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This week my family traveled up to Mystic, Connecticut. Even though we live in a 100 year old blue house in New Jersey, we rented a 100 year old blue house in Mystic. Our time away was much like our daily lives, focusing on small moments, together. It provided us incredible riches, like this:

The week was filled long conversations, slow walks, small explorations, and lots of food.

To take time away is to disrupt the routines that fill our lives. Creative habits tend to be something that come easily to me. I’m the kind of person who, once a routine is established to write every day, or play guitar every day, it is difficult to break. I find comfort in the rhythm of knowing what to expect each day, and within that structure, allowing myself total freedom in the creative process.

This past week I didn’t work out, didn’t write, didn’t play guitar, didn’t attend to so many things that I normally do. Instead I prioritized things on a different spectrum this week, the first being family time. Simply being together, uninterrupted.

In addition to that, every single morning I answered emails from my clients, spent time doing work for them, or keeping tabs on their progress. Each day, in the early hours of the morning before my family was awake, I considered the goals of these writers and creators.

Attending to my clients while away is something I enjoy doing because I believe in the work I do. How we create and share tends to feel more clear and meaningful when we do it together.

This is also why I love following creators on social media — to see how they share and collaborate with their followers. This week I saw the following post on Instagram from Rebecca Green, working on her next book:

It is entirely possible that she is talking to trusted friends and colleagues while she does this work, but my guess is that she does this stage of the book largely done alone.

But notice something about her Instagram post? It is being shared with her 250,000+ followers. She is bringing them into her creative process, and along the way validating the struggle that so many creators feel: that this work is difficult, perhaps even much harder than ever expected. That if she, with all of her experience and success, can have a difficult time finding the creative direction of a new book, perhaps it is not unusual that we do as well. This provides a wonderful sense of permission for herself and her followers.

As the work develops, she will likely share it with more and more people. Yes, her followers, but also her creative collaborators. In doing so, she is bringing more people into her creative process. This is what I love about not just how we create, but how we share. When we do it together, our writing and art can impact people’s lives in a myriad of ways.

On Instagram Skeme Richards shares his enthusiasm for the music he creates as a DJ, and the work that inspires him. When I look at his Instagram Stories I see he shared 33 times in the past 24 hours.

As he researches, creates, and mixes music, he brings us inside his creative process:

Skeme illustrates why I love the age we live in for creators: what he shares is filled with enthusiasm and generosity. I get to experience his creative process each day. Even though may do much of this alone in a room, somehow with the ways he shares it, it feels like it happens together with his fans.

This week I also saw Nicole Blades share an update on the progress of her next book:

Of course, this is incredibly inspiring, to celebrate a milestone in the writing process, and to be reminded that great work takes time. This is a book that people won’t read for awhile, yet she is engaging with her readers throughout the process.

I also saw this series of posts from Lori M. Lee, where she was discussing with her followers about the nature of sharing on social media as a writer, and her ethos for doing so:

How Lori shares this brings others not only into her creative process, but helps us navigate our own. Together just feels right sometimes.

I hear footsteps upstairs, my family is waking up. Time to get back to being together with them. Thank you for being here with me.

-Dan

Today I want to encourage you to not just follow people on social media, but to truly engage with them.

If we consider what it means to develop your platform as an author and be prepared to market your books, so much of it is about having a network of people who you have a trusting relationship with. For nearly any writer, whether you are years away from your next book launch, or just weeks away, I encourage you to engage more with those who inspire you. This could be with other authors, ideal readers, podcasters, booksellers, and so many others.

