How can you thrive as a creator in 2024 when you are competing for attention with 200 million other content creators worldwide?
As a creative, it’s nearly impossible to not expose yourself to social media in order to gain inspiration, network and monetize your efforts. But with it comes the challenge of being endlessly distracting, which is amplified by ADHD.
By exposing ourselves to a feed where we have little to no control over what content we encounter at any given moment, we surrender our invaluable attention to the control of algorithms.
In the age of information inflation, there is a never-ending war of our attention every waking moment and not enough time in our lifespan to process even a small fraction of it.
But with support and accountability, you can position yourself to turn mindless consumption into mindful content by extracting value from social media and synthesizing it.
“In the future, the great division will be between those who can acquire skills and discipline their minds and those who are irrevocably distracted by all the media around them and can never focus enough to learn.” —Robert Greene
Most people are not even willing to make the effort to do this, which is where you can gain an advantage in the digital economy.
Despite popular belief, you don’t have to spend more time on social media to get more exposure.
Since rewiring my digital habits, I have seen incredible results across multiple platforms. I actually consume less content on social media than ever before. As a result, all my accounts have grown rapidly to over 50,000 followers combined. But as you’ll see, follower count doesn’t necessarily equal success.
So I want to share with you 3 valuable habits I’ve developed that have helped me thrive as a creator.
1. Build a repository of personal knowledge.
Don’t rely on any platform to store the gems of content you find. For text based content, capture tweets and articles into a personal knowledge management system.
This way, you aren’t wasting time searching online for content you already encountered, and you have a digital bank of content to draw from. Use that content to fuel your creative outputs. I do this with my second brain in Obsidian and I will be showing you how very soon, so stay tuned.
2. Develop a writing habit.
Writing is thinking. Becoming a better writer will help you become a better thinker and communicator.
The best way to do this is by starting a journal and taking notes.
- Observe what recurring themes keep surfacing.
- Connect insights and document your experiences.
- Express them through your preferred creative outlet.
This will help close cognitive loops and clear your mind of cutter so you can think more clearly. Again, this is where a tool like Obsidian comes in handy to link notes and generate building blocks for writing content.
3. Start a newsletter.
You don’t own your audience on any platform that requires a login. Your account can be shut down at any moment and your entire audience will be gone with it. Even an algorithm update can change everything overnight.
An email list is permissionless leverage that allows you to actually own your audience, making it the most valuable digital asset you can build for free. Social media platforms are an extremely efficient vehicle to drive traffic to your newsletter if used for that purpose.
I see creators with millions of followers and they have no email list but they’re selling merch. It’s amazing how few people are aware of the value of a free newsletter.
Do you write tweets or comments online? Take book notes? Those are valuable pieces of your own insights that can be made into newsletter material.
Combine all three of these skills by using Obsidian to capture insights, connect ideas, curate content and create value.
Writing is the secret sauce to thriving in the creator economy.
Your favorite YouTube videos most likely started with a written script. Start by writing and watch your thinking and communication skills improve with it.