Hey everyone! If you're interested in creating content as a side project
and building an online audience and passive income streams, this video is for you.
I'm going to talk about how to start your creator journey without quitting your full-time job.
It's been about a year and a half since I quit my
job and became a full-time creator. Honestly, it was tough financially;
in some months, I made like $7,000. Despite this financial instability,
there are lots of things I love about this job. The best part is freedom –– you work for yourself,
which means you can make your own schedule and work with only people you like.
If you're thinking of becoming a creator either full-time or part-time, I want to show you a
simple roadmap of how you can get started and eventually build online income streams.
Something I want to say right off the bat is that you don't have to quit your 9-5 job, like ever if
you don't want to. Many creators including me tend to fantasise about being a creator and having the
freedom, but what we don't often say is how tough it can be. There are lots of ups and downs,
and I've had countless nights where I couldn't sleep because I was worried about money. Whereas,
having a 9-5 job is a huge advantage because it gives you a stable income.
Knowing you're going to get a certain amount of money every single month is so comforting.
So, my advice is:
keep your day job and start your creator job as a side project for the evenings and weekends.
That being said, let's talk about how you can get started.
Becoming a creator is easy; you just have to write,
film or make something and publish it online. It takes as quick as a few hours. But building
online income streams isn't that easy, and can take months and years of consistency.
The roadmap is like this: you spend 1-3 years just creating content and teaching everything you know
for free to build an audience and gain trust and credibility. You make almost no money during this
stage because nobody wants to give you their money if they don't know you or trust you.
This is why it's important to keep your day job and start your creator job as a side project.
Then after a few years of providing free content, you can make your own products
such as an online course, ebook or membership, which will be your main source of online income.
My next advice is to start small. You don't need to have fancy tools and equipment to
start creating content. Just get started with what you already have and free tools.
Nowadays, there are tons of free no-code tools available for creators.
If you want to start a newsletter, you can use Substack and Revue. Both of them are free. If
you want to start a YouTube channel, you can use iMovie or DavinciResolve.
You can build your audience on Twitter too which is of course free,
just by tweeting what you learned every day.
You can also build a website without coding using tools like Webflow and Notion.
There are hundreds of ways to create content that are completely free.
So, pick one or two things you want to start. It could be
YouTube and newsletter or making Notion templates and Twitter.
Start it as a side project you do in the evenings and the weekends. After choosing your project,
you should block a few hours every week for it just to write, film, tweet or code.
At first, you're not going to see any result. If you publish your first YouTube video,
no one is going to watch it. Similarly, your first 100 tweets won't be seen by anyone.
But that's normal. It's supposed to take a long time.
While you're working on your side project, I'd recommend saving 6-12
months worth of living expenses if you're planning to become a full-time creator.
A common challenge for many people is trying to make
'perfect' content which is impossible. You'll never feel what you made is perfect,
and that's okay. Instead, aim for 'good enough'. When you feel like what you made is 'good enough',
just publish it. Because the faster you ship and iterate, the faster you learn.
One of my favourite quotes is by Steve Jobs: "Real artists ship". This means you
just have to get started and put your work out there. You'll learn and get better as you go.
Also, maybe you just don't want to get embarrassed when your friends or family find out,
but they generally don't care about you, in my experience. For a moment,
they might make a joke about it but after that, they'll just get on with their own lives.
Plus, how awful would it be if you can't start what you
want to do just because you care too much about what other people think!
Finally, let's talk about monetization. It takes a long time until you can start earning
from your work, but monetization is easy once you have an audience.
So let's say you've done your work; you spent at least a few months or a year
providing free content. Then you should have a group of people who like your work.
Once you have an audience, start building small educational info
products such as Notion templates, ebooks, PDF guides or online courses. For example,
if you know a bit about marketing, you can make a PDF guide on pricing strategy.
If you're into Notion, you can make a bunch of templates.
Then sell these info products on Gumroad or LemonSqueezy
for a small amount of money like $10 or more. It may seem trivial,
but I've seen many creators making decent online income from their info products.
Also, even if you don't have such a big audience, it's totally possible to make lots of sales.
So that is how to start making online income streams as a creator. In summary, what you need
to do is get started, create a video, tweet, blog post, app, podcast or whatever you like,
keep publishing even if you think it's crap. Just
help people for a few months or a year. Then make a bunch of small educational
info products and sell them. That is a simple way to make a living as a creator.
Alright, thank you so much for watching. I have so many more things to say, but
if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email or DM me on Twitter.
Finally, if you're interested in starting your YouTube channel and building an online audience,
I have a new online course and community for you to learn how to edit videos
and build passive income streams.