Why? Because engaging is caring. And caring not only feels good as a human being, it is a core part of how you can develop your marketing, career, and business:

• Caring validates other creators, colleagues, and partners. Imagine if you are a new author trying to develop a network within a specific genre. It’s easy to think, “Everyone else is more successful than me.” But if you learn who the other authors are in your niche and begin supporting their work, that is a great way to give them the validation that so many creators desire. It’s difficult to put your work out there, regardless if you are a first-time author, or bestselling author. You have an incredible power to brighten an author’s day simply by caring.
• Caring helps retailer and social media algorithms. When you add someone’s book to your bookshelf on Goodreads, when you post a review for their book on Amazon, when you watch a video they posted on Instagram, all of these communicate to the algorithms that run these services that you care about that author’s work, and that others may care as well. Many of these platforms would share that author’s work to even more people if they see that you care about it, because they measure engagement.
• Caring creates word of mouth marketing. If an author you admire releases a book, you could click “like” on their announcement post, and then order the book, adding it to the pile of books you hope to read in the coming months. But what if you talked about it. What if you shared on social media a photo of yourself with the book when it arrived and you described why you care about it. What if you told 5 friends about the book? What if you asked a local bookseller if they are carrying it? All of these actions are within the reach of every reader, and is the foundation of word of mouth marketing — how books spread through our communities and help generate more interest and sales for the author.
• Caring helps develop your network. So many writers and creators work in isolation. Perhaps they only write in their spare time, because their days and nights are otherwise spent working a job, caring for loved ones, attending to their health and home. Someone can write for years and not know a single other writer or anyone in publishing. Even their friends and family may have no idea they write. But if you follow some of the actions mentioned above simply by caring about the books of others, you will develop a network of colleagues. People who write like you do. Who are inspired as you are. Who are navigating the waters of creating and sharing and publishing just as you hope to. Wouldn’t that simply make your life — and theirs — more meaningful?
• Caring simply feels good. It feels good to be generous. To brighten someone’s day. To connect someone with an author or book they had never heard of. Caring opens new doors to possibility.

So much of marketing for the past decade has been about identifying who has an audience, and trying to “borrow” that audience. These strategies are still very effective: guest blogs, being a guest on someone’s podcast, getting re-shared on social media by someone influential to your ideal readers. The math here is easy: these people have an audience that you dream of one day having. If they feature you in some way, you are getting massive exposure with one action.

But the marketplace has become crowded with people trying to do this, to get the attention of someone with a big audience, with hope they feature them or their books. Yet, there is another way to consider this. I heard a great quote the other day from YouTube star Erick Decker recently:

“If you are going to try to do a collaboration, you have to create a situation where they win bigger than you do.”

He was referring to doing a collaboration with someone who has an audience that is massively larger than your own. So right away, many creators think, “What do I have to offer them if they have so much fame and such a large audience?” To answer that, consider what their goals are. This is where social media becomes an amazing research tool. Look at what they share on social networks. If they do any videos, webinars, live streams, or events that are recorded, watch them. Really have empathy for what you feel they most want in their life right now.

So let’s say there is an author whose work you admire, whose book would be shelved near yours, and who has an audience you think would love what you write. Even if we keep it really simple as to what that author’s goals may be, such as: “They likely want people to know about a book they just published,” that is a great starting point. How can you help them achieve that goal? And what if you put a ridiculous amount of creative energy into it because you truly cared about this author, believed that their book is amazing, and just knew that it would help people. The exact people that you want to reach one day.

Here is an idea of how to go above and beyond with caring. And just for fun, all of this example will involve baked goods. Why? Um, because baked goods are fun and yummy, that’s why:

• Celebrate an author’s book launch. Not just with a “like” or an emoji, but with a cake. That’s right, you can go down to the food store with a photo of the author’s book and ask them to print it on a cake. Or, you can bake your own cake and try to decorate it like the book cover. Then, share it on social media, tagging the author.
• You can take that further by inviting 5 friends over, and taking a photo of each of you holding a copy of the book, and eating a slice of the cake.
• Do you know what would be special for an author? Not just doing this at book launch, but doing it for a book that is a year old. Celebrate the anniversary of a book release with a cake. I mean, what author wouldn’t love that? I mean, would it be so hard to buy some party hats, create a big “HAPPY BOOKIVERSARY BANNER” and share that on social media for a week?

What else can you do to care? Buy 10 copies of the book and give them out to friends. Again, take photos to share with the author. Or do a video essay where you talk about why this book matters to you. There are thousands upon thousands of ideas that show you can care about a book, and help spread the message, all in ways that are unique, fun, and meaningful.

