Essential Advice For Beginner Creators in 2024

The first thing, this is relevant mostly to younger people, but certainly in all aspects and maybe even actually now I think about it, maybe even more so if you're older, this is a mental game first. Creating content is a mental game. Most importantly, if you're starting to become a creator, like it's not a common profession, right? Like your friends that you sit around with on weekends watching football or go on hikes with or ride bikes with, like whoever your friend group is and what they do, most of them aren't creators, right? So when you come out and say like, oh, I want to start making videos, you're gonna get like, yeah, roasted, they might make fun of you.

Yeah. And even though it's become way more like acceptable and like mainstream to do these, to do these things, I'm the only person in my friend group that does this as like as a career, or even as a side hustle. I don't— there's nobody like in my friend group. And now I'm older. But even though it's become more common, it's still not common.

Yeah. So I'll sit around with my friends on weekends like, oh, I do supply chain for an auto parts thing, or, oh, I work in HR, or, oh, I'm still in med school. And like, the idea of being a creator is just so foreign to them. It's— I got a text from like an old friend. It's like, hey dude, nice podcast. Like when we launched this, those kinds of stuff, those kinds of things are going to pop up. And if you can't handle like the fact that other people are going to like quote unquote, like, make fun of you or roast you or joke about it or even, like, seriously just, like, condemn you. Oh, you want to be a creator? That's the very first step. And I said this before on the show, this was really hard for me to get past. Like, if I were to go all the way back, I made gaming videos as a little kid, call it, like, middle school, early high school. If someone at school found out, that would have been, like, DEF CON 1. Like, I— it would have been terrible. Like, I was so, so insecure. I feel like I'm listening to a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. Literally, like, it literally is like that.

Someone found out. I'm going to do it.

If someone found out, it would be terrible, right? In college, you know, I got more confident, got a girlfriend, like I had all the pieces in place and I was much more confident in myself. I was like, I want to make videos and like, I don't care what these people from my past, like, whatever, think about it.

A flip side of that, obviously keep your friends like, you know, don't just have like nothing but content creator friends because like the flip side of that, once you've like gotten over the initial like roasting and that will, that will still come in some ways, be like, you know, Hey, dude, I like that stupid face that you made on your thumbnails. Like, hey, man, that stupid face, clickable, clickable face, not punchable, clickable face, is that your friends who don't do this will be such a good counterbalance to like, you not getting like too wrapped up in the content creator world that when you like hang out with your friends, and they're like, in HR, or sales, or they're doctors, they're, you know, they're dentists, they're doing like all these things. There's like, yeah, man, you know, there's, there's plenty, plenty of good ways to make money. And, you know, Matt talked about that also, like in our interview with Matt, that really stood out to me. He's like, hey, you know, there, if you're in this just to make money, then there are lots of other ways that are way more chill to make money. And your friends will be like a good counterbalance to your, you not getting too big of a head or getting too much into like content mode that you like forget what other people are like going through and how they're living life.

Yeah. And you mentioned it like Greg Eisenberg, Jason Levin both say this all the time. Like cringe is the new cool. Like if you're doing this and it's cringy, that's, you know, that you're on the track to do something like well. There's two very big short-form creators from my hometown who make some of the cringiest content you will ever see. Like it's, you and I both, anyone listening would just be like, oh, what are these? What are these people doing? But you know what's not cringy is that both of them are pulling in $40K a month at least. From their content. So like, how much can you like shit on them if they're not going— if like, if they're making that much money? Yeah. You know, like obviously there's some— there are certain things you don't want to do for $40,000 a month, even to the people in your life. Most of us people listening, if you're making that kind of money, nothing you're doing is cringe. It's cool. And I'm constantly looking for the point in which the dollar amount or the follower amount, like at what point does it go from cringe to cool in the minds of these like skeptical friends or not friends, you know?

Yeah, I think it was— it's been in a couple of books. I think it's the one that I'm thinking of is I think it's Millionaire Mindset. T. Harv Eker, I think, is the name. Another book like this is You're a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. And they both have like a version of this same quote, which is, I'd rather be really corny than really rich than really cool and really poor. And like, there's like a version of that. And what you're saying is like, hey, Yeah, if you want to be kind of corny cringe, I think that's what you're talking about, like kind of corny cringe and like be raking it in, then hey, like, go for it.

