How to Build Resilience with a Smarter Creative Ecosystem (Never Go "All-In" On One Platform)
Box Cutter Co. Free Issue No. 79
Have you seen the latest news? A potential ban on TikTok in the US! đ”
Social media alight with ranting and raving about âlost revenuesâ and various other entitled perspectives of âIâve earned this!â
Add to this, recently, writers on Medium aghast, angry, and ranting about changed algorithms and declining earnings!
Many posting their shock, dismay, and public departure from the platform.
âI deserve more!â
âI demand answers Medium CEO!â
âI deserve to make the same monthly earnings as I have for the past 6 months!â
Sure, I get it.
Feeling like youâve built something, made a few dollars, and then things change can be frustrating.
But all this performative exiting, shouting, and ranting is basically like the proverbial kid leaving the neighbourhood game with their ball because the rules (or outcome) are no longer to their liking.
âFine, I quit⊠Iâm not playing anymore! AND! Iâm taking my ball, too!â
Can you hear the stomping and pouty bottom lip?
In this case, itâs more like:
âIâm taking my keyboard and leaving!â
But thenâŠ
I look at Notes (on Substack) as they flare up with declarations from some of the same creative types:
âIâm going ALL IN on Substack!â
âThis is where Iâm going to build my writing empire!â
The ironic absurdity is a bit much.
The issue isnât this or that platform⊠itâs a universal principle. Itâs called Change.
If thereâs one thing we can rely on, itâs this: change is the only constant.
This universal truth applies to everything in lifeâand nowhere is it more evident than on social media platforms.
Letâs not forget:
The recent uproar about Facebook and Instagram this week as they tweak their rules on âfree speechâ
The Musky purchase of Twitter and its transformation into X causing a mass exodus and a flurry of debates over its direction. Matched with many voicing their performative exits recently because Musk is too close to TrumpâŠ
The death (or near-death) of countless platforms that once dominated the digital landscapeâVine, MySpace, Tumblr
Platforms come and go. Algorithms evolve. Policies shift.
AI advances will blow it all up. And, in their place, new platforms, new approaches, new algorithmsâŠ
Creators who rely solely on a single platform for their distribution, revenues and visibility are left scrambling, adapting, and rebuilding with every change.
The Solution? A Smarter Creative Ecosystem
As I wrote in the last issue:
âŠecosystems donât simply emerge out of nothing fully formed. They need a foundationâcreative infrastructureâto support growth, sustainability, and longevity.
Building ârelationshipsâ between your work and multiple platforms (e.g., creative infrastructure) is the key to building a creative ecosystem.
Social media platforms are for distribution, having a voice in âmarketsâ, and connecting with others who may become part of an audience that resonates with your ideas, values, and work.
Building on one platform is like investing all your retirement savings in one publicly-traded company. (or Bitcoin)
Going all-in on one platform is likeâŠ.
âŠhaving a toolbox with only a hammer
âŠrunning a hospital on only one power source
âŠbuilding a symphony with only one instrument
⊠training for a marathon by running 100m sprints repeatedly.
You get my drift.
The Problem with Platform Dependency
Relying too heavily on one platform is like planting your entire garden on a single patch of rocky soil. When the weather changesâalgorithms shift, bans emerge, trends fadeâit all withers.
TikTok creators are scrambling to âdiversifyâ their presence because their single microphone is now obsolete.
Writers on Medium fret over falling views and are questioning the worth of staying on the platform. (or performative exiting⊠with a shout and a pout).
This isnât new.
Platforms change â constantly.
For example, when I first started on Medium in June 2022 â the many stories and glory days of pandemic times where some writers made six figures on the platform â still circulated.
(I still see these floating around from time to time. False credibility markers and false advertising for the latest âHow to make (real) money on Mediumâ courses)
When I began focussing more energy on LinkedIn in the fall of 2022, the mythological stories of Justin Welsh and his solopreneur success were circulating rampantly. (they still do)
Or, Mr. Beast on Youtube.
Various Instagram influencers.
And so on, and so on.
The question is:
Have you built a creative ecosystem to weather storms, changes, and shutdowns?
Or are you tethered to the whims of a single platform, hoping the algorithms stay in your favour?
Youâve probably read this before â social media platforms are rented digital real estate.
Itâs like taking your fruits and vegetables to a farmerâs market and renting a stall to sell your wares. Your future is tied to being able to rent that space to make your revenues.
The social media company is the landlord, and it has a relationship with government regulations (and subject to government changes).
Building a creative business (wisely) should never be about hitching your future to the rise and fall of one digital tool. Thatâs like expecting the one horse you hitch your wagon to⊠to stay alive forever.
Want to build something lasting, diverse, and sustainable?
Build and design resilient, flexible, and expansive systems.
If your creative work exists only on borrowed digital spaces, youâre always one policy change away from collapse.
What could (or does) that ecosystem look like for you?
What Is a Smarter Creative Ecosystem?
A creative ecosystem isnât just a collection of accounts or tools. Itâs a living system full of many relationships.
Every part connects and supports.
Your ideas feed your platforms, and your platforms feed each other.
Your audience grows through these connections, not through âall-inâ precarious efforts â Or scattered, flitting sprints.
At the foundation of this ecosystem lies creative infrastructureâsystems that sustain your work:
Systems for generating, refining, and storing ideas.