The point is this: if you are simply clicking “like” on someones post and then commenting “Congrats,” that doesn’t count for as much engagement than if you do something more unique. Don’t get me wrong, a like and a comment are good! But if you really want to help someone out, go further. Consider their goals and what may brighten their day. You have more power than you think to give authors what they want most: word of mouth marketing. They key factor in all of this? Caring. Caring to make a difference in the life of that author.

Let’s look at a couple practical examples from authors I have worked with that did exactly that:

• When I worked with novelist Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, we decided that instead of just doing a giveaway for her book, we should focus on generosity to other writers publishing books at the same time she was. The result was a 30-day giveway featuring 20+ other authors including Roxane Gay, Celeste Ng, Megan Abbott, Julia Fierro and many others. Not only did it spread the word about Miranda’s book and theirs, it helped develop an amazing literary network for Miranda. You can read more about my work with Miranda here. (plus: she has a new book out: Fierce Little Thing: A Novel)
• When I worked with author and linguist Amanda Montell, she wanted to better engage with her ideal audience on Instagram. The result was an educational series of videos that she then turned into interviews that celebrated other authors and inspiring thinkers. Not only was she able to better engage with her readers, but her audience grew substantially. You can read more about my work with Amanda here. (plus: she has a new book out: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism)

No, not all marketing campaigns need to be as complex as these or as time intensive. But the spirit of them is what can help guide you to ensure how you share and engage is meaningful to other people.

As I wrote this post, I looked back at how many times I have written about the topic of caring about your audience in the past. Turns out, quite often! So here is some further reading:

• The One Thing You MUST do to Succeed in Social Media, April 2010
• Why Caring is a Powerful Business Advantage, June 2010
• Caring is power, December 2010
  
• Actually Caring About People Will Always Matter, May 2012
  
• Truly Embracing Your Audience, November 2014
  
• Embrace & Engage Your Audience, January 2015
• Truly seeing writers (and readers), November 2019
  

Thanks.

-Dan

Today I would like to talk about mental and physical health, and how that effects our goals with writing, creating, and sharing. I’ll review my own journey with this recently, and use that dig into the larger topic for how you can better create and share your work with your ideal audience.

(Note: I’m not a doctor or medical professional, and have zero health certifications. These are just my experiences as a writer and artist, who has spent his life surrounded by writers and artists. Your journey is your own, your health is unique, and always seek professional guidance where possible. If you disagree with anything I share below, please know: you are right! You get to choose the path that works best for you when it comes to health. Please feel free to ignore my advice!)

Health is a Part of Our Creative Ecosystem

I want to wake up each day and feel capable. Capable to create. To publish. To share that work with people who inspire me, and I feel it may resonate with. To feel creatively capable, it requires me to consider my life as a whole. Too often, we treat each area of our life as separate: we may have a daily planner for work goals, a routine around our creative work, then a separate way to track finance, family, etc.

But these things are all interrelated because you are one person who has the same finite amount of time each day. One area of your life effects the others. This is why my Clarity Card exercise is not just focused on one’s creative goals, it forces you to consider all of your goals holistically.

Something I have been thinking a lot about recently is how mental and physical health impacts our creative capacity. It can create more energy, it can reduce anxiety, and positive health habits can lead to positive creative habits. I have also found that good health habits allow me to address problems when they arise in a more streamlined manner. Instead of a sudden minor health issue disrupting my creative routines, I am better able to address them, and ensure creating and sharing are interrupted as little as possible. No one can plan for unknown health issues, but you can prepare so you are better able to handle the unexpected.

Why am I talking about this in a newsletter that is usually focused on how to best share your creative work so it reaches readers and an audience? Because so much of success in that area is about having a solid foundation to do this work, and it is all too common for a health problem to disrupt that.

I want good health so I can focus on creativity and connection. To do that, I have found that the more I attend to my health, the more my life opens up to writing and sharing.

Mental Health Matters As Much (Or More?) As Physical Health

Mental health plays a big part in our creative process, our ability to establish and keep creative habits, and whether we can effectively share our work with others in a manner that is meaningful.

