Creator Economy

A popular piece of content-creation/email writing advice is to “Write to your past self”.

What people mean when they say it is to think about where you were 2 months ago, 2 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Then think about all the problems you faced, obstacles you had to overcome, and wrong beliefs you held. And address those. This way you write as if you were writing a note that was about to be put in a time capsule and sent to your past self.

It sounds great in theory. It really does.

I used to follow the same advice myself.

But I stopped.

The first reason for this is simple:

I can’t remember what my past self used to struggle with. And even if I could, I don’t understand the feelings that accompanied them. My whole perspective is different now than it was even 5 months ago.

It’d be foolish of me if I tried talking to that specific person.

And that’s exactly why the creator economy is so great. You learn from the people 1–2 steps ahead of you, not someone 5 whole years ahead of you—another popular piece of advice.

So if you learn from someone right in front of you, why would I write to someone way behind me? It doesn’t make sense.

Another reason is that I simply can’t be bothered anymore.

The advice my past self from 5 years previous would need doesn’t interest me anymore. I’m at a different level right now. I’m interested in other topics.

If I were to talk about topics that didn’t inspire me, then my content would be bland and uninspiring, which directly hurts you, the reader. The energy wouldn’t be the same anymore.

So I simply don’t speak to my past self.

I write about what I currently find interesting. What I’m discovering in real-time.

This makes my content interesting and engaging. And I can take you with me on an adventure. A real-time adventure you can see unfold right in front of you.

Neither you nor I know the ending. Nobody knows where we’ll end up. That’s what makes it all so exciting.

So let this be a reminder not to blindly follow every single piece of advice you get. Think for yourself, carefully judge everything you hear, see, and experience.

Then decide what’s best for you and your goals.

And if you decide building an audience that loves to listen to you, longs to follow you on your adventure, and wants to buy your products is what’s best for you and your goals. Then you might want to check out Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Here’s something important I realized some months ago:

The people who engage with your content aren't the same people who find your content most valuable/enjoy reading it the most.

(That’s especially true for social media content, but you can easily extend it to any other forms of media)

See, the people who engage with your content on social media are (mostly) other content creators hoping to “boost the algorithm” and get seen in your comment section by your audience, hoping some of your followers find their comments interesting enough to check out their profile, and eventually follow them and their content as well.

And more likely than not, that’s not your target audience.

Your target audience, instead, are most of the time the people who like reading your stuff, sometimes they’ll engage by liking it, but most of the time they won’t even do that.

They’ll just sit back, like they’re hiding in the shadows, browsing through your stuff, enjoying everything you’ve shared, yet never letting it known. Which makes sense if you think about it from their point of view, they don’t get anything in return for clicking like on your stuff or replying to it (unless it’s a question, and even then, most people don’t ask questions that way).

I notice this occasionally.

For example, every time I do a promotion, I’ll get some buyers, many repeat buyers, some new buyers. But each time I go to look at who’s buying, it’s almost always the quiet people. The people who haven’t replied too much (at least for first-time buyers), the people who are lurking in the shadows, almost waiting to make their entree.

It’s also the same with people who join my email list.

I’ll occasionally get messages from people saying they finally joined my list after having consumed a lot of my content for the past months, yet they never interacted with anything because I’d never seen their names anywhere.

So if I can give you one honest piece of advice, coming straight from the bottom of my heart, wishing you the best.

Then it’ll be to not lose your focus by only paying attention to the people who engage with your content. Make sure you keep your target audience in mind, regardless of who you find saying what on your stuff.

Anyway.

Creation content is only one of many methods you can use to build an audience and get some attention. But getting attention isn’t enough. You need to drive that attention, that traffic somewhere to be able to do something with it.

For that, I wholeheartedly suggest you direct all of your traffic to your email list.

And when it comes to building a functional and money-making email list your readers love to be a part of, then for my last suggestion, I’d recommend you to check out Email Valhalla, it’s very much the ideal entry point (for both beginner and advanced people alike) to build an email-powered business.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla