Hard Work!
“Nihil Boni Sine Labore”,
….which means “Nothing achieved without Hard Work”.
I came across this quote almost 8 years back and have kept it aside me since then. In fact, I created a poster out of it and placed it in front of my workstation!
This quote is for every one of us creators, especially to the ones who see those successful creators who have thousands of followers and feel frustrated.
I too am one of them.
Everyone of go through that frustration when we see their success and then look at our accounts and find that we are not growing.
But something that we forget is that their success is the result of years of hard work and not shortcuts!
What we see is only their today. But we don’t look at their yesterday’s and what they went through before they reached here.
Over the last 17+ years, I learnt a lesson, the hard way – “There are no shortcuts”.
You have to travel that difficult route and slog it out if you want to succeed.
Want to succeed in what you are doing?
Then you need to avoid some common mistakes that many creators make and follow some simple principles that can make a big difference in your journey.
Here are 3 things that you should not do as a creator:
Don’t create for algorithms.
Algorithms are constantly changing and trying to please them can be exhausting and futile.
Instead of focusing on metrics like views, likes, or followers, focus on the value that you are providing to your audience. Quality over quantity.
We did this mistake once and learnt the lesson.
We were writing excellent, informative articles on one of our blogs, but it wasn’t bringing in a lot of traffic. This led to us searching around for shortcuts.
And there were numerous blogposts out there that sold the magic pill – finding loopholes and trying to make use of it.
We started treading that path only to find ourselves penalized for some of the actions. Whatever little traffic we were getting was also gone.
But fortunately for us, we learnt the lesson pretty early and changed course.
It took us another 13 months before we could see any success. But it did come.
Algorithms are temporary and keeps changing to provide a better experience for the users. So eventually it will come back to rewarding people who are doing the right things.
So create to offer value and not to satisfy the algorithms!
Don’t create for yourself.
Creating for yourself can be satisfying, but it won’t help you grow your audience or your income.
You need to create for your ideal customer, the person who needs your solution, who resonates with your message, who trusts your authority.
You need to understand their pain points, their goals, their desires, and their challenges. You need to create content that solves their problems, educates them, entertains them, or inspires them.
I remember this statement that one of my early mentors made – “Remember that the creation is yours but the consumer is your audience. Learn to give your creation their faces”.
Don’t create to be rich.
Creating to be rich is a sure way to lose motivation and passion.
Money is a by-product of creating value, not the goal. If you create only for money, you will compromise your integrity, your authenticity, and your creativity.
You will chase trends, copy others, or sell out. You will lose your voice, your vision, and your audience.
All of us are in it to make money.
We spend hours creating content. But if you are not earning money, your time is not being valued.
So if you goal is to make money, it is fine.
But don’t make it as the core mission behind your creative journey.
Create to help and provide value. Money will come if you do it well.
Now that you know what not to do, here are 3 things that you should do as a creator:
Create to genuinely help people.
Creating to genuinely help people is the best way to build trust, loyalty, and engagement with your audience.
When you create with the intention of helping people, you will naturally provide value, solve problems, and make a difference.
You will also attract more people who share your values, who appreciate your work, and who are willing to support you.
Create for human beings.
Creating for human beings means creating with empathy, emotion, and personality.
Human beings are not numbers, they are not robots, they are not machines. They are complex, diverse, and unique. They have feelings, opinions, and preferences.
They want to connect with you as a person, not as a brand. They want to see your face, hear your voice, and know your story. They want to feel something when they consume your content.
They want to relate to you. They want to be satisfied with the thought that you too are like them and that if you can do it, they too can.
So be relatable. Be human.
Share not just your wins, but also your losses. Share your triumphs and your failures. Show them that you too are vulnerable.
Create only if you enjoy doing it
Creating only if you enjoy doing it means creating with passion, enthusiasm, and fun.
Creating should not be a chore, a burden, or a stressor.
It should be something that you look forward to doing every day, something that makes you happy and fulfilled.
If you enjoy creating, it will show in your content and in your energy. Your audience will feel it too and they will enjoy consuming your content as well.
So I will leave you with the quote once again – “Nihil Boni Sine Labore” – nothing achieved without hard work.
But hard work doesn’t have to be boring or painful.
It can be rewarding and enjoyable if you avoid the mistakes and follow the principles that I shared with you in this blog post.
Remember: create to genuinely help people, create for human beings, and create only if you enjoy doing it.
That’s how you achieve success as a creator.
I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.
So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to subscribe to it for FREE!
What am I reading?
I am still with the same book that I picked up about 4 weeks back.
But the one thing that I can tell you is, “This is one hell of read.”
My productivity has been all over the place in the past 6-8 months. I needed something like this that can help me organize myself and improve on my productivity.
This one combined with Tiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain”, is helping me stay on track with the hundred things I am doing.
So, I would recommend checking out this book!
You can check the book out here!
From the Podcast
I have reduced the frequency of my podcast to once every two weeks. With all of what is happening, I was finding it difficult to manage a weekly show.
But I will soon be back to the weekly schedule once my April course launch is done.
Here’s the latest episodes:
- Episode 139 – Should you use Stereo or, Mono for your Audio!
Do let me know your comments and feedback.
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinions about this newsletter.