Working with writers and creators, I take mental health seriously. We all have our own unique boundaries around what we create, what we share, and how to do so. That is why I like working in close collaboration, so that I can understand each client’s unique preferences here, and we can adjust the strategy accordingly. There is no “one size fits all.”

Creative work tends to be surrounded by potentially negative narratives that can effect mental health:

• Impostor syndrome: the feeling that, despite our accomplishments or success, that we haven’t really earned validation or attention.
• Comparisonitis: the feeling that others are better at their craft than we are, or that they are more naturally gifted in how they share their work.
• Uniqueness: with so much being shared online and offline, a creator can stop creating for fear that their work is somehow not unique. They see their influences in every word they write, every brush stroke on a canvas.
• Identity: we fail to share what we create because we don’t feel it encapsulates all of who we are, and the fear creeps in that each piece of work will lock us into a confining identity.

There are so many other examples of fears that someone may have around what they create, and each can drastically effect our mental health. I don’t have any revolutionary advice here, but I have found that the more I observe my own routines and inner narratives around creating and sharing, that I am able to identify what blocks me from doing so. I also speak to a lot of creative people, and learning about their own process helps remind me that no one has an easy time with this. That feels validating, and helps me identify positive mental health practices.

If you don’t feel you have many other writers or artists in your life to learn from, you can always listen to interviews with creators on podcasts and YouTube. Feel free to start with my podcast, The Creative Shift, which is filled with honest conversations around mental health from inspiring creators. Plus: new season coming soon!

Be Proactive Vs Reactive with Physical Health

I’ve dedicated myself to a new health routine recently, and I approached it entirely differently than I have in the past. I’m 48 years old, and usually when I started a new fitness routine, I would be looking back to being as fit as I was when I was younger. But I recently flipped that entire perspective. I am not looking backwards, I am now looking ahead.

When I work out now, all I think about are the experiences I hope to have in the future, when I am 58, 68, and 78. I think of wanting to travel with my wife; I think of books I want to write; I think of hobbies like gardening that I want to be able to pursue well into my later years (gardening can be difficult on one’s knees and back.)

If I had to sum up my fitness routine, I suppose I would say that I am NOT on a mission not to have six pack abs, but rather to be able to pick up my grandkids one day.

For instance, I have scoliosis, and have had bad bouts of pain in my back over the years for various reasons. I know how debilitating it can be when one area of your body is in pain.

Beyond goals of being able to travel or pick things up, this relates to my future creative work as well. I want to be able to show up as who I am online and offline in the future. To be able to go to workshops and events, to not feel self-conscious about posting selfies or videos online. The healthier I get, the more I find myself leaning into sharing who I am, and showing up to social interactions. As someone who helps writers and creators with marketing, I know how much fear of showing up can limit how effectively our work is shared.

The other week I mentioned that the QL muscle in my back had gone haywire. Surprisingly, I got it under control within three days, and now have a proactive stretching routine to strengthen it. How? Well, because of YouTube. It’s amazing the resources we have today that we couldn’t have dreamed of years ago. I watched dozens of videos from personal trainers and physical therapists who explained how the pain is cause and ways to remediate it.

I now have a daily workout routine that is very simple, and focused on flexibility. It is not super intense, I can do it at my studio or home with very little specialized equipment.

The results of this work over the past few months?

1. I am way more flexible, which really helps when you have a 4 year old and 10 year old, and am always doing chores around the house and yard.
2. It’s easier for me to do work at my desk for longer periods of time.
3. Many small aches and pains are gone. For those that return, I now have a process to manage them.
4. I simply feel more comfortable. It’s hard to explain, but I do feel it has opened up more of my energy to focus on creative work.
5. I am less likely to injure myself because I am working on lots of small muscles that help me move better through my day.

Your Creative Capacity Only Grows in Value

It’s easy to think “I’m not as young as I used to be”, as an excuse to not try to better one’s health. It’s not much different than narratives writers and artists face: “It’s too late for me to publish my first book, I should have done this years ago.”

But what if you take a different view. What if we consider the experience that health can bring us:

• To fill our days with more creativity because health tends to fill our days with more energy. See my post last week for a deep dive on that topic.
• How one habit can lead to building other new habits. If you have a consistent fitness habit, you have all of the building blocks you need for a consistent writing or creative habit.
• To better manage anxiety (see above). When we get fit — however you define that — it tends to help reduce stress.

