The Art of Balance—Aligning Lifestyle and Business in the $250 Billion "Creator Economy"
The Solopreneur Series Issue #4
The New York Times ran an article today: For Content Creators, It’s the Wild Wild West. The article is based on a meeting of some top minds in the space.
One of my favourite quotes:
“From our perspective, in order for the creator economy to thrive, you’ve got to help more creators understand that they are actually businesses,” said Sima Gandhi, who co-founded the financial services company Creative Juice…”
Similarly, Goldman Sachs reported on this earlier in the year. The creator economy could approach half-a-trillion dollars by 2027.
“Individual people with their own brands and online audiences have emerged as one of the biggest developments of the digital age.
The ecosystem is expanding for a number of reasons, including the increase in digital media consumption and the advent of technology that has lowered barriers to content creation…”
In a late October article fromThe Washington Post— Millions work as content creators. In official records, they barely exist —
…estimates reveal platforms like YouTube are not just digital stages but economic powerhouses, supporting more jobs than some traditional industries — like General Motors, for example.
In the United States, the video giant YouTube estimated that roughly 390,000 full-time jobs last year were supported by its creators’ work — four times the number of people employed by General Motors, America’s biggest automaker.
…
YouTube’s report estimated its creators contributed $35 billion to the country’s gross domestic product last year, a figure that would rank the group’s combined output ahead of U.S. furniture manufacturing but behind rail transportation.
Yet!
In this fluid economy (or sector) many creators find themselves on a tightrope, balancing creative freedom with the whims of algorithms and platform policies and changes. Think of X (Twitter) with many projecting collapse soon.
It's a slippery realm where rapid follower growth doesn't always translate to revenue, and where personal resilience and strategic adaptation become key to thriving. And, in my experience, there’s no question there are a lot of slippery operators and flimsy ethical approaches to sales.
In this issue of The Solopreneur Series I cover some intricacies of monetizing in a world where content is king-queen-monarch — and where your approaches to “growth” can define your success — but also push on your values and morals.
In this issue, exploring some of the many diverse pathways to monetization and the growing Art of building a Solopreneur business that aligns with your life, not the other way around.
Keep reading for two key takeaways from the articles above.
Paths to Monetization in a Diverse ‘Creator Economy’
Monetization within the Creator Economy is as diverse as the creators and platforms themselves. The opportunities for income and business building are vast and wide-ranging. But to do it in ‘a good way’ takes some time, experimenting, iterating, and a whole lot of patience and perseverance.
My approach to generating revenue (e.g. monetizing) has focussed on slow, steady, sustainable growth. I find little need or logic in rapidly expanding connections or followers on social media platforms.
Followers and likes simply don’t equate to revenue. There’s more to the equation.
The one exception I find currently is Medium.
Medium is the message?
I’ve been a Medium member for about 18 months, but actively engaged in building on the platform for only 11 months. In that time, I’ve gone from 100 to 5,600 Followers.
I’ve also gone from $3/month in my first month of earnings (last Dec) — to over $400 US this past month. (Here in 🇨🇦 that’s over $550.)
This past week I published my 250th story, with a few ‘Boosted’ ones now earning over $150 each. Including one that just got Boosted last night— related to this topic. (image below is ‘Friend Linked’ - so you don’t have to be a Medium member)
“Boosting” is a program Medium launched this past year. It’s intended to provide more reach and publicity for stories deemed worthy of Boosting. This includes potential impacts on readers, craftsmanship, quality, and lack of AI or ML use in writing.
It makes a significant difference in distribution. For example, look at these stats from my Medium account. Each big peak is the day a story got Boosted. And today is no different (on the far R. at midday)
It also makes a huge difference in earnings.
Rapid growth of Followers is important on Medium, as earnings are calculated by the number of reads on your stories along with the connected engagement (claps, highlights, etc).
Basic equation = Achieving decent earnings requires eyes on your content. Having a large following assists with that.
However, Medium also has some wonky ways of going about things (or the appearance of). For example, the distribution of stories to one’s Followers. It’s not like X (Twitter) or LinkedIn.
The key on Medium, in many ways, is not all that different than Substack or building online in general - build an email list!
On Medium, readers can opt-in to be emailed every time you publish a story. This will significantly increase attention and reads — especially on stories that are not Boosted.
A Multi-platform & Multi-interest Approach in the “Creator Economy”
I’ve been free and clear of the cubicled world of the public sector for about 20 months now.
