discuss how and why to do year-end reviews, what it means to run a business ethically, how to build an audience from scratch, and more!

Today’s Questions

• How and why do you do your year-end reviews?
• What struggles do you face trying to do business ethically?
• Let’s say you’re starting from scratch in 2021. What are three things you would do to build an audience and stay motivated if audience growth is slow? 
• What is the best way to advertise my tutoring business on Facebook — ask people to message me or send them to a landing page?

Links

• Watch Episode 97 of The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
• Barrett’s Newsletters
• JOHNNYSWIM Creator Session
• Episode 72 of Future Belongs to Creators: How much should you give away for free as a creator?
• I Am A Blogger coffee table book
• Miguel Pou

Creators of the Day

• Brandice Daniel
• Haley Janicek
• Charli Prangley
• Isa Adney
• Henry Thong

Resources of the Day

• On Wings of Eagles: The Inspiring True Story of One Man's Patriotic Spirit--and His Heroic Mission to Save His Countrymen by Ken Follett
• I Am A Creator coffee table book from ConvertKit (forthcoming) — check the shop for availability

Thought of the Day

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With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

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Though 2020 threw curveballs for everyone,  there was still much to celebrate. From launching this podcast to finding ways to support creators through the pandemic, 2020 was a year of growth, change, and lessons learned.

Retrospectives are an important part of growth, and in this episode, Nathan and Barrett reflect on 2020, and its impact on them personally and for ConvertKit.

2020 Accomplishments

• Launched The Future Belongs to Creators podcast.
• Created a free ConvertKit plan. 
• Started the Creator Fund to help creators struggling from the impact of the pandemic. 
• Hired a VP of Product for ConvertKit.
• Started the Creator Sessions as a way to replace events during the pandemic. 
• Launched ConvertKit Commerce to help creators monetize their work. 
• Pushed ConvertKit closer to becoming the leading marketing platform for creators.

Links

• Watch Episode 96 of The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
• Creator Sessions
• The Creator Fund
• ConvertKit Commerce

Resource of the Day

• Art of Newsletters Podcast by  Nathan Barry

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

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It’s Q&A Friday. Today, Haley Janicek and Barrett Brooks talk about the lessons learned while growing ConvertKit, email sequences to nurture potential customers, when you should start thinking about producing original work, and more!

Today’s Questions

• What surprising lessons have you learned growing a software company?
• What kind of email sequence do you recommend after the three-email launch series — info email, email to destroy objections, or something else entirely?
• Is producing original work a worthwhile goal, either aesthetically or for business metrics? When/how does a creator move from derivative work to original work?
• What do you think most people fundamentally misunderstand?

Links

• Watch Episode 95 of The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Creators of the Day

• Klei Ceramics
• Creator Sessions: GoldFord 
• Dylan Tomine

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

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Skill or talent? Which one do you have, and more importantly, which one do you need to start a great creative business?

By working through several scenarios, we’ll help you begin to assess whether something is a skill or a talent. This is a great exercise to gauge how you think about the difference between the two and the importance of those differences. 

In this episode, Nathan and Barrett discuss the mental mindsets that push people to view things as skills and talents, how you can develop your skills, and what role passion plays in all of them. 

Also, a special announcement about the future of the show!

Main Takeaways

• Many people chalk up their ability to execute as a skill or talent because of past experience. 
• If you shift your mindset, you’ll shift your ability to do things. 
• Attributes aren’t the same as skills. They simply make learning a skill easier (or harder).
• Passion follows effort, not the other way around. True passion comes from being dedicated to something long enough to get good at it. 
• Parents can model for their children how to be exposed to different things and cultivate their child’s interests.

Links

• Figuring by Maria Popova
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport
• The Nathan Barry Show
  
  

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

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It’s Friday, which means that the ConvertKit team is answering your questions about life, business, and everything in between. 

Today, Haley Janicek and Miguel Pou talk about what it’s like to change careers, what can be learned from producing Creator Sessions, the future of Creator Sessions, and more! 