Your creative capacity only grows in value, and I think attending to health can protect that.

I have been considering how things that we once thought of as not valuable, are actually increasing in value. This is my favorite example that I discovered this week on eBay: old used VHS tapes with recordings from TV of Star Trek episodes. This lot of 19 tapes sold $250!

Why did these sell for so much? I’m not entirely sure, but my guess:

• The buyer wants to experience the shows as they remember watching them in the 80s and 90s, with broadcast quality video, and old school commercials.
• They want to archive the older commercials of this era along with the shows.

I mean, here is a screenshot of one of the commercials on the tape, isn’t it amazing to think that this is the kind of thing people want to preserve and are sentimental for?

What if we had the same perspective on the future of our creative work: that it is only increasing in value and potential. Wouldn’t you want to invest in that? Wouldn’t some form of attention to health help with that?

Some wonderful resources:

You get to define health in any way that you want. Find the process that works best for you. Here are some resources that have helped me:

• Shannon Connery’s PACE process. This is her website, and Shannon I shared two interviews with her on my podcast: here and here.
• A personal trainer I have worked with, Brad Sims, has a YouTube channel where he has shared more than 200 videos on specific exercises.
• Sarah Hays Coomer has a health coach column at Forbes which is great, and I highly recommend her book The Habit Trip.
• Kelly McGonigal’s book, The Joy of Movement
• Joanna Penn’s The Healthy Writer

I’d love to know: how has health effected your creative work? What routines, habits, or resources have helped you?

Thanks.

-Dan

Last week I talked about the ways that people have become empowered to create more and find new ways to reach their ideal audience. One writer I know wrote to me with a concern: limited amounts of energy. The idea of creating and sharing more felt concurrently exhilarating and exhausting, and as she considered all the potential, she worried about how much it may deplete her very limited creative energy each week. This, of course, is a common theme with most writers I speak with: they want to preserve their writing energy, while also pursuing ways to connect and share their work with others. At times, that can pull from the same finite well of energy.

So today I would like to talk about the most important resource you have. No, it’s not time. It’s not money. It’s not access. It’s creative energy. And how this leads to what we tend to hope for: that people will discover what we create, be moved by it, and add something special to their lives. Let’s dig in…

Why Energy is Your Most Important Resource

When I wrote about the creator economy last week, underlying it was my excitement at the opportunities people have if they are willing to focus intensely on creating and sharing. For so long, it feels like the most important resources to success were often framed as:

• Time! If you could just get an extra 10 hours, THEN you can create the novel or artwork or project of your dreams.
• Money! If you could just find an extra $5,000, THEN you could attend that inspiring retreat, take that class, buy those supplies, or hire that guide.
• Access! If you could just get connected to someone famous, or someone who knows people, or attended a credentialed program, THEN people would finally become compelled by what you want to share.

Sure, time, money, and access can be very helpful in achieving our creative goals. But I tend to think that creative energy is the most important resource. Why? Because someone can create compelling art even they only have 30 minutes a day to work on it; and someone can languish and not get anything done if they have 10 hours a day to work on it. Likewise, we can squander money, we can misuse the access we have. But creative energy is this resource that amplifies everything.

For years I worked inside a large media company, where 8-10 hours in your little gray cubicle was expected. When I started my company 11 years ago, I noticed something that amazed me. I could get a huge amount of work done each day within 3-4 hours. If I optimized my most creative time of day and removed distractions, I could get so much done in a very short period of time. Gone was the long commute to New York City. Gone was the hour shaving and shining my shoes and packing my bag for 12 hours away from home. Gone were the obligatory meetings or interruptions that prevented me from optimizing my energy.

I remember hearing someone say this last year: “I had always said I would clean out the garage when I had more time. But now that I’m on lockdown, I realize it was never about having enough time.”