Right around 12 months ago, I landed my first services contract doing some ghostwriting, grant writing and research for a non-profit organization. That expanded quite rapidly into a year-long contract.
Not long after that, I secured another contract (6 months long) assisting a multi-disciplinary health clinic in establishing an online learning platform and launching a couple of online courses.
My services work has facilitated monthly incomes of between $10k-$15k
My goal is to get those to $20k per month by the first or second quarter of 2024. However, I want to ensure that part of the Solopreneur business is supporting the lifestyles we want to lead — not the reverse.
See The Solopreneur Series Issue #3 (The Value of Slow Growth in Building a Sustainable Solo Business) for more on the philosophy behind this.
I’m also fortunate, in that the services work I provide, I love doing. But I love researching, writing and publishing even more.
Building a Media and Content Writing Business
The services foundation of my Solopreneur business is what pays the bills. Thankfully I enjoy the work, and it takes about half the hours I used to work in healthcare. This work then pays for my real passion. Writing and publishing.
As the contract work moves along, I also keep writing, digital sketching, and publishing almost daily. Early on in mid-2022, I focussed largely on LinkedIn but then began taking X (Twitter) and Medium more seriously in December last year (12 months ago).
I asked ChatGPT (e.g. DALL-E) to produce a line graph of my growth on social media over the past 12 months. The result isn’t terrible… 👇
In approximately 12 months (or less):
Slow and steady on Substack. Just crossed 400 subscribers today. 🙌 (4 paid - and thank-you to those that do)
X (Twitter). From 100 to 1,000 since Jan. ‘23
LinkedIn. From 1,000 or so to 4,100 (more than 12 months)
Medium. From 100 to almost 5,600
Linked to the above are two Free 5-day Educational Email courses I’ve built - and of which several of you reading this have taken.
I have also been slowly and steadily dabbling on YouTube, Instagram, and recently returned (begrudgingly) to Facebook, mainly to promote Medium stories (It’s difficult to ignore a platform with 3 billion monthly users).
Absolutely foundational to any strategy of building a content business — and you will read it everywhere…. build your own email list!
Social media are marketing channels. You essentially rent these platforms to get eyes on your content. However, you are always subject to changes in the platforms and changes in how they operate (e.g. algorithms). You could also get booted off at any time for any number of reasons.
I’m building email lists and distribution channels through various means— for example in addition to Box Cutter Co. is 👇
Humanity Academy
My wife and I established a little educational startup and social enterprise earlier this year: Humanity Academy.
She also became a Solopreneur in the late spring of this year. She’s a mental health counsellor and has a private practice.
We’re working towards providing more free, accessible education as well as building enough profits to be able to provide more support through pro bono services. That’s the social enterprise side of things.
Since March of this year, between Lisa and I we have designed and published Nine Free 5-day Educational Email courses. We’ve moved that business to revenues of about $5k — $7k per month.
We have goals to double that over the next 6 months. This will come through course and product development. We’ve got two paid courses getting close to launch.
One on Learning Journals as a follow up to the hugely popular: Free 5-day Educational Email Learning Journal Crash Course.
And one exploring tools and processes of the age-old question “Who am I?” A course on identity in the modern age.
We have also been slowly building up Humanity Academy on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. We played with a few paid ads on all these platforms — to market our Free 5-day courses. Some worked quite well.
Stay tuned for more to come on these Solopreneur ventures.
Building Solopreneur Creator Businesses to Support Lifestyle (not Vice Versa)
The thought of the Creator Economy doubling over the next 3-4 years… is quite a prospect.
With 5 Billion people globally accessing the Internet, and over 4 Billion on social media — there are near endless opportunities. More so for those who aren’t looking to make hundreds of millions of $.
In our household, Enough is the goal.
Businesses that support our family’s lifestyles — not the other way around.
Some of you have probably seen this image before… it’s a quote from my wife Lisa from early 2022 as we discussed me walking cold turkey from a decade-plus career. One in which I’d almost tripled my salary over that time…
We’ve both found that 8-5 wage labour M-F means constantly adapting life around making income.
We’re flipping that narrative.
For me, this has opened up a wealth of health and well-being opportunities. For example, last year and this year I’m on track to have cycled over 5,000 km each year. Including this ride the other day (at 3 in the afternoon). 👇
I walk daily. I get to the gym a few times per week. And, this year, I’ve also been able to help coach our youngest teen in volleyball (a sport I love and both played and coached for years).
