I’m not the biggest content creator in the world, but I’ve done okay.
I’m one of the top 10 most followed writers on Medium with more than 92,000. Millions of people read my work each year. I do have plans to be an A-list creator one day. Guess we’ll see.
Anyway, I’ve seen so many people come and go in this game. I’ve studied the best of the best of the best. I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to succeed and what causes failure.
Regardless of the type of content they
create, the platform they choose to create on, or the size of their following, pretty much all top creators have these traits in common.
They’re naturally curious (and they follow that curiosity):
One of my favorite quotes comes from Naval Ravikant:
Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.
In my writing course, one of the questions I ask my students to help them figure out a writing topic is “What don’t you shut up about?”
If you want to be a successful content creator, find the overlap between things that fascinate you and things that fascinate other people. Even if it’s super-niche, you’ll find some like-minded people somewhere.
Make the stuff you want to make, but don’t forget to put it in front of the right audience.
They Have Natural Talent
It takes time to get good.
But, top creators are almost always kinda sorta good right away.
Top writers have always had a way with words. Top podcasters have probably been told they have a good voice and communicate well. As far back as I can remember, people have commented on my verbal skills in one way or another.
Practice helps you get (a lot) better, but if you want to be top-tier, natural talent matters.
We all intuitively understand this in other fields like athletics, but we don’t like to admit this when it comes to intellectual pursuits.
Just trying to be honest here. If you don’t intuitively understand the essence of creating content, it’s going to be a hard and long road.
Five to Ten Years of Experience
Go look at the archives of your favorite writer and you’ll see five to ten years of practice or more.
Mark Manson published the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck in 2016 — his first blog post came out in 2006.
Top female Youtube, Caeli YT, who has 15 million subscribers, made her first video 11 years ago.
If you look at the episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, shot more than a decade ago, you’ll see nothing close to the quality the show has now.
It takes ten years to become an overnight success in the content game.
Borderline or Total Obsession
I posted this Tweet the other day:
In this video clip from his interview with Joe Rogan, he talks about how he did nothing but study YouTube for 12-14 hours a day, every single day, for years.
He’d study thousands of thumbnails to see which one got the most clicks
He made his first video at 11 years old
He reinvested all of his YouTube earnings, starting with his first dollar earned, back into equipment and resources for his channel
He did it because he was obsessed, not because it was trendy. He started on YouTube when nobody was on YouTube.
He and four friends did daily masterminds for 1,000 days straight
He’d study the most absurd details about videos like how much the frame rate of each video affected views
He made no money on YouTube for the first five years
He didn’t drink, he didn’t go out, he didn’t date, and he didn’t do anything but learn how to make the best YouTube videos possible.
A lot of people want to be content creators, but they don’t want to make the sacrifices necessary to pull it off.
For years, I said no to everything that wasn’t writing. I didn’t drink, I didn’t watch T.V., I worked on my writing before my 9 to 5, on lunch breaks, weekends, holidays, you name it.
It was all I could think about. So much so that I cratered my marriage in the process and didn’t pay enough attention to my infant child.
I’m not saying obsession with your craft is healthy. It’s unhealthy. But, if you want to be great, it’s necessary.
Something About Them STANDS OUT
If I could teach you how to stand out, then standing out wouldn’t be valuable.
All I can do is teach you the basic fundamentals of a skill and let you figure out the rest by doing the work.
Yes, there are a bunch of marketing techniques and persuasive hooks you can use to grab attention, but those only get your foot in the door.
Your personality and your life experiences give you that edge. There are peculiarities about my writing style I developed unconsciously by writing a lot.
If you practice your craft relentlessly you’ll find your voice.
It’s so interesting to see how my writing students take my training in all sorts of different directions. This proves that you can learn a framework and run with it on your own.
You do this by:
Say what you really think. Give us your spicy takes
Tell interesting stories about your life
Throw in little references that amuse you just because they amuse you, which will make the small handful of people who are also amused your biggest fans
Learn the rules of your style of content and the platforms you create on first so you can break them later
Experiment. Try stuff and be willing to be wrong.
All the Top Content Creators Love The Game
You gotta love the game because the game is vicious.
I created this newsletter because there’s so much bullshit out there that makes it seem like the content game is an easy path to riches when it’s the exact opposite.
You have to do so much volume.
You have to create into the void.
You have to deal with the resistance in your mind that makes you feel like quitting all the time.
Love is the only force that would allow you to go through so much misery.
Get started…
Give yourself time…
After a while, assess whether or not you love the game.
Be brutally honest.
Act accordingly based on that answer.
Here are some links to other cool things you’ll enjoy:
Watch this webinar replay I co-hosted with Self-Publishing School to learn how to write a best-selling book
Take my free 5-day course that teaches you how to make a living writing on Medium
Buy my best-selling book - Real Help: An Honest Guide to Self-Improvement
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram because I create unique content on each platform
Great post, Ayodeji. I got to know about your substack recently (can't remember how, really), and yeah, you just got a loyal follower!
Looking forward to more content writing tips from your end.