Your creative energy and motivation define so much of your potential to create and share. Invest in it. Focus on how to optimize it as much as you try to optimize your time and money. How can you do that? Some ideas…

Invest in Creative Energy

Become a student of your own energy. Track when you have more creative energy during the day and week, and when you don’t. I would encourage you to get out a calendar and note your energy levels for an entire week. So often, someone may default to a response of, “Between work and kids, I have zero energy left.” But when you track it you may note some things.

Perhaps you realize you have a lot of creative energy at a certain time of day. This can open up possibilities of optimizing that time so that you can create more then. For instance, perhaps you are a morning person, but each day you use up that time getting dishes done, lunches made for the kids, and preparing your stuff to leave for work. If that’s the case, could some of this be done the night before? Or could it be offloaded to another member of the family? Or perhaps you find weekdays are non-negotiable, but it opens up the possibility that weekend mornings could become creative time for you.

We all have a limited amount of creative energy in a given day, and we may have multiple priorities pulling from that same reserve. When I speak to full-time writers and artists, I often find that they divide there day up. They take their most creative hours for their most important work. Then, they schedule in breaks, and push other noncreative tasks to different parts of their days.

I do this myself. My mornings are spent writing and doing client work. My afternoons are not as creative, so that is when I schedule my calls. I am much better at reacting and engaging in the afternoons because of this.

A key way to invest in creative energy is to get really clear about your goals. If you want help doing that, check out my Clarity Card exercise. When you stop focusing on things that don’t matter to you, that opens up new reserves of creative energy.

Of course, deadlines can help too. I’m writing this very essay because I’m on deadline. I have sent out a weekly newsletter every Friday for 15 years. Without the deadline, I easily could have justified during every single one of those weeks that my life was too busy to write a newsletter. Work was busy, kids need me, or I have to attend to something else. I’ll be clicking “publish” on this essay in a few minutes because of that deadline. It keeps me creating and sharing.

Challenge Your Assumptions

Too often, writers and artists hold themselves back from pursuing new ideas for how to create and share. They become their own biggest barrier to what they hope to achieve. It’s easy to feel that we know ourselves so well, that we can easily reject new ideas as being untenable, or a bad fit for who we are. But I want to encourage you to challenge your assumptions.

For example, if a week ago you said, “Dan, you should sleep on your back, it’s healthier for you,” I would have shrugged off the suggestion, and given you speech about how I can’t, since I have been a side-sleeper for 48 years. If you challenged me, I would have bet money that I could never sleep an entire night on my back.

But then last weekend my QL muscle went haywire. I had extreme pain on one side of my back, it felt like a knife being shoved into me. Wouldn’t you know it, as I researched a solution, I found that many experts recommend that sleeping on your back is best for a healthy back and relieving strains on muscles and tendons.

For an entire week now, I have slept on my back each night. Suddenly, I’m a back sleeper. And it’s fine. My narrative was wrong. I simply needed the proper motivation. (The pain is gone, by the way, and I also have a new set of daily stretches to ensure my QL will remain healthy.)

Challenge your own assumptions about your creative energy and how you use your time. This can open up your creative process in bold new ways. This will challenge long held assumptions about who you are and what is possible. Honestly, that will be difficult. When presented with a new idea that pushes us outside our comfort zone, it is easy to have a gut reaction saying, “I’m not doing that.” As you look around to consider how to double down on your creative vision, how to truly connect what you create with those who who will care about it, I would encourage you to be open to new ideas.

“But Dan, I just want to write.”

This is the challenge that many writers, artists, and creators have when considering how to share their work. They started to create because something inside them drew them to it. Along the way, they learned to express things in a way they never have before, and in the process, began mastering their craft.

Their lives are busy outside of their craft as well. They may read everything above (and years of archives where I’ve written about this hundreds of times), and say to me, “But Dan, I just want to write.”

You can just write. Just create. Never consider how you publish or share. I 100% support that if this is what you feel is right for you.

But if you hope your work reaches the people who will appreciate it most; If you hope it effects them in some way, helps inspire them, entertain them, educate them, or so much else, then I would encourage you to consider taking control of how you share what you create. Don’t wait for others to do it for you, your ideal audience loves engaging directly with the writer or artist who creates.

