The Content Creator Roadmap
Breaking down the 4 stages of a successful content creation career
What’s up, fellow creators! Welcome to issue #2 of The Creator Chronicles. I hope you've had a productive and fulfilling week. My week has been surprisingly insightful. I started listening to the book Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat by Michael Masterson, and the first few chapters have already taught me so much.
His words on the stages of building a business actually inspired today’s issue; so without further ado, let’s dive into...
The 4 Stages of a Content Creator
Before we delve in, let me explain why I believe this knowledge is important. If you're serious about turning what you do into something that can fund your life, understanding these stages can serve as a roadmap to get you there. Think of them as milestones in your journey where you can pause and reassess what you should be focusing on.
I know it's tempting to move forward without a strategy but trust me, if this creative journey has taught me anything, it's that without planning, you’re only working at a fraction of your potential. You can be the greatest creative in the world, but if you don't take the proper steps to grow your business, it'll end up taking more away from you than it gives.
With that in mind, it's important to note that you always have a choice to stop actively progressing at any of these stages. If content creation is mainly a hobby for you, that’s PERFECTLY fine. Do not force this into becoming your job. Doing so can lead to hating a hobby you once loved, and we don't want that.
One last thing: though most of my advice will be geared towards content creators in the video space (YouTube, TikTok, etc.), with some tweaking, I truly believe this can benefit any type of content creator. Now, let’s jump into…
Stage 1 – Experimenting 🧪
You're the new kid on the block. At this stage, you’re either thinking about creating your first piece of content or you already have something out there but haven't received many views.
This is the time for you to have the most fun with creating. You don't truly have an audience yet, so start producing as many different works as you can, and don’t worry too much about the views. You are quite literally throwing darts at a board to see what hits.
"But what do I create content on?"
Yeah, that's the biggest question when it comes to starting off, however; we tend to overthink it. You most likely want to be a content creator because you absorbed content that inspired you to create, right? Well, use that content as your starting point. Take what you like and reimplement that with your own twist, then continue finding more content within the field that interests you, and repeat. Before you know it, you'll develop your own style combining all these different aspects. In addition, you’ll attract an audience who not only like the topic you’re creating content about but enjoy the way you present it. Then with time and consistency, you’ll move to…
Stage 2 – Figuring Things Out 🤔
Congratulations, you've reached the second level. In your standard RPG (role-playing game), this would be your job advancement.
By this point, you have figured out what kind of content you want to create and developed a bit of an audience. Niche discovered! But now it's time to implement more strategy and invest in your community.
When it comes to strategy, put more effort into looking at which pieces of your content perform the best. Study them and implement what works in future content. In the process, always ask yourself how you can improve.
On the community side, interacting with your audience should be a big focus if it isn’t already. Respond to comments, ask your community for their input, involve them in your content, and the list goes on. These simple acts can pay HUGE dividends, but how does this all look?
Let's say there is a YouTuber who primarily does tech reviews and records them with their phone. Our tech expert followed the ideology of Stage 1 and through experimentation developed two series: computer monitor reviews and cell phone reviews. Both perform well, but they notice their phone reviews have better retention AND bring in more subscribers. Our tech expert should then make it their mission to study their phone reviews to see why those do better. Maybe they give more info in the phone reviews without realizing it; maybe their audience doesn't care about computer monitors. Then something from the confines of the techie’s memory strikes them like a lightning bolt. They formed a Discord to chat with their audience every now and then. In that Discord, they remember seeing more conversations about phones than anything else. On top of that, the question they get asked the most in their videos’ comments is how they film with their phone. Now our tech guru not only knows to put more focus on their phone reviews, but they also have a video idea they can be sure their audience will be interested in.
Bottom line: your community and past content can act as a guide for future content. Don’t slack on either, keep dropping content, and then soon you’ll hit…
Stage 3 – Wait…I Think I Get This 💡
If you have made it this far, you should be very proud of yourself. This is the point where you've really got this content creation thing down. On top of that, you're now making enough income to think about forming a team.
Now, I know the idea of sharing your income with others when you've been doing fine on your own doesn't sound that enticing. But people... now that I have editors for my videos and thumbnails, I can't see a future without them.
Forming a team gives you the bandwidth to focus on what we all care about most: creating. On top of that, you'll have multiple innovative minds helping you out with those ideas. You may even develop more ideas that you never would have thought of thanks to your team!
However, forming a team requires good leadership. It sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many "leaders" just throw their team into the woods without any guidance. You may have become a superb creator on this journey, but now you need to pass the keys to them. Build a system that teaches them how to make bangers like you do; then eventually, you'll be at a point where you can come up with an idea and put in minimal work to turn it into the product you envision.
And through this, along with constant improvement, you'll get to…
Stage 4 – The Sky's the Limit 🔥
You have truly achieved greatness. At this point, your channel pretty much works on its own and can fund your life along with many more. You have increased the size of your team and you guys have become a well-oiled content-creating machine. But now what?
Honestly, it's your choice. You can take a backseat on the channel and work on projects outside of it or you can use this newfound free time to work on the content ideas you didn't have the means to create before.
No matter what path you take, continue to experiment within your niche and improve on your content. It doesn't matter which stage of the content creation journey you’re on, that will always be a constant.
But WAIT…There's More
I wish I could tell you that this is everything you need to know about the stages of a content creator, but the truth is there’s SO much more to each stage – breaking them down would take multiple issues.
But don't worry, throughout this newsletter, I plan on dissecting and explaining each stage as much as possible. For now, let me know if this roadmap helps clear up any confusion you may have had about being a content creator. Keep the conversation going and tell me which stage you think you are in.
If you're curious about Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat by Michael Masterson and other audiobooks that can increase your knowledge, click the button below to try out Audible and get up to two audiobooks for free! I use Audible for all my reading needs when I can’t actually sit down with a book. I highly recommend it if you’re looking to grow as a creator.
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With that, I'll catch you all next week with more creative insights. Take it easy and have an amazing weekend! ✌🏿
This was helpful, thank you for sharing this.