What is up, everyone?
Welcome back to my channel.
In today's video, I'm going to share with you the eight mistakes that I see so many
content creators making.
Now, regardless if you are a beginner content creator or an older content creator, I guarantee
that this video is going to be relevant for you.
Just to make sure that you either got your basis' covered, or if you don't have them
covered, you can course correct for the future.
Now, without me rambling on, let's just get right into the video.
Now, the first deadly mistake that I see, is that many content creators, especially
when they're starting out, they don't have a niche, they don't know who their target
audience is, and they also don't know what their target audience wants.
Now, this is really important, because at the end of the day, people need to have a
reason to subscribe to your channel, or to follow you on Instagram, on whatever social
media platform that you are on, and if you are not clear in what you're delivering to
your audience, what is their incentive of following you back?
Now, I've used this analogy before on my channel, but I just really love it so much.
Now, the analogy is, is that with your channel, or with your social media handles, regardless
of what platform it is, you don't want to be a buffet.
You want to be a specialized restaurant.
And the reason why you want to be a specialized restaurant, is because imagine, imagine if
you are taking your boyfriend or your girlfriend on a nice seafood dinner.
Are you going to go to a buffet that serves everything, or are you going to actually go
to a specialized restaurant?
I guarantee 99.9% of you will probably choose the specialized restaurant that serves great
fresh seafood.
The same thing applies to social media.
Many of you are following beauty accounts because of beauty.
You're following fashion account because of fashion.
You're following my account because of business and social media.
If you actually stretch yourself way too thin in your content creation, your audience will
not know whether or not they should actually subscribe or follow you.
Because imagine, imagine if one day you're posting fashion videos, and then all of a
sudden, you're posting cooking videos, and then all of a sudden, you're posting videos
about business and finance.
Your audience doesn't know who you actually are and what you actually deliver, and whether
or not they should hit the subscribe button or the follow button on whatever social media
platform that you are on.
Now, I already know that many of you are probably saying something like, well, my favorite YouTuber,
my favorite Instagram influencer posts anything she wants.
One day she posts food stuff, the next day she posts fashion, and then makeup, and then
vlogging, and all of these things.
Why can't I do that?
Well, the reason why your favorite YouTuber or your favorite influencer can actually do
that is because they've already grown a huge subscriber rate, or a huge following that
already loves her no matter what she posts.
When you are a beginner content creator, you can't really do that unless you have the tribe
and you have the following that just supports you no matter what type of content you produce.
But we're not there yet, are we?
That's why when you're starting out, you want to be as focused as possible, because you
know what they say, when you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one.
The second deadly mistake that I see so many content creators doing, especially beginner
content creators, is literally having meltdowns over lost followers or subscribers.
And I get it, I get that it stings, I get that it hurts when those numbers drop.
But at the end of the day, I really want you to have it in your mind that it's always going
to be about quality over quantity.
Instead of crying over the people that left, make sure that you're actually delivering
the most value to the people that stayed.
Treat them like gold.
Because at the end of the day, it's such a bad mindset to constantly chase these numbers
of people who decided to leave anyways, or maybe they're even using bots, and doing unfollow/follow.
Instead of focusing on what you already have, and building that community, building those
people, and continuously trying to provide great value to the people that have decided
to be there for you.
Again, using my channel as an example, I never really was in a position to cry over lost
followers, or cry over lost subscribers.
The growth came because I focused in and I zoomed in on the people who decided to stay.
I then created communities such as The Fearless Boss Network, where I continue to cultivate
the people who decided to subscribe to my channel, who decided to follow my work, and
as a result, word of mouth started happening, and people started to see that other people
were getting immense value from my work, and therefore they decided to subscribe to my
channel, they decided to follow my on Instagram, they decided to join my Facebook group.
It becomes a ripple effect.
So, that's why I get really upset when I see content creators cry over lost numbers, when
in fact, their focus should really be on serving their community.
The third deadly mistake that I see content creators making is that they aren't thinking
longterm.
What I mean by this, is that I see a lot of content creators just solely focusing on the
vanity metrics, posting butt selfies, or you know, just posting things in order to grow
their social media accounts.
However, they don't ask themselves, where am I actually going with this?
Where am I taking this social media account?
Am I going to create a personal brand, am I going to monetize anything?
Am I going to launch any products in the future?
These are questions that content creators should be asking themselves, otherwise, you're
just going to be a content creator on social media.