Today’s Questions

• Why is it important to take risks and follow what you know to be the right thing as a creator?
• Can you talk more about going from being a teacher to working with ConvertKit?
• How do you get started as a creator when it goes beyond just honing your craft?
• What are your top three lessons from producing Creator Sessions?

Links

• Happy Happy Houseplants
• Vintage Revivals
• Creator Sessions with Ingrid Andress
• Creator Sessions with Mat Kearney
• Corpse Husband

Creators of the Day

• I Like to Make Stuff
• Walk With Me by GoldFord
  
  

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

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When you sit down on a given day, how do you decide what to work on? There are all kinds of activities you can do in your business, but they are not all created equal. 

This is especially important as a creator, because there are so many different hats to wear, and it’s so easy to get lost in busy work, or “$10/hr work”. There are many activities that trick you into thinking they are valuable, when in fact, they are not. 

In this episode, Nathan and Barrett discuss how to get the most leverage out of your time, how to accomplish a lot with limited resources, what are the highest-leverage for creators, and more. 

Main Takeaways

• Leverage is anytime the output is greater than the input. This is what you should be looking for everywhere in your creative business. 
• Leverage isn’t always about monetary outcomes. You could be pursuing the mission of your creative business. 
• High skill, high leverage work can take a long time to pay off because there’s so much work that needs to go into it. 
• Building your network can be one of the highest leverage actions you can take. It builds your reputation and what you create can turn into your resume.
• Always ask what the highest leverage version of the task you are about to perform is before you dive in. 

Links

• The Magic of Doing $10,000 per Hour Work
• Creator Sessions
• Ami Vitale
• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
• Matt Ragland

Creators of the Day

• ConvertKit Creator Session: Look Through the Powerful and Raw Lens of Award-Winning Photojournalist, Ami Vitale
• Ernest Cline

Resources of the Day

• For All Mankind
• Personalized note cards or birthday cards — a great way to maintain relationships!

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

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It can be difficult to walk the line between being a normal person and a brand. There’s a lot of introspection and thought that goes into how you want to present yourself to the world, and if you don’t have a plan ahead of time, it can add additional stress and frustration to your life as a creator. 

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Charli Prangley to talk about the pros and cons of developing your personal brand and how to decide how much you want to share.

Main Takeaways

• People become interested in who you are if you’re a personal brand. Sometimes this can lead to feeling less secure, but there are steps you can take to minimize personal risk. 
• It can be difficult at times to not let your very existence be part of “work” if you are your brand.  Find time to turn it off. 
• To be successful, you have to choose how much of yourself you want to share. Ask yourself what your self-brand would look like and how much you want to share.
• Don’t self-sabotage. It can be easy to doubt yourself or your own success.

Links

• Paul Jarvis
• Searching for Dave Chappelle by Jason Zinoman
• Corpse Husband
• Charli Prangley on Twitter

Creators of the Day

• Hannah Lee Duggan
• Austin Church
  
  

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

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It’s another Q&A Friday! In this episode, Nathan and Barrett answer your questions about sources of inspiration, prioritizing mental health, goal planning, native mobile experiences, and more!

Today’s Questions

• What’s it like to hop back on the content treadmill with the paid newsletter? Where can we draw inspiration from?
• Could you describe the process for planning out your key goals, objectives, and KPIs for 2021 at ConvertKit? How does your current process differ from the plans you made back in the "creator days"?
• How do you each prioritize your mental health amidst work priorities, family needs, and outside challenges this year has thrown at us?
• In the future, do you see ConvertKit offering a native mobile experience (app) for ConvertKit creators with a focused set of easily accessible productivity/analytics features?

Creators of the Day

• I Am A Creator Podcast with Bonnie Christine
• Bonnie Christine
  
  

Start building your audience for free

With ConvertKit landing pages, you can build a beautiful page for your project in just a few minutes. Choose colors, add photos, build a custom opt-in form, and add your copy. All without writing any code! Check out landingpages.new to get started.

Stay in touch

• Apple Podcasts
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• Twitter
• Facebook
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