Strategies for publishing and promoting your work.
Tools that ensure consistency without burning out.
Mindsets to ebb and flow with the ups and downs of creative enterprises
This isnât about speed
Itâs about flow, flexibility and long-term stability. (And sometimes⊠speed is a nice unintended consequence)
Unfortunately, too many folks seem to be focused on the âgrowthâ aspectâŠ
The âI just reached 30 gazillion followers⊠crowdâ
Cool, however, this does not equate to stability nor sustainability. (It also kind of sounds like a cultâŠ)
Yeah, sure, go All-In on Substack⊠just recognize itâs propped up by private seed- capital investments that are looking for solid returns on their $100 million
(And, we can be confident there are timelines attached to those returns)
Platforms come, and platforms go.
Build Resilience and Autonomy with Wiser Choices
Building resilience, stability, and autonomy means shifting focus away from the quick and the viral. The âgrowâ only approaches (I see much of this on Substack today).
Consider trying these:
1. Anchor Your Work Across Multiple Platforms
Stop chasing metrics on a single platform.
Use core platformsâLinkedIn, Substack, Medium, X, Instagramâto create interconnected layers of distribution and connection â as well as actual and potential audiences
Boats donât fasten themselves to docks with only one rope.
2. Create Educational Content That Lasts
Email courses, frameworks, guidesâthese are products and assets (like nutrients in your creative ecosystem)
Educational posts and products build trust, authority, and long-term value (well after theyâre created and posted)
Identify challenges youâre facing, dig into the solutions, share and teach how you did it (thatâs the basic underlying principle of Box Cutter Co.)
3. Prioritize Energy Over Output
Burnout collapses creative output and distribution â fires can assist in re-generating ecosystems but incinerate infrastructure (find balance!)
Design systems protecting and sustaining your energy: clear boundaries, deliberate rest, and alignment with values and principles (e.g., Soulpreneur)
4. Think Systematically, Not Transactionally
Every post, article, and product should connect to the whole.
Ensure your work builds momentum, not just noise.
Donât rush into âsellingâ
Personal Examples
I manage the majority of our household investments. Registered retirement plans and a locked-in retirement accounts.
I lost about $10,000 this past year on one of our investments. An IT-based medical records company.
When I invested, I knew there were risks. I didnât consider the risk of the company going from public to private.
When it did, shareholders were paid out dimes to the dollar. Ouch!
However, my approach to investing involves holding the majority of stock investments in relatively stable companies, especially those that pay dividends. I then have some more risky investments with the potential for big upside (and downside).
Our overall holdings are still up significantly because Iâve diversified our investments. For example, our Nvidia holdings are up massively from when I purchased them over 5 years ago.
These holdings alone make up the loss from the health records company that went private.
I use the same principles for building a creative ecosystem.
The Box Cutter Co. Creative Ecosystem
I invest in platforms that produce good results while theyâre producing good results.
Box Cutter Co. is centred on Substack, but I also cross-pollinate on Medium and my website.
LinkedIn has worked great for me for the past two years. One of my core services and Ghostwriting clients reached out on LinkedIn based on content I was posting.
I also post on X, Instagram, and Threads, and I have started posting more frequently on Facebook.
Sometimes, I start with short posts (on X) that then become longer LinkedIn posts, which become Box Cutter Co. issues â and vice versa.
Sometimes, long form gets broken into smaller pieces.
I promote Box Cutter Co. issues across multiple platforms. I recently started a publication on Medium called Box Cutter Co. I cross-post there and post new, original articles.
We (my wife,
and I) also have a Humanity Academy publication on Medium and a dedicated writing account called âThe Learning Journals Initiative.âAlmost all of these posts and writings link to or directly address our multiple educational email courses and our growing portfolio of courses on the Humanity Academy Virtual Campus (hosted on Thinkific).
All live within my (and our) ecosystems, each feeding into the next. And, just like any healthy ecosystem, when projects or products die, they feed the next generation of initiatives and projects â like a tree that dies and falls in the forest.
This system isnât about being everywhere. Itâs about ensuring that wherever I am, Iâm building something connected, something sustainable, something lasting.
What Would Change for You?
Imagine this:
Substack disappears or gets bought by Facebook.
Medium goes bankrupt (it is a private company).
LinkedIn gets shut down because itâs deemed a monopoly (on empty, âIâm humbled and honouredâ posts đŹđ)
Would your creative work survive?
With a smarter creative ecosystem, it wouldnât just surviveâit could potentially thrive.
Think long-term. Build intentionally. Be diverse, build in fluidity and flexibility.
Whatâs one step you can take to build resilience and autonomy into your creative ecosystem?
Or, maybe you already have â care to share?
Popular Course Opened for FREE Enrolment
Maybe youâve seen this, maybe you havenât.
We just opened one of our flagship courses on our Virtual Campus to Free enrolment for the next 27 days.
Itâs a 3-Module, 9-lesson course on our Virtual Campus.
It builds off of the very popular Free 5-day email course The Learning Journals Crash Course.
No spam. The only catch is we want your feedback and critique. Weâre working on several follow-up courses related to this one đ
I agree with you. If you are dependent on only one platform than you are one policy away to put your âDIGITAL EMPIREâ into shambles. What matters is building a loyal audience and also polishing your skills. When you have reached a certain level of stagnation in your growth chart, move forward. Change is a constant.