And that's totally fine if content creation if your hobby, but I think that many of the
people that watch my videos are interested in turning it into a business, and that's
where I see a little bit of a disconnect from people when they are posting content.
At the end of the day, you really want to think longterm.
Where am I going with this?
What am I going to be doing with this audience in the future?
What am I going to be doing with my personal brand in the future?
These are definitely things that you need to think about, especially if you want to
make money as a content creator.
And on the topic of not thinking longterm, this brings me to my fourth deadly mistake,
and that is not building an email list.
Now, I know, maybe a handful of you might be like, what, email list?
That is totally outdated.
But if you are actually someone who thought longterm, you would understand that an email
list is so important for your business and for your brand.
Because one day, imagine if YouTube decided to shutdown, Facebook decided to shutdown,
or Instagram decided to shutdown, you would lose your entire business overnight.
However, if you actually spent time to collect emails, that would really help your efforts,
because you could easily email your list, and be like, hey, guys, this is how you can
keep in contact with me now that YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram has shutdown.
Now, there are definitely many ways that you can collect emails from your audience.
I don't really want to spend too much time talking about it in this video, so make sure
that you like this video, or you comment in the comment section below, and let me know
if you guys want to learn more about how to build your email list so that you have that
safety net in case one day all these social media platforms shutdown, or in case you ever
want to actually monetize your work, and sell products in the future.
So, definitely, again, like this video and comment below.
I'd be more than happy to teach you what I know about building email lists.
The fifth deadly mistake that I had to, had to, had to add in this video is poor collab
pitches.
Now, the reason why I just had to bring this up is because I see so many content creators
trying to collab with other content creators, but doing it in a totally wrong way.
If you are a smaller content creator, and you're reaching out to a content creator that
is much, much larger than you, you have no right to say, hey, hop on my channel and help
me out.
That makes no sense.
Same with brand deals.
You cannot go to a brand and say help me out, I'm a struggling content creator, and I want
to grow my brand, so I need your product to do that.
I see that a lot of content creators, they approach people and brands in a very inauthentic
way, and also in a very selfish way saying things like, how can you help me.
But instead, if you actually want to successfully collaborate with other people and collaborate
with brands, you need to put your thinking hat on, and ask yourself what can you do for
them.
So, let me use an example here.
Let's say you are a foodie blogger, and you want to collaborate with another foodie blogger
that has 10 times more audience than you, instead of spamming that person's Instagram
account, and asking them, begging them to collaborate with you, what you want to say
is, hey, listen, I know that we share a very similar audience, I know that the people who
watch your videos, or consume your content are all vegans, they are women between the
ages of 18 and 25, and that's pretty much the same audience that I have.
Now, I looked at your website, and I saw that you're going to be launching a recipe book
soon for your audience.
I would love to help you out in your promotional efforts for your recipe book launch.
So, would you be interested in actually collaborating with me?
I'll feature you on my channel, and actually give you the opportunity to talk more about
your recipe book that you're coming up with.
More likely than not, that type of pitch will probably lead to a yes, versus the type of
pitch that's like, collaborate with me, because why not?
There's a huge difference here.
So, every time you're looking at a brand or a person to collaborate or partner with, make
sure that you're always thinking about what's in it for them.
The sixth deadly mistake that I see content creators making, especially YouTubers, is
sharing their videos in irrelevant promotional groups.
Now, obviously, with every content creator, myself included, when you're starting out,
you just want to plug your links everywhere.
However, what you don't realize is that if you are promoting your YouTube videos in the
wrong promotional groups that aren't even within your niche of people who aren't even
interested in your work, that's going to absolutely kill your watch time.
Now, imagine if you are a beauty vlogger, and you post your YouTube video about the
latest eye shadow look in a group that doesn't even have your target audience, what's going
to happen is you're going to drive a lot of traffic to your YouTube video, obviously,
but your retention rate and your watch time is going to be absolutely murdered, because
you're not attracting the right target audience.
The moment that they actually click your video, they're just going to click out, because they
realize it's not for them.
So, I think that this is a huge mistake that I see a lot of new content creators making,
is constantly spamming their links in different promotional groups without realizing the impact
that it has on their watch time.
Because at the end of the day with YouTube, the key metric here is watch time, and the
longer watch time that you have, the better.
It's not about views, it's not about subscribers, it's all about watch time.