You get to choose your own path. And today, there are more paths then ever, more options to choose traditional paths of publishing, or very independent avenues. The other day I was revisiting this video of Elvis Costello appearing on Saturday Night Live:

 

He begins playing the song, then stops his band. He addresses the audience, “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, there is no reason to do this song here.” They then launch into their song, “Radio Radio.” This was an act of defiance, and got him banned from appearing on SNL for more than a decade. “Radio Radio” is a song that talks about how corporations control what you hear, often beholden to their sponsors. It was an artist bemoaning that it was impossible to forge their own path, instead they were constantly editing themselves to fit into what the corporations would allow.

Elvis was inspired to do this by Jimi Hendrix, who years earlier in 1969 was playing a song live on the BBC when he went off script.

 

He interrupted his own song, saying: “We are going to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream.” Cream is another band who were announcing their breakup that week, and Jimi played one of their songs. Then, he kept playing, interrupting the BBC schedule.

Today, you don’t have to defy anyone or interrupt a major broadcast in order to be heard. The tools to share your creative vision are all around you. Every day, people wake up and want to be inspired. The question is, will you show up in a manner that feels authentic to who you are, and forge a meaningful interaction with those who would love to hear from you? How can you best tune your own creative energy to make this happen?

Thanks.

-Dan

Today I want to talk about the changing landscape of media, and how that effects the opportunities and potential for an author or creator sharing their work.

A photographer named John Abbott shared this image on social media the other day, a newsstand in New York City from July 1986:

Of course, magazines still exist today, but their footprint in the marketplace has been diminished. As I looked at this photo, I considered how much magazines were a part of my life when I was younger. They were a gateway to:

• Information & education. From how-to articles to interviews to analysis, magazines offered a deep dive into one topic that I couldn’t often find in newspapers, TV, or movies. Since it took so long to publish a book, magazines filled this critical gap of sharing information that was more of the moment.
• Access to a community and niche hobbies. Whether it was my interest in surfing, vintage VW cars, or British music, magazines gave me access to communities that were difficult to find where I lived.
• Magazines also provided a sense of identity, they made me feel like I belonged. I could read about others who cared about specific topics as much as I did. What you read — and were seen reading — was one of the ways I defined who I was.
• Seeking out magazines was a a hobby in itself. Spending time in those huge magazine stories in New York City, leafing through publications that were difficult to find, and sometimes very expensive. Magazines stands became a destination. A place to linger. To explore.

Magazines contained so much that was nearly impossible to find in any other kind of media. I would save issues for years, or cut out articles to keep for future reference. If I threw it out, I would lose access to that information forever. Or until I felt like scanning through microfiche at the library.

Someone commented on the photo above: “All those paid writers and illustrators…” with a crying emoji, bemoaning the loss of a well paying industry that employed so many people in stable jobs. Some of that work very much exists today, but it has changed.

Someone else commented: “It’s like everything else. When I was pregnant in 1987, I had to go to the public library to read about what stage my baby was in, plus other information for soon to be moms. Now it’s all on the internet, everything you need to know.”

In my essay last week, I mentioned the term the “creator economy.” What is that? It’s short for how much potential there is today for individual creators to earn revenue from what they create. Now, for many of you writers and artists out there, that phrase may give you whiplash. Perhaps you are thinking, “Dan, it’s harder than ever for a writer to earn a living by just writing. That newsstand photo alone speaks volumes to illustrate the demise of revenue streams for writers.”

I recognize that, and would never want to diminish how changes in the industry have disrupted tried and true business models for writers and creators. This is especially true when talking about being within a larger ecosystem system, such as a writer who works for a magazine, and can count on that magazine brand and parent company to develop an economy for writers.

But therein lies the revolution happening in the “creator economy.” One where individual creators can forge their own revenue streams that they can control.

What can this look like in real life?

• Someone who begins on one channel — Medium, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, podcasts, in-person events, a newsletter — often obsessively focused on one specific niche or sub-topic.
• As they grow, they treat their passion partly as a business. Even if they are big on one channel, they will expand to other channels so that they aren’t 100% reliant on one channel for their audience and revenue. So imagine a YouTuber who then also encourages people to follow them on TikTok or Instagram where they share unique content. Or an artist who have a big following on Instagram encouraging people to join her newsletter, with original content there. Or someone with a podcast who encourages people to support it by joining their Patreon community.