Just in a vacuum. If you're making videos and not making money, that's like cringe to people. But if you're making videos and are making money, then that, then it isn't right. Or even writing online, like whatever. To wrap it all up, you have to get over the fact that you're going to get judged for this. People are going to DM it on Instagram to people, or you're going to run into these initial barriers of like, 'Oh crap, the people in my life are making fun of me for this,' or, 'What are people going to think?' And if I know the main reason that this is number 1 is because there's so many people in my life who cannot get over this. It's like, oh, like, that's the thing is like if someone reaches out to me, I want to start making content and then they don't, like, that's often the reason why is like they couldn't even, they couldn't put something out there to the point where they want people to see it. Or if they do and it doesn't, their friends don't like it, then it's just over for them.

Right.

And I don't want that for you.

Yeah. Don't want that either. You gotta, you gotta tough it out. You gotta take some of the hits. Uh, that's one of the tests. That's one of the tests that just like all of us kind of go through is, can I get over the people in my life who aren't going to be a fan of this for me? And if you want it enough and you're okay with it enough, then like, just keep going. Just keep going, y'all.

My next one, more tailored towards younger creators, because if you're a professional, you've had jobs, maybe you want to create content or that's semi-related to the topics and the industries that you work in. But if you're a younger creator, there's two parts of this, but under the same umbrella of like, don't be someone you aren't. And more specifically, I mean, let's start with the first one. Like, don't be an expert when you aren't. This was a major mistake for me. When you're young, you think you know everything. Like, I'll say that as a young person, like there's been many things that I— You think yourself. Yeah, you think myself here. I thought I knew how to create these outcomes for clients or myself, like make videos that would go viral. My first YouTube video I made when I rejoined in college went viral. So I thought I had all the answers. It turns out I was just paralyzed and I didn't have any of the answers. So if you're a writer, like young writers who think they're experts use a bunch of big words in their writing to sound smart. You try to teach things that you haven't lived through. And my friend Jay Yang, who's younger than me, I'm pretty sure he's 18. Uh, I saw him like he clearly changed his content and blew up and he used a phrase called earned insights. That's, that's what he called it. Or I don't know if he got that from somewhere, but as an 18-year-old for him, like you only know like what you're doing, right? And you can share what you're doing. And everything changed in my style when I can only talk about the things that I have actually done, the projects I've actually worked on, the clients that I've actually had. As a younger creator, don't be an expert because like you don't, Like if you're speaking from the authority you don't have, everyone can tell and your content won't do well and you just, uh, it doesn't work. So Matt, I'll leave you there, but there's a, there's a second part to it too.

Yeah. The other, the other part of this, and I'm glad you brought it up, is that, you know, when you are at a, like good advice, I'll just kind of, I'll just kind of tag on here. I wasn't thinking about this, but since you said like when you're younger, you haven't built up that earned insight, that like expertise just yet, you, you don't have, like, unless you were a college athlete or something, you want to talk about something in terms of like, you know, fitness, then okay. Um, but with when you are a professional and you've been working at a particular job for a number of years, usually a really good place to start sharing content is about the thing, you know, assuming like a contractor and non-compete doesn't prevent that, sharing content about the thing that you have already spent a number of years working on. This is why, like, the— I started— I've done a lot of things in, in life, in my career, but the one that I have, like, built the most expertise on is— it started with my work at ConvertKit and then at Podia. So I worked at startups with creators on email marketing, on course launches, on podcasts, like on all of these things. It wasn't just that I was doing it as a side hustle. I was like, The side hustle started because I was already doing some of these things. And I was saying like, hey, here's a great way to get email subscribers. Here's how you can write a newsletter. Here's how you like set up automations. These were things that I had already like built an expertise on. So if you're like, if you're an accountant, if you like are good with Google Sheets, if you are like, what are the things that you already have a level of understanding and expertise in? And then start to talk about that online as the first, like your first foray into content. Justin Welsh likes to say like you probably have $100,000 of ideas sitting in your brain that you think is totally normal and not like not special at all, but it's just like literal dollars in forms of products and content are just sitting there because you've already done, you've already done the work, you've already built up the expertise. You just don't realize it yet.

Yeah. I'm thinking of our guy Casey on our creator team and I was listening right now and his newsletter is called Fit Dad Life. Guess what? He's a fit dad. You know, like his life has informed the content that he talks about. He's an expert, right?

Yeah. I mean, the other thing about Casey, just as a, as a quick add-on is like, he's an automation, like project management wizard. And like, he could just as easily talk about how he understands like tools and integrations and automations and project management. He could talk about that just as easily as he could being, being a fit dad.

