You Won’t Become a Successful Content Creator Until You Do the Things You Don’t Want to Do

Content creation is anything but easy

Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

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According this study, more than half of children aged 6–17 surveyed chose content creator as their most desired career. 99 percent of them are in for a rude awakening. I know because I’ve met their future selves many, many, many times. They almost always have the same mindset — the wrong one.

Whenever someone asks me how to be a successful writer, nine times out of ten they don’t really want to know. They want a response, but they really don’t want to know what it actually takes to succeed.

They want an answer that makes them feel good, even if it’s not the entire truth. They want a response, but they also want to filter out any advice that goes against what they want to hear. They want the easy way out.

These people are not going to make it.

I’ve been in this game for years. I’ve seen it eat up pretty much everyone who tries. You have to go through the wringer of tedium and do things that you don’t want to do so you can achieve your ultimate goal.

So today we’re not going to talk about the glitz and glamor that comes with creating content for a living.

If you’re serious, you’ll commit to paying the price and doing what it takes to create the career you dream of.

I’m not saying you’ll have to do everything on this list, but you’ll have to do a good chunk of it. Much of it you really don’t want to do.

You Have to Tame This Beast

I hear this a lot, particularly from older content creators who didn’t grow up in the tech era. They’ll say “I’m bad with technology” and claim they’re willing to create the content itself, but they struggle and procrastinate because they don’t know their way around a computer.

If you want to be a successful content creator, you have to be well-versed in technology. You don’t have a choice.

Creating my first WordPress blog was deeply frustrating, but now I understand WordPress like the back of my hand. I had to get the hang of email marketing software, landing pages, and basic design for lead magnets. To get my YouTube Channel up and running I had to learn camera settings, lighting, editing, properly tagging my videos, etc.

The good news? Most tech skills can be learned. You don’t need to know how to code. If you watch step-by-step instructional videos and follow them to the letter, you’ll be just fine. If you grow your income you can start to delegate certain tasks and outsource parts of your projects. But in the beginning, you have to learn these skills and there’s no way around it.

You Have To Do The Obvious

This seems a little bit ridiculous and obvious to say, but it needs to be said. If you want to be a successful content creator, you have to, you know, put your content out there.

There’s a certain type of content creator who always struggles and rarely succeeds. They have a bunch of ideas. They have a notebook filled with scribbles, drafts of their work, and half-baked unfinished products, but they don’t publish anything. They’re waiting to feel ready to publish, but the only way to feel ready to publish is to publish.

Seth Godin said it best:

Real artists ship

If you don’t ship, you don’t have a career. Get rid of this idea that getting your ducks in a row is making things better. It’s doing the opposite. You’re better off putting something out today instead of doing any learning or research. You’ve been in research mode for far too long, haven’t you? You have. So, ship.

You Must Be Willing to do This (No Exceptions)

The number one reason why people don’t ship their work? They are afraid to not just suck, but also they’re afraid to suck publicly. They’re afraid to ship poor-quality work and get called out for it. Guess what? That’s definitely going to happen.

It’s part of the process. It takes time to get good. If you’re not getting the results you want yet, it’s probably because your content sucks. It fascinates me to see so many beginning creators wondering why they’re not getting traction yet when it’s obvious. They suck.

To succeed as a content creator, you must embrace the suck. You have to bridge ‘the taste gap’ and work on your craft until it’s as good as you know it should be. You have to be willing to fail, miss, and fall flat on your face.

I often talk about the ’10 ideas’ processes I learned from James Altucher where you write 10 ideas every single day. The key to that process isn’t the good ideas, it’s the bad ones. Just like a salesman becomes successful by learning to fight through the no’s to get to the yes’s, successful content creators have to fight through the terrible ideas, drafts, and published works to reach mastery.

You Have to “Hustle”

For the launch of my last book, I individually reached out to 100 different creators to help promote it. I wrote individualized articles for each person — no copy and paste. I started sending promotional emails to my list six weeks before the book came out. To entice people to buy it, I created a free online course to give away as a bonus just for buying the book.

I emailed every single one of my friends and colleagues the day it came out. There’s an auto-responder on my email list that promotes the book when each person signs up.

During the launch, I lost an excessive amount of email subscribers because I sent tons of messages, sometimes twice in a single day. The sales of my last book alone are more than what I used to make at my full-time job.

You can’t be a successful content creator without promoting yourself. You have to learn how to market and sell your work. If you don’t want to do it, you will be broke. Simple as that.

You Have to Practice This Simple Yet Underrated Skill

There were so many times in my career when I didn’t want to listen and follow directions, but I did it anyway. I wrote an article for Smart Blogger once — one of the top writing blogs in the world.

It took six months from start to finish. I got paid, but by that point, it was essentially minimum wage. The editor at the time was ruthless — really hard on me. But, after going through the process, I was undoubtedly a better writer.

When I wrote my last book, I hired a top-notch editor and went through rounds with several editing teams. They tore my ideas to pieces, made me explain my reasoning, and had me delete and reconstruct large sections of the book. But I listened to them because they’ve helped other authors create best-sellers. I didn’t let my ego get in the way of being successful.

Throughout the process of building my career, I’ve gone through several how-to guides, videos, courses, etc that taught me lessons and skills that helped me build my career. I always did what the resources said, verbatim, without skipping any of the difficult steps.

You’ll want to skip steps. You’ll want to do the easy parts. You just want to sit down, start creating and have a bunch of raving fans out of nowhere. There’s an abundance of information on how to be a successful content creator. Much of it is free. But, unless you’re willing to take direction and advice, you’ll fail.

You Have to Create a S*** Ton

I always discourage people from trying to make a living as a content creator strictly for the money. Don’t get me wrong, you can get rich by creating content. But there are so many easier ways to make money if you just want money.

Now comes the thing most content creators don’t want to do. They don’t want to create a lot of content. I saw a writer complain about her lack of results and income after writing four articles. I commented on her post “write 96 more.” Ideally, she should write four hundred articles.

I’ve been writing every day for eight years. Writer’s block? Seth Godin has been publishing daily blog posts for 15 years. Look at any successful content creator’s archive and it’s 5–10 years deep.

You have to create consistently for years. There’s your answer. In the beginning, you’ll have to do it for free or little money. You’ll have to take exposure as payment for a while. You have to build up your audience. You have to experiment to find your voice, your sound, your visual appeal, your angle.

If you want to be a content creator so badly, your timeline should be the rest of your life. No need to be in a rush.

Final Thoughts

Here’s some sweetness to balance out all the sourness I just tossed your way. Being a full-time content creator is fun. It’s as cool as you think it is. I won’t downplay it to look humble.

Millions of people have read my words. That’s insane. I’ve damn near made a half-million dollars from putting words on a page. That’s ridiculous. People look up to me. I love it. I care about what I do and what I share with people. I’m blessed.

I was also you at one point. No fans, no money, nothing. Just a dream that seems crazy to most people in the world. Don’t get discouraged by people telling you that making content for a living is crazy. They’re right. It is crazy.

It’s also quite doable if you’re willing to do what it takes to get there. I want you to join me and it makes me super happy to see people break through the wall and do what they love for a living. I’m rooting for you.

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