So, if you are constantly doing paid ads, or promoting your work on different random
groups that aren't within your niche, you're going to experience a problem within your
watch time, and therefore YouTube will not recommend your videos, because it's flagging
to them that your video is not engaging.
So, this is a huge mistake that I see a lot of beginner content creators make, and trust
me, it's also the same mistake that I made, so I definitely want to share that advice
with you in case you are doing it yourself.
Now, this sixth deadly mistake that I see a lot of content creators making, and I kind
of mentioned this earlier, is that they aren't engaging with their audience.
The silliest thing that I ever see is content creators who post on Instagram, expect to
have a bunch of likes and a bunch of comments, but when you actually look at the comment
section, they aren't even engaging back to their audience at all.
This is a huge no-no if you want to become a successful content creator, and if you actually
want to successfully form a community and a tribe.
Because keep in mind, if you want to make a living as a content creator, or you want
to actually do content creation full-time, you won't be able to do that without the people
that are currently supporting you, so make sure that you show some appreciation, some
gratitude, some love, and actually engage back with the people who want to see your
work, and who are supporting you.
Now, as you grow in your social media career, obviously, it becomes harder and harder to
message back every single person, answer every single question, and also answer every single
email.
I completely get that.
However, especially when you're first starting out, really make a conscious effort, and figure
out how you can make each subscriber, each follower, each viewer, each listener, each
whatever to feel as important as possible.
And this kind of leads me to a really crucial tip that I have for you.
Try to actually house a community online, so that you can keep track of all the people
that truly enjoy your work.
In my case, I created a Facebook group called The Fearless Boss Network where any of my
viewers, any of my followers can join, so that they can be more connected with me, and
for me to actually have really close one on one conversations with them.
So, even for you if you're watching this video, if you want to get to know me better, and
if you want my help, definitely join The Fearless Boss Network.
That's kind of where I hangout, and that's where I really serve my community.
Last, but not least, guys, here is my eighth deadly mistake, and that is when content creators
give up too early.
Now, even in my content creating career, I've wanted to give up so many times.
But I'm actually going to show you a chart right here that explains my growth.
Now, imagine if I had given up at this point in time before my YouTube channel experienced
a huge snowball effect.
I think the problem is, is that a lot of content creators, the moment that they don't see the
results, or they don't get the follows, or they don't get the views, they immediately
resort to giving up, instead of actually looking at their content, and being like, okay, how
can I improve this, where did I go wrong, what can I do to make this better?
I want you guys to actually have a solution oriented approach to content creation instead
of literally crying in bed when you don't perform, and suddenly feeling like all of
it was a waste of time, and that you want to give up.
If you actually look at any YouTuber, Instagramer, or whoever you admire, look back at their
first few videos.
Actually scroll all the way down.
You'll see that, number one, they've either been at it for a very long time, and they
just didn't give up, or number two, they were constantly innovating, and actually making
their videos better over time in order to get the traction that they needed.
On top of this, what makes me feel better sometimes, is looking at people's very first
videos.
When you actually look at huge content creator's first videos, you'll see that their first
videos weren't that good either.
So, I really hope that, that makes you feel a bit better, and I really want to assure
you that it's all about having patience and being consistent.
If you actually devote your full year's attention, or two year's attention, or three year's attention
building your channel, or building your social media, creating content, listening to your
audience in terms of what they want, developing that community, I assure you it's only a matter
of time until you actually succeed, and can make a living as a content creator, especially
if you are using content creation as a way to start a business.
I promise you that during the time that you're actually working on your business, and developing
the business, you're going to be able to have highly monetizable skills that you can sell
back if you ever want to go back to corporate, or if you ever want to be a freelancer, so
on and so forth.
For instance, video editing, video creation, content planning, social media management,
creating sales funnels, email lists.
All of these things, if you ever wanted to not be a content creator anymore, and go back
to a nine to five, you could easily say, hey, listen, I have all these amazing skills.
Or if you ever wanted to be a freelancer, and help other people, these are also skills
that are highly, highly valued, and can be monetized.
Now, with that being said, if you are actually interested in learning how you can make money
on social media, definitely watch this video right here, and after you finish watching
that video, and you want to continue binging on the videos that's going to really help
you up level your social media game, your life and business, then you can watch this
video right after.
And if there was any type of topic that you want me to dive deeper on, then definitely
let me know in the comment section below.
I appreciate you guys, and as always, I hope you guys have a great day, a great week, and
a great life, and I'll see you in the next one.
Bye, guys.