These creators are leveraging large corporations in this process, but they aren’t beholden to them. Or when they are, it is often more likely to the on the creators’ own terms. For instance, one podcaster just signed a $60 million dollar deal for her podcast to be exclusive to Spotify for a three year period. The creator still owns the podcast, so Spotify is essentially just getting an exclusive license for a limited period of time.

This is wildly different from the stories we heard from media in the past. When comic book creators weren’t able to own the characters they created, and may not have even gotten proper credit or compensation, while the larger corporate would profit from it for decades.

Why am I writing about this when I know many of my readers may simply want to know how to get more followers on social media or get more readers for their next book? Because the creator economy is you.

I study how people create and share online. Of course I focus on what writers are doing, but I also look way outside of that one area to focus on creators of all sorts. For instance, I watch a lot of video game streamers, even though I don’t really play video games that much. Why? Not only is the content itself intriguing, but there is a vibrant ecosystem that allows many of these creators to earn a good living in the process. It’s fascinating to discover how can a person sitting at home playing video games all day create multiple revenue streams, and establish a dedicated fanbase.

Why does this interest me? Because when I talk about the concept of Human-Centered Marketing, I am often focused on aspects of marketing that are timeless. On how we connect as people. On human psychology. On how identity plays into this. And when I study things that are way outside of the author world, I am seeing amazing case studies in what it means to communicate effectively, to engage fans deeply, and to find a sense of fulfillment and growth in what you create and share. Oh, and to also earn a living.

One of the most compelling things I watch is a YouTube channel called Colin and Samir. What are they doing? They are obsessed with helping there be more creators in the world. That can be a YouTube channel, an Instagram star, a Tik-Tok personality, a podcaster, and so much else. It can be anyone who is engaging fans, forging new ways to create a community, and earn revenue in the process.

To me, what resonates is the independence of creators. That someone — without a job or company behind them — can establish not only a way to create and share, but sustain themselves in the process.

Do you know what my 10 year old asked for recently? This t-shirt:

 

What is that t-shirt? Well, it’s a Nathaniel Bandy t-shirt of course? WHO?! He’s a guy who, at age 27 earns a full-time living making YouTube videos about Nintendo videogames. I had watched some of his videos before my son even mentioned him. I mean, this guy has nearly a million YouTube subscribers, more than 500 million video views. You can read about his entire history of how he grew his channel here.

Why does this t-shirt matter? Because my son is more interested in wearing this shirt from a person making videos about Nintendo, than one from Nintendo themselves. Nathaniel is someone who resonates with my son, whose personality and creations inspire him.

Perhaps you are a writer who got this far in this essay and is wondering, “Um, Dan. I just want to write. I just want to sit here in my home and write essays and books, and somehow get paid for it. Maybe a full-time income, or perhaps just part-time. Can’t someone else worry about the revenue streams for me? Shouldn’t a creator simply create?”

Yes, of course you can.

But this is why I shared the newsstand image at the top. When you offload the revenue model to someone else, you are tied to their system. Your revenue is going to rise and fall based on an economy that you may have little control over. If you are a freelance writer for large publications, you hope that your existing relationships and contracts keep you going.

But the modern creator economy is flipping that. These people are focusing on revenue and marketing not as a way of selling out. Instead, they are doing so as a way of sustaining their own ability to create. What’s more, they have much more freedom to create whatever they want. They aren’t limited to the trends that companies are dictating to them.

This is why I love doing the work I do. To help writers and creators:

• Learn to get clarity in what they create
• Identify ways to effectively to communicate it to their ideal audience
• Share it in a way that feels meaningful
• Understand who they hope to reach, and how to engage them
• Explore ways to turn that into a proper business with multiple revenue streams

The creator economy isn’t something happening to you. It is simply an option. You can participate if you like, or you can turn your back on it. We all have that freedom.

I spend so much time studying it is because when a writer or artist is empowered to be independent and thriving, it fills my heart with joy.

Thanks.

-Dan