Life's a Game:
The 0-1 Creator Checklist
♟️ MY TURN:
There are plenty of people telling you how someone easily made $1m in a month following 5 easy steps so if you are looking for that type of content, you are in the wrong place.
I’m here to tell you the reality of this creator journey: it’s a marathon not a sprint.
I’ve run 4 marathons and none of them would have been possible without following a clear training schedule that prepared my mind and body for the actual outcome: the finish line.
And the creator journey is no exception.
For me, the finish line is a six figure month but the training is weeks of building the right habits, content, audience, offers and launch strategy.
Think big. Act small.
I’ve talked a lot about WHY you should think about building a personal brand but it was exactly a year ago that I took this whole creator thing more seriously.
So today I’m going to dive into what my first year "training" for my creator marathon.
1 year to Ramen Profitability
It took 6 years to build an audience and make my first $ online and 1 year of intentionality to become “ramen profitable”: a term coined by entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham.
Ramen profitable means a start-up makes just enough to pay the founders' living expenses if they were 22 year old living on ramen.
The truth: I'm ramen profitable but not quite able to cover a 38 year old mom of 3's expenses.....but we are on the road to it. I'm still taking CMO work until I cover the gap.
Taken from Tapan Desai's Creator Milestone article https://tapandesai.com/the-creator-milestones/
A spicy reminder: many creators are not sharing the reality of building and what they make or where they get their money. Most telling you you'll make $100k in a month are making money from you believing it.
It's a marathon not a sprint.
Ready to start training?
Follow my 12 month creator training plan below ⬇️
♟️ YOUR TURN:
Month 1: Find your “thing”
Week 1: Assess your passion, skills and expertise and find two other creators in the space.
Week 2: Write out your ideal customer: what they need, want and the challenges they face.
Week 3: Write 50 subject lines to ideate the things you can talk about.
Week 4: Nail your “only” statement. Use the outline below to nail your positioning.
Month 2: Choose one platform
Week 1: Get curious about which platform you are drawn to and why.
Week 2: Understand if your ideal audience is there.
Week 3: Study what is working on the platform.
Week 4: Nail your platform strategy: how many times you will post a day, what kind of content and at what time.
Month 3: Find your “pod”
Most successful creators have a “pod” they engage with to help boost their content. It’s time to find yours now that you are showing up every day.
Week 1: Find 10 other creators at similar starting points.
Week 2: Reach out asking if they’d like to meet.
Week 3: Conduct 10 meetings.
Week 4: Start engaging with them every day. Like, comment and share their work.
Month 4: Build the habit
So many people fail at this step. They fail to show up consistently and lose steam. Keep going!
Week 1: Create a content calendar with the type of content you will post every day.
Week 2: Execute. Build the habit.
Week 3: Execute. Build the habit.
Week 4: Execute but faster. As you build the habit, it gets easier and easier. Eventually you will be able to write a full week’s worth of content in an hour.
Month 5: Build a waiting list
You don’t have to have an offer yet (newsletter, course, workshop, etc) but you DO need a destination to send people if they want to learn more from you. Use “Coming soon” language and start capturing email addresses.
Week 1: Choose a platform to hold your warm leads
Week 2: Play with the platform - get to know it. Watch videos. Look at examples.
Week 3: Write the copy for your landing page.
Week 4: Build your landing page
Month 6: Build the skill
Now that you are showing up every day, It’s time to get better and hone your performance.
Week 1: Analyze the type of content that works on the platform.
Week 2: Study 25 different types of hooks and content styles.
Week 3: Write 1 post, 10 different ways to practice writing hooks.
Week 4: Practice turning 1 long post into 10 shorter posts.
Month 7: Connect with the audience
Now that your audience is growing, it’s time to build a deeper relationship.
Week 1: Focus on responding to comments promptly.
Week 2: Start getting active on your audiences’ posts on their own channel.
Week 3: DM your audience and thank them for being on this journey. Ask them what their biggest challenge is right now?
Week 4: Create a survey. Send to your audience to gather more data before creating an offer.
Month 8: Choose an offer
Week 1: Research and decide on the type of digital offer (newsletter, course, workshop) you want to create.
Week 2: Draft an outline of the content you'll provide in your chosen digital offer.
Week 3: Determine the pricing strategy for your offer.
Week 4: Share your offer concept with your audience and gather feedback.
Month 9: Build the funnel
It’s time to build a funnel that will take someone from interest to conversion.
Week 1: Design and create landing pages for your digital offer.
Week 2: Determine incentive or lead magnet for offer.
Week 3: Map out the customer journey through the funnel.
Week 4: Plan and create email sequences to nurture leads.
Month 10: Build the product
Week 1: Start creating the content for your digital offer.
Week 2: Create supplementary resources like worksheets, videos, or downloadable content.
Week 3: Keep creating your product.
Week 4: Get feedback on the product.
Month 11: Build a launch plan
Week 1: Set specific goals for your launch.
Week 2: Create a pre-launch marketing strategy. How will you create buzz?
Week 3: Explore collaboration opportunities with other creators or influencers.
Week 4: Plan the logistics of your launch, including timing and communication channels.
Month 12: Launch your first revenue generating product
It's time to find ramen profitability!
Week 1: Execute the planned launch strategy.
Week 2: Analyze launch performance against set goals.Gather insights for future improvements.
Week 3: Gather feedback.
Week 4: Turn early adopters into affiliates and ambassadors.
Phew. There you go.
A 12 month plan to go from couch to revenue generating creator.
Hope this was helpful!
Ps if you want to do this alongside 100 other creators, you can join my Office Hours where we dive into each of these things in greater detail.
PPS I’m thinking about creating a free 0-1 Creator Checklist for my audience to give you a to-do every day based on the above. If this is of interest to you please let me know by clicking here. If over 100 people sign up, I'll create it.
Hope this was helpful! 💚