When possible, try to build your business around your desired lifestyle… not vice versa. (and make sure you’re building that email list and building relationships with folks on it).
10 Strategies to Play the Game of the “Creator Economy” and Level Up.
I’ve been at this Solopreneur gig for about 20 months or so. More focussed over the last 11-12 months.
Here are 10 steps I’m experimenting and playing with regularly. When I find something that works, I try more of it.
And, in true Box Cutter style, I don’t tend to follow the herds or status-quo messaging from various social media gurus:
Leveraging Personal Evolution: Engaging and experimenting with the idea that I am my niche— meaning constantly evolving and adapting, thus remaining niche-less, fluid and flexible.
Broad Spectrum — Not Niching-Down: Traditional niching strategies don’t align with my interests or experiences, so instead I focus on a broader spectrum of topics for greater appeal and authenticity. My CV reads like a shopping list of sectors and industries.
Personal Journey as Content: I use my unique journey and experiences, diverse skills and education, as fuel for content which can resonate more deeply with a potential audience (especially as I’m in a Gen X cohort with diverse life experiences - that make up about 30% of the 200 million creators active in the Creator Economy). This has been assisting in forming more authentic and sustainable connections.
Adapting to Digital Ecosystem (Dynamic Equilibrium): Staying attuned to shifting trends in the digital creator economy, ensuring that content remains fresh, relevant, and engaging, in line with dynamic equilibrium — a term that comes from natural ecosystems. Things go in, things come out.
Diversity in Content Creation: Emphasizing creating content across various interests to engage a wider audience, enhancing creativity and opening doors for unforeseen opportunities.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation: Committed to continuous learning (and unlearning) and skill development, shifting and adapting to evolving realities of the Creator Economy (and maintaining relevance).
Community Building for Sustainable Monetization: Focus on building an engaged ‘community’ around diverse interests, leading to more sustainable and meaningful ways to monetize. In this case, Box Cutter Co. has become a neat little community that is growing every week.
Multifaceted Digital Strategy: Adopted a multi-platform, multi-interest approach, utilizing various skills and insights to create engaging and authentic content across different platforms. Every context and every connection are different. Why get boxed-in?
Balancing Diverse Interests with Strategic Monetization: I am constantly exploring various revenue streams while maintaining a broad range of interests, ensuring sustainable growth in creative endeavours.
To this point, I’ve continued a set of ‘services’ that provide the bulk of my income (beyond the 6 figures I left in the public sector), and a slowly expanding set of digital assets and small bets which will grow into a thriving ecosystem of revenues providing our household with ‘enough’.
Embracing Diversity over Ecosystem Niches: I continue to challenge traditional advice of "niching down" in the creator economy. I appreciate and recognize the benefits of a diverse and adaptable approach in a rapidly changing digital landscape — especially my well-being and enjoyment of what I’m doing. I love writing, researching and pressing ‘publish’ daily.
This method aligns with a Box Cutter Philosophy, supporting and building a balanced approach prioritizing authenticity, well-being and sustainable growth.
I have found this approach supports a creative approach to a sector that… well… requires creativity to remain relevant and profitable.
The New York Times article that came out today had two key Takeaways:
“Takeaways”
“Authenticity is the coin of the realm, essential for the success of creators and brands alike, but turning it into a business undermines that identity; unless that tension can be resolved, this whole structure will fail.”
“Creators can’t rely on brands and platforms, so they must evolve and diversify into what are effectively independent mini-studios, making sure that they bring their audiences with them by owning their data and contact lists.”
Solid suggestions.
What do you think?
That’s it for this week for The Solopreneur Series. In the meantime, please drop a comment answering these:
How about you? How are you navigating in this diverse and growing Creator Economy?
What are your goals during this time of rapid growth in this sector?
Later in the week Box Cutter Co. Free Issue No. 52 comes out. Marking one year of publishing Free issues every week. 🙌
Please send along any questions or comments. Re-post or re-share, send me feedback and/or steal at will.
How about you? How are you navigating in this diverse and growing Creator Economy?
- I literally just started my journey in the Creator Economy through the Smallbets community. My first newsletter goes out tomorrow: https://rajumandapati.substack.com/
What are your goals during this time of rapid growth in this sector?
- Is there an opportunity to be Lewi's here, selling rugged denim jeans to mine workers rushing to California during the gold rush?
Congratulations on a year of publishing! Well done.