Yep. And the other part for younger creators, like first part, don't be an expert. Second part, don't be an idol when you aren't. I'm sorry, nobody is trusting a 22-year-old life coach. Nobody's trusting the 18-year-old who's flashing, flashing his dad's car keys and showing you how to make $20K a month.

I thought you were going to bring that up. Yeah.

The one that kills me the most is like these kids who are obviously posting pictures like from a family vacation and it's like they, it's like they're like flashing like their watch that they got for Christmas and like their dad's car. It's like Drake has a lyric of like, posting pictures from vacations you took years ago or something like that. Like, um, that, that always kills me. And like, there's a very strong incentive as a younger creator to look like you have it all figured out, right? Like, you want to be the person these kids look up to. I made a video, we talked about it, like, uh, the 18-year-old who can show you how to make $20K a month with their high-ticket coaching. I had a kid reach out to me, his name's Parker. He's like, hey dude, I'm following you on everything because I really love that video you made. I used to look up to creators like that and I realized that they don't like, A, have the things that they say they have or the businesses that they say they do. And B, like, I don't want to be like that. I just want to help people. And getting messages like that obviously is a great feeling, but it's true. Like if you are in this age group of like, I'll say under 26, maybe like you'll, you'll see these people who look like they have it all figured out. You follow these YouTubers who are living your dream life and you're just like, If I act like them, if I fake it till I make it, then I get to become them. People believe me and buy from me, and then all of a sudden I have what I wanted. The real way is to just like talk about the things that interest you, talk about what you've learned, document the process. Like, people want to follow along with you to get there, or they won't believe that you are there if you're not. So don't be an expert, don't be an idol. Those are my two pieces of it. My last one is that I see a lot of my friends who wanna become creators and they only know like the art side of being a creator and they don't know the business side of being a creator. And I would encourage—

Gosh, that took me so long to figure out.

Exactly. Like I would encourage those specific people. I mean, I can name 'em if you want. Like don't get so hung up on making art that you forget to run the whole business side of this. And friends who wanna make the best looking videos, write beautiful words, create content for these famous athletes and artists who like you actually can get in the door there and make a lot of money, but it's so hard and like you should chase it, but you can't sustain it if you're not making money from it. Like there's nothing glamorous about a suffering creator who chased their passion so hard that they can't afford to eat, right? Like people say the same thing about artists, but like becoming a creator is the business side of it too. Like chase all these things you want to do, but you have to have the income. To do it. And if you can make that income come from your creative work, it keeps you in the game much, much longer. And Matt, Matt talked about this like you do what keeps you creating. And I would encourage like the business side of it to like come underneath the work that you're doing.

It makes me think of, well, a couple of things. My, my friend Jeff Goins, one of my favorite books of his, he's an author in Franklin, Tennessee, not, not too far out of Nashville. And he's one of my oldest internet friends. But one of my favorite books of his is called Real Artists Don't Starve. And I was like, oh, that's such a good title. Such a good title. He told me that. I mean, it was like, you know, 7 years ago at this point. I was like, that's, that's the best title you've come up with. I really liked that. And it also, it makes me think about, you know, sometimes you got to, sometimes you got to pay the bills to do the art. Like, I just got done. I'm so glad I have a chance to talk about this in just a little way. Like this week I finally watched Dune 2 and Dune 2 was incredible. And it is like, I think it's a great movie. I have very few notes, very few nits to pick. But, you know, actors do this all the time. They make the really big movie that's going to pay them a lot of money so that they can go out and do the arthouse movie next so that they can do an A24 movie and be like, you know, take, take less money, still a good bit of money, but take less money for them to be able to do an art film that they feel really strongly about. And so like, don't lose sight of that as a creator. Like, there is a business side, there is a monetization side. Like, don't feel feel like you have to make or take less money. Like, that was a big eye-opener for me as well. Took me years to figure that out.

You see this in like entertainment or fashion or like niches that aren't like entirely connected to revenue. Like when you watch sports, you're not thinking about making money from watching sports. When you are into fashion, you're not, you're thinking about spending the money on the clothes. You're not thinking about like becoming a fashion creator, right? Same thing with tech in a sense. Like you can, like you want to be these things and you wanna chase it down so hard, but like if you're not making the money, gaming, same way. Like if you're not making the money to support the thing that you actually want to do from the thing, you have to find the way to make the money doing it. And for some that's only YouTube or that's only donations on like livestreams and stuff like that. I don't, that's a world I don't know too much about, but You have to have the money part of it, right? You— like, real artists don't starve. Like, that's— if I were to rewrite what I have on my screen, that's how I would phrase it. So what a title.

Great title. Shout out to Jeff.