The Creative Graveyard Is Full of Those Who Ignore This Critical Skill

And 3 strategies to build it

A good week on LinkedIn (A main platform for my work)

Whenever someone asks me about writing (and Ghostwriting) in digital worlds, my first recommendation has nothing to do with writing...

It's about preparing for the silence...

(And the mindset to navigate it)

____

It's been a 'good' week on LinkedIn (image above).

But it's not always like this—

...and it Most Certainly was NOT for the first 18 months of building a creative enterprise (with writing at its core).

Nor, is it like this every week.

Most aspiring digital writers assume success looks like an upward curve.

Many envision a classic hockey-stick-looking graph of growth 📈

That you write and post...

Follow the "be consistent" mantras polluting social media.

Then, writing projects and Ghostwriting clients will fall from the sky...

You land a client or two, and BOOM— endless momentum keeps you 🚀

But...

Here's some tough love (on Valentine's Day)

The actual shape of building a sustainable digital writing gig is:

• 👉 Longggg, flat lines of silence ⎯ ⋯ ⎯⎯⎯ ⋯

Over the past 18-24 months, I've been persistent in writing and posting, writing and posting, writing and posting... (e.g. practicing in public)

In just my content (not Ghostwriting client's and our educational startup

Humanity Academy

)

I've:

• Generated over 1 million impressions on LinkedIn (about half that on X)

• Published 100+ Free weekly issues of Box Cutter Co.

• Written and published 360+ articles on Medium (and made $1,000s)

For some, this is small 🥔 🍠

For others — maybe just starting — this is a lot. (It certainly would have been when I started in mid-2022)

Regardless of numbers, this means post after post after post has gone out ...

...to the sound of crickets 🦗🦗🦗🦗

• No likes.

• No comments.

• Few impressions

And! Many posts still do.

The ability to keep going anyway—to publish, refine, adapt, and stay in the game long enough to get better—

...separates those who build sustainable creative enterprises from the ones who fizzle, burnout, quit.

If you’re starting from scratch (or early on in building), you will build:

• Bit by bit.

• Post by post.

• Word by word.

Train for Silence Before Success